A former Square Enix executive said something that caught the attention of the industry in a recent interview: “Final Fantasy 14 (Space Warrior 14/Final Fantasy 14)” has been operating for 16 years, which shows that Square Enix understands how to operate real-time service games. But the problem is that they are “accustomed to a slow pace”, and this habit makes them far from enough in pushing IP to a new generation.
Why is “slow pace” a problem?
According to the former executive, Square Enix learned a lot from the success of Final Fantasy 14, but the experience also gave them a relatively conservative operating mentality. For a game that has been running for 16 years, maintaining the status quo is a safe strategy; but when you want to attract a new generation of players, this “take no risks” mentality actually gets in the way.
Square Enix is too conservative for young people
The former executive noted that Square Enix’s IP didn’t do a good enough job attracting younger gamers. Take the “Final Fantasy” series as an example. Although the entire series has a glorious history and extremely loyal old fans, Square Enix’s strategy appears to be too conservative in terms of allowing new generations of players to come into contact with and recognize these IPs. These younger players are more likely to be attracted to titles that look more modern, even if those titles don’t have nearly as much historical depth as Final Fantasy.
What does this observation mean for Square Enix?
If this criticism is true, then the challenge for Square Enix is how to keep these classic IPs attractive to new generations of players while maintaining their existing fan base. This requires not only a technical update, but also adjustments in marketing and content presentation.