Tendo City

Square-Enix, part II

http://penny-arcade.com/report/article/r...-2012s-fin

Capcom, lower your expectations! I have nothing more to say here than I already said before, except to add that if their insanely unrealistic expectations are why we aren't getting Monster Hunter Portable 3rd or Megaman Legends 3, then Capcom, this is why you lost Inafune, and why Inafune is making Bugs vs Tanks (amazing! I don't even know what that means, and it is amazing), and also some game with animal pirates. I loved Claw, that is my response to that announcement.

Part of the problem is expectations, the other part are how crazy budgets are for modern games... so the budget is big, so they expand it, so they expand sales expectations... and then it just sells well, and they're disappointed because they spent too much. But with how expensive it is to make AAA games, I can see why they would. Still though, as we're seeing, it rarely pays off.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, the bottom fell out of "social gaming", meaning flash based games on Facebook. EA's shutting down the social elements of Sim City (reboot, though how do you "reboot" something with no story?) due to poor sales and poor acceptance in the Faceosphere.

Mobile gaming? Eh, still seems about where it was. It isn't diminishing, but it seems to have hit its roof as far as growth goes. Square Enix is releasing an updated version of Final Fantasy V on the iPhone and Android. It won't be a full 3D remake like FF3 and FF4, but rather an HD redrawing of all the graphics in the original 2D game (possibly with improved music too). It'll have the extra content from the GBA version. Again, the game is designed around direct character control, so the touch screen will be a terrible fit. I expect it'll be ported to either Vita or 3DS (most likely the latter) in the coming months.