Square Enix has officially revealed that they are switching to a multiplatform approach.
In their latest financial meeting, Enix revealed that they would be moving away from making games exclusives for PlayStation and Nintendo Switch of different scales, towards more multiplatform games.
On page 12 of their Consolidated Financial Results report, and page 21 of their New Medium-Term Business Plan presentation, they say this:
“For HD titles, the Group will aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs. Especially, in regards to major franchises and AAA titles including catalog titles, it will build an environment where more customers can enjoy our titles.”
The documents also indicate plans to shift from quantity to quality, and changing their organizational structure. Square Enix claims their plan with the structural change is to focus on delivering “fun” that only they can deliver.
Now, that might just be PR talk to win their investors over, but here’s how Square describes these changes:
“The Group will retire its business unit-based organizational design and strive to establish an operationally integrated organization with the goal of revamping its internal title development footprint and bringing more capabilities in-house.
In addition, while keeping balance between the creativity of its individual employees and the management centered on the organization, the Group will transition to a project management structure.
To that end, the Group will redefine the mission for producers and other related employees and organize its internal supporting structure. Also, the Group will improve its development investment efficiency, by reviewing the overall management process of title development.”
So we already knew about some of these changes well in advance. We reported on the company removing Yuu Miyake from the producer position for Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate, as well as the head of Dragon Quest in general. That happened over a month ago.
Midori then shared a rumor about this organizational change at the start of May. We can confirm now that that rumor is right on the money.
So when we see Square Enix refer to their internal studios as Creative Studios, that is more than just PR branding. Square Enix just changed the way they do business, by assembling teams per project, instead of making a few specific divisions assigned to franchises.
This also signals the end of a strategy that, unfortunately, saw Square Enix taking bigger chances on new projects and games, that just didn’t work out. Between Outriders, Forspoken, The Quiet Man, Balan Wonderworld, Babylon’s Fall, and Foamstars, these projects either turned out poorly, didn’t find an audience, or ended up somewhere in between.
Most of these games were developed by external companies, with the sole exception being Forspoken’s Luminous Studios. So, Square Enix could not ‘fire’ the people who made these games, but the consequences for them have been harsh. PlatinumGames spoke frankly about financial issues following the failure of Babylon’s Fall. The Quiet Man’s developer, Human Head Studios, went out of business shortly after its release. Arzest is fortunate to have other games to fall back on, but we may have to keep an eye out on Toylogic.
Following Forspoken’s market failure, Square reorganized and merged Luminous into Creative Business Unit 2 last year. Of course, now, those staffers have gone through another reorganization again. And lest we forget, Square Enix is still making Project Dagger with Polish studio People Can Fly. But, they have scaled down the project to the extent that the studio had to lay off staff at the start of the year.
It’s true that video game development is about taking risks to bring new experiences and make new iconic moments for their audience. However, we shouldn’t forget that there are people whose real jobs are making these experiences, and when these risks don’t pan out, it can mean those people lose their jobs. Even if it shouldn’t always be the case.
We can only hope, not only for Square Enix fans, but for their own staff, that this latest strategy gets the company back on track, and they will get there by bringing us the games that we want.
