December 2, 2011
Mia Consalvo (Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design, Communication Studies, Concordia University)
“The Strategies of Square Enix: Corporate Cosmopolitanism and the
Contemporary Japanese Game Industry”
Although digital games are a global industry and many games find
international success, game developers and publishers are increasingly
developing specialized strategies for how to best create, market, and sell
games in increasingly diversified regions around the globe.
The talk detailed the history of Square and Enix, and how the merger of
the two companies began a more sophisticated movement towards global
development and sales. The talk also explored the company’s purchase
of western developer Eidos, localization practices, as well as Square Enix’s
multi-platform push to further diversify their efforts. That strategy
included the continuation of various historical series such as Final
Fantasyand Dragon Quest across varying platforms and in different ways; as
well as through new titles being introduced, often in different regions.
Likewise the company’s efforts to release games across consoles, mobile
devices, the web and elsewhere were scrutinized, as well as their decisions
to westernize their lineups in particular ways and what that means for the
company and digital games as part of contemporary culture. Finally, Square
Enix’s sophisticated localization efforts were treated and their most
Recent releases were examined to offer further evidence of their current plans, including the MMOG Final Fantasy XIV, and the mobile RPG Chaos Rings.
[img from Kotaku.org]