President Takashi Kiryu has shared his plans to slim down Square Enix's lineup of titles.
02.01.2024 - 13:40 / gamesradar.com / Square Enix / Ai
Square Enix's CEO wants to be "more aggressive" in applying AI to game development and publishing going forward.
New Square Enix CEO Takashi Kiryu shared a New Year's letter for 2024, outlining his goals for the coming year. A large portion of the letter to the company's fans actually takes a wider look at AI in 2023, and how the various tools that have come from it, including ChatGPT, have burst onto the scene.
"The introduction of ChatGPT, which allows anyone to easily produce writing or translations or to engage in text-based dialogue, sparked the rapid spread of generative AIs," Kiryu writes. "I believe that generative AI has the potential not only to reshape what we create, but also to fundamentally change the processes by which we create, including programming."
"We also intend to be aggressive in applying AI and other cutting-edge technologies to both our content development and our publishing functions," the CEO continues. "In the short term, our goal will be to enhance our development productivity and achieve greater sophistication in our marketing efforts. In the longer term, we hope to leverage those technologies to create new forms of content for consumers, as we believe that technological innovation represents business opportunities."
This is one of Kiryu's first big public-facing messages for Square Enix as a whole since he took the post of CEO last year. If you can recall the beginning of 2023, you might recall that then-Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda went big on blockchain and NFT technologies in his own New Year's message, both of which Kiryu barely mentions in his own message.
Matsuda went on hyping up Square Enix's blockchain efforts into March 2023, even after the ventures were met with backlash from Square Enix fans around the world. It remains to be seen exactly how Square Enix will implement technologies like ChatGPT and others in its game development and marketing. Could we be about to see the AI tool write characters for the developer's games?
On the immediate horizon for Square Enix is Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth on February 29, tipped as one of the most exciting games in a packed early 2024 window. After that, the company has Final Fantasy 14's Dawntrail expansion coming in summer 2024, and whacky shooter Foamstars due at some point in the year.
You can head over to our new games 2024 guide for a look at the other big releases throughout the rest of the year.
President Takashi Kiryu has shared his plans to slim down Square Enix's lineup of titles.
Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu believes the company needs to diversify its gaming output, but also focus on fewer releases.
The president of Japanese publishing giant Square Enix, Takashi Kiryu, has said he wants his company's output to be more diverse.
Square Enix recently revealed during the Xbox Developer Direct that Visions of Mana will be released for Xbox during the upcoming summer. During the event, Microsoft unveiled more information about the upcoming Indiana Jones game developed by MachineGames, and details about Avowed and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2. However, the appearance of Visions of Mana was the biggest surprise of Xbox Developer Direct.
Square Enix appears to be on the verge of shaking up its development portfolio. According to its president, we may soon see fewer titles, but a more diverse array of genres coming out of a developer and publisher traditionally known for its massive RPG franchises.
Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu says he wants to diversify the studio's lineup of games by relying less on "strong IPs" like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
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Japanese publisher Square Enix has revealed that it used generative artificial intelligence to produce some of the artwork in the upcoming Foamstars.
Yesterday, Square Enix announced that its party shooter Foamstars would launch on February 6th for PS4 and PS5. Despite comparisons to Splatoon, it’s received praise for doing different things. Since it’s also out on day one for PlayStation Plus subscribers, it’s almost guaranteed to have a healthy player base initially.
Square Enix has confirmed that upcoming online shooter Foamstars includes AI-generated art.
PlayStation exclusive shooter Foamstars will feature AI-generated artwork, Square Enix has confirmed, with Foamstars producer Kosuke Okatani clarifying to VGC that «in terms of the content of the game, this makes up about 0.01% or even less.»
Foamstars, Square Enix's Splatoon-like 4v4 online party shooter announced last year, is coming next month. The PlayStation exclusive will release February 6 as a day-one launch title on PS Plus, Sony and Square Enix confirmed Tuesday. The game will be available to download for free on PS5 and PS4 as part of the PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup for next month, starting February 6 through March 4. Foamstars was announced at a PlayStation Showcase in May last year, showing off soapy shooting and colourful characters, both heavily inspired by Nintendo's Splatoon games. A PS Plus release will likely attract more players to the multiplayer title in its early days.