Square Enix: the Electronic Arts of the East?
I am sure you are all familiar with EA and their policy of buying up smaller companies. Some might suggest this isn’t necessarily a bad thing since EA are a powerful company with vast amounts of resources. I am not the type of person to dance around this suggestion with a statement of “let’s agree to disagree”, as far as I am concerned, anyone who suggests this is at least a little naive.
I have a very long memory when it comes to this type of action from Electronic Arts. Back in 1995 a little UK company you may have heard of by the name of Bullfrog, co-founded by Peter Molyneux of Lionhead Studios, were snapped up by EA. This was the beginning of the end for Bullfrog.
Let’s have a look at some of the games Bullfrog released pre-EA:
Populous (and Populous II)
Powermonger
Syndicate
Magic Carpet
Theme Park
Not a bad line-up, eh?
After EA got their hands on the company, with the notable exception of Dungeon Keeper, they hammered out a long list of follow-ups of debatable worth:
Magic Carpet 2
Syndicate Wars
Theme Hospital
Populous: The Beginning
Theme Park World
Dungeon Keeper 2
Theme Park Inc.
After this, EA discarded the Bullfrog name and washed their hands of it.
EA wanted to make some more money. Once they had made some money they threw the battered and bruised Bullfrog name to one side.
It’s only a matter of time before EA do something similar to a similar company.
In the meantime, Square Enix have offered a huge amount of money in a bid to purchase fellow Japanese company, Tecmo. This bid was rejected, with Tecmo opting for a merger with Koei.
I am trying to get my head round this bid from Square Enix, I certainly wouldn’t suggest that the two companies would seem to be a natural fit, although it appears that someone disagrees:
“The two companies seemed a natural fit: Square Enix’s Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series had a huge following among diehards in Japan, while Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive fighting games were popular in the U.S. and Europe. To sweeten the deal, Square Enix President Yoichi Wada pledged to preserve the Tecmo brand. He gave Tecmo’s management a week to think it over.” – Kenji Hall, Businessweek.com
When I read this excerpt there are two things which leap out at me and make me feel quite uneasy.
Firstly, Square Enix have a huge following all over the world and this is actually hinted at in the very same Businessweek article, “A Tecmo-Koei merger would give them combined annual sales of $370 million, less than a third as much as Square Enix makes on its own.”
This means that Square Enix make more than $1.1 Billion per year. This suggests that their company must be doing pretty well in general.
I am sure you’ll agree that all this financial talk is getting a bit boring so let’s take this down to a level which every gamer will appreciate and understand.
To those readers who live in “the U.S. and Europe”, how many gaming friends do you have who would say that Final Fantasy VII is one of their most favourite games of all time? A hell of a lot, am I right?
Does this sound like Square Enix are struggling to reach out to the U.S. and Europe? I don’t think so.
Secondly, Square Enix President, Yoichi Wada, pretty much told Tecmo that he will allow them to keep their name? What a nice gesture. What next? A demand that Tecmo make up their minds, on a proposal which will have such a huge impact on everyone involved, in just one week? As generous offers go this really is quite something.
I like Square Enix.
I hate bullies.
This is quite a conundrum.
(via)
Bullfrog also made Hi-Octane. Whether you consider that to be a good thing or a bad thing is up to you, but I have fond memories of it.
Also, EA ruined Burnout.
EA did not ruin Burnout, your out of your mind! Criterion is still intact and making the games that they created they are just published by EA. Paradise is one of the nest racing games ever, and it certainly is better than Revenge, which blew.
I don’t think SE and Tecmo would have fit well regardless of SE’s plans to get a bigger following in the west(like it didn’t already exist), but Koei and Tecmo make a good match and it will be interesting to see the joint ventures they have together with new IP’s
I did enjoy High-Octane.
Burnout Paradise wasn’t too bad, I had a reasonable amount of fun with it while I had it on rent, however I can’t be sure I’d be saying the same thing had I purchased it rather than renting it.
While I was driving around in Paradise I couldn’t help but notice that they borrowed the offline/online feature from Test Drive Unlimited and I actually had my mind on a possible TDU follow-up more than a Burnout follow-up.
Couple things:
1) EA as a company has gotten significantly better the last couple years. Why, just look at the games they are releasing in 2008: Spore, Battlefield: Bad Company, Dead Space, Army of Two, Burnout Paradise, Red Alert 3, Mercenaries 2, Mirror’s Edge, Rock Band 2, Skate 2… and all their sports titles of course. They have started offering lots of games meant to appeal to “hardcore” gamers like Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space, and they have also started spending a fair amount of money on new IPs from smaller developers. They aren’t super-innovative, but they also aren’t the same heartless creativity-ruining mega-corporation like they were five years ago. If you want a new villain, start looking at Microsoft. They’ve already ruined Rare and alienated Bungie. I wonder who’s next? Hell, even Nintendo – the heart and soul of video gaming for twenty years – has seemingly abandoned “real” gamers in order to sell games like Wii Fit and Nintendogs.
2) Square-Enix does a fair amount of property-milking (Final Fantasy 13)… all three planned versions of it, as well as Dragon Quest 9) but they still have a deserved reputation for high production values and fun games. I could think of much worse companies to rat on than SE… like Koie. Seriously? Koie? Are we going to criticize SE when Koie has been releasing the same two games (Dynasty Warriors 2 and Romance of the Three Kingdoms) for ten years now? I can think of nothing worse for Tecmo’s future than a merger with Koie.
do open rhe cage
You do realize that only HARDCORE gamers[in the west] would name a square-enix game. Regular gamers or casual gamers most likely wouldn’t name a square game at all. And thats the problem right there a huge majority of there game sell IN JAPAN, but that can also be blamed on them for only releasing some of their games in Japan or releasing months sometimes years late in other countries. But im not complaining im just saying.
I can only go on what my friends would say to me if I asked them that question.
I suppose it depends entirely on the group of friends people keep.
This article I wrote has made an appearance over on N4G.com and most of the comments it has there so far have been negative but not because of the actual article since most of them didn’t even read it!
Somehow, a few of them, read my article and managed to take away from it that I am calling Square Enix “evil” when I am obviously not.
In fact, I even mentioned at the end of the article that I like Square Enix.
I just don’t appreciate what I deem to be an EA-style take-over of a smaller company.
One person even suggested that it’s a silly article because “EA are a publisher while Square Enix are a developer” which is, I’m sure you’re aware, absolute nonsense. Electronic Arts are both publisher and developer.
I assure you that I appreciate your comment as it’s at least sensibly written! =o)