Square Enix has recently released the outline of its latest briefing, which was held on November 8, and during this briefing, Yosuke Matsuda had some interesting comments to make in regards to the Nintendo Switch.
Q: Where do you intend to prioritize allocation of your development resources going forward?
A: We base our development resource allocations on the unique attributes of each platform. In particular, Nintendo Switch makes it easier for us to leverage our back catalog of assets and expertise, so we want to be proactive in creating new IP and rebooting past titles for that platform.
Q: What do you think of Nintendo Switch, and how are you approaching development efforts for it?
A: Nintendo Switch is seeing rapid uptake, and we welcome the arrival of such a platform. We intend to be proactive in our development efforts given that it’s a platform that is well suited to the mid-sized titles at which we excel.
This sounds promising. Some may turn their nose up at the thought of reboots/remakes, but it sounds more like Square Enix’s plan includes taking a new approach to the remake formula, as well as creating new IPs. Mid-sized titles could mean bringing back old titles to a mobile-hybrid audience. Perhaps even at a lower price.
Q: Why is the balance of your content production account larger now than it was at the end of FY2017/3 even though Dragon Quest XI has already been released?
A: Development efforts for major titles are underway at both our overseas and domestic studios. We will be making announcements about the release dates of those titles between the end of FY2018/3 and E3.
Q: What do you think of the platform Steam for downloading PC games?
A: Steam has many users, but our games tend to get lost amongst the many titles it offers. As such, we think it’s important to guide users from our sales website to Steam.
Q: Left Alive was introduced in September. What will it cost to develop, and what is the positioning of the title?
A: We want to make it into a AAA brand, but that does not mean that we intend to devote massive development costs to it. Content-wise, the game will be satisfying in a hardcore way, and that’s how we want to market it to players.
The comments about PC games is also promising, as Final Fantasy XV’s PC release looms overhead. Game Director Hajime Tabata even recently talked about the ease of development for PC. There’s even consideration of Final Fantasy XV on Nintendo Switch, though it wasn’t brought up during this briefing.
We may see some interesting news from Square Enix in the next year if they focus on releases for Nintendo Switch. What would you like to see from them?
