Square Enix was asked about making more remakes of old games, following the release of Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, they received this question in a recent financial call:
“Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster has been well received. Are there plans to remaster other past titles? Personally, I would like to play Xenogears.”
This was Square Enix’s response:
“We will refrain from sharing information about new titles, but we are considering various ideas within the company and hope that you will look forward to forthcoming announcements.”
While Square Enix will always have a giant library of classic games that they can rerelease and remaster to great fan appeal, the company does find itself in an interesting place at this time.
The prevailing economic conditions and some bad decisions had prompted Square to release their Western studios, Eidos and Crystal Dynamics. Both companies would go on to be acquired by Embracer Group, and have moved on to their own projects continuing the franchises they own.
Square Enix did have an extensive period where both studios contributed to their success with titles popular in the West, but here and now, they mostly have their own games, and Japan based studios, to depend on.
Square Enix continues to make some choices and decisions that have failed, or at least limit the potential success of the company.
Their biggest recent flub is Forspoken, an action RPG that their Japan based studio created to intentionally attract players around the world. Fans have not taken well to the game, for both its game design, and mistakes the company made in misreading their audience.
Their most recent release, Final Fantasy XVI, made a respectable debut at three million units sold. However, now fans are debating its potential success with news of huge drop-offs in sales in Japan, among other things.
As reported by Kotaku, multiple reasons are pointed towards the game’s limited success. One of which being its PlayStation 5 exclusivity, which placed a hard limit on its potential success compared to the likes of Diablo 4 and Street Fighter 6.
With all this unhappy speculation, it’s worth pointing out that the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series has been a success for Square Enix, and it really shouldn’t be that hard to decide to make more such remakes and remasters.
Square Enix may not be certain of where they should be going moving forward. While that uncertainty exists, it makes sense to pad their projects with some rereleases of old games, especially in this market which has an appetite for them.
