Is Square Enix falling apart?
I don't think Square ever truly recovered from the financial hit from The Spirits Within, even after Enix picked them up.
Why does Square Enix even exist?
Both Square and Enix were considering a merge in 2000 so they could both decrease development costs and to compete against foreign developers. However, after the 94 million financial loss from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and Hironobu Sakaguchi resigning from Square, Enix was very hesitant to team up with a company risking bankruptcy. Enix finally agreed to pick up the pieces of Square in 2002, and it was officially a company April 1, 2003.
So, what has Square Enix done?
During the early years, Square Enix simply put their logo on games that were already in development. These include Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Final Fantasy X-2, and Final Fantasy XII.
With Square Enix polymorphic content business model, they started to use the Kingdom Hearts story creating games on the Game Boy Advance, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS, Playstation Portable, Nintendo 3DS, and Playstation 3.
Final Fantasy XII started off being lead by Final Fantasy Tactics director Yasumi Matsuno and Final Fantasy IX director Hiroyuki Ito. Matsuno also provided the original concept and plot, but was eventually forced to bow out of his co-director role towards the end of production due to health concerns. The team was restructured as a consequence: Hiroshi Minagawa took Matsuno's place as co-director, while Akitoshi Kawazu, creator of the SaGa series, became the game's executive producer. Sakaguchi was disappointed by Matsuno's departure and declined to play the game beyond its introduction due to feeling Matsuno's absence prevented the game from reaching its full potential.
Square Enix didn't start developing an original Final Fantasy game until 2004, when development for Final Fantasy XIII began. It was revealed that additional scenarios such as Lightning's home, which were functioning in an unreleased build during development, were left out of the final version due to concerns about the game's length and volume. The game was finally released December 2009. It is considered by many to be the worst Final Fantasy game in the series.
Development for Final Fantasy XIV began in 2005, and was released September 22, 2010. The game was to be directed by Nobuaki Komoto, produced by Hiromichi Tanaka, and developed by the team at Square Enix that had previously created Final Fantasy XI. Akihiko Yoshida was announced as art director, and
Nobuo Uematsu as the music composer, marking his return to the game series since he departed Square Enix after Final Fantasy X. Final Fantasy XIV entered into its alpha testing stage in April, 2010, with testing concluding 11 weeks later on June 19. Square Enix said that about 10% of the game was playable during the alpha and beta phases. In all, the time spent in Beta was 3 months (with 65 active days), less than the 4 months previously announced as the minimum testing period. News sources expressed concern that the game was not in a condition ready to be launched, with "critical bugs" so close to the release date. The game launched on September 22, 2010.
Due to the game's predominantly negative reception, the president of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, announced a major shift in the development team in December 2010, with Tanaka announcing his resignation as producer and leaving the company. Naoki Yoshida became both director and producer, with most other positions also changing. On October 14, 2011, Square Enix announced its intention to relaunch the game as Final Fantasy XIV 2.0, which was later renamed Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. The original game version ended on November 11, 2012, with the Alpha of A Realm Reborn starting shortly after. The finished relaunch is scheduled for August 27, 2013.
With Square releasing Kingdom Hearts games on multiple platforms, preventing fans from experiencing the entire story unless they purchase each handheld, Final Fantasy XIII's complete failure, Final Fantasy XIV falling apart having to stop the game to recreate it, the only real gem here is Final Fantasy XII.
Final Fantasy XII is not without it's failures, as it is very well known that the story was not up to par, and some characters lacked any interesting details (Vaan...). However, it's successes is what drove it to being an acceptable addition to the series. The music was beautiful and stunning, the areas were gorgeous, but the gambit system allowed you to program the characters you weren't controlling yourself.
I personally consider it Square Enix's finest game to date, though that's not really saying much. Looking out at popular opinions, the highest to lowest rated Final Fantasy games are on the left, while the top 10 in sales are on the right:
Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy XIII
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Let's be clear about something first, the left list isn't
fact. What we find to be best isn't up to ratings or opinion, because we all won't agree on the same thing. Many players believe that Final Fantasy XIII is one of their greatest games, and after ignoring everything but the story I can start to see why that opinion exists. The lore behind the game is incredibly deep, but that isn't really something the game touches up on while playing. If anything could be blamed about 13's story it would have been it's presentation, again, ignoring everything else about the game.
Keep in mind that sales are number of copies sold, not profit. Speaking of profit, the most profitable Final Fantasy game atm is our own Final Fantasy XI, but that was originally being developed by Square.
But this also brings up a great point, the amount of Final Fantasy games that Square Enix has released. That would be...
Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIV
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions
Final Fantasy Type-0
Final Fantasy XIII-2
and... in the near future...
Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIV
I'll be the one to say it I guess, they've clearly only made 2/3 of a game excluding online MMO games. I guess I'll include the other 3, but I don't think they should be considered.
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So in the past 10 years, 2/3rd of a game has been developed exclusively by Square Enix for Final Fantasy, with 3 other games being developed for the Playstation Portable. There are also 6 other Kingdom Hearts games spread out across different platforms that is unreasonable to expect the average consumer to own all.
Square Enix has funded other projects like Tomb Raider, but they weren't the developers, only the publisher, and I don't consider that. They've also made themselves looking busy by re-releasing old Square games on the playstation network for Playstaiton 3 and PSP/Vita.
Is this post accurate? Not really, I clearly just skimmed a lot through wiki. But I think it accurately portrays how I feel about SE.
I am looking forward to Final Fantasy XIV, and I'm not letting my past disappointments with them influence how I feel about the game, even if sequels have already been announced x.x;