14 DAY TRIAL // Video game publisher and developer Square Enix says that it wants to make future game production faster and more interactive in order to give players more information about coming titles and make sure that the final product reflects their wishes.
During a conference with investors, Yosuke Matsuda, a senior executive managing director at the company, is quoted by VG247 as saying:
“In a model where a game is developed without customers knowing what it’s like for many years, the product is presented to customers only after it has been finished, and all investment is recovered at one time, customers are forced to wait for too long, and opportunities for profit are passed up.”
Square Enix is probably referring to the problems faced by Final Fantasy XIV, the MMO that failed to impress fans on launch and is currently being rebooted under the name A Realm Reborn.
The executive adds, “We need to shift to a businessmodel where we frequently interact with our customers for our products that are in‐development and/or prior to being sold, have our customers understand games under development, and finally make sure we develop games that meet their expectations.”
It’s unclear how Square Enix can achieve these goals while continuing to focus on its AAA projects that require significant resources to create and have vision, which is hard to change in the middle of the development process.
At the moment, the company is working on a new installment in the long-running Final Fantasy series, which will use an entirely new engine and will be launched on the PlayStation 4 from Sony.
More information on the title will be offered during E3 2013 and the core elements will probably be linked to the Agni’s Philosophy demo that has already been shown.
Square Enix is also ready to deliver more video games for mobile platforms, all of them linked to its core franchises.