CitationSquare Enix has a new president and new ideas on how to move the company forward. The publisher behind Dragon Quest announced three strategic changes to the digital entertainment business.

Western studios will shift focus to produce online-based titles. Considering how Final Fantasy XIV's success turned the company's balance sheet around this makes sense. Square Enix wants to transform the fixed-price model of purchasing games outright into variable earnings. Nosgoth, a free to play battle action game that takes place in the Legend of Kain universe, was cited as an example of this change.

In Japan, Square Enix will accelerate production of games for smartphones and tablets. Titles like Final Fantasy Agitio and how Dragon Quest ports will soon be available demonstrate this change. Finally, Square Enix wants to expand outside of Japan and primarily in Asia. They plan to license games like Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur to publishers in Asia like Shanda Games and bring Final Fantasy XIV to mainland China.

http://www.siliconera.com/2013/11/06/square-enixs-sets-three-strategic-changes-gaming-division/#EtV0jgJbo8beJkyo.99

Donc sur console de salon on mise sur les jeux en ligne ou free-to-play et sur mobile on accélère la production de titres à petit budget. L'avenir est radieux.

Tout les autres le font, pourquoi ils s'en priveraient ?

C'est surtout le constat de voir que c'est ce qui marche qu'est attristant, pas tant qu'ils adoptent cette stratégie. Quoiqu'on le regrette également.

Je le regrette et ça me donne pas envie d'acheter leurs titre.
On dirait une non-pub.

Sortir de nouvelles consoles pour se taper des F2P.   

Et pendant ce temps-là toujours aucun jeu sur Vita (un remake à venir, youhou) et relativement peu sur 3DS.

Et venez par me dire Bravely Default, sans Nintendo on l'aurait jamais vue.

N'oublions pas tout de même FFXV (oui ok ça fait 7 ans qu'ils bossent dessus...) et KH3.

Et Lightning Returns : Final Fantasy XIII.
Et Drag-On Dragoon 3.

Mais ça reste très maigre en effet. Surtout quand on se souvient de l'orgie que ce fut sur 16/32 bits.

Et c'est d'ailleurs surprenant concernant Drag-On Dragoon 3 puisqu'il arrivera aussi chez nous.

Citation"There's lots of talk in the industry about games becoming services - to be honest, as an expression this doesn't always resonate with people, especially gamers," he said. "For us online is a way to facilitate how we're looking at the word service to build on a game. So we're focusing on regular content updates, engaging gameplay mechanics, replayability and deep community."

"The emphasis in the financials was specifically to point out some new online games we're working on, Nosgoth was called out and Heroes and Generals would be another worthy mention. Now these are very particular types of games being free-to-play and PC based, but there are core principles here which apply to all our games, whether we're looking at our AAA console games which are a major part of our future strategy, smartphone and tablet games and PC games," said Rogers.

"You have to stand by what you believe in and we have to believe in quality and engagement as two key measurements to succeed, so we take comfort in the fact that we can develop critically acclaimed games which deliver a deep level of engagement."

[..]

Rogers points to Avalanche's Just Cause 2, released in 2010, as evidence of engagement. "We've got to look at how people are actually playing our games - it totally amazes me that with Just Cause 2, which is over three years old now, we still have half a million active, unique players each month.
"That's a lot of people still engaged in the game, and some of the players have been there each month for the past six months. We couldn't have seen this when the game was originally designed. It's something Christofer Sundberg from Avalanche and I talk about a lot. So it's incredible to look at facts like that and to challenge our teams building new games to think about long-term engagement."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-11-11-square-enix-games-as-a-service-doesnt-resonate-with-players

C'est à moitié rassurant. Un peu comme l'annonce de la Xbox One avait mis l'accent sur la TV car le public cible était le grand public, ils expliquent que le compte rendu financier était avant tout un moyen de communiqué aux investisseurs que des F2P étaient en cours.

On va espérer que dans les faits, ça se concrétise.