Square Enix’s latest pearls of gaming wisdom to be cast before gaming swine are the pronouncements that there is “no business merit in developing HD games for Japan” and that it will in any case take a long time for an unenticing console like the PS4 to become “widely accepted.”
In comments which of course have nothing to do with Square Enix having staked its future on social games, FF14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida praised the PS4’s hardware but was sceptical of the need to actually develop any games for it – or for that matter the PS3:
Sales on the current HD game consoles aren’t even that good. Especially looking at the Japanese market, honestly there is no business merit to making HD games now.
Even considering E3, with current games looking as good as they do now to the average person, I think it will take some time for the change to the new hardware and for it to be widely accepted.
Square Enix’s legion of detractors were quick to leap on these comments:
“Because HD is now the baseline.”
“They do know this… don’t they?”
“In all the time they’ve not been making any proper new games they’ve been completely left behind, so no wonder.”
“They can’t even make social games properly now…”
“Square Enix throws money into empty games with beautiful graphics, they don’t sell, so it invests even more into better graphics, they still don’t sell: ‘there’s no point in making HD games!'”
“The west has been earnestly pursuing ever more realistic graphics for the past 30 years, but Japan never bothered with this so the graphics and business never really tie together.”
“They might just try getting rid of the Nomura stuff for once, nobody is that keen on him.”
“He’s not far wrong, there has not been any dramatic technological change in the last decade. If the PS4 has seriously realistic graphics I’ll buy it though.”
“There is no way they can match big overseas games with only a few hundred thousand copies sold in Japan.”
“Kojima is not having trouble making amazing games with great graphics. I think Square Enix just wants to make profitable social games though.”
“You can make money ripping off idiots with social games but it leads nowhere.”
“It’s not like Square Enix’s games are selling like hotcakes overseas either though.”
“The difference in development scale between Japanese and overseas games is sort of like the difference between the Manhattan Project and those weather balloon bombs we sent over…”
“What Square Enix really means is that they no longer have the technical ability to make HD games…”
Funny, thats all theyve been doin for awhile now.
SE is not even the shadow of its former self. no wonder the comment
Those of you who have owned (and built) computers for at least 20 years should have no excuse to bitch and whine about where the industry is heading and why it’s doing so. Unless you forget that your LAN rigs and notebooks started their life the size of a panzer battalion, if panzers could fit in an office building room.
The rest of you whiners: give it time. Your droids will overpower your dedicated handheld of choice right now soon enough. It merely has to start somewhere, and since there’s plenty of money to be made now, better now than later.
The decades worth of gamer in me has an immediate, negative reaction — no surprise there. Except it doesn’t stop there, precisely because through those decades that gamer has seen hardware evolve when the software goes that direction, pushing current hardware beyond its limits and forcing it to advance to the next level.
Looking at the situation from a short and narrow-minded view of things, these giants of gaming may seem to be taking a big step back. If you’re a kid who considers the PS3 ancient, you probably won’t get it, and definitely won’t have the patience. But don’t worry, check back in several years. Because your droids are going to be more powerful (and presumably modular) than your 3DSes and Vitas could ever hope to be, since that’s what PCs tend to do. Regardless of how small they get.
Right now we’re taking a step back so we can all take a proper step forward. Even as we speak mobile hardware is ramping up. Bulky, immobile, tied-down systems are going to be about as fashionable as mainframe computers from the 50s.
“The difference in development scale between Japanese and overseas games is sort of like the difference between the Manhattan Project and those weather balloon bombs we sent over…”
ROFLMAO!!! Holy s♥♥t Japan!