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Blastfrog

Sony sells off its shares of Square Enix

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Jaxxoon R said:

Never knew that either, weird.
I wonder what Square will do from here on out.

Make a few dozen more Final Fantasys.

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Sodaholic said:

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps4-company-sony-to-sell-its-entire-stake-in-square-enix-valued-at-around-47-million/1100-6419024/

So, Sony is selling off all of its shares of Square Enix in an attempt to return to profitibility on their end. I didn't even know Sony owned shares of them, but apparently it's been this way since the early 2000's.

I'd imagine its around the time FF7 came out for PSX. Remember that FF was once Nintendo-exclusive before they moved to Sony - so its probably then that Sony bought those shares in an effort to keep it tied to Sony, for the time at least.

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Chu said:

I'd imagine its around the time FF7 came out for PSX. Remember that FF was once Nintendo-exclusive before they moved to Sony - so its probably then that Sony bought those shares in an effort to keep it tied to Sony, for the time at least.


Well, FF7 came out in 1997. FF8 came out in '99. Technically FF7 and FF8 also released on PC; I'd venture to guess if their investment was supposedly made in the early '00s, it wasn't until FF9 came out as it didn't also get a PC release and neither have any of the subsequent Squenix titles until after Squenix brought out Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and etc.

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Just adding to my pos--- Oh wait, this isn't one those troll threads. Well, it's close enough.

Anyways, this seems like an odd move. So, did Sony have big stock in the FF games? I figured money was still rolling in from that, unless I'm understanding this wrong.

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Final Fantasy hasn't made a good game in close to a decade but it's still an enormous cash-cow. Sony must have a reason for this.

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How is this a troll thread??

When it comes to Final Fantasy, I've played 7, 8, 9, 10, 10-2 and 13.

The first time I saw FF7, I laughed my head off. Then I played it, and it took me on an emotional journey I never experienced before or since in a game. 8 seemed like a huge step away from everything I liked about 7 and it's miles too complicated, but I've heard it is really quite good.

9 never did much for me on my first play through but I appreciated how much it reminded me of 7. Now I regard it as an amazing epic, a colourful, funny, well scripted adventure which contrasts well with FF7's angry, bleak tone (and the total gibberish which the FF7 cast speak - amazing what an impact it can have when you spend millions developing a game, then hire a part time student to do the translation).

10 didn't deserve a sequel and it felt limited and repetitive. Maybe I'd enjoy it more playing it through again, but it doesn't compare to the sheer variety of 7 or 9. 10-2 turned Yuna into a slut (why wear those demure robes when she can get her legs and tits out?) but brought nothing to interest anyone who isn't obsessed with being a teenage girl.

I played 13 once and just got bored with it. I'd say Lightning is hot, but she's a computer character and I've had real girlfriends, so again, nothing in the game really held me.

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During last hour I bought my first final fantasy games, I bought ff1, ff tactics the war of the lions and ff dissidia. I got them dirt cheap besides other games so I'm eagerly waiting to experience ff for first time. I start maybe with ff2 first.

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Waffenak said:

During last hour I bought my first final fantasy games... I start maybe with ff2 first.

You mean the Final Fantasy IV originally released as Final Fantasy II in the US on the SNES, or the Final Fantasy II originally released on the Famicom? FFII is interesting because it has a sort of leveless system where you improve stuff by using it.

If I had to recommend an early FF, it'd be V or VI. Job/Ability system in V means you can experiment with how your team works.

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Necromancer-AMV said:

You mean the Final Fantasy IV originally released as Final Fantasy II in the US on the SNES, or the Final Fantasy II originally released on the Famicom? FFII is interesting because it has a sort of leveless system where you improve stuff by using it.

If I had to recommend an early FF, it'd be V or VI. Job/Ability system in V means you can experiment with how your team works.


I got them all for psp and according to wiki its the original japanese famicom version. I also got tactics ogre, I havent played much rpg games with tiles but tactics ogre looked so fun in gameplay I have to give it a try.

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I laugh at the fact they had shares of Square Enix. It makes sense since the PS1 days and the movies... but I have followed Square and Enix, and the owner of Square just runs around buying out other companies and gaining majority shares of companies.

Guess there's no more Final Fantasy movies coming out.

SquareEnix recently said that it had an epiphany and start making RPGs that bought them to the dance 2 decades ago.

The owner of Enix actually made his millions the way some mobile games make their own money. Have a contest or hire someone for $3,000 to make your hit game, when you don't do shit.

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geo said:

I laugh at the fact they had shares of Square Enix. It makes sense since the PS1 days and the movies... but I have followed Square and Enix, and the owner of Square just runs around buying out other companies and gaining majority shares of companies.

Ah, the Valve strategy.

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Does anyone think the new Final Fantasy games are actually better than the classics, like 6, 7 and Tactics? It's clear the modern gaming world thinks a mega-budget and insane graphics are all you need, but are the MMORPGs and the PS3-era games more compelling, emotional, deep and long-lived than the old guard? Surely nobody does except the younger fanboys, but someone must.

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Technician said:

Ah, the Valve strategy.


Yeah Valve just buys mods. HL1 was a game modded from Quake, TF2 = HL1, CS = HL1, L4D = HL2, Portal = HL2, DOTA = WoW or Starcraft? Not sure about that one.

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MajorRawne said:

Does anyone think the new Final Fantasy games are actually better than the classics, like 6, 7 and Tactics? It's clear the modern gaming world thinks a mega-budget and insane graphics are all you need, but are the MMORPGs and the PS3-era games more compelling, emotional, deep and long-lived than the old guard? Surely nobody does except the younger fanboys, but someone must.


I own FF 7, never got that far. I thought FF 8 was FF7 because I couldn't read how many IIs were in the title. I got far in that and it just made no sense.

Here are some numbers
FF7 = 10 mil sold
FF13 = 7 mil sold
FF13-2 = 3 mil sold

They don't just do Final Fantasies. They publish a shit ton of games especially in Japan. COD = SquareEnix in Japan.

Their stock is at $17 currently.

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geo said:

Yeah Valve just buys mods. HL1 was a game modded from Quake, TF2 = HL1, CS = HL1, L4D = HL2, Portal = HL2, DOTA = WoW or Starcraft? Not sure about that one.


I don't think HL was a mod of quake so much that Hexen was a mod of Doom. In fact, I thought HL used some sort of variation and mixture of Quake 1 and Q2's engine. And TF was original a vanilla Quake mod and not a HL mod. The HL mod was a remake of the Quake mod that was picked up by Valve. Or I'm wrong.

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Clonehunter said:

I don't think HL was a mod of quake so much that Hexen was a mod of Doom. In fact, I thought HL used some sort of variation and mixture of Quake 1 and Q2's engine. And TF was original a vanilla Quake mod and not a HL mod. The HL mod was a remake of the Quake mod that was picked up by Valve. Or I'm wrong.


So TF was a mod.

You can tell which Source engine games are shit, because they aren't bought by Valve. EYE, Titanfall, Dear Esther, Zombie Panic! come to mind.

Black Mesa is becoming official.

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The number of FF games on the market has probably passed saturation point, especially when they put two of them out there at once. I now start to understand why audiences tired of Stargate and Star Trek, even though both franchises still have the capability to challenge the best of the rest.

They should spend a few years crafting just one Final Fantasy with none of this online bullshit. A cast of characters who each get their chance to shine; tons of secrets and optional games/quests/locations; a wonderful soundtrack; a villain who doesn't look or act like a ponce; a wide variety of enemies with few or no recoloured versions of the same monster; humour, hope, excitement, magic, technology and fun, woven together with a story full of human drama. Not just a bunch of girls dressed like tarts.

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Hopefully this wont affect their current development of FF15 & Kingdom Hearts 3 since those are the only games from SE that are looking promising to me.

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I've been informed on another forum that Sony didn't actually own much of Square Enix to begin with, so I guess this is more about how Sony can't stay afloat than anything to do with SE.

Clonehunter said:

Just adding to my pos--- Oh wait, this isn't one those troll threads. Well, it's close enough.

At one time, "MY POSTS WEREN'T THAT BAD! SERIOUSLY!!!," but what makes you think that this is a troll thread, or even close to one? The fact that I'm the OP?

Clonehunter said:

I don't think HL was a mod of quake so much that Hexen was a mod of Doom. In fact, I thought HL used some sort of variation and mixture of Quake 1 and Q2's engine.

Mostly Quake 1 with only small bits of Quake 2 (largely bug-fixes), as far as I know.

geo said:

Have a contest or hire someone for $3,000 to make your hit game, when you don't do shit.

I seriously think that Valve has no intention to make any new Half-Life content. Why bother when they can make so much money on milking Team Fortress and DOTA? And yes, I'm aware of that project tracker leak, doesn't necessarily mean that it's been touched at all recently or that they have any intention see it through.

geo said:

Black Mesa is becoming official.

Heard about it. Not too pleased, I think that it changes the tone and feel of the game far too much. Not gonna deny that it's some seriously polished work, though, I just don't think it captures that Half-Life 1 feel at all.

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If you guys want a seriously good Final Fantasy that hearkens back to old times, buy/download Bravely Default (for 3DS, of course).

It's gotten a lot of buzz for being faithful (and well made), and having just bought it, I agree. Seems like Square is finally pulling their heads out of their asses.

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Chu said:

If you guys want a seriously good Final Fantasy that hearkens back to old times, buy/download Bravely Default (for 3DS, of course).

It's gotten a lot of buzz for being faithful (and well made), and having just bought it, I agree. Seems like Square is finally pulling their heads out of their asses.

sounds like a market stunt of sorts, to be honest. "hey guys, we finally figured out that people like our old FF more than new FF cuz of the sales, therefor we're gonna go back to the past and make money off of it now." even if the game is as good as critics say it is, it kind of gives me that vibe that they had this sudden change of heart.

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Square selling part of its company to Sony and signing an agreement to only develop the mainline FF series on Sony consoles exclusively was what nearly sent old-man Hiroshi Yamauchi at Nintendo to a slightly early grave. Seriously, he went off the deep end and pretty much made an emperor's decree that they would never work together again.

After he FINALLY retired at like the age of 153 (no doubt thanks to some secretive fetal stem cell rejuvenation technology only available to the ultra-rich), and the GameBoy Advance came out, the new leadership decided to work with Square again and got the Crystal Chronicles series released. There was also a cameo for Geno in Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (Square owns the rights to the Geno character even though Super Mario RPG was published by Nintendo).

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Doomhuntress said:

sounds like a market stunt of sorts, to be honest. "hey guys, we finally figured out that people like our old FF more than new FF cuz of the sales, therefor we're gonna go back to the past and make money off of it now."

I'd believe that if sales for Final Fantasy XIII and XIV weren't phenomenal despite criticism. And most mainstream critics praised both games despite being shit.

Final Fantasy is one of those franchises with such great name recognition and retarded loyal fan base that they can sell anything, so I doubt sales was an initiative. FF is basically Sonic the Hedgehog at this point.

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Sodaholic said:

Heard about it. Not too pleased, I think that it changes the tone and feel of the game far too much. Not gonna deny that it's some seriously polished work, though, I just don't think it captures that Half-Life 1 feel at all.


I'm happy with Black Mesa the little of it that I played of it. But yeah it felt like Half Life 2 in a building. Its still pretty awesome.

Final Fantasy 13 had 7 million sales not including the sequels.

Ha mainstream critics praising? All the mainstream I knew bashed the fuck out of them especially 14. Quite a few called Final Fantasy 11 better than 14 and its a decade old.

Again... SquareEnix does more than Final Fantasy. They own several companies including Eidos Montreal and publish huge American games in Japan, so they get 10 - 15% of sales.

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