Bravely Default was simply awesome. It was an old school Final Fantasy game that appealed to old school Final Fantasy fans. However, this title was one of Square-Enix’s “niche” title, a title that they didn’t put a whole lot of backing behind. Instead, Square-Enix has been focusing on making its titles more “mainstream” like the disaster that was all three installments of Final Fantasy XIII .
However, Yosuke Matsuda, president of Square-Enix, thinks that this might be why the company sees losses year after year. In their attempts to “globalize” they left their fanbase behind. “Not only did they end up being games that weren’t for the Japanese,” said Matsuda on the company’s recent titles, “but they ended up being incomplete titles that weren’t even fit for a global audience.”
“On the other hand,” Matsuda continued “there are games like the JRPG we made for the Japanese audience with the proper elements, Bravely Default , which ended up selling well all around the world… If you focus too much on the global aspect, you might lose sight of who you’re actually making the game for.”
Matsuda mentioned Hitman: Absolution as an example of struggling to cater to a global audience. The company will refocus its efforts on returning to its roots and appealing to its core fan base. “So, as for the AAA titles we’re currently developing for series, we basically want to go back to their roots and focus on the core audience, while working hard on content that can have fans say things like ‘this is the Hitman we know’. I believe that is the best way for our development studios to display their strengths,” said Matsuda. Hopefully this will mean good things for primary Square-Enix franchises, such as the Final Fantasy franchise.
Source: Siliconera