170°

10 Classic Game Franchises Square Enix Has Completely Abandoned

Square Enix is a huge gaming company with a ton of franchises to their name. Naturally not all will survive, but here are a few iconic games gamers miss.

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thegamer.com
PhoenixUp1716d ago

Square Enix has abandoned a large number of their Eidos, Taito & even Enix properties. Majority of classic series that get revivals from them nowadays are those that were from the Squaresoft portion of the company

1716d ago
on_line_forever1716d ago

Vagrant story , parasite eve 1 & 2 ❤

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300°

Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More

Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda, IGN can confirm.

Moegooner49m ago(Edited 45m ago)

Hi-Fi Rush studio??? Seriously?? Goes to show quality matters lil to MS.

Worst gen ever. All big 3 battling are for who sucks the most. They just keep one upping one another.

-Foxtrot25m ago

This does feel like a “quick Sony is getting shit on for Helldivers, let’s announce it now to minimise impact”

thesoftware73015m ago

That is silly. Let's say there is some weird conspiracy. This announcement would effectively take ALL the attention away from the HD2 situation, especially since there is no longer an HD2 situation. I don't think anything will minimize this impact.

Tacoboto7m ago

... so they announce it on a Tuesday? 36 hours after Sony cleared up everything?

You people care more about the next conspiracy than anything else.

Nevermind that Sony followed the golden rule of minimizing impact by announcing horrible news on a Friday.

Eonjay6m ago

The constant weekly weird Sony drama is part of the industry's problem. Everyone else feels they can get away with murder. Also, what is the point of spending all that money if you just start shutting studios down. And... Redfall wasn't Arkane's fought. Microsoft new the shape the game was in but needed something for GamePass after a whole year of no releases into the service. Them taking it out on Arkane seems really disingenuous and distasteful. And WTF did Tango do? Didn't Todd just release a statement saying how he would never retire. Fire his ass.

romulus231m ago

Well if that was the reason for the timing it didn't work.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 1m ago
Einhander197217m ago(Edited 13m ago)

10/10 deflection, the ol' Sony too deflect...

Let's not discuss the fact that PlayStations struggles have largely been caused by the fact that game pass has reshaped how consumers spend causing them to spend less as they play what is on subscriptions and don't buy games as much because they either have become subscription gamers or they fear the game will come to a subscription so they don't buy things.

And it's not just PlayStation, the whole industry has been effected, many big studios are struggling across the board to match sales targets from pre-game pass releases which is especially apparent in things like sequels.

Heck the best example was Microsoft's own Starfield which should have easily blasted past 10m sales by the end of 2023 going by sales of similar Bethesda games yet was only able to achieve 3m which of course was almost entirely on Steam.

Moegooner12m ago

Or maybe it's because Sony hasn't released multiple worthwhile SP games like they normally do each gen and the ones they did released actually sold well.

Layoffs aren't because studios are struggling, but because major publishers want to maximise profit gains.

Profchaos9m ago(Edited 7m ago)

Absolutely it's a service that's changed the way we view and consume games overall for the worse games have little value when they are part of a sub and become disposable doubly so if they are a day 1 freebie often it's the kiss of death for a game to be day 1 on gamepass as PlayStation players look at it like why do I have to pay 60 dollars for back 4 blood, payday 3 or outriders it'll be on PS plus soon enough and funny enough those games always fail to meet expectations sales are poor and longevity is poor.

When I see a game get a day 1 tag outside of first party my first thought is always something is wrong with it and it can't stand on its own feet so the publisher has made a deal to recoup development cost.

Even first party games have dropped in quality noticeably so since gamepass with gears 5 being the only good release I can think of since gamepass started

shadowT48m ago(Edited 47m ago)

Tango Gameworks and Arkane?

RaidenBlack13m ago

Arkane Austin (Prey developer)
Not Arkane Lyon ( Dishonored developer)

Einhander197247m ago(Edited 44m ago)

Well xbox fans you got what you asked for... and honestly deserved...

It was so easily predictable that game pass was never going to be able to support all these studios.

If Microsoft can't win they are going to burn it all to the ground...

Countdown to Phil Spencer telling us "it's better for the gamers this way" yet again.

Relientk7739m ago

This is beyond wrong. Like wtf!? Especially Tango Gameworks with Hi-Fi Rush. I've heard nothing but good things about that game. Just because Arkane Austin screwed up one game release doesn't mean you need to close them. It sounds like they were forced to do a multiplayer game when they're a single player studio. They could have made a Prey 2 or some other game next.

Just wow awful news.

Einhander197215m ago

Apparently PlayStation owners didn't buy enough copies of Hi-Fi Rush...

CrashMania12m ago

I can only imagine the little amount of revenue both games generated, sent straight to gamepass and excluded from the largest current gen console userbase. Not to say both games would have done well if they were on PS5 too, but you heavily damage to a games revenue when you put it on a stagnating sub service for a poorly selling console, can't really see people going out in droves to sub to GP to play this.

RaidenBlack10m ago

Yea Austin made one of the most creative game of last gen with Prey and were forced to take risk with Redfall and now the whole studio is being closed.

CrashMania37m ago

Can't wait to see the usual try spin and play this down. So much for the heroic MS and Phil saving these studios eh.

Eonjay12m ago

By the end of the day IGN will be talking about how this is right for the industry. Don't worry, Microsoft's PR is making the call now.

PrinceOfAnger7m ago

Not a big deal only hi fi rush was good

Sony has closed
Manchester studio
Japan studio
Pixel opus
London studio
Ready At Dawn ...

RupeeHoarder3m ago

The difference being Sony has a large group of other studios that have done something positive. Microsoft just closed the studio to the only good game they released in the past year (Hi-Fi Rush).

Tacoboto2m ago

Phil needs to step down. What kind of usual spin do you want?

More and more people lose jobs but the people at the top stay the same. Hardware sales tank despite billions and billions spent. The math is plain and simple.

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70°

The Name "Embracer Group" Is No More, But Don't Say You Didn't See It Coming

A reckless buying spree only to jeopardize it all, Embracer Group's heinous practices have done a lot of damage; it had the downfall coming.

mastershredder4d ago

THEY. It's a collective of investors that give no f-s unless the monkey dances for money and delivers. downfall? Urm.. dude... do you understand this is a rinse and repeat process? They won and bailed before plane crashed, the working industry did not. People saw investment money and sold themselves and the industry out like hot real estate, and now look at it. Honestly, you should be more upset with the studios that jumped on board for the carrots rather than those that were handing them out.

Knightofelemia4d ago

Seen it coming. When a fool spends money with out a plan and purchases every thing they see. Those they have purchased feel the ramifications. Now Embracer has to sell off studios to make up for their stupidity. I am just glad Gearbox went to Take Two and not to someone like say Tencent. What Embracer did was stupid and because of their stupidity bottom feeders like Tencent will be circling around picking at the scraps. Next time if there is a next time fully plan something out before whipping out the cheque book. Figure out how you can utilize the company, figure out how they can fit in, figure out how you can work with them and how their games can fit in nicely with the purchase. Being a dumbass with out a plan and a big cheque book does bite you and those around you in the ass.

TheColbertinator2d ago

Disgraceful publisher. I had some hope in them when they saved the THQ properties but now they are a stain on the industry.

Inverno2d ago

It's splitting up, the people who caused this shite show will still be around. Who knows how much more damage they will cause. Or where most will move onto in the future. Industry gotta be careful, you sign yourselves away thinking you'll have funding and security only to be bought up to be fed into a grinder.

anast2d ago

A lot of people lost their job while others made a ton of money.

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80°

How Many More Victims, Like Garry's Mod, Will Nintendo's Hurtful Crusade Create?

Hanzala from eXputer: "As Nintendo takes out 20 years' worth of stuff from Garry's Mod, I watch in shock, thinking why it continues to hurt and discourage its fans."

RiseNShine3d ago (Edited 3d ago )

The irony that some of the most disgusting business practices come from companies like Disney or Nintendo, i can't even begin to understand what terrible damage was Garrys Mod making to Nintendo bottom line, imho they're getting pretty nervous about where they're heading in the future, handhelds are no longer something exclusive to Nintendo, from Steam Deck to many others, now you can play the latest games and pay a fraction of the price on Steam sales, so it's up to their exclusives, which just on their own would make hard to justify purchasing a closed overpriced hardware with outrageous price policies (Super Mario Odyssey is still 60 euro 6 years later!), and as a home console they're always underperforming compared to Sony or Xbox.

gold_drake2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

i cam guarantee you, that their exclusives alone is what drives switch sales. they sell in the 10s of millions of copies.

nintendo created their franchises to be sort of nostalgia driven, exclusive only on nintendo.

people will always buy the pkmn games as they always bring in new younger fans amd is family friendly

mario kart, the same thing, mario games in general.

zelda games are system sellers. animal crossing for the casual gamers.

nintendo doesnt need third vame devs essentially. they made sure with the switch and the limitations that they looked more to pc ps and xbox.

its sad, but nintendo is more than fine with what they're doing. they positioned themselves to appeal to the more casual gamers.

but to your point, im not sure why they're doing this rly.

Inverno2d ago

Look at how they handled Nintendo games being streamed or uploaded on YouTube in the past. They killed Yuzu and Citra even when they had nothing to do with ToTK being leaked, not to mention it was basically unplayable on emulation the week it was leaked. Smash Bros tournament, that was fairly recent. They shut down their online services without any care for purchases made. I bought a switch after skipping their last 2 consoles and handhelds but I don't plan on buying anything Nintendo in the future. They take things to the extremes, they legitimately hate their fans. They're honestly right up there with the likes of Acti, EA, and Ubi, only difference is that they disguise themselves as being family friendly all the while being shady.