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Square Enix is looking to pursue opportunities in “smaller” online and social games, according to Mike Fischer, CEO of the company’s US division.
“I think you’ve seen announcements already about our continued focus on a more net-based business…” he said to Gamasutra.
Pointing to the current line-up of bigger titles in Square Enix’s roster, Fischer explained this was how the publisher can spend time cultivating smaller games.
“That leaves me and my organization free to really pursue a lot of the more leading edge opportunities in online and social games. And I’m obviously looking at not massive games on an FFXIV or FFXI scale, but smaller, more agile opportunities. One of them you see here, Wakfu, already, that we’ve picked up. That’s developed in a partnership with Ankama Studio.
“And we’re looking at a lot of projects along that type of opportunity, where it may not necessarily be a big internal project, but we can be smaller and agile.”
In a recent interview with VideoGamer.com, Square Enix technology director Julien Merceron stated that while social networking titles like Farmville haven’t been taken seriously by hardcore gamers, the sheer number of people playing them is a sign of its importance:
“There’s Call of Duty, that is selling millions, and all these millions of consumers can’t be wrong – this is part of the games that we’re going to see tomorrow [in the future]. But at the same time, you have millions of people playing Farmville on Facebook, and again, this type of game is not wrong. These consumers can’t be wrong.”
