IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Square Enix Troubled By Japanese Output At E3

Posted June 10, 2011 by M.H. Williams

At some point after acquiring Eidos, Square Enix’s Japanese offerings have begun a continuous slide in innovation and quality.  At the same time, Eidos seems to be firing on all cylinders, with amazing IP revamps like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and Hitman: Absolution.  With the recent E3 trade event, Square Enix’s Japanese management has started to notice the shift in the company’s output.

"Because we merged with Eidos and had games like Tomb Raider, Deus and Hitman, as a company we were able to keep face. But the decline in Japanese titles was almost humiliating. This has been a week where I worried daily about how we can fix this,” tweeted Koji Taguchi, a senior executive officer at Square Enix Holdings.

The high-profile bomb that is Final Fantasy XIV and the lackluster critical response to Final Fantasy XIII has hit the company hard in the past year.  Can the Japanese side of the company dig themselves out of a hole?

[Via Andriasang]

M.H. Williams has been writing in some form or another for ten years and has been a hardcore gamer since the NES first graced American shores.  You can catch him on Twitter as @AutomaticZen, Google+ as himself, or on his personal Facebook page.