i'm curious how this would affect the series besides marketing.

apparently squeenix is getting destroyed by losses now. GAF seems to think this is a good move, while other sites seem to think square is done. i just hope this doesn't hurt the future of kh/versus 13

I can tell you right now, Wada is to blame for at least 75# of it.

Wada should have stepped down after the fiasco with Final Fantasy XIV. He hasn't been great, having only been brought in to Square Enix to handle finances and management way back in 2000, and early on in the wake of the Enix merger he was definitely a great asset. The past seven years has been a lot of mismanaging, though, and while not all the blame should be on Wada's head he definitely was a big part of the problem.

I hope Yosuke Matsuda can do better, and now all of the sudden restructuring seems to make sense now. The shift from social games after late last year saying they were planning to push further into the social/mobile market, the announcements of games that have been all but non-existent until now...

That's why I said 75% percent of the blame should be on his head.

I also find it ironic this happend right after EA's CEO resigned.

Kingdom Hearts is one of Square Enix's biggest franchises I don't think that this will affect the series that much. But hopefully changes will happen soon or the company will really need to restructure itself.

Kingdom Hearts on iOS :)

Nah, I'm just kidding. This is possibly the best decision they could have made really. Square Enix is in need of some serious restructuring and better management. They also need to be more willing to take risks like The World Ends With You, so I can't wait to see if Matsuda goes the extra mile. They also need to not be afraid of pushing their Japanese titles in the west. E3 last year and I think the year before that was scarce with anything but Eidos titles.

Square Enix has such unrealistic expectations for the sales figures of their games.

Tomb Raider hasn't even been out a month yet.

This news coupled with this, Square Enix Forces All Staff to Play Super Mario RPG in Order to Learn How to Make Good RPGs Again | Play4Real , makes me hope square will get their act together after this. And reclaim their title as the King of RPG's.

No. Square is going to survive. Let's go Matsuda!

Ha! Yeah, I think they can reclaim that title. Square is one of my favorite companies; they don't put out total crap each year *cough*Activision*cough*

Oh really.

http://www.finalfantasy.net/mobile-dlg/final-fantasy-bravest-insult-fans-series/

You guys know that's a satirical site, right?

Final Fantasy saved?

Maybe now they'll be a good business with someone new as CEO

Hopefully they won't decide to scrap 2.5 to get KH3 out quicker. I highly doubt they would do that, but you never know...

Doubt it. 2.5 is the most hyped collection, and the one that would benefit the most people.

Im scared but also happy and relieved at the same time. Who knows what could really happen in the future with Squeenix. I just dont want another FFXI and XIV. I mean games that include an option to play online with others like BBS is fine but not just no more like XI and XIV.

Maybe this means more new Disney characters and Final Fantasy characters will come way to Kingdom Hearts? Or maybe a Dissidia? :) Id definitely love to see Vaan meet Sora. Or Rapunzel meet Sora and his friends. :)

Yeah, changing a head can sometimes change the direction of the company entirely, though at times it doesn't.

I really don't know how to feel about this. Just wishing better times for Square-Enix...

I see this as a positive thing for KH. Let's face t, SE isn't as good as it used to be. But I feel that with new leaders, SE can be pulled back to its glory days.

Definitely not, since it doesn't take a lot of manpower to make these HD collections, and they definitely help bring in new fans to the series who would ultimately buy KH3.

So pretty much it is the US's fault that they have not made sales? Honestly I agree with this. Looking at what US society has come to, for the US "Gamer" everyone has been focusing on the mindless FPS (First Person Shooter) games. From a lot of FPS fans who claim to be gamers, they think games like Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy and pretty much anything that requires actual thought with a good story is portrayed as "Gay" or a "nerd game." There are plenty of great games out there besides FPS but this type of "Gamer" is closed minded and ignorant of anything else. The US prides itself on mindless violence in games, pretty much no reading, and releasing the same pointless and mindless FPS over and over again. (Why do they do this you ask? Because they know the same ignorant people will buy the game every time.) An example of this is Black Ops and Pretty much anything by Tom Clancy. When Black Ops came out Gamestop did this whole big event party and when games like Kingdom Hearts come out there is nothing but a guy a gamestop showing how to play the game. This is a sad joke. Mr. Wada should not have to step down because of the US "gamer" being dumbed down by it's own society. Enix even went out of it's way to put Final Fantasy on that sad system called 360. I know trying to bring in a new 360 fan base but at the same time they where trying to sell the to the wrong kind of "gamer" Most 360 "gamers" are FPS fans. Why? Because the only thing 360 ever puts out is FPS. They don't even have their own games for the 360 its all 3rd party games. I think it was a big mistake putting anything by Square Enix on that second rate American made garbage. I just think it should be time to put two different names on a FPS "gamer" and a real Gamer that is open minded to the plethora of games out there. Before I end this though I don't want anyone to think I hate FPS games. In fact I myself do play FPS games like 007 and Dead Space(not FPS but close enough) and I enjoy playing them but also love playing games like Luigi's Mansion or Final Fantasy and of course Kingdom Hearts. I believe you can only be called a real gamer if you play different genre of games and don't just seclude yourself to just one kind and talking trash about anything else that is different.

Gonna see this as a good thing. Hopefully this leads to more creative things like The World Ends With You was.

You really shouldn't. Eidos and other Western developed and published games from SE are being used as a scapegoat to cover up what a mess SE Japan really is and that most of their problems stem from Wada's (and other staff's) mismanagement over their games like releasing Final Fantasy XIV before it was ready, waiting months to do anything about it, blaming the mess on the game's director and producer, initiating the redevelopment that has taken well over 700 in-house staff and outsourced worker to get done to release this year which has meant less staff working on other games, using the XIII series to fill the void, announcing games before they were even in development (i.e. Versus XIII, XIII, X HD), and there are plenty more problems that can be listed.

Square Enix's only good move these last years was buying Eidos. If games like Hitman, Sleeping Dogs, and Tomb Raider hadn't been released Square Enix's HD game output would have been pitiful this generation and they wouldn't have even made half the money they did this generation.

Looking at what US society has come to, for the US "Gamer" everyone has been focusing on the mindless FPS (First Person Shooter) games. From a lot of FPS fans who claim to be gamers, they think games like Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy and pretty much anything that requires actual thought with a good story is portrayed as "Gay" or a "nerd game." There are plenty of great games out there besides FPS but this type of "Gamer" is closed minded and ignorant of anything else. The US prides itself on mindless violence in games, pretty much no reading, and releasing the same pointless and mindless FPS over and over again. (Why do they do this you ask? Because they know the same ignorant people will buy the game every time.) An example of this is Black Ops and Pretty much anything by Tom Clancy. When Black Ops came out Gamestop did this whole big event party and when games like Kingdom Hearts come out there is nothing but a guy a gamestop showing how to play the game. This is a sad joke.

You don't understand this situation at all. The problem isn't the mindset of the gamers or Western games in general. SE has been releasing some pretty fantastic games from their Western devs like Tomb Raider then set unrealistic expectations on these games to sell a large number of units in a short amount of time.

This is the "reason" Wada has stepped down. These games did not do as well as they wanted (despite the fact Tomb Raider is critically acclaimed, has been out less than a month, and has sold over 3.4 million units and is an overall success)

The problem is not western games or gamers.

Mr. Wada should not have to step down because of the US "gamer" being dumbed down by it's own society.

Wada should have stepped down years ago after the XIV fiasco, but he was able to dump the blame on XIV's staff.

Enix even went out of it's way to put Final Fantasy on that sad system called 360. I know trying to bring in a new 360 fan base but at the same time they where trying to sell the to the wrong kind of "gamer" Most 360 "gamers" are FPS fans. Why? Because the only thing 360 ever puts out is FPS. They don't even have their own games for the 360 its all 3rd party games.

Actually if I remember correctly Microsoft went to Square Enix and made a contract with them to release games exclusively on the 360. That deal has long since gone sour as sales of the 360 exclusive games did terribly and the only game you really see made in Japan being released on the now 360 is the XIII series because of the fact it went multiplat.

I think it was a big mistake putting anything by Square Enix on that second rate American made garbage. I just think it should be time to put two different names on a FPS "gamer" and a real Gamer that is open minded to the plethora of games out there. Before I end this though I don't want anyone to think I hate FPS games. In fact I myself do play FPS games like 007 and Dead Space(not FPS but close enough) and I enjoy playing them but also love playing games like Luigi's Mansion or Final Fantasy and of course Kingdom Hearts. I believe you can only be called a real gamer if you play different genre of games and don't just seclude yourself to just one kind and talking trash about anything else that is different.

So Tomb Raider, made by Crystal Dynamics owned by Square Enix, a critical hit, doing really well, shouldn't be sold by Square Enix?

I believe you can only be called a real gamer if you play different genre of games and don't just seclude yourself to just one kind

This is a terrible mindset. A gamer is a gamer whether they play one genre or many.

I see no problems with gamers who only play iOS titles. There I said it! Strike me down if you wish!

while to an extent, you're not entirely wrong, but the US is not nearly as bad as you make it out to be. People love great stories with actual thought; just not in video games. Though it sometimes appears that the average person and the critic are at odds on such things, there is a lot of arrogance here and neglect of intellect but its not entirely out of style.


and on another note, 360 is far from garbage and in fact has a lot more to offer than just FPS' many of which are fun, and I generally suck at them cuz I don't know much about guns. It is monotonous though. There are also a vast majority of multiplatformers that are made for the 360 because its the easier system to develop for and then they are ported to the ps3 which by now is not much better in terms of hardware.

Not generally anymore. Developers normally use the PS3 as a lead platform and then port the game over the 360 because that's easier to do than the other way around due to the PS3's architecture. It's why there used to be more graphical differences between two versions of the game with the PS3 being the worse, even if they were slight issues.

I'm scared about how this will affect the KH series.

Really? I thought they still did the 360 first, because of the ps3s architecture.

That was the problem. There are issues with porting a game over to the PS3 thus it was more of a struggle than what they do now. Putting that aside, developers have more of a hand-in experience with the PS3 now and iirc Sony has helped developers from time to time.

This is the best news i've heard in quite some time, hopefully with wada's resignation Square Enix can get back on track.

Alright, but they don't do that consistently do they? Think about it like this:
Black Ops II or FFXIV. Your Choice.

Probably not at all.



Can't we pick both? Objectively neither of them are bad games (at least not XIV 2.0.) It only depends on what level of enjoyment you get out of them. Also as not all Western games are idiotic shooters and do contain a rich story with colorful characters (like hey that Square Enix game Tomb Raider), the opposite can be said for Japanese games (like hey that terrible game Toriyama made, MindJack or even The 3rd Birthday depending on how much you really liked the "twist")

I don't think it'll really affect the KH series that much. Actually, I think if it does anything they'll look at sales numbers and increase the resources available to Nomura and his team(s) to either increase the quality of future KH titles or possibly even new titles (or maybe even jumpstart development on KH3 depending on how close Versus is getting to completion)

The exact opposite. Games are created for the 360 and then ported to the ps3. Tomb Raider wasn't even ported by crystal dynamics, another company did it. Most multi platforms look better on the 360 because of that. Of course there are exception (Bioshock Infinite, TR, FF XIII, Metal Gear Rising etc).
the ps3 is extremely powerful but only a handful of devs have used it to its maximum potential.

My two cents on wadas resignation is that for the most part was ridiculous delays on game titles that we want such as ffv13 and KH3 and the below to average FF games like 14 and 13-2 that was released. I don't see this being affected to KH3 but i will say that don't be surprised that we might get a report later in the year that says that Square enix will look on the sales of KH 1.5 remix outside japan to see if they will make KH3.

Not normally they are not. Not every developer follows this trend, some have PC as the lead platform while others make builds for both systems at the same time. There are no "exceptions" because it has become more common for PS3 to be the lead platform.

Remasters are not, and never will be, used to measure interest in a game series. They are only used to make easy cash to fund other projects.

1.5, nor 2.5 will not be indicative of the fanbase's interest in Kingdom Hearts 3, which already far exceeds their interest in anything else within this series. SE already knows it is making Kingdom Hearts 3, if they haven't started planning already.

I'd take neither because both suck.

I get what you're saying about the mainstream FPS's taking over the market. That's not to say though that FPS's are a bad genre altogether. Although I would be lying if I said that I never felt that Valve is the only game company that can make a fun FPS nowadays...

If you are to debate this, you should get some facts together. Multi platforms are usually better on the 360 cause it's easier to develop for. That!s an unquestionable fact and you can read this on countless reviews and articles. On the contrary, developers even skipped the PS3 cause it was hard to develop games for (The Witcher 2). Most Assassin's Creed games were better on the Xbox. Metal Gear Solid HD was better on the xbox. Mass Effect was a 360 exclusive for 4 years. I don't think there is a reason to go on.

If you're going to bother responding, learn what we're actually debating. These "facts" you keep bringing up literally do not even remotely refute what I've been saying.

Multi platforms are usually better on the 360 cause it's easier to develop for. That!s an unquestionable fact and you can read this on countless reviews and articles.

This has to do diddly squat with what I said. That the PS3 is being used as a lead platform more often now isn't arguing against how the 360 is easier to develop for.

On the contrary, developers even skipped the PS3 cause it was hard to develop games for (The Witcher 2). Most Assassin's Creed games were better on the Xbox. Metal Gear Solid HD was better on the xbox. Mass Effect was a 360 exclusive for 4 years. I don't think there is a reason to go on.

Uhh, so? Again, what does this have to do with the PS3 being more commonly used as the lead platform?

We are discussing whether the PS3 is/has been the leading platform for many multi-platform games in this era. Most of the time the leading platform has the best looking game cause the team has spent more time on it. Most games have looked better on the 360. The fact that the PS3 had hardware which was hard to program for also contributed to developers preferring the 360. Some didn't even bother getting games to the PS3 at first or at all.

Uhh, so? Again, what does this have to do with the PS3 being more commonly used as the lead platform?

Says who? Again, get some facts together when you claim things like that.

PS3 native dev makes for "better" Xbox 360 games | GamesIndustry International

EA focus on PS3 as lead platform for game development - GAMER.BLORGE

The information you're spouting would have been accurate in 2008-9, but it's hardly the case anymore.

The simple fact of the matter is, it is MUCH easier to get an even quality between different versions of the games with the PS3 as the lead platform, because it's easier to port from PS3 to 360 then the other way around. It's not a very complicated concept.

I stand corrected then. Wow that's weird, especially more so seeing so many multi-platform games having problems. But yeah, you're right. :redface:

Wada genuinely believed in Japan's projects and in Eidos/western properties. This is evidenced by the fact that the Versus project and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn are actual things still and not down the drain. If you're looking forward to these games, then you probably have to thank him on some level. It also goes for Eidos as well, as the merger was able to infuse Eidos properties with the capital they needed to compete at the AAA level.

It's questionable whether titles like Hitman or Tomb Raider (for example) would have had another AAA shot without Square Enix backing them. That, and properties like Deus Ex and Thief have now had/will have a AAA shot, where they haven't before. In the end, I agree that they put waaaay too much stock in Eidos properties, and that led to the crazy expectations for sales -- which led to the terrible FY report.

However, most of the losses seem to be attributed to the massive restructuring effort, which can be directly laid at Wada's feet.