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

[KilloWertz]

Originally Posted by Derb

So with that said.

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

Some of that is likely far enough along that it will still come out. Game development hasn't stopped. Maybe for Square-Enix, but not for others. Sure, they aren't wrong that motion capturing and scoring games right now could be challenging (but probably not impossible), but I'd be shocked if Horizon Forbidden West didn't still come out at some point in 2021. Obviously the same goes for Ratchet and Clank since that was likely coming out in early 2021.

With how ridiculously stacked next month is, I'd actually be fine if some of 2021 ended up being barren for releases. I'd still expect the first half of the year to have several releases since they should have been far enough along.

[Gamma_Winstead]

Originally Posted by KilloWertz

Some of that is likely far enough along that it will still come out. Game development hasn't stopped. Maybe for Square-Enix, but not for others. Sure, they aren't wrong that motion capturing and scoring games right now could be challenging (but probably not impossible), but I'd be shocked if Horizon Forbidden West didn't still come out at some point in 2021. Obviously the same goes for Ratchet and Clank since that was likely coming out in early 2021.

With how ridiculously stacked next month is, I'd actually be fine if some of 2021 ended up being barren for releases. I'd still expect the first half of the year to have several releases since they should have been far enough along.

If they can film McU movies, I’m not sure why they couldn’t do mo-cap with minimal staff on set.

This is a bizarre statement from square Enix. Development clearly hasn’t halted. They’ve released several games during the pandemic, and several more have release dates soon, up through April. They themselves haven’t halted.

[Blu Lemmy]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

I personally think as much as i liked the bragging factor in my younger years for exclusives from Square etc. i now feel timed exclusives are fine and i prefer the idea of them being enjoyed across consoles & PC from 3rd parties but Sony & MS should use their own 1st party talent to push the fold of innovation in consoles because as we've seen with FF16s reveal, Square Enix is stuck in the past visually. Looked like a PS3 to PS4 game in parts.

If I recall you were dead against it not too long ago....
what changed

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by Blu Lemmy

If I recall you were dead against it not too long ago....
what changed

If you mean timed exclusives, i've had a think about it and felt that it seems like a waste of money imo for some of the length they pay for. 3-6 months? Spending like $100+ million?

Yet somehow they use the BS of rising dev costs

Given there's a lot of crossplay too in MP enabled titles and we're getting a bit more of that, it also locks player bases out. Imagine if the games that were multiplatform and dwindled in users were split, then it means it's more likely a game will shut per platform first but if they're x-play, there's a chance they could weather it out longer.

So ultimately if there's going to be a deal for exclusivity and its limited time, it's the "lesser of evils" i guess but i'd still by far they push original IP and innovation amongst 1st party studios as i said to make the hardware sing. Almost no 3rd party company usually does optimise to that extent.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not entirely platform agnostic, and having great exclusives on the only console you play on can be great. However i've mellowed on the "Allegiance" aspects since i grew up and realised the economics of companies not caring about players but profit.

"For the Players"*

*As long as we make bank

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by NARMAK

I personally think as much as i liked the bragging factor in my younger years for exclusives from Square etc. i now feel timed exclusives are fine and i prefer the idea of them being enjoyed across consoles & PC from 3rd parties but Sony & MS should use their own 1st party talent to push the fold of innovation in consoles because as we've seen with FF16s reveal, Square Enix is stuck in the past visually. Looked like a PS3 to PS4 game in parts.

It does remind me of the graphics engine of FFXVI (15), which wasn't impressive graphically outdoors in the distance, as everything seemed to blur just to keep the frame rate running or something. It's like they developed FF15 for the PS3, and by time they eventually finished it, the game was ported to the PS4 instead. I'd like to know how many people actually work on games there.

Number of employees: 4,601 (2019) in general.

[NARMAK]

Originally Posted by Zivouhr

It does remind me of the graphics engine of FFXVI (15), which wasn't impressive graphically outdoors in the distance, as everything seemed to blur just to keep the frame rate running or something. It's like they developed FF15 for the PS3, and by time they eventually finished it, the game was ported to the PS4 instead. I'd like to know how many people actually work on games there.

Number of employees: 4,601 (2019) in general.

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.

[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