Tumbling down the hill: Square Enix to focus on free-to-play
It’s no secret that Square Enix fell from its once great heights long ago. Even the bright glimmer that was Final Fantasy XIIwasn’t enough to right Square’s ship, as it turned around and made the worst-rated FF (among the main FF games) of all time, Final Fantasy XIII. Then, in levels of stubbornness only matched by masters of the stubborn craft like Nintendo, made two direct sequels to the worst FF of all time.
After Square relinquished its console throne, it smartly made a move on mobile, realizing its most popular franchises worked fine on touch screens, in that Final Fantasy games rarely need twitch input. Those games have been met with mixed results, though, so now Square is hopping on the trend of free-to-play in an effort to cultivate that mobile crowd.
President and representative director of Square Enix, Yosuke Matsuda, noted that free-to-play has risen to the mainstream, and praised the flexibility of the model. He’s certainly correct, in that you can install a free-to-play cash shop within a regular retail disc-based game. Following that ominous statement, he said that the time is nigh for game developers to embrace the flexibility of the industry’s different payment models, and that Square would. Unfortunately, he noted that the flexible payment models will be applied to “HD games,” which almost certainly means big budget games, such as Final Fantasy or, for example, Kingdom Hearts.
It’s always worth pointing out that the free-to-play model isn’t inherently evil. Sure, it can be extremely manipulative, but there are a multitude of games out there that employ the model without insult. Dungeons & Dragons Online, for instance, makes it extremely easy (and fun) to hit the level cap without ever paying one cent. However, you can purchase content packs from the online store — the MMO equivalent of a map pack for your run-of-the-mill FPS — to unlock new, optional areas to play through.
The same goes for the recent Plants vs. Zombies sequel. You might’ve heard the internet in an uproar about having to pay $2.99 for a single plant locked behind a cash shop, but if you buy everything available on the cash shop, you end up paying a few cents less than the total price you paid for the original retail game.
Even though we’re all quick to groan at Square’s statement, the reason shouldn’t be because of free-to-play itself, it should be because Square hasn’t been too good at things in a while. Not being good at a free-to-play model isn’t any worse than not being good at making games.
