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Square Talks About The Future

A recent article on MSN Japan detailed a number of the decisions reached at the recent investors meeting held by Square's shareholders on April 5th. There were four main points of discussion, the first of which was a reaffirmation of the company's intention, under the direction of Yoichi Wada, to stick to the business of producing video games from now on. Under Wada's leadership, funds will be directed strictly to development, unlike last year, when Square was dealing with the fallout of their movie's disappointing box office returns.

This new emphasis on games will see not only new games produced, but an emphasis on the reproduction of older, successful games. Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy Tactics, Parasite Eve, and an unspecified Seiken Densetsu title will all be given the full treatment, although whether or not they will be upgraded or ported directly remains to be seen.

With all this taxing rehashing going on, Square's developers won't have the time to concentrate on much else. There will, however, be continued work on the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy XII being among the forefront of titles to receive attention. In a surprising move, the company also revealed it would be creating spin-off titles and sub-series focusing on characters from FF titles. No specifics were given on any of these announcements, except to say that the first of these spin-offs would originate with characters from FFXII.

Financially, the company should be doing a lot better by the end of the next fiscal year. This year will basically be a write-off in preparation for next year, at which point Square hopes to profit 4-6 billion yen ($31.5 million US - $47.3 million US) in stand-alone titles, with an additional 1-3 billion yen ($7.9 million - $23.6 million US) coming in from its online ventures.

With a development-heavy road ahead, there will no doubt be numerous announcements from Square in the coming weeks. Expect RPGamer to stay on top of the developing future of one of the cornerstones of the RPG world.


by Andrew Long    
Sources: [The MadMan's Cafe]
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