Square Enix has announced that it has signed a letter of intent to form a strategic alliance with Chinese multinational, Tencent, with the aim of establishing a joint venture and co-developing AAA games.
The titles will be based on new and existing intellectual properties, “and more.”
“Tencent Group and Square Enix Group share the vision of utilizing technology and creativity to deliver unprecedented entertainment experiences and services to a global audience,” said Square Enix’s Yosuke Matsuda. “This newly established alliance will be a strong boost to Square Enix Group’s strategy to diversify our content offerings and expand access channels to a wider customer base.”
Tencent recently lost $20 billion in value as China’s government announced that it wants fight myopia in children by restricting the amount of games being released in the market. It’s too early to say if the move will impact the company’s new joint venture. For now, Tencent seems hopeful.
“We have strong expectations for this strategic alliance with Square Enix Group,” said Senior Vice President Steven Ma. “The alliance will enable us to couple our broad range of internet service capabilities to Square Enix Group’s superb creativity, and provide our customers with unprecedented content experiences on a global basis.”
Square Enix has said that it’ll announce more details at a later date.
[Source: Square Enix, Games Industry]
Square Enix revivals
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Square Enix Remakes That Need to Happen
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Adventures of Musashi
Few Japanese swordsman are as legendary as Miyamoto Musashi, and this series stars his son. The RPG is a lot like Dragon Quest, but sadly never saw a North American release. I'd love to see it finally available in English in an official capacity (there is a great fan patch, though)
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Chrono Trigger
One of the most legendary games ever made, Chrono Trigger is an icon of the role-playing genre. The SNES classic features an incredible battle system, and one of the best stories. Since the core has aged so well, a remake could really be something special.
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Dragon Quest Monsters
Dragon Quest Monsters was essentially Enix's answer to Pokémon. While it never reached those same heights of popularity, it did fine in its own right and added some new spins on the monster capturing motif. A remake of the PS1 collection (which included the first two games in the series), could be a real success on PS4 since there aren't many games like it being made.
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Final Fantasy VI
This wasn't a difficult choice to include. Final Fantasy VI is arguably the best role-playing game ever made, and it'd be incredible to get to play the SNES classic with a brand new veneer.
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Hanjuku Hero
Square Enix aren't exactly known for their real-time strategy games, but Hanjuku Hero was the company's attempt at the genre in the late 80s. Unlike most RTS games, Hanjuku Hero is filled with humor, and I feel like its goofball brand of comedy could really succeed in today's market.
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Parasite Eve
Parasite Eve has the unique distinction of being Square's first M-rated game, and the survival horror title was a major hit that featured a haunting soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura. A remake could make the visuals finally match the music, and on top of being a great horror game, it'd also be a blast of nostalgia.
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Romancing SaGa
The SaGa series' console debut was on the Super Famicom, and the 1992 stayed exclusive to Japan until it received an enhanced PS2 port in 2005. Now would be a perfect time to give the series a rebirth in North America, and hopefully it'd catch on as much as it has in Japan.
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Star Ocean
Let's face it. The most recent Star Ocean games have been a bit rough, to put it nicely. A remake of the 1996 original could breathe some new life into the series, and remind people why they fell in love with the RPG in the first place.
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The 7th Saga
Released in 1993 by Enix, The 7th Saga had players attempting to find seven magical runes. While that seems doable in theory, the turn-based RPG also featured a notoriously high difficulty due to some odd localization changes. It never got a fair shot in North America due to this, and a remake could finally fix one of the company's past failures.
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Xenogears
Xenogears is one of the greatest RPGs to never get a direct sequel (although Xenosaga served as a spiritual successor). The PlayStation title has a martial-arts focus, and features a fantastic story with plenty of memorable characters. It truly deserves another day in the spotlight.
