Square Enix/Headscratchers

• Has Square ever declared the reasons behind their infamous No Export for You policy?
  • Does anyone? Nintendo, I'm looking at you...
  • From Software has a habit of doing this too: look at Metal Wolf Chaos for example.
  • As far as the Final Fantasy franchise goes, they skipped II and III due to the NES being phased out at the time and V due to some unknown reason (many theorized it was a misguided belief that Americans don't like cerebral games). As far as their other stuff goes... one has to keep in mind that [=RPGs=] stateside were a niche market until 1997 and they didn't want to release anything that they felt would bomb. As for their most recent stuff... who knows?
    • They seem to operate under the belief that Americans won't buy remakes or special versions of things (e.g. KH:FM, KH2:FM+). They apparently like to ignore the very large market for such things that already exists.
      • I think this may have more to do with Sony's licensing policy, which requires a certain amount of new content in an Updated Rerelease.
  • Force of habit, perhaps?
  • As much as they profess to love European fantasy elements, they sure place the continent at the bottom of the priority list. If an export happens at all, then it'll happen after a minimum of 2-3 months of localisation. This includes a 6 month wait for Disgaea DS (how'd they get that deal, anyway?), a region-free cartridge that will arrive with the exact same language and features as the North-American in most of the countries of Europe. Also Australia, which we barely acknowledge because we're huge hypocrites. Ahem.
    • What? So, the North American release has five-seven languages supported? Seriously? And Australia? What the fuck does that mean?

• Not that I'm arguing or anything, but is there any reason whatsoever that they're publishing Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days? I just find it to be a major shift from their usual fare of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and the like. Are they just trying to Westernize their image a bit? Trying to make a more mature image? Or is it just because? And will it have any effect on the actual game, or is it just a big name to slap on the cover?
  • If I recall, publishing often means they're either funding it, or distributing it. (Remember, they published Modern Warfare 2 and Black Ops in Japan!) however, keep in mind that just because it's Kane and Lynch doesn't mean their image is any more mature than before - did you know maturity does not always equal blood, guts, death, cussing, sex, more blood, a ban on primary colours, and the like? It's a big misconception, that is...
    • I think I may have worded my statement a bit wrong. What I meant to say is it's darker than their usual fare. I can argue against the bit about the colors (the new game is...rather colorful, weirdly enough) and the sex, but you've got me on the rest. Eh, my taste is questionable but I can live with that. Thanks for clearing up what a publisher does, by the way ^____^
    • I don't mean to be rude, but are you implying that Kane and Lynch is darker than the game that features a Monster Clown destroying the world For the Evulz?
      • Or even Final Fantasy Type-0?!
      • SE bought Eidos, who published the original, and who the developers have a long and fruitful relationship. SE is slowly phasing out the Eidos brand, thus, they're publishing it under their main label, not the subsidiary.
      • Speaking of which, the next Tomb Raider and Hitman games will be published solely under the Square Enix name. The company's trying to appeal to Western gamers as well, so it's not really surprising that they're going to fully phase Eidos out by the end of the 2011 fiscal year, as seen with their current rebranding of Eidos Montreal.

• I understand that Tetsuya Nomura isn't to blame for all of Square's shortcomings, but where are the names of the other people who work on the games? I would like to know who actually is responsible for what I complain about so I don't misattribute it.
  • Usually they're in the manual, right there in front of you on the credits, or whatever. This became especially bad when people blamed game design decisions in Final Fantasy XIII on Nomura when it said so right there in front of them who the actual designers were.