It's safe to say that over the last few years, Square Enix has been pumping out games faster than Marvel sends its Disney+ shows out to die. Heck, we even tackled the company's insane cadence back in 2022 to try and figure out what on earth was going on at the Japanese firm.
As we head into 2024, however, a Q&A from Square Enix's financial briefing back in November 2023 revealed that it's now looking to slim down its lineup going forward to ensure higher quality (thanks, Genki).
This comes directly from Takashi Kiryu, the company's President and Representative Director, who addresses a question that posits whether Square Enix is facing difficulties spreading its resources over so many bases:
"It has less to do with our development function and more to do with the numerous entries in our lineup. I want to structure our development function so that we are able to ensure higher quality from each title by slimming down our lineup."
When asked to elaborate on why it's taken until now to make such a decision, Kiryu said:
"As our customers’ needs and the types of devices available have diversified, we have tried to produce hits by developing a wide variety of titles rather than by focusing only on certain ones. I believe that this has resulted in the splintering of our resource pool.
"Meanwhile, there have been clear winners and losers among the major titles released recently in the gaming market, and it has become possible for even indies titles to make their presence felt. The market is increasingly polarized between blockbuster and indie titles, but I feel that we have developed many titles that fell somewhere in the middle. I want to make clearer distinctions going forward."
Reading Kiryu's comments, games like Various Daylife and Harvestella are cropping up in the dusty filing cabinets of our minds; titles that found their niche audience, to be sure, but can't exactly be considered commercial successes.
Then again, it doesn't sound like Square Enix is looking to focus purely on creating "AAA" money-makers but is rather hoping to create a diverse, efficient range of high-quality games that find enough success with their respective audiences. Time will tell if such an endeavor will prove fruitful.