I’ll ask it plainly up front: WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE PEOPLE AT SQUARE ENIX?
OK granted, Square Enix has been a few sandwiches short of a picnic for a few years now when it comes to decisions on their titles. Recently, though, it seems like the people making decisions in Japan have either been lobotomized or replaced with actual bags of hammers. Even the most ardent Square Enix fan (and I used to be a MAJOR fan) has to look back on everything they’ve done and shake their head.
First, there was the whole flap over Deus Ex: Mankind Divided’s “Augment Your Pre-order” shit, where you got different tiers of stuff they kept out of the game – including an entire level (!) – to try to make you pre-order. Then, after announcing the Final Fantasy VII remake at E3 and giving every hardcore FF7 fan a boner the size of Manhattan, they announced it would be released in an episodic format. You know, because you can’t fit an entire game released in 1997 onto one fucking 50GB Blu-ray!
Now, Square Enix has screwed the pooch again with the recent news that Hitman will ALSO be released in an episodic format, going so far as to cancel existing pre-orders for the game. Why, you may ask? Was Agent 47’s head too bald to fit on one disc? No, they think this will add more “excitement” to the franchise, since they will theoretically be able to feed players new episodes after listening to player feedback and analyzing behaviors in game.
Personally, I think the lazy bastards just want to start selling us the game before they’re finished making it. There are other, way smarter people me saying the very same thing. I don’t know if we’re right or wrong. All I DO know is, I want the company that made Final Fantasy I-IX, Parasite Eve, Dragon Quest, and the SaGa series back. Those fuckers knew how to make great games!
