Square-Enix says video game development has stopped due to COVID-19

[R3P0]

2021 May be a very bad year for games

Since making a video game takes years, many of the big games that arrived in 2020 were already deep into production when the pandemic hit. Development of current games is at a dead stop, Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda said when speaking to the Financial Times.

"What we are selling now may have provided some positive aspects," Matsuda said, "but on the negative side time has stood still in terms of production. We couldn't develop anything. That is where the impact will come."

Many of those titles have yet to be revealed, but blockbuster games take years to make, with hundreds or thousands of people working in offices around the world — something that's become nearly impossible during a global pandemic. Studios have had increased difficulty doing the motion capture ("mocap") or audio work needed to put the finishing touches on a game remotely.

"Mocap is just something that's basically stopped. We're not going into mocap studios," Spencer told Business Insider in May. "If you had all your animation captured and you're doing touch up in more individual art production and in areas like textures and other things, you're in a better position. If you're waiting for a lot of either large audio work — when it's with symphonies and other things — or mocap, you're held up right now and you're making progress in areas that you are."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/final-fan...160457441.html

[dallywhitty]

There goes my dream of Square Enix actually acknowledging Tomb Raider's 25th anniversary next year...

[NARMAK]

Not to act like the world is in a rosy place or anything, but why is it that after over 6 months to make contingency plans and more pragmatic development schedules and working practices during this COVID-19 disruption, somehow game development has ground to a halt.

Look at the UK and other places that let people back into the workplace with extra measures in place for an idea of how offices can be made safer to operate in and then look at Hollywood etc. for the motion capture side and although it could take longer and slow things down a bit. There's no way in hell development grounds to a complete halt. That's simply ludicrous that everywhere worldwide manages to find a way, but Square Enix have come up with ZERO strategy as a backup? BS.

[Steelmaker]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

Not to act like the world is in a rosy place or anything, but why is it that after over 6 months to make contingency plans and more pragmatic development schedules and working practices during this COVID-19 disruption, somehow game development has ground to a halt.

Look at the UK and other places that let people back into the workplace with extra measures in place for an idea of how offices can be made safer to operate in and then look at Hollywood etc. for the motion capture side and although it could take longer and slow things down a bit. There's no way in hell development grounds to a complete halt. That's simply ludicrous that everywhere worldwide manages to find a way, but Square Enix have come up with ZERO strategy as a backup? BS.

I 100% agree. That's just nonsense!

[Donl1282]

What does this mean for Final Fantasy 16 and Kingdom Hearts?

[R3P0]

Originally Posted by Donl1282

What does this mean for Final Fantasy 16 and Kingdom Hearts?

So they are probably far along in 16 development however it sounds like they cant do any of the Mocap work required for the cutscenes

[Zivouhr]

I guess Square Enix doesn't want to trust their employees working from home with the work computers. They're behind the times it seems.

[heyadol]

If only there were a large, market-leading company willing to buy Square-Enix and help them through their production woes...

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by heyadol

If only there were a large, market-leading company willing to buy Square-Enix and help them through their production woes...

I'd rather not have more developers get absorbed by bigger entities.

[R3P0]

Originally Posted by Musashi

I'd rather not have more developers get absorbed by bigger entities.

Square already got absorbed by Enix software after the Final Fantasy movie bombed

A merger between Square and Enix was in consideration since at least 2000; the financial failure in 2001 of Square's first movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, made Enix reluctant to proceed while Square was losing money.[16][17] With the company facing its second year of financial losses, Square approached Sony for a capital injection and on October 8, 2001, Sony Corp purchased 18.6% stake in Square.[18] Following the success of both Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts, the company's finances stabilized, and it recorded the highest operating margin in its history in the fiscal year 2002.[19][20] It was announced on November 25, 2002, that Square and Enix's previous plans to merge were to officially proceed, intending to mutually decrease development costs and to compete with foreign developers.[21] As described by Square's president and CEO Yoichi Wada: "Square has also fully recovered, meaning this merger is occurring at a time when both companies are at their height."[22]

Some shareholders expressed concerns about the merger, notably Miyamoto (the founder and largest shareholder of Square), who would find himself holding a significantly smaller percentage of the combined companies.[23] Other criticism came from Takashi Oya of Deutsche Securities who expressed doubts about the benefits of such a merger: "Enix outsources game development and has few in-house creators, while Square does everything by itself. The combination of the two provides no negative factors but would bring little in the way of operational synergies."[24] Miyamoto's concerns were eventually resolved by altering the exchange ratio of the merger so that each Square share would be exchanged for 0.85 Enix shares rather than 0.81 shares, and the merger was greenlit.[25][26] The merger was set for April 1, 2003, on which date the newly merged entity Square Enix came into being.[13][27] At the time of the merger, 80% of Square Enix staff were made up of former Square employees.[28] As part of the merger, former Square president Yoichi Wada was appointed the president of the new corporation, while former Enix president Keiji Honda became its vice president.[29] The founder of Enix and the largest shareholder of the newly combined corporation, Yasuhiro Fukushima, was made its honorary chairman.[30]

As a result of the merger, Enix was the surviving company and Square Co., Ltd. was dissolved.[31][1] In July of that year, the Square Enix headquarters were moved to Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, as part of the process of combining the two companies.[12]

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

That's exactly what happened lmao. It was one of the longest and worst gestating FF products in modern history because originally it was revealed for PS3 and the game by all rights tbh is far, far better than it should have turned out. You can definitely tell they got shafted and barrel rolled to the end with how narrow it all got, kinda like MGSV but i really liked the game and got the Blu ray prequel too.

My only problem with the quality of Square is probably one of the problems is also a Japanese game development problem in general. They're way behind the curve imo for making games in a timely manner compared to Western studios and the quality doesn't hold up as well on some of it.

Yeah, they do take almost as long as Team Ico for Sony with the Last Guardian game (I think it was 8+ years).

Or Hideo Kojima on a MGS game. Surprisingly, he cranked out Death Stranding pretty fast and unexpectedly.

But yeah, time is money and that is why games cost in the millions of dollars to create.

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by Zivouhr

Yeah, they do take almost as long as Team Ico for Sony with the Last Guardian game (I think it was 8+ years).

Or Hideo Kojima on a MGS game. Surprisingly, he cranked out Death Stranding pretty fast and unexpectedly.

But yeah, time is money and that is why games cost in the millions of dollars to create.

Probably because he knew he was on his own time and money now, and not able to screw around on somebody else's dime completely although he had self indulged a lot during the development nonetheless when Sony were funding a bit.

Personally i dislike this high brow art BS from Kojima he tries to project and "perfectionist" crap to simply take years and years to make something. He's not the only one. I have the same problem with Kaz from Polyphony Digital screwing around. Far too busy racing cars than making GT entries

[InuYashaCrusade]

Well this should add another couple of years onto the wait for FFVIIR Part 2

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

Well this should add another couple of years onto the wait for FFVIIR Part 2

Bruh, expect to be waiting till the year 2049 for that.

[Talal86]

Good for them tbh

even though Covid is blown way out of proportion, I wouldn’t say no to a time off

[20th Century Boy]

Square years behind in development because of COVID? Sure, Jan.

[Derb]

Phil Spencer shares this challenge for software in general for 2021.

He doesn’t say games developers will stop. He says we will see the effects leading into 2021. I believe him.

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by Donl1282

What does this mean for Final Fantasy 16 and Kingdom Hearts?

At least Final Fantasy 16 should be fine, unless they were lying that they were farther along with that game than they actually are.

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

Well this should add another couple of years onto the wait for FFVIIR Part 2

Maybe it won't be a joke that we won't even get to finish the story until the PS6.

Originally Posted by Derb

Phil Spencer shares this challenge for software in general for 2021.

He doesn’t say games developers will stop. He says we will see the effects leading into 2021. I believe him.

I believe him as well. A lot more than anything Square Enix spews out.

I'm not saying that all of what Square Enix is saying isn't true, but tv shows and such have started back up filming a while ago, so you could still do motion capturing now. Game development outside of them won't/hasn't stopped either. That definitely is a crock of... It will just likely take extra time for some games.

[Talal86]

Originally Posted by Derb

Phil Spencer shares this challenge for software in general for 2021.

He doesn’t say games developers will stop. He says we will see the effects leading into 2021. I believe him.

Originally Posted by KilloWertz

I believe him as well.

Who would dare not to believe the mighty savior??

https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=6ePPTE7JkkI

[Derb]

So with that said.

Everything PS5 showed off for a 2021 release. Good luck!