In a recent interview with Nikkei Trendy, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda spoke with the most wisdom I’ve ever heard from a videogame executive. The topic was the development of AAA titles, designed to appeal to a wide audience, and Matsuda hit the nail on the head perfectly.
If you focus too much on the global aspect, you might lose sight of who you’re actually making the game for. For example, if you look back at 2013, we’ve had some home console games made for a global audience that struggled.
For example, in the past, when we developed console games with a worldwide premise, we lost our focus, and not only did they end up being games that weren’t for the Japanese, but they ended up being incomplete titles that weren’t even fit for a global audience.
On the other hand, there are games like the JRPG we made for the Japanese audience with the proper elements, Bravely Default, which ended up selling well all around the world.
Wait a minute, it almost sounds as if he knows exactly what’s wrong with his company!
Despite tough financial losses in its previous fiscal year (north of 13bn yen), the Japanese publisher seems poised to make a comeback, expecting profits of up to 6bn yen in the wake of last year’s disaster. If that proves true, it will be nothing short of an incredible recovery.
Matsuda had quite a bit more to say, but there was one bit that stood out to me: his opinion on Bravely Default. It’s no secret that massive Square Enix investments like Tomb Raider have failed to meet the company’s arguably unrealistic sales expectations, and after taking a similar beating with Hitman: Absolution (not to mention outcry from series die-hards over mainstream-ified gameplay), Matsuda must have realized that it’s time for a change. In this case, change stands to be a very, very good thing.
