After posting major losses, Square Enix’s goals for the current fiscal year are developing more games for smartphones and social networks, revitalizing their key MMOs (read: fix Final Fantasy XIV), and establishing 10 strong IPs.
Before Square Enix merged with Eidos, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts were the company’s three pillar franchises.
This is how Square Enix views their strong IPs now.
The list of current franchises isn’t much of a surprise. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts remain key series. Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Hitman all have new games slated for release in the not to distant future.
It appears Square Enix is hedging their bets because they have five IPs in development they hope will grow into strong franchises and six currently strong IPs. That’s a total of eleven strong IPs, one more than their goal. Final Fantasy IV designer and Nanashi no Game creator Takashi Tokita revealed to Siliconera he is working on a new IP, but it isn’t clear if his project will be one of Square Enix’s pillar series.
In addition to Deus Ex, Eidos Montreal is developing Thief 4 and an unannounced game. Wimbledon leaves us puzzled. I think this may be referring to Beautiful Game Studios, makers of Big Hit Baseball and the Championship Manager titles, which is located in Wimbledon. Square Enix’s LA Studio is notably absent from the list as well as Eidos Shanghai, another fully owned Square Enix studio.
