Square Enix Wants to Focus More on Multiplayer and Service Games Going Forward

Of it can emulate anything like ff14. Then it could be good thou I do prefer single player. More expensive in the long run with expansions

First thing thing that comes to mind is how will this effect the FF7 remake? Hopefully not at all.

Nintendo did it. Blizzard lives on it. Activision has done it. Ubisoft did it. EA did it. All to varying degrees and methods be it free content, paid DLC, microtransactions or whatever.

But one thing, and all but EA understood (Though EA also caught on with Battlefront 2) is that it cannot replace single player content and also cannot be asking too much for too little. Some single player included is well worth it in these service games, and of course, they cant fully replace single player not service games either.

Stupid. Single player games are still king in my book. And many others. It’s okay to have both but a company that generally makes stellar single player games needs to re-evaluate going multiplayer. There have been so many incredible single player games this year.

There's room for both. Not every game needs loot boxes and paid-for armor shaders. With games like Nier, Nioh, and even Divinity 2 scoring high marks in their respective genres, it's hard to imagine them trying to serve up service-based features when their single player gets so much right.

I tend to like "game as a service" aspects of one player games - I still pop FFXV in the console to check the new stuff from time to time - on the other hand, multiplayer in any other form than fighting games interests me a lot less tbh.

Everyone wants multiplayer sevice based jrpgs right?

Persona 5 - Ryugi getting up in class slapping you to the floor, teabagging you in front of your classmates and then when expelled from school, every response is noob as the game cant progress.

FFXV is a "service" for the same proverbial reasons of the last decade or so - it needs to get back all the money spent on those spectacular visuals. But the series itself has had dedicated entries like XI and XIV, so I doubt Square Enix will completely eschew either model in favour of the other. Just season passes and multiplayer components? Nothing the industry would hans had to get used to. Besides, RPG multiplayer mostly makes sense in open world environments, too.

We see Titanfall and Battlefront going back to single player in the sequels and these guys are going the other way? Hopefully this doesnt ruin FF7 and KH3.

What they don't count on is how crowded that market is getting. Big MP games need dedication and fan bases. That is not easy to foster as a lot of games are finding. Look at Lawbreakers. In fact MP gamers often tend to buy less games if they getting good content for the one they have. So multiple releases from publishers are all risky because that market will not buy multiple games. Single players, on the other hand, will.

I despise the move toward service games for anything other than a traditional MMO. It's little but an excuse to continue milking the consumer

Service games are terrible. So this is the end of Square making a great story driven game.... Well that is dissapointing now i have to look somewhere else for my singleplayer fun. So multiplayer first with some nice microtransactions sauce.
1 Microtransactions
2 Forced Multiplayer in everthing
3 Ah lets get a crappy story in there nobody cares anyway

If they put in multiplayer in Final Fantasy 7 then i will go mad. Look how great Deadspace 3 turnen out after the awsome coop in the game.

As long as they still bring a steady supply of single player experiences I don't have a problem with it, but if the next FF has some sort of loot boxes system or is shared world only I am going to lose my S***

I'm ok with it as long as they still make proper big single player rpg like ff series, and side project rpg like octopath traveler.

I don't want pure multiplayer/mmo like game (ff14) or lootbox/microtransaction on single player game though (like deus ex).

Well since Square hasn't made a good single player FF game since FF12, and a good FF game since 10, I don't have a problem with them getting out. Level 5 and Monolith (they of the 3 Xenoblade games) are my go to's for JRPG these days anyway.

Maybe they should just take what few good JRPG people they have left and just let them work on DQ, I haven't played the new one yet but it looks good. Maybe it's time for "final" fantasy to be put to rest. Or just keep making MMO's, those seem to be working. And they seem to do good work on the 3DS, Bravely Default games were well received, and Octopath demo has gone over well.

So get FF7R made, maybe remake or remaster 8, then 1 thru 6, and stop making JRPG like FFXV and KH3 that take 10 years each. They lost their way with The Bouncer anyway.

I'd be interested in seeing what they can do on a Kingdom Hearts MMO.

Many games seem to be moving over to open world and multiplayer. I enjoy some of these but I would still like to play linear offline games and hope not all the series I like make the move over.

Works for Rockstar, why not.

No, just focus on making good JRPGs like you used to.

Where are they getting their data from, YouTube comments? Bah, I'll be playing FFIX and reminiscing about Square(soft)'s better times.

Hope people vote with their wallets.

"enhance the lifetime value of the games themselves"

I just don't believe they are doing this for the consumer's benefit like they make out. More like it just makes business sense to milk the cow with low dev costs for as long as possible. That's fine but don't dress it up as something else.

Personally I would prefer the opposite to long-tail games anyway. I have so much to play and limited time to game so I'd much rather a one-off experience so I can move onto the next thing. I don't want to be playing one game for 2 years while my backlog grows exponentially.

@Feena You mean you like the seasonpass generation that the less fancy word for service games.

Well, if they plan on releasing a FF game every 10y I can understand why they would do something like this. Sad part is that each title will lack a good story if they plan on filling in the blanks with DLC.

FFXV was gorgeous but lacked in quite a few parts. I liked what 13 Versus looked like but was quite disappointed what it turned out to be. Square Enix has all the tools and experience to make a great SP game, yet somehow they fail to deliver.

Hopefully, FF7R stays true to the original and maybe we'll see a FF8R. Still awaiting a 8 remaster, though!

honestly while it's had a few pitfalls the way they have done it with FFXV isn't a bad way, a single player game enhanced by DLC and a upcoming Multiplayer expansion so as long as they keep doing it that way then i'm not bothered

as long as they don't put the focus on online and tack on a stupid single player then there is no issue

plus lets be honest other major publishers have been doing this for years so it was only a matter of time before Square did and besides "service" can mean many different things take Witcher 3 that could also fall under that category because it was expanded upon, enhanced and elongated by DLC

@Flaming_Kaiser Not really - I was talking about single player games getting a lot of (free) updates after their release. What you say is more typical of multiplayer games and tbh even in that case it isn't automatically a scam.

I've been moving away from AAA games myself for the past 2 years and these kinds of moves by big publishers make that process go much much faster.
I'm very selective in the multiplayer games I play and I've burned out on the overhyped "next big thing" kinda games that get shovelled aside ones another hits.

As a few others have said, my first thoughts with this is, with everyone moving to this model, the market will become over-saturated. There is undoubtedly money in that market, but, with everyone trying to push long life products, most people will find their game and stick with it.

There may be less people who are after solid single player experiences these days (I don't know if this is true, but can only assume that it is going on news like this), however with all the big companies moving away from making those games that means the saturation in the market is lower and potentially more lucrative for those willing to make games those people will enjoy.

I think the problem is that there has been so much bull added to games in the past decade that sales of otherwise good games are hurt by these decisions rather than a lack of interest. There seems to be a checklist that every AAA game must abide by these days such as every game must have a multiplayer component, the game must be planned with DLC in mind, microtransactions are needed, pre-order bonuses and all the other rubbish that you know is added due to people who couldn't care less for games and only for money.

A good place that should be looked at for reasons why this is a bad move is the MMO industry. WoW came out, proved the market for MMOs could be huge so everyone tried to release an MMO as close in gameplay to WoW as they could. Not one person asked why anyone would leave after 100s of hours of playing WoW to play another game similar to it. While it may not be exactly the same, it is funny to note that most of these games are shooters.

This might work if they still have a single player focus as well. Hmm maybe Sony can take a page from this and bring back Everquest for PS4.

I think there is room for both types of game. I like multiplayers like Destiny and ESO, but a lot of people don't want to be tied into PS+ and online only games, which is understandable.

Breath of the Wild, Witcher 3 and Nier Automata proves there's life in single player only games yet.

don't forget peple just because they said they want to focus on these DOESN'T mean they are stopping traditional single player games, just that they will be making more multiplayer ones

Just like I believe it's inevitable that PlayStation and Xbox will eventually cease to exist as consoles and be more service based tied to many different pieces of hardware, it's inevitable gaming itself (Nintendo included) will go all-in on multiplayer, service-based experiences. And that's when I'll have to find a different hobby. I enjoy traditional single player games and it sucks that developers are moving away from them but it is what it is.

Wait n see how it goes

Keep in mind this move to GaaS applies to the AAA scene. In the future, singleplayer AAA games will be few and far between - especially when it comes to western studios -, and the ones that do exist will be open world games (note: Sony and Nintendo will likely still push out a lot of non-open world singleplayer AAA games; this applies to third parties mostly).

The hope here should be that this results in mid-tier development re-emerging from the western studios to cover the singleplayer games. Japanese devs will still put out a lot of singleplayer stuff because they largely don't use AAA budgets.

In the case of Square Enix, I'd expect this to primarily apply to their western studios/Eidos. The Japanese side likely won't be affected as much as most of their output isn't AAA. Final Fantasy is probably the exception though; that's already going GaaS. We'll see what happens with Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts.

going in one way will burn them! give me a Single Player game any day

I want something like FFXIV but without the monthly subscriptions. That way I can still continue playing it even though if I have bad ping.

@Elodin They sold the studio who owned that IP.

@Feena I dont think Square-Enix is gonna do it free. It is starting with small steps and in the end its gonna the same as free to play only with a starting point of €60. With ofcourse addons which will cost you a lot of extra money and they kill of the second hand market in one strike gotta love those helpfull makers. Here we come future a total new way of keeping the consumer in a headlock. Dissidia NT will be the first trick i guess leaving out some big characters so they can do you a service by making you something extra.

@BLP_Software EA, Ubisoft, Activision now you are making even more nerfous those three are the worst. Blizzard is acting all nice but Overwatch is showing its cracks already with the extreme amount of fillers sprays. Nintendo i hope it will stay a little straight so far it looks so. I just love my complete singleplayer game wel atleast we have FF9 and FF12. 🤣😓☹️

@Flaming_Kaiser that is standard fighting game fare though. I mean you have to get dlc characters in Injustice or Smash Bros etc. I guess we have to wait and see - For what we are seeing with FFXV they seem to be willing to do large updates for free... They added way way more than what was offered in the first pack of Breath of the Wild season passabsoliyely for free yet you see people treating Nintendo like they are a non profit organisation run by the Care Bears.

@Flaming_Kaiser ahh that's too bad. It was wishful thinking anyways. It would have been more of a nostalgia trip. Thanks for the info.

@Feena I hope Dissidia NT wont be so sad to leave out basic characters like Tifa for the extra money. Back in the days Square-Enix was known for a complete package now they are known for cheap preorders. Dissidia on the PSP was fantastic story tons of fun and characters.