Square Enix wants to crowdfund its Eidos IPs on Indiegogo, including Anachronox

[J1M]

While this does reek of Square's typical stupidity, there's really not much else they could have done with those titles. Notice how both Tomb Raider and Deus Ex have been made into cover-based shooters, and Square said they still failed to meet sales expectations. The new Thief also looks to be heading in a similar direction.

By the way, some guys from Square are responding in the comments of the Gamasutra article, saying that devs will get most of the revenue...

I believe deus ex was very successful for square.

Yeah, I'm actually not so certain how DX:HR really performed sales-wise. Everybody acted like it was a success, but if you look at the sales numbers, it was really the same kind of thing as Tomb Raider, etc. And it went cheap on Steam pretty fast. So I don't know. Maybe as Eidos Montreal's first title, Square had low expectations for it.

If I remember correctly, they had a really bad quarter and DX:HR was the only thing that was positive in it.

 

[evdk]

anaaaaachronooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Yeah, leave it alone.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I want Obsidian to crowdfund Anachronox. Chrono Trigger too.

Actually I really want a proper Obsidian-made JRPG with MCA at the helm. And no, South Park doesn't really count 'cause the gameplay is more like Paper Mario and it isn't even written by Obsidian.

 

[Black]

First they stole western RPGs.
Then they stole western franchises.
Now they're coming for your money.

Truly, japanese jews are the most dangerous jews.

Not just Square, the japanese game industry as a whole is in the shitter and only getting worse.

[Wit] So you're saying japs are leaking more than Fukushima reactor?

 

[tuluse]

I want Obsidian to crowdfund Anachronox. Chrono Trigger too.

Actually I really want a proper Obsidian-made JRPG with MCA at the helm. And no, South Park doesn't really count 'cause the gameplay is more like Paper Mario and it isn't even written by Obsidian.

Which JRPG trappings are you interested in? Because I think one could argue that KoTOR2 is pretty JRPG like.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Which JRPG trappings are you interested in? Because I think one could argue that KoTOR2 is pretty JRPG like.

The same could be said about PS:T

On a more serious note, it's hard to say a priori. I'm actually interested in MCA's subversion of said trappings that only he could come up with. I'm really just curious what he'd do with e.g. the Chrono Trigger IP if Squeenex gave him a carte blanche. One random thought I have is that it'd be awesome if they could do a non-linear time-based JRPG in the vein of the recently translated Oriental Blue or smth like Barkley 2.

I'd also be interested in a novel take on JRPG mechanics but Obsidian aren't particularly strong when it comes to that, to put it lightly, and Japanese games like SMT or Labyrinth of Touhou are doing a good job of that already.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

While this does reek of Square's typical stupidity, there's really not much else they could have done with those titles. Notice how both Tomb Raider and Deus Ex have been made into cover-based shooters, and Square said they still failed to meet sales expectations. The new Thief also looks to be heading in a similar direction.

By the way, some guys from Square are responding in the comments of the Gamasutra article, saying that devs will get most of the revenue...

I believe deus ex was very successful for square.

Yeah, I'm actually not so certain how DX:HR really performed sales-wise. Everybody acted like it was a success, but if you look at the sales numbers, it was really the same kind of thing as Tomb Raider, etc. And it went cheap on Steam pretty fast. So I don't know. Maybe as Eidos Montreal's first title, Square had low expectations for it.

If I remember correctly, they had a really bad quarter and DX:HR was the only thing that was positive in it.

It was developed by a small team in Montreal, where developers earn quite low salaries, I have no doubt it was plenty profitable. In fact I think some of the CG cost even more than the development of the main game itself.

 

[J1M]

While this does reek of Square's typical stupidity, there's really not much else they could have done with those titles. Notice how both Tomb Raider and Deus Ex have been made into cover-based shooters, and Square said they still failed to meet sales expectations. The new Thief also looks to be heading in a similar direction.

By the way, some guys from Square are responding in the comments of the Gamasutra article, saying that devs will get most of the revenue...

I believe deus ex was very successful for square.

Yeah, I'm actually not so certain how DX:HR really performed sales-wise. Everybody acted like it was a success, but if you look at the sales numbers, it was really the same kind of thing as Tomb Raider, etc. And it went cheap on Steam pretty fast. So I don't know. Maybe as Eidos Montreal's first title, Square had low expectations for it.

If I remember correctly, they had a really bad quarter and DX:HR was the only thing that was positive in it.

It was developed by a small team in Montreal, where developers earn quite low salaries, I have no doubt it was plenty profitable. In fact I think some of the CG cost even more than the development of the main game itself.

The reason salaries are cheaper in Montreal is because the Quebec government has a 40% subsidy for the game industry. Not because the devs are destitute.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

While this does reek of Square's typical stupidity, there's really not much else they could have done with those titles. Notice how both Tomb Raider and Deus Ex have been made into cover-based shooters, and Square said they still failed to meet sales expectations. The new Thief also looks to be heading in a similar direction.

By the way, some guys from Square are responding in the comments of the Gamasutra article, saying that devs will get most of the revenue...

I believe deus ex was very successful for square.

Yeah, I'm actually not so certain how DX:HR really performed sales-wise. Everybody acted like it was a success, but if you look at the sales numbers, it was really the same kind of thing as Tomb Raider, etc. And it went cheap on Steam pretty fast. So I don't know. Maybe as Eidos Montreal's first title, Square had low expectations for it.

If I remember correctly, they had a really bad quarter and DX:HR was the only thing that was positive in it.

It was developed by a small team in Montreal, where developers earn quite low salaries, I have no doubt it was plenty profitable. In fact I think some of the CG cost even more than the development of the main game itself.

The reason salaries are cheaper in Montreal is because the Quebec government has a 40% subsidy for the game industry. Not because the devs are destitute.

No, it's due to the lower average salaries in the province itself, lower cost of living, and the scarcity of certain types of jobs. The province is overall relatively poor. The 40% subsidy is just gravy. They offered them because they were desperate for high profile industries and jobs.

There were e-mails leaked from Ubisoft send to Eidos, EA and the other studios in order to fix salary prices and keep their rock-bottom.

 

[Bilgefar]

There were e-mails leaked from Ubisoft send to Eidos, EA and the other studios in order to fix salary prices and keep their rock-bottom.

Source? If this is true, that's straight up collusion and I would think it would have been very big news.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

There were e-mails leaked from Ubisoft send to Eidos, EA and the other studios in order to fix salary prices and keep their rock-bottom.

Source? If this is true, that's straight up collusion and I would think it would have been very big news.

It was at the time, I definitely saw it. I can't find a source off hand though.

 

[Rake]

I want Obsidian to crowdfund Anachronox. Chrono Trigger too.

Actually I really want a proper Obsidian-made JRPG with MCA at the helm. And no, South Park doesn't really count 'cause the gameplay is more like Paper Mario and it isn't even written by Obsidian.

Which JRPG trappings are you interested in? Because I think one could argue that KoTOR2 is pretty JRPG like.

Well, KoTOR2 is my favorite Obsidian game after MotB...
And PS:T had quite a few JRPG influences. So a JRPG from MCA will be good from my perspective.

 

[Coyote]

There were e-mails leaked from Ubisoft send to Eidos, EA and the other studios in order to fix salary prices and keep their rock-bottom.

Source? If this is true, that's straight up collusion and I would think it would have been very big news.

It was at the time, I definitely saw it. I can't find a source off hand though.

Hm, hadn't heard about this. Original leak on maxconsole.com appears to no longer exist, but here are some posts/articles I found:

NeoGAF, 2008-11-11 - HR Director at Eidos-Montreal sends an e-mail to Ubisoft Montreal suggesting that they "avoid overinflating salaries" (a later article pins the date of the e-mail as 2007-6-26). Roughly translated text of the letter:

My name is Flavie Tremblay, HR Director at Eidos Montreal.

Being an ex-employee at Ubisoft, my old colleagues and friends told me of your arrival. I wanted to congratulate you for your nomination and to wish you lots of success in the wonderful world of video games.

I would also propose a meeting so that we could discuss an eventual collaboration between HR people coming from various video game developers.

As you know, there are more and more important players in the industry within Montreal and the resource pool is limited.

I sincerely believe that an eventual collaboration would let us:

• Better predict our needs for the workforce
• Avoid overinflating salaries which would only benefit the employees and would end up hurting the industry in the long term

I know that our common goal is employee retention but I sincerely feel that salary increases do not represent a long-term solution.

Let me know if you're available for an eventual meeting.

I think A2M would be probably interested. We would only have to convince EA.

I will be awaiting your response.

Thank you,
Flavie Tremblay

Gamasutra, 2008-11-18 - Codex darling Leigh Alexander writes that Gamasutra has verified the legitimacy of the letter and that EA has confirmed receiving a similar letter. Also, Flambé was let go from Eidos Montreal but rehired as an HR manager at Ubisoft.

Electronic Arts did, in fact, verify that it received a correspondence from competitors in Montreal similar to the one obtained by Gamasutra. But the company declined to provide any further details, neither to show us the correspondence nor to confirm the company or individual that sent it.

When approached by Gamasutra for comment on this story, EA Montreal vice president and general manager Alain Tascan called the letters "troubling."

"Colluding with competitors to restrict salaries in Montreal appears unethical and definitely contradicts EA’s core values," Tascan said. "EA is currently reviewing records to affirm our understanding that no representatives from our company participated in the meetings referenced in these letters, and that no one from EA colluded with competitors to restrict employee salaries."

Notably, Tremblay’s correspondence was written prior to the public launch of Eidos’ Montreal studio. According to claims from Gamasutra sources, Tremblay composed and sent the email in question on her own initiative and without the support of executives at Eidos. The company allegedly dismissed Tremblay some months after she sent the email.

However, there is no confirmation of how or whether Ubisoft or A2M responded to Tremblay's invitation, the status of any discussions or whether any such agreement was put into place.

Following her dismissal from Eidos, Tremblay has since returned to Ubisoft, and according to public information, is currently Ubisoft’s human resources manager.

Tremblay’s original memo -- independently verified by Gamasutra as being legitimate -- was also recently leaked onto the web, and the timing of the leak appears significant – it is, after all, over a year old.

According to Eidos Montreal’s official website, the studio held an open house to attract new talent on November 15 – the same time frame that Tremblay’s memo (which lists her as an Eidos employee) first surfaced and roused suspicions, making it possible the leak is another tactic in the region's recruitment wars.

Montreal Gazette, 2008-11-20 - Ubisoft confirms receipt of the e-mail, A2M president denies any knowledge of it.

A photo of a printout of the email posted on the game blog Maxconsole.net shows it to be from the former human resources manager at newcomer Eidos Montreal to her counterpart at local giant Ubisoft Montreal.

Spokespeople for several studios said they had never heard of the memo or dismissed it as a triviality.

"It's an email we received 18 months ago. We never followed up on it," said Cédric Orvoine, director of media relations for Ubisoft, a French firm whose largest studio is in Montreal.

The email says another Montreal company, A2M, would be interested in collaborating, leaving Electronic Arts the only large studio left to persuade.

But Rémi Racine, president of A2M, said he had never heard of this memo until last week.

"It never crossed our minds. We're competing for staff, so this is not at all in our minds," Racine said.

He noted that a company's culture and the interest in a project are what motivate job seekers.

"Salary is the last thing we mention," Racine said.

There are a few more articles about it, but none of them have any more information. It doesn't look like it got that much coverage in the gaming media; Gamasutra, G4TV, Destructoid, Escapist, and some sites called "G-Mixer" and "Spong" were all I found with a few quick searches.

 

[Ermm]

Well, if I can get a classic Tomb Raider with 90s graphics, then consider my piggy bank already broken.

Or a sequel to Urban Chaos, the 90s GTA-style one, not that fighting game (yes, I enjoyed the hell out of it).

Or a real Legacy of Kain game.

Or a Warzone 2100 sequel.

Or Deathtrap Dungeon sequel.

Hell, if I can get a sequel to Deathtrap Dungeon, I will throw my credit card to them too.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

You know things are bad when the company apparently has no idea what players want and has to not only ask them directly through third-party services, but has to offload the cost of doing so to them as well.

Possibly, but this smells more like a circle of execs sat down to decide how they could get a slice of the kickstarting fad, and this is the result. I don't think we'll see anything really interesting come out of this arrangement.

 

[eric__s]

Design by Akitoshi Kawazu

Art by Katsuya Terada

Music by Masashi Hamauzu

PROGRAMMED BY N A S I R

If they have $100 million, that's $25 million each. I don't know if that will be enough.

 

[Gurkog]

Have the times become so desperate that people are even pining for JRPGs? WTF, Codex! WTF!

 

[evdk]

Have the times become so desperate that people are even pining for JRPGs? WTF, Codex! WTF!

No, but the times are so desperate that the jRPG fans are pining for some good jRPGs.

 

[Gurkog]

Have the times become so desperate that people are even pining for JRPGs? WTF, Codex! WTF!

No, but the times are so desperate that the jRPG fans are pining for some good jRPGs.

I was just poking fun. A good JRPG would be nice! For fuck's sake squeenix needs to start a FFT series on PC so I can give them monies.

 

[SCO]

There are good tactical sjrpgs... on the psp, vita and whatever nintendo is doing for handhelds now. By smaller companies even, so innovative ones.

 

[LESS T_T]

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/...ares_its_publishing_vision_for_Collective.php

Square Enix capped off its presentation by unveiling its first three pilot projects for the new program, each drawn from IPs in its Eidos back catalog: Fear Effect, Gex and Anachronox.

 

[Oesophagus]

You know things are bad when the company apparently has no idea what players want and has to not only ask them directly through third-party services, but has to offload the cost of doing so to them as well.

Possibly, but this smells more like a circle of execs sat down to decide how they could get a slice of the kickstarting fad, and this is the result. I don't think we'll see anything really interesting come out of this arrangement.

Probablly not, but this thing should shine some light on the issue of devs and publishers being the source of the decline. Let's just wait and see what the 'public' wants. I don't have high hopes for humanity

 

[Hellraiser]

Square Enix capped off its presentation by unveiling its first three pilot projects for the new program, each drawn from IPs in its Eidos back catalog: Fear Effect, Gex and Anachronox.

I don't think they could pull off a good new Anachronox game, Fear Effect could possibly sell even if it was shit if they turned up the lesbianism to 11 SJW would be all over it, Gex could possibly work.

 

[taxalot]

Next sentence in the article is about how they will probably not doing such games. Emotional rollercoaster.

 

[Dr Tomo]

I know there is a lot of concern on the Codex over Square and their future, but there is hope as they do have a game plan.

http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ne...14q2slides.pdf

Note: Digital Entertainment refers to their entire video game business. "Amusement", "Publication", and "Merchandizing" are the other divisions.

Courtesy of the Gaf