Tag Archives: yoichi wada

Speaking in an interview with Edge, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has that Keiji Inafune’s comments on the state of the Japanese market at Tokyo Game Show last September were “discouraging”.

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The Final Fantasy XIII team may move onto “‘next generation’ forms of play” now the game’s complete, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada’s told Edge, and that “this type of game” may cease to be made at the firm.

The comments are likely to cause shock in the FF fanboy fraternity.

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Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has said in a public statement that 2010 will see the company “taking root,” adding, “We want to start moving towards competing with movie studios.”

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Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada has admitted that Final Fantasy XIII is staying true to the series tried and tested formula, going as far as to tell FinalFantasyUnion in Montreal last week that it lacks much “newness”.

“It’s not there are new elements that are included into the Final Fantasy XIII, there are elements that are included that is expected out of the Final Fantasy title itself, for example a beautiful story, it being emotional and moving and you’ll be able to relax and enjoy,” Wada said, answering a question on whether or not the RPG will be the bestselling FF game yet.

“Those are included, but there is not a lot of newness to it. But when we take a look at a lot of Western game titles recently it is based on the real-world most of them, and with regards to some of the artworks in a sense it might look new because it is based on a fantasy story.”

FF-haters beware. The game’s out on next month in Japan and in March for both the US and Europe.

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has admitted in a speech that over-use of an IP is “not good.”

He made his remarks during a keynote at the Montreal Games Summit.

“Too much IP use is not good,” said Wada.

“Having memorable characters and back story is crucial to having a powerful IP.”

Wada also stressed though how the Final Fantasy IP hasn’t become tired yet.

“As long as there is a world with enough content and story, players will feel comfortable being in the same world for extended periods of time.”

Find more at FF Union. Wada said in the same speech that Square Enix are working on a brand new game with their newly accquired Eidos Monreal studio.

Speaking at the Montreal Games Summit, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has confirmed that they have in development their “first global game” in development at Eidos Montreal, alongside Deus Ex 3 and Thief 4.

It’s the company’s first title since the acquisition of Eidos earlier this year in April.

“[It] would be the first collaboration between Square Enix and Montreal,” said Wada.

“We would like to be able to create an new title that is made by the group as one.”

It’s unknown if it is a new IP, or if it is an established property.

Thanks, Develop.

Square Enix bossman Yoichi Wada has said that the company plans to double its recurring profit to 50 billion yen ($561 million) within three to five years.

This will occur by expanding its range of games and by growing overseas operations in China, where Wada says its negotiating deals with Chinese online game operators.

Additionally, Square hopes to ship over six million copies of Final Fantasy XIII worldwide, and that its currently discussing with Microsoft the possibility of bringing Final Fantasy XIV to Xbox 360.

More over on Edge.

Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada has said the company wants to expand on its three-IP super-base of Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy and it currently working on two to three titles designed to hit a similar stature, Yahoo! Japan reports.

These potential flagship games are expected to come out around the end of next year or early 2011.

There’s no detail on what the games are, but you can read more about it on Siliconera.

Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada’s told Reuters that Final Fantasy XIII will sell more than 6 million units worldwide, beating global Dragon Quest IX shipments.

FFXIII releases exclusive for PS3 in Japan this December, to be followed by a PS3 and 360 launch in the US and Europe early next year.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Square president Yoichi Wada has called upon the Japanese gaming industry to create adult oriented games in order to compete in the global market.

“There are not many publishers that create games for adults,” he said. “In the West, they tend to believe it’s cool to play games, even adults.”

In order to do this, change is necessary for the ratings industry which Wada feels is outdated, forcing publishers to either censor games or avoid a Japanese release.

While Wada believes ratings are important in order to “protect children”, the system needs to be revised and should that happen, he feels Japan could “possibly lead the global market”.

Wada was speaking during a panel titled “Strategies and Visions of Top Makers in the Global Era” featuring the heads of Japanese gaming companies at TGS, which included Capcom’s Haruhiro Tsujimoto, Konami’s Kazumi Kitaue, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida, and Namco’s Shin Unozawa.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Motion tech isn’t going to be the PS3 and 360 revolution some may have us believe, Square Enix head Yoichi Wada’s told the FT.

“Present game machines already have a lot of functions: they are a network terminal, a Blu-ray or DVD player, and a gaming machine. Compared to these three pillars, the [new motion] controllers are quite limited, so the impact may be small. They are an extension of the gaming function,” he said.

In the next breath, however, Wada had this to say about Natal: “As a user interface it’s fantastic and I think it will become standard.”

The low-impact, completely ubiquitous gaming UI is expected to ship late next year.

The exec wasn’t finished there, however. He reckons a new Wii’s coming in 2011, with “functionality more like that of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 or Sony’s PlayStation 3, and possibly a different controller,” according to that report.

You go, Yoichi. Thanks, Joystiq.

No, seriously.

Speaking in a weekly column for Nikkei, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has admitted he is seriously obsessed with Dragon Quest IX.

How obsessed? He culmated 30 hours in the first four days after the game was released in Japan in July.

You’re proper hardcore now, Wada-san, innit.

But he doesn’t just play for the enjoyment. He also plays to see what makes a good game at Square Enix, what makes a hit over there and what to do next with a game in development.

Thanks, RPGSite.

At GamesCom, Yoshi Kitase and Motomu Toriyama from Square Enix told VG247 that Final Fantasy games shouldn’t take as long to develop in the future.

During the conversation, we mentioned CEO of Square Enix Yoichi Wada’s comment regarding the firm “taking too long to produce games”, to see if they were in agreement.

Us at GamesCom: Yoichi Wada has said that he wants the development rate to go a bit faster. Is this possible and what is the development team doing to help speed things along for the future?

FFXIII’s Yoshi Kitase and Motomu Toriyama, speaking through a translator: For FFXIII there are a lot of firsts, and because it’s a new console that the teams are working on, it took a little time for the team to get used to everything. Now that they have the engine built for it the basics are covered, so the development time for future projects should be shortened.

Still, it may not be as simple as Wada thinks (laughing).

Hopefully, what this means, is that it won’t take what feels like ten years in between titles.

The Tokyo Games Show starts on September 24, and the CESA has released a partial list of games that will be present for the event.

Seems like there is a games conference every month, doesn’t it?

Some of the speakers lined up include Sony’s Kaz Hirai delivering a keynote, Haruhiro Tsujimoto the president and COO of Capcom, Konami VP Kazumi Kitaue, Square’s Yoichi Wada, Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida and Shin Unozawa the president and CEO of Namco Bandai.

Epic president Michael Capps will also be there, delivering a speech on “Adapting the ‘Gears of War’ Franchise for Global Consumption”

Cool stuff.

As far as games go, the list is past the break. While it is only a partial list, you may notice that Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, and Square Enix are missing from the list. Don’t worry, all will be there will bells on.

Surely more will be announced soon as well, so until then, just keep watch for more updates.

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Montreal International Game Summit organizers officially revealed the five headline speakers who will keynote the sixth annual industry event November 16 and 17.

The official keynote speakers include:

• Yoichi Wada is President and CEO of Square Enix Group, will share his vision of the future of video game development.
• Paul Holden of Media Molecule will speak about challenges encountered in developing LBP.
• Valve’s Jason Holtman will talk Steam and the SOURCE engine.
• Heather Chaplin, author of Smartbomb: The Question for Art Entertainment & Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution.
• Chris Hecker from Maxis/EA will deliver the closing session where he will attempt to answer the question “Can videogames be considered as cultural products in the same way as literature or theatre?”

Full press release is below.

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Square Enix president Yoichi Wada said in a Tokyo Q&A session last week that an FFXIII date will be announced in the next couple of weeks: most likely at Tokyo Game Show.

“We’ll be making an announcement in a few weeks,” said Wada.

The Square head honcho also confirmed the game will be at TGS next month, but in what form remains to be seen.

The RPG’s confirmed to release this winter in Japan for PS3, to be followed in the US for PS3 and 360 next spring. We’ve left an email with Square to see what is going on.

From IT Media, via Kotaku.

Square’s “considering” releasing Dragon Quest IX outside Japan, according to Siliconera. Amazing!

Sort of. It’s not going to happen until 2010 at the earliest, apparently. Company boss Yoichi Wada said so in a Q&A last week.

The DS RPG’s now shipped more than 3.5 million units in Japan. Which kind of means it might be a good idea to do an English language version, at the very least.

So. Yeah.

Dragon Quest IX has already gone mental in the Japanese software charts, but Square Enix wants more, much more.

Company president Yoichi Wada has told the Japanese press that, “We’re look at reaching over 5 million copies of Dragon Quest IX shipped.”

Wada went on to say that he hopes the Japanese gaming industry will profit as a whole from the game’s success. However, the improvement is already there to see – if you’re Nintendo that is – as DS sales have rocketed since the RPG’s release.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada has stated that “forcibly making” a game to work worldwide degrades the quality, and since Square and Eidos are both familiar with its own area, it could be a good combination.

During an interview with Gamasutra, Wada explained why it would be a better idea for certain IPs to have a more region specific focus.

“We’re not considering that one certain title is going to be sold on a worldwide basis in all of the territories…because if we tried to forcibly make a certain title work worldwide, and if that’s going to be degrading the quality, we don’t want to go down that path,” he said.

“But rather than that, even if that certain title only ever worked for two out of the three major territories, but still it is going to be selling deeply and thoroughly, then I believe that is going to be the better path to take.

“And in order for that to happen, there needs to be a deep-rooted understanding of the culture of the particular culture of the particular country — and Eidos and Square Enix both have 20 years of history that’s residing in that particular country, so we are native in that particular area that we grew up in.”

More through the link.

Square Enix super-chief Yoichi Wada has dreams. Big dreams. Forget games: he wants the publisher to be one of the biggest names in global entertainment.

“Our goal is to become one of the top ten players in the world’s media and entertainment industry,” he said, talking in an interview on the firm’s site.

“Since the game market is global, both our contact with our customers and our game development must become global, too.”

Buying Eidos was an accelerating move, Wada said.

“It would, however, take us a considerable time to mature into a global enterprise under our own steam. It was essential that we found a successful European or North American company to work together with, and Eidos proved to be the ideal partner.”

Tons more through there, including words from Eidos CEO Phil Rogers.