Square Enix doesn’t know how to make games as a service, is Foamstars in danger?

Square Enix made a name for itself in the video game industry for its RPGs of yesteryear. The company is still a benchmark, but it is so deficient in terms of games as a service, that they seem more like scams to the player and these decisions could mark the fate of foamstars.

The short life of Echoes of Mana

I’m not used to playing free-to-play or game-as-a-service titles, mainly because of the time you have to invest in them. However, when I saw the art of Echoes of Mana and I heard that the artist HACCAN would be involved in the project, I decided to give it a try. Today the game no longer exists.

Echoes of Mana it was only available for a year or, as Square Enix likes to measure time, a winter. I downloaded the title the same day it was released, April 27, 2022, and I will not deny that the first few weeks I was excited to see many characters from the titles of the series reunited for the first time and the gameplay possibilities, which I was trying to recreate. classic animations… not to mention the unpublished illustrations.

As usual in projects with this model, Echoes of Mana It debuted with issues, but development studio WFS never stopped supporting it and constantly released new content in the form of characters and story, as well as bug fixes.

I decided to give it more chances with the wallet and spent a bit to get in-game resources and get a character. So, I started trying to do the daily missions, which, as in most of these titles, don’t take more than 5 minutes. Little by little the roster of fighters grew as special events or story chapters were added.

But after announcing the half-anniversary celebration, Square Enix stopped sharing news through the press platform and the power creep (unit releases that dwarfed the originals in power) were not a sign of a healthy or sustainable game. The uncertainty was notorious in the game community despite the study’s commitment and the dreaded news was confirmed less than 10 months after the release: Echoes of Mana it would stop working in May 2023. Nothing was organized for the anniversary, just a login bonus and the chance to get a lot of free characters in the final months, which felt more like The swallows.

Unlike Bravely Default: Brilliant LightsSquare Enix did not release an offline version of Echoes of Manaand definitely sent it to oblivion.

Square Enix doesn’t know how to make games as a service

The general feeling is that Square Enix was in debt. The trend is clear: their games as a service fail. Why will it be? Because you don’t know how to make them, let alone support them, apart from the fact that you don’t listen to the fans. They are like a flare of petate that you promote at the beginning (maybe just to support the anime of Legend of Mana) and that in less than a year you leave adrift.

The list of failures is long, especially long if we take into account that we are talking about one of the most renowned companies in the industry.

Suffice it to say that the list could have been Final Fantasy XIV, which managed to get ahead more because of Naoki Yoshida than because of Square Enix. Perhaps they remembered that it is one of their main franchises and, therefore, they could not let it drift… If they did the same with the other projects, the story would be another.

At this rate, the company will no longer be known for the games it develops, but for the ones it closes. For games to stop working shortly after a year after their debut is much more scandalous than launching them, especially if you can’t count the fingers on one hand.

Of course, there are titles that continue to excel because of the company, such as Final Fantasy XIVand on mobile it continues to support NieR Re[in]carnation, Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius, Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. But it doesn’t stop feeling like 1 lime for 10 sand.

In recent months, Square Enix has averaged more than one closed game per month. ONE closed game per month!:

• Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights ― January 27, 2022 – February 28, 2023 (Japan only, offline version available)
• Marvel’s Avengers ― September 4, 2020 – March 31, 2023 (end of support)
• Chocobo GP ― January 12, 2022 – December 21, 2022 (end of support)
• Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier ― November 17, 2021 – January 11, 2023 (final end)
• BABYLON’S FALL ― March 3, 2022 – February 27, 2023 (final end)
• DRAGON QUEST The Adventure of Dai: A Hero’s Bonds ― September 28, 2021 – April 26, 2023 (final end)
• Echoes of Mana ― April 27, 2022 – May 15, 2023 (final end)

And it is to be hoped that, if it continues like this, Square will show itself as a company that does not know how to make games as a service and that little by little exhausts the trust of the fans, since errors like these cause people to stop feeling liking or even empathy. for a company.

The poor service model and Square Enix’s vision

I ever read an opinion about the duration of games as a service, referring to that Fortnite it had gone on too long and that it’s okay for the servers to shut down.

The idea could be controversial, but if companies buy into the strategy, they should at least make it clear from the start. Delimiting the period of availability of the game before starting to charge users allows them to decide to spend during the life of the project: like buying a canned product with everything and expiration date. On the other hand, if the game announces its closure before the year of its debut, it is felt by players as a blatant scam.

We need games in shape, not lukewarm essays or half measures. It is this lukewarmness that kills franchises, not a lack of fan support. For the following installments, fans are more skeptical and think twice before entering these games because they prefer to avoid disappointment and being treated with the tip of their foot.

All companies seek to do business, but some hide it or do not shamelessly and give value to the consumer. No one expects all projects to be a Genshin Impact; the problem is that they want to make money by offering less. Specifically, what is evident with Square Enix’s actions is that it does not care about satisfying the fans, but about making business by taking advantage of the taste of the players.

Square Enix’s approaches are as predictable as lukewarm

In 2013, the general manager of Square Enix’s US and American divisions, Phil Rogers, acknowledged that games as a service “don’t resonate well with gamers”, but without denying the company’s interest in this new model.

In 2017, the former president of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, made it clear that investment in games as a service would grow because he believed that “gone are the days when single-player was paramount and multiplayer was secondary”. and that it had then become a new “standard for titles [fueran] designed to be played long term.

This strategy spawned many service-based projects, including some free-to-play ones. Curiously, Square Enix has contributed to games as a service maintaining that bad reputation, by launching titles that stop working after a year and that feel rather like a sack.

As if that weren’t enough, Square Enix took the same stance with other new technologies.

Something in common that the metaverse, NFTs and artificial intelligence have is that they are trendy technologies that have the wow factor that companies quickly want to bet on.

Obviously, Square Enix is ​​no exception. We saw how NFTs moved to artificial intelligence and the metaverse to take advantage of the attraction that many feel towards any movement or technology to start doing business.

A clear example of Square Enix wanting to cover all these technologies is The Portopia Serial Murder Case, an experimental technical test that uses artificial intelligence. Although the project is free and everyone can try it, it leaves a lot to be desired and fans criticized the lousy implementation of artificial intelligence in a classic Yujii Horii game.

The problem with these technologies is that, although they are promising, they end up stifled because the attempts of the stakeholders are poorly structured, and they are only weak trials that denote little effort, but from which they expect great success. This is how an interesting idea is spoiled by inadequate focus or greed.

Square Enix, if your NFT business is going to be as fragile as the structure of your service model games, how do you want players to give value to them? Humbug!

If he’s that incompetent at making games or running his franchises, it wouldn’t hurt if he sold them, like he did with tomb Raider, and that he better stay with his NFTs. At the very least, a new game has already been confirmed. tomb Raider (and maybe the return of Legacy of Kain) from the hands of Embracer Group.

Will Square Enix also err with foamstars?

The concern of many is whether foamstars it will have the same fate as Square Enix’s flops, keeping in mind that it is a game as a service.

The latest titles with this model have been criticized by both fans and critics and were not low-budget gachapon titles, such as Echoes of Manabut rather ambitious productions, such as a development by PlatinumGames (BABYLON’S FALL) or a huge Disney franchise (Marvel’s Avengers).

foamstars it’s an entirely new franchise that’s more at risk of failing, and we don’t doubt Square Enix won’t do much to save it if it doesn’t turn out to be an immediate success. We are talking about the same company that closed the servers of a Battle Royale of the successful IP final fantasy 14 months after its release and which also made a mess of the racing spin-off of the series thanks to its microtransactions and greed.

Clear, foamstars it can be a successful game as a service. From what I’ve seen, it’s probably better than any of the games mentioned, the problem is that it doesn’t have Square Enix’s track record going for it and we don’t know if the company will screw it up with in-game monetization or leaving it unsupported afterward. of a few months.

My recommendation as a player affected by the closure of the servers of a Square Enix service model title is to be cautious with this type of project and the company’s history, and avoid spending unless you are very interested in the game, because never Do you know when they will stop working?

In the same announcement of the end of service of Echoes of Mana, Square Enix announced an art book for the title, including character designs that didn’t make it out. If they had told me that this collectible would exist (the main reason why I started playing it) and ―above all― that the title would stop working in a year, I would not have downloaded it and would rather have saved the little money I put into it to acquire the book directly. Now it only remains to hope that Square Enix puts more commitment in the next game in the form of Mannabut above all, that it does not have any game as a service.

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