Seems Square-Enix is thinking inside the box, someone may want to open it

[Shin Asura]

Japanese games haven't been known for being mainstream with the exception of the Metal Gear and the original Final Fantasy series, may be others but i can't think of any at the moment. I spent lots of money importing the games because I guess they didn't fit into the western culture.

I'm a bit surprised by this statement Yoshihisa made, pushing back from what? from the grave Square-Enix has dug for themselves? With his attitude I don't think they're going to make much headway at all.

Square Enix dev says Japanese industry is "pushing back"

By Brendan Sinclair




TUE 27 NOV 2012 3:54PM GMT / 10:54AM EST / 7:54AM PST
TECHNOLOGYDEVELOPMENT

Technical director Yoshihisa Hashimoto sees oft-derided gaming scene making a comeback

Square Enix

square-enix.com

After years of stagnation, the Japanese game industry is ready for a comeback. At least, that's what Square Enix technical director Yoshihisa Hashimoto told 4Gamer last week in an interview translated by Edge.

Hashimoto acknowledged that in terms of influence on the industry, the Japanese industry is "being pushed around by Western games without a doubt." However, he has seen encouraging signs that things are changing, specifically pointing to Kojima Productions' Fox Engine work (as seen in the Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes trailer) as an example.

"Recently, it feels like the Japanese game industry hasn't lost, and is gradually pushing back."

Given that Hashimoto is currently involved in the creation of Square Enix's Luminous Studio game engine, he found the glimpse of Kojima's new engine to be motivational as well as encouraging. Hasimoto called the Fox Engine tech amazing, adding that it spurred him to think, "We [Square Enix] won't lose to this though!"

For Luminous Studio, Hashimoto is trying to create technology capable of meeting the demands of Square Enix's AAA titles, but also adaptable for smartphone, tablet, and cloud-based gaming as well.

"The aim is to broaden the vision of the company, and establish a better integrated game development environment," Hashimoto explained.

The Luminous Engine was first shown off at the Electronic Entertainment Expo earlier this year with a Final Fantasy tech demo trailer called Agni's Philoso

[Ghost-Rhayne]

Japanese games haven't been known for being mainstream with the exception of the Metal Gear and the original Final Fantasy series, may be others but i can't think of any at the moment. I spent lots of money importing the games because I guess they didn't fit into the western culture.

I'm a bit surprised by this statement Yoshihisa made, pushing back from what? from the grave Square-Enix has dug for themselves? With his attitude I don't think they're going to make much headway at all.

I guess pushing back against western developers who have completely obliterated the east for along time when it comes games. It will take more than KP and SE to do that though, they will be pioneers and others will hopefully follow in their footprints. FOX engine is impressive for sure.

[itachi73378]

Nice to see that alteast they have realized they need to step their game up

[Shin Asura]

It's not a matter of winning or losing , it's a matter of making games that made you successful in the past and sticking to your roots. There's always room for experimentation but sometimes it won't work like Unlimited Saga, Infinite Discovery and the Last Remnant.

They're missing the key point of gaming, you make games for your fans not your executives. Fans are asking for certain titles and we're being told we can't have it until it's surpassed. Yoshihisa wants to push back which is perfectly fine, but they put themselves in their position. It's not hard to see that if you don't listen to what the fans want it's not going to work out. They proved it themselves with XIII-2, fans complained about XIII and they made concessions to improve the sequel which worked.

Give the fans what they want and introduce new IP's , don't just ignore what is wanted and try to spoon feed us

[Bigdoggy]

well after reading that article I can definitely say that SE will lose even more money now. Is this company fuckin serious, what in the blue fuck is so hard for a company to grasp what is/was successful to what isn't?

[NuSoardGraphite]

well after reading that article I can definitely say that SE will lose even more money now. Is this company fuckin serious, what in the blue fuck is so hard for a company to grasp what is/was successful to what isn't?

It's because they are Japanese and have a different mindset. It's also because the gaming industry has grown far, far bigger than Japan and they don't know how to deal with it.

[Ixion]

I don't see anything wrong with what he's saying. He's talking about the technical side of things, where the West has been winning. Mr. Hashimoto feels the East is starting to catch up, now that Kojima's engine and Square-Enix's engine are looking to be very impressive.

In terms of Square-Enix's development decisions, I agree they've made some puzzling choices. Not localizing Type-0 is the most obvious blunder. I know the PSP is dead in North America, but that's supposedly their best Final Fantasy in a while, so the West should be able to play it on some platform.

Taking so long to release Versus is another, but that's most likely because S-E wants to finish the FFXIII trilogy before shifting focus to Versus. Also, since Versus is supposed to be Nomura's swan song, he might be taking his time.

And of course there's FFX HD, where the only reasonable explanation to explain the long wait is because S-E is doing more than a simple HD remaster and is also improving the game in other ways.

We'll have to wait and see.

[robvandam111]

They should've known that some fans didn't lose hope on them. Heck, its already more than a 6 years since the last Kingdom Hearts game. They just need to throw in some goodies and everything else will be fine. They were definitely thinking within the box. Anyway, I hope to see some footage of Lighting Returns next weekend.