Square-Enix acquires Eidos

RavynousHunter on 14/2/2009 at 21:33

Quote Posted by nicked

why should Square Enix publishing have anything to do with how the game design is handled?

Because they're the publisher, ultimately it is they who decide weather or not a game goes into production. They're a bunch of stuffy bureaucratic fucks who aren't looking for anything more than the next quick buck to make the shareholders happy; and that ends up really, really, really fucking up potentially good games, especially sequels of an ongoing franchise.

If they want Garrett to be an androgynous man-child with a screechy voice and missing penis, they'll get it, or they'll find someone who will give them what they want.

nicked on 14/2/2009 at 21:55

Yes, but even bureaucratic idiots can see that'd never work. A Thief 4 might end up as a virtually stealthless action-adventure, and still be ruined, but it's never going to end up as a turn-based RPG. It's more likely to be canned altogether than that happening.

sNeaksieGarrett on 14/2/2009 at 21:58

Quote Posted by Gambit

Garrett walks around the city...

RANDOM ENCOUNTER !
Hammerite appears !

Garrett uses blackjack.
12 Hit

Hammerite uses hammer.
45 Hit

Garrett summons Trickster!

Hammerite flees !
You win battle !
You gain 300 loot.

:laff:

On a bit more serious note, I think that might actually be cool. Sort of a twist on the RPG genre.. Of course, it would be a separate title from thief 4.

Raen on 14/2/2009 at 22:28

As a bit of perspective, Eidos recently reported (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56705) disappointing sales of the new Tomb Raider game... and those disappointing sales totalled 1.5 million copies. That's about as many copies as the entire Thief franchise has sold in its 10 year run. Eidos is in pretty dire straights. They have a number of interesting franchises, but haven't been able to produce a top 10 hit in years other than Tomb Raider Legend. Unfortunately, even that wasn't a success because it reviewed terribly and turned many people off to the franchise.

The purchase is a huge win from Eidos' perspective because it bails them out of trouble and means their franchises may continue. Square is looking to either A) utilize Eidos' work force to help with Western versions of their existing Japanese titles or B) expand North American development and actually produce some legitimate North American titles with Eidos' IPs. They could do either or both.

Tomb Raider is still pretty valuable in terms of sales and in terms of its Hollywood licensing, so I'd be surprised if they don't do anything with that. Other potential franchises that may continue are Kane and Lynch (over a million sold), Hitman (about a million each iteration, with some Hollywood licensing value), Age of Conan (about... 800,000 subscriptions at its peak?), or Deus Ex (over a million for the first one, anyways). Lesser franchises like Thief are likely to disappear from internal development. That said, its still a huge influence on many developers (particularly a handful of creative guys at Ubisoft), and its clearly an influence on games like Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed.

Stealth is very difficult to mass market, especially in today's times when studios that don't produce top ten hits die. On the other hand, innovation is risky and publishers have been known to take obscure old titles and reboot them into more pallatable main stream releases. Square has no real history of that though, so it's hard to say.

Long story short, I'd say this is a good thing for most Eidos franchises except Thief.