70°

Emperors SaGa: Only a Sliver of Hope for the SaGa Series

Emperors SaGa is the latest game in Akitoshi Kawazu’s SaGa series to come out this September in Japan. It is a mobile title headed for smartphones, and Square Enix is teaming up with GREE for this free-to-play entry in the series. In the game, you will take control of an Emperor who is tasked with saving the world from some sort of ‘crisis.’ Supposedly, the game will feature characters and enemies from previous SaGa games, and will boast a new card-battle system.
To someone who has poured hours into the free roaming, hardcore experience that is SaGa Frontier, this news comes as…bittersweet. On one hand, I pretty much thought Square Enix had declared this series as dead. On the other, I am happy to feed on the crumbs of any new kind of SaGa game. To my surprise, I had found out that there were several remakes of the early SaGa titles for the Nintendo DS. Unfortunately, those were Japan-exclusive. OpRainfall’s Jonathan Higgins wrote an article dealing with that topic.

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operationrainfall.com
ClintonBeardsley4284d ago

SaGa is a series that has been continually misunderstood in America. I hope one day that it has a chance again for success. I loved SaGa Frontier.

Ben_Grimm4283d ago

I remember playing the first Saga and was completly thrown off by the presentation. But once I started playing this game it was brilliant.

Love the SaGa series.

Luke_fon_Fabre4283d ago

I hope it comes here. Hopefully it's released for iOS and Android here like Final Fantasy Legends (Dimensions).

RufustheSage4282d ago

Holy crap a new SaGa game!? A little disappointed that it's a mobile game but I hope we get a PSN release of 1 and 2.

170°

Nintendo Has Acquired Shiver Entertainment From Embracer Group

Nintendo Has Acquired Shiver Entertainment From Embracer Group

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press-start.com.au
Profchaos1d 15h ago

Great news it shows that Nintendo intends to continue developing ports of AAA games to its next gen platform

H91d 8h ago

Buying studios from embracer now is a great deal, they must be dirt cheap at this point, Nintendo is a opportunist, they wait until someone fall so they get their best deal

OtterX1d 2h ago

That is some serious brain gymnastics you have going on there. 🤔

H91d ago

I didn't do any gymnastics I can assure you, honestly I don't know why you think that, not hating I seriously don't see why you think that

ZeekQuattro21h ago

Yeah I don't know where that came from. It's rare for Nintendo to flat out aquire studios. Guess they were trying to be edgy but why flex on this studio. 🤣

Kneetos1h ago

At least they are safer from layoffs with Nintendo then any other company

banger881d 8h ago

I hope someone buys Piranha Bytes, their future isn't looking good right now. I love their RPGs, they're janky as f***, but they have heart and soul.

Relientk771d 5h ago

Nintendo saw the Mortal Kombat 1 Switch port and were like, "Yeah, these guys are worth acquiring."

You can't make this crap up lol

Profchaos1d 3h ago

Mortal Kombat 1 was never going to port well I'm sure they told wb it wasn't going to work but wb wants that sweet sweet 140 million install base

In the end wb approved the project cleared the milestones and allowed the product to release

SonOfOsiris1d ago

Yeah this guys ported MK11 which is great, Hogwarts Legacy which is great, and MK1 is now ok, play it every day

140°

Square Enix Is Going Multiplatform; The Layoffs & Its Past Don't Inspire Confidence

After its latest games didn't meet sales targets, Square Enix is going multiplatform but the company's track record isn't convincing.

Scissorman5d ago

Square Enix been multiplatform for decades, a few exclusively-deals doesn't make them any less multiplatform.

fr0sty5d ago

Nor is selling their games on a console with only 25 million install base going to bring their sales to where they hope they will be... Unless they somehow manage to dumb down FF7 trilogy to work on switch, they aren't going to have much luck. They already released it on PC, after all.

anast5d ago

Where are you getting that number?

SegaSaturn6695d ago

It kind of does, giving preference to a certain platform by timed exclusivity. Console ports generally feel superior. Legend of mana PC port extremely broken

neutralgamer19925d ago

Sega

It doesn’t when square themselves didn’t want to fund the development of remake. It’s only after the success of the 1st they realized their mistake but now contract is signed. If it wasn’t for Sony there would be no FF7 remakes. Same goes for silent hill 2 with Konami. They don’t want to fund AAA budget. Companies like PlayStation and Nintendo get blamed when in reality they are saving some of these franchises

Remember sega didn’t want to fund bayonetta and epic games didn’t want to fund another gears of war. It’s easy to blame console makers but they are the ones taking the risk and paying huge upfront costs without seeing the final product. FF7 remake trilogy won’t be coming to Xbox now or in the future. PlayStation and PC is what square signed up for. Sony paid them more than they would make from Xbox sales.

ravens525d ago

I just wonder when everyone is going to demand that the Square Enix exclusives with Nintendo come to PS and Xbox. Or it's just the PS exclusives that matter lol

phoenixwing5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

I'd love for the nintendo exclusives to come to pc or ps5. They'd actually be playable then.

neutralgamer19925d ago

Raven

Exactly and that’s where square enix does more exclusive than any other platform. Gaming is square has always been very unrealistic with their sales expectations. Remember when tomb raider reboot sold 7.5 million and square said it wasn’t enough. They need to spend less on development and have more realistic expectations from sales.

And those thinking games being not on Xbox makes a difference don’t understand we have a decade plus of data showing square enix games having less than 20% of their multiplatform sales on Xbox (final fantasy series) and Nintendo consoles aren’t strong enough to run any current games. Nintendo switch should be as strong as Xbox one x atleast but we all know that’s most likely won’t happen

RoadRacer5d ago

@raven

thing is, as neutral said in their comm, the switch isn't strong enough to run flagship SE games
i think what SE does is, it makes unique games for switch only so that it has something for that console too. Thats where all the "underlined sans" rpgs go to mostly

maybe things will change when Swtich 2 drops cuz that's gonna be as strong as ps4 afaik from the rumors flying around

TheGamingHounds5d ago

@Scissorman

Your point is valid enough but when the icon of this company is limited to one console in timed-exclusivity, it means the company has crossed the line. By some degree at least

All things aside, Square itself stated "aggressive multiplatform strategies" so we all know what it's talking about

Scissorman5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

Then the headline should read "Square To Drop Exclusively Deals in Pursuit of A Sweeping Multiplatform Strategy". I don't recall this argument when Square Enix released Bravely Default, Octopath Traveler, and Triangle Strategy on one platform. And even if FF is the icon, not all of its titles have gone to one platform. We're talking about three games, one of which is already on PC. Did Square suddenly go 'multiplatform' after it released subsequent Tomb Raider sequels on more than just the Xbox? It's just a silly way of putting it.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 5d ago
TheGamingHounds5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

SE needs to go all in optimization. Broken PC ports won't help its case, especially with big releases like mainline Final Fantasy

Asterphoenix5d ago

It's actually simple. What doesn't inspire confidence is Square allocating their budgets on the wrong projects such as Forspoken, Avengers, Babylons Fall and Foamstars.

Square has always been multiplatform since PS3/360 days which 80 % of their games are. People kick up a fuss over PS exclusivity but not Nintendo which has more exclusive projects console exclusive from Square.

FF16 has done ok but not enough to fix the blunders that the past mistakes Square has made with some of their projects. FF7 Rebirth is unclear we'll see a PC release for sure so it's hard to say so far not as good as they would of liked.

Then again unrealistic expectations. If it weren't for Sony these games would at least had another 2 years development time. So some people need to be realistic in that regard.

Scissorman5d ago (Edited 5d ago )

It's the blunders that set those expectations so high. If you remove those from the equation, I bet the sales numbers would be more than stellar. Square believes it's okay to release a pile of risky, middling, garbage because the big boys will ultimately subsidize the cost. Don't worry if Forspoken sells poorly, FF16 will surely sell 10 million copies to balance that right out. Oh wait, it only sold like 4 million. Well that's a disaster. Meanwhile games that sell 2 million units with comparable budgets are deemed successful.

thorstein5d ago

I would also add that FFXVI, which I loved has a hint to one of their biggest problems: the number 16.

It's a great franchise, but that's all they've become known for. Dragon Quest is my favorite all time series but it's like they don't know what to do outside of those two IPs.

Valve never makes trilogies. The idea is that they don't want to become stagnant. Gabe Newell hates the number 3.

I can't imagine their talent wouldn't want to try a new RPG.

RoadRacer5d ago

Square Enix just really need to revise its expectations. Maybe consider a change in strategy on dev end as well. Multiplat will help for sure but only good games that are marketed well will sell

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350°

Square Enix Preparing for Layoffs in U.S. and Europe Amid Heavy Restructuring

In a town hall that took place on Monday, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu reportedly confirmed imminent layoffs in the U.S. and Europe.

8d ago
lelo2play8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

Square should ask Sony for more money...

Outside_ofthe_Box8d ago

Square should ask Microsoft to buy them out...

FinalFantasyFanatic8d ago

@Outside_ofthe_Box,
So that Microsoft can close down the studio after doing nothing with them? Right...

Outside_ofthe_Box7d ago

@FinalFantasyFanatic

That's exactly my point...

gleepot8d ago

Sad but true. It's the consequence of a shift in player habits, massive overhead, and out of control budgets across the industry.

blackblades8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

What did NA and EU did anyways? Just translate or something? I would say it might help them get back to there roots but DK.

Hofstaderman8d ago (Edited 8d ago )

Actually, you are correct they play a hand in localization especially in Europe with the many languages. That and marketing.

nommers7d ago

Marketing for SE has been poor lately so these layoffs make sense if true.

Profchaos8d ago

Yup videogame crash 2024 edition

_Decadent_Descent8d ago

Hope so. Industry needs a good crash to shake it up again.

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