So you would rather them to sell 150k instead of 260k and not building audiences on another platform for future titles because it didn't greatly contribute to the game success.
how First Soldier never came to PC before shutting down, I'll never understand. when I look at many of these mobile games nowadays, I see stuff that would look just fine on PCs or consoles, but they're exclusive to mobile for reasons I don't understand
That’s why I used it as a benchmark. It’s probably not gonna be a graphics powerhouse, so if that doesn’t release on Nintendo AT LAUNCH, this multiplatform AAA initiative most likely still won’t include Nintendo, DQ excluded.
I really hope so. I’m just worried cause it’s SE and I’m emotionally invested in FF9 finding success lol
The prior articles that were stating how producers at S-E were treating their units as "fiefdoms" seems to have been accurate, since S-E go out of their way in the passage above to not just get rid of the Business Unit structure but calling out producer roles to be "redefined" explicitly. This is a really positive development and it's not couched in mealy-mouthed language, they're pretty direct about what they're trying to achieve.
The above is the most interesting part since much of the rest is pretty standard stuff (no shit, you make more money and create/retain more customers if you consistently sell your products at multiple touchpoints, a stunning insight that's only 10 years late!). Talking about "redefining" producer roles in one section, and then mentioning flattening the org and talent development/promotion from within in the other is encouraging - maybe they might finally do something about those in the old structure who have repeatedly set up projects to fail with low ROI.
I think they realize that, what people who don't want AAA games to come out on Nintendo consoles mean in reality is that they don't want games like Final Fantasy, Monster Hunter and other AAA franchises to be ''hamstrung'' by the Switch 2.
If true, deliberately undershipping as a means to increase digital ratio is way too much stick and not enough carrot when digital ratios are naturally creeping upwards over time - and in a Christmas sales period it's frankly self-sabotage to undership in an environment where customers are often specifically looking for a physical item they can gift.
Shotgunning a bunch of mid budget titles, and releasing them in a short period of time would have never done anyone any good. Culling some of those games and divesting that budget into better promotion and quality would have gone a long way to helping their genre diversity
They are dangerously dependant on FF XIV, which is not a great situation to be in, if they had the same success as other big Japanese publishers when it comes to console/pc games their position would be vastly greater. Their mobile games not finding success is also not making the situation they are in any better.
That's what i mean with " is not that if Switch 2 or not, is about the company as as a whole", maybe i wasn't so clear.
Exactly. If you want to make money, you go where the money is. Final Fantasy had no link to Sony in 1997, and we see how that turned out.
Reminds me when Xbox 360 had a bunch of SE exclusives that were all poorly received except for Star Ocean 4 and that one still got a mixed response and regarded the worst of the series until 5 came out, it is a point that most people forgot to remember to ask why some japanese games doesn't do well or never get ported, the other big companies were doing pretty well on the platform. And later on the company was almost entirely carried on in the HD sector by their western division.
