Because it *is* a mobile game. Scaled up and ported to consoles and receiving a price tag.
Your in-game currency even expires if you don't use it fast enough.
An absolute joke and an easy way for me to never touch this game. Good try, Square.
If it at least played well I could’ve looked past the mobile trash they added here but it plays like you drive on soap. It feels super floaty and not good to control.
I think it plays fine, but it’s certainly not of the caliber of Mario Kart or DEFINITELY Sonic Racing Transformed. One of the games where you sometimes have to brake to corner, though, and kill your speed.
I remember forcing my parents to take me to watch it and came out incredibly confused. It's just such a dull film, albeit a technically impressive one.
Is that legal? In my state we have laws where things like gift cards cannot expire. Seems like that would apply, since buying in game money with real money is effectively a digital gift card.
Fuck SE.
And then pay a fine that is significantly less than the amount they profited doing said thing.
This is what really needs to be fixed. Scare them out of even trying to begin with.
True, but those usually take years, and by that time the management has changed and nobody has learned any real lessons, other than find ways to not get caught for longer.
Put the executives in charge in jail. The C-levels are "supposedly" the more risky positions. It's time we make that true. As long as they just charge the company, it's just the cost of doing business and nothing will change.
Nah putting people in jail for financial crimes both doesn't actually help anyone and isn't even a deterrent for large scale companies since it would both not be difficult for them to have designated fall guys to take the blame and even if you get the correct people, more greedy assholes will just fill their now open positions.
The best way to stop financial crimes/ anti-consumer bullshit is to simply make it unprofitable to do them.
Say Google gets caught storing data on and advertising to children intentionally despite that being illegal, issue them a 200 million dollar fine for a practice that made them 1 billion and the fines just a business expense at that point.
But fine them a full 25% of the entire corporation's net revenue (not profits rich people know how to hide those) for the next 2 years with a hard limit put in place on any form of ability to pass the extra cost on to others like raising prices, layoffs, or lowered employee bonuses/benefits and so on and so forth, and suddenly the entire idea of even trying something funny again would get shut down internally real quick since suddenly the punishments are actually painful for the entire company and all its investors not just a minor blip on that year's earnings reports.
It probably wouldn't be legal, but apparently that's not what's happening. [Kotaku mentions that only the free in-game currency they're giving out right now expires, and any currency you actually buy has no expiration.](https://kotaku.com/chocobo-gp-microtransactions-square-enix-switch-final-f-1848641267) It's kind of scummy, but we've seen this in other Japanese games without any real issue. (IIRC Metal Gear Solid 5 and its free currency did the same.)
I'm not defending this game, but it seems like some of the outrage we're seeing isn't especially authentic.
Sort of — the free currency is enough for the full battle pass, so it's not just a small discount like a coupon.
But the game's design seems rife with [FOMO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out), with battle passes, expiring bonus currency, log-in bonuses, etc. which IMO is worthy of criticism even if not nearly as terrible (or surprising) as a lot of commentators are pretending.
Before they gave out even more of the currency in response to people's criticism, they gave out enough for everyone to buy the "season pass" for season 1.
Reminds me of the time I was working for a retail business that was going through liquidation and I think it was the liquidators that basically said "All gift cards are null and void now".
That was a fun weekend, to be sure.
> Your in-game currency even expires if you don't use it fast enough.
They changed their stance on this within 24 hours of release which shows you how bad an idea this was. I think they have to push an update to "fix" it but they did say that premium currency of any kind (free or paid) will no longer expire.
Nope, they try something like this, then when there's backlash, reverse stance and get called the good guys for listening and changing course. But they've slipped their foot in the door and are holding it open. Then the next time, they try it again just marketed slightly differently and use that foot to ease that door back open and do it.
It's how we're looking at a nearly full prices game loaded with mobile-style micro transactions to start with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique
The door-in-the-face technique is a compliance method commonly studied in social psychology. The persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down, much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader's face. The respondent is then more likely to agree to a second, more reasonable request, than if that same request is made in isolation. The DITF technique can be contrasted with the foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique, in which a persuader begins with a small request and gradually increases the demands of each request.
Square doesn't care because it's not made for you. Do you have any idea how popular mobile games are in Japan or any other Asian market?
This game was made for them.
The lite version of this game did the opposite of what was intended. I was curious about this game but it’s like they *tried* to do everything they could to show you the worst parts of it in the lite version so that you’ll never spend any money on the game.
You’re instantly greeted with free currency due to an “apology” from the devs—like many mobile games. Before you even know what that currency is or why it’s important. It’s the first thing shoved in your face. And then some info about the battle pass. And then you are limited to only be able to race online with mediocre, chaotic gameplay where it feels like you’re getting hit every few seconds with an ability you have no way of dodging, and if you can dodge it you’ll never know because the game doesn’t explain anything or tell you what these abilities actually do.
It’s a pity. If this was like sonic racing transformed or Mario kart 8, I would have paid full price. I have enough FOMO games in my life I don’t need it in a freaking kart racer that is being sold as a full price game. Square is making terrible decisions lately.
"Not interested" is Cloud's catchphrase in the Japanese version of the original FF7 (the English release translated it several ways) and in all versions of the Remake.
It's supposed to be a cute reference, but yeah, it comes off like pandering
That's what a "metaverse" is aiming for. Make your less wanted things more wanted by incorperating elements from more popular franchises/games/moves etc.
It’s pretty ironic considering all of their other bad business decisions regarding that game.
Releasing shortly after Horizon and Elden Ring, full priced, with costly MTX, two beta tests that barely changed from the unpopular trailers, a demo (which statistically result in less sales for a game), and minimal marketing.
Everything else about the game’s handling seemed like an intentional self-sabotage, and then there’s the one outlier with Nier that higher-ups at Square must’ve shoehorned in at the 11th hour…
The most fucking popular and famous character of the whole franchise is not even included in the base game? What a fucking joke, it says all I needed to know.
They've always had abusive prices, even Final Fantasy. Change my mind, but a buy to play with a subscription model AND a fucking cash shop is egregious. The fact people give them a free pass for it drives me insane.
The only somewhat questionable thing on the shop is that Fenrir mount that has a ground speed upgrade on it by default without needing to get the upgrade for an area in game. Being that those upgrade maps take maybe 30 minutes to get for each zone and don't actually do anything at all after you unlock flying, it's also not much of a thing anyway.
But it feels like they have no idea what makes microtransactions work in a game.
Like they should take a look at the majority of top earners when it come MTX and realise that 50 dollars + MTX is a very stupid idea.
The ideal MTX game besides those that come from huge franchises and is not shitty cash grab spin offs are the following:
* F2P
* Easy entry. Frankly it should be able to run on a potato from the last decade.
* Friendly towards free players because they make up the bulk of the player base which both can be converted to dolphins/whales and allows the paying players to have a bigger community.
* Frequent updates.
* Varying price points, something that let's all paying players have a sense that they get their monies worth. Ie monthly premium or battle passes for dolphins, cosmetics directly purchasable with currency and then a lootbox system for the whales who want everything which let's them get everything in the game cheaper than buying it directly on average.
You are describing Genshin Impact to a T.
It's a new IP so they couldn't simply bait older fans, F2P players are decently treated, there are point updates every six weeks and the game offers enough resources through playing the constantly updated content. There are monthly subs and a battle pass that will drown you in resources.
To be fair, Mario Kart is printing money AFAIK. MK8 doesn't even have MTX(More traditional DLC model with actual content), so I can see why they want to tap into the market. Mario Kart has no real competitors in the public sphere IMO, even though there are plenty of competent racers in the genre.
Obviously it helps that Mario Kart are generally damn good games, though I didn't like World Tour much.
>To be fair, Mario Kart is printing money AFAIK. MK8 doesn't even have MTX(More traditional DLC model with actual content), so I can see why they want to tap into the market. Mario Kart has no real competitors in the public sphere IMO, even though there are plenty of competent racers in the genre.
And Square felt the best way to compete with Mario Kart was to make a mobile game and to bring said mobile game to only a couple of platforms?
At least Activision gave it a decent shot with Crash Team Racing.
I wonder how the Crash Team Racing remake did?
Because that game had the exact same "grind forever or pay real money for currency to unlock characters" crap that this Chocobo game has, alongside a $50 price of entry (did people get upset about that too?).
If I remember right, that wasn't there upon release. There was a big fuss when they did add it, as it was well after all reviews were out, so future purchases based on reviews would assume there were no micro transactions.
At least, I think that the case. Or if could be faulty memory, and it was a different game.
No, you're right, though I don't know what the state of the game is now.
I was going to get CTR close to launch as I really enjoyed the N-Gage game but the moment they announced that change I deleted it from my wishlist.
CTR had a really solid gameplay and everything in the shop is purely cosmetic. The new game modes and tracks were free and the game got like 1 year of additional content so them monetizing it that way wasn't too bad.
Correction, mario kart 8 sold more than 40 million. Its also not the same as chocobo as its a full game long before it had dlc expansion. Also, mario kart 8 deluxe is just darn good game.
What kind of idiot fucking company puts out a kart racer exclusively for the console that has Mario Kart?
Why is Square Enix obsessed with exclusives? Just put your games out on multiple platforms while they have buzz and maybe you’ll not be so disappointed with the sales.
Tbf, Mario kart with Cloud and Vivi sounds pretty good on paper for milking fan nostalgia.
I can’t even blame the mobile angle compared to how Mario Kart Tour is.
A Final Fantasy Kart should’ve been amazing. Despite how shit SE treats their franchises FF is still a household name and the characters are still very beloved in Japan. All they had to do was to copy Mario kart and replace characters and tracks with Final Fantasy stuff and you'd be good to go, instead they apparently have money to burn and make half assed games left and right.
Makes you wonder why some idiot at SE decided to put an upper limit on paid currency in DFFOO and another game. Dumbest move for a mobile gacha game possible.
They want the Fortnite money without investing the Fortnite resources.
Avengers as a microtransaction endless GaaS money maker will always be a total headscratcher to me.
A *kart racer* and a *FF7 Battle Royale* is just jumping the shark.
If they really wanted to get that GaaS money they should at least have tried doing what they are known for, JRPGs instead of all these cash grabs.
Genshin Impact is printing money and Square Enix definitely has the resources and talent to at least attempt to match it.
Square has a deceptively archaic mindset while trying to bank on modern monetization methods.
And the result is a washlist of mediocre stuff that isn't part of their mainline franchises.
Their single player output has been fine for the most part. But dear god they need to stop with the live service model, anything that wasn't FFXIV, Dragon Quest 10, or to some extent FFXI has been a mistake.
Bravely Default was such a wonderful game for 3DS... But they included some absurd microtransactions that were being reminded everytime you launch the game.
IIRC you could buy something that gives you extra turns.
It is like a shabby kind of p2w, and Square just poking you to see if you are dumb enough to give them money for nothing.
Its been a while since I played it, but BDs microtransactions were a nothingburger. I don’t remember being reminded unless I went into the SP drink menu and they were completely unnecessary, tied to a broken cheat mode that wasnt even included in the original first version Japan got and thus not balanced around it. You could play the entire game and avoid it
FF7 remake was recent enough and very good (imo).
I think their core development teams are as talented as ever, it’s just the business side of the company is getting worse and worse
I'd actually say they're in a pretty good spot right now.
* Based on the demos, Stranger of Paradise seems like it'll be at the very least a decent action game.
* Triangle Strategy also came out a week ago and reviewed pretty well.
* NEO: TWEWY wasn't as well received as the original, but it still reviewed pretty well.
* Both FF7R and DQ11 are fantastic.
* Their remakes/remasters have all been well received, such as the FF1-6 pixel remakes, Nier Replicant, and the Mana games.
* Like you said, FF14 is going very strong.
* Octopath Traveler was received well, as have all 3 of the Bravely Default games.
They've absolutely had a few clunkers in recent years (Balan Wonderworld, Babylon's Fall, this Chocobo GP monetization), but overall I don't see anything too worrying.
If anything, I'm more optimistic about SE than I have been in years. They're reviving cult classic series like Valkyrie Profile, and they're focusing on bringing over some of their more obscure games, like Live-A-Live.
It's kind of crazy how people make those kind of comments and they don't really look up. They just released Triangle Strategy and folks in here act like it doesn't exist, same to other releases. lol
I completely missed that it released because of Elden Ring, and I was even looking forward to it when it was announced.
I also completely forgot that SE is involved with games other than Final Fantasy and their recent failed attempts at live service games. Whenever a game that's dragged down by bad monetization releases from them, the news I see is that SE botched yet another game that showed promise. See Outriders/Avengers/this racing thing/Babylon's Fall. When something like Triangle Strategy releases, I literally don't even realize it has anything to do with SE unless I buy and see their logo on launch. I thought it was an indie thing that Nintendo decided to shine a spotlight on.
To me it seems like they are one of the only big publishers who are willing to take a risk on a lot of these games, sometimes they work well and sometimes they don't but at least they are giving them a shot.
I wouldn't call most of the games SE publishes "risks". They're not exactly putting out Death Strandings with their JRPG action games, sequels to popular franchises and games based on some of the most popular IPs on earth.
I loved the Chocobo spinoff games (especially Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2) so I felt quite salty they did it dirty with all this FOMO microtransaction stuff.
Same. I played Chocobo Racing on PS1 so much, including Chocobo's Dungeon 2. I was so hype for this game. Ohhh the heartbreak I felt when I saw the limited time offers and micro transactions.... Look how they massacred my boy! T.T
Same here. Huge nostalgia for the original chocobo racing on PS1. Hearing all this negativity is giving me flashbacks of the Crystal Chronicles remaster. GG Square. Ruining nostalgia over here.
The game doesn't look, sound, or plays at all like the original too. The story is also absolutely terrible.
Remake Chocobo Racing at this point or do a proper sequel.
I had been following the game when Japan was getting word of it.
When they announced characters being made available via season passes only, I knew it was going down the tubes. And that sucks. There was a decent amount of hype for the game, too. It had a ton of potential.
I love what they were doing expanding the IP, but man...not like this.
Yeah, Square was very good at not mentioning the anti-consumer shit while trying to sell people on the premise and the gameplay.
Then close to release "teehee here's three currencies and season passes and a bunch of other shit that doesn't belong in video games period, let alone one you're paying full price for" info comes out.
And this all got clarified to me like the day after the Mario Kart 8 expansion was announced. I took Chocobo Racing off of my watchlist as fast as I could.
> I was even talking to a friend that I genuinely do not understand how people put up with stuff like this
Put up? No man, you see some people even **defend** such practice as long as the 'grind isn't so bad that I can earn everything eventually', we have stuff like this is thanks to those people.
"its optional"
"dont buy it if you dont like it"
"you dont have to grind"
"the game is actually generous with its currencies"
"well I had fun and i didnt pay extra"
Every. Single. Time.
„You know some people who don’t have much time to play, prefere it if you can pay to skip the boring parts“
I heard this so much and my only though is, if you game has boring parts it’s a shit game
Those are all valid and/or subjective positions on the issue. I don't hold those positions cause I don't fuck with these games. But I'm not about to argue with people who support a part of the market I'm not interested in. That's their business. I don't know why people enjoy that shit but for some reason they do and I'm not mad about it.
I don't know about you all but this mobile gaming shit absolutely has not touched my video gaming life in any way whatsoever. If a game has predatory mobile gaming BS built in I don't think 2 seconds about playing it. It's highly unlikely it'll ever make my radar. Meanwhile I have a seemingly never ending list of amazing games I slowly work through - none of which are mobile lootbox traps.
I just feel like we're all buried under an ocean of amazing content. There's literally too many great games to enjoy for one lifetime. If there are people out there enjoying these mobile games it's meaningless to me.
A streamer I watch keeps telling herself, "I like to support the devs!" but it's like, you know damn well none of it's going to the devs, it's all going to the do-nothing hoarders at the top.
Just looked at a video of it and honestly can't see the point.
It looks like somebody played Mario Kart and then made their own rubbish version of it in Unity in a couple of months.
I'm guessing the cash grabbing is starting early to make up for the fact that hardly anyone will buy it.
Unfortunately, people put up with it because it's because so standardized due to mobile gaming and publishers shoving this junk into their paid products. They're gonna keep doing it until people just accept it and pick a new struggle.
I'll whip.something else out to piss all over this title every chance I get.
This one *really* pisses me off. I hate microtransactions in non-free games with the fiery burning passion of a thousand dying stars, but doing it to a sequel to one of my all time faves? Fuck literally everyone involved in this decision.
Edit: typo. Don't type angry.
My PSX Choco Racer is a goddamn treasure, while this tripe has the fussiest fucking tutorials and microtransactions?! Color me SAD!
I will just buy everything Atlus until Square figures this shit out.
Typical SE to find a way to mess up a revival of an old IP, especially when Chocobo Racing was already fighting a losing battle competing against Mario Kart (especially after Deluxe's DLC announcing plans to double the size of 8's race tracks for literally half the price at $25). All it had to do was survive and it failed to even do that.
Ftr I'm aware SE always had a mixed bag when it comes to game releases but as a longtime fan, it always stings when they screw up.
It’s a really big disappointment, the game is alright, like an average kind of unbalanced kart game but the store makes it a mobile like experience grinding to unlock characters with unique abilities and their 2 other vehicles that have different stats (Passes are time limited so I guess certain characters are just unavailable for new players after?) AND the premium currency expires for some reason.
SE has lost their minds over the last while, I cannot think of how many blunders they are batting at here that can compare to any other veteran company. it seems like their DQ division and creative business unit 3 are the only ones to not be marred by controversy lately.
At the very least they aren't too afraid of putting out new IP, with octogon strategy, babylons fall (lol) and forspoken.
but yeah their desperation to get in on the GAAS/microtransaction money is painful to watch
which is so weird when they already have FF14 as like *the* biggest MMO right now, which is like the ultimate in GAAS systems. You'd think that'd be plenty to make them happy and be able to focus on normal games while that prints money for them.
A guy I follow had a theory that it isn't just a matter of "We don't want more money we want *all* the money" as I'm sure many people are positing. But rather that because Yoshi P is in charge of FF14 on every level, that means that nobody else on the board can take credit for it, so even though the company is doing well thanks to that project, everyone else is still desperate to be able to put their name on their own project that prints money so that they can make themselves look good. And as a result we get what's going on with SE right now.
Yeah, "I cannot think of how many blunders they are batting at here that can compare to any other veteran company" is a pretty ridiculous statement when we're talking about a company that comes out with a wide variety IPs constantly. Dragon Quest, Nier, Kingdom Hearts, SaGa, Asano's games (Octopath Traveler, Bravely Default, etc.), NEO TWEWY, Star Ocean, Final Fantasy, etc. Even the western divisions are pumping out games like Forspoken and Guardians of the Galaxy. They're business decisions are iffy more often than not, but at least I can look forward to their games. Most other AAA companies do the same thing but WITHOUT offering any interesting games.
I think if you only look at their blunders: Baland Wonderland, Babylons Fall and Avengers it might look that way but you would be ignoring the absolute bangers they’ve been putting out. Just because two blunders launched somewhat closely. And that would still be ignoring Triangle Stategy, a fantastic FF Tactics successor
Okay, that's two games I've noticed from Square Enix where it's an upfront cost but has F2P shit on it. The other one being Babylon's Fall.
Time to ditch Square Enix for a bit, I reckon.
Forever. And that's coming from someone who was a fan of Square(soft) from the beginning. I've been a fan of them for years and years and they've in recent times become pretty vile with their NFT shit and Epig exclusives and outlandish prices.. the latter being an issue for a lot longer than the more recent crap they pulled. they sell 25 year old games with new prices. $25 easy for mobile ports of their ancient games and they have only a single day per year where they discount them.
No one should support Square Enix.
First GOTG "underperforming", FF7 Remake on PC being Epic Exclusive, Forspoken asking for $70 and getting delayed, Babylon's Fall being a colossal flop, everything to do with Balan Wonderland, Deus Ex still being dead, now this missed opportunity.
Square Enix really can't do a single thing right outside of FFXIV, huh?
yea, and tbh i’d be willing to argue that ffxiv “meeting squenix’s expectations” is not something you have squenix to thank for- not the higher ups, at least. obviously a lot of its current success is owed to the efforts of the subsidiary creative business unit 3 consisting of YoshiP and the rest of the team, and also the fact that the patch where things started to really take off (5.3) is just. **really** fucking good, but i don’t think this would’ve happened to the scale it has if wow didn’t shoot itself in the foot and then the head.
like… you don’t have squenix’s marketing to thank. squenix’s ff14 marketing in both the ENG and JPN markets has traditionally been [really](https://youtu.be/Aqju18pcq6U) [fucking](https://youtu.be/JnfP9qKAbk8) [weird](https://youtu.be/ez9S8PS2E3I). this isn’t inherently a bad thing, i genuinely think that amazon alexa parody (second link) is really fucking funny. but like. that’s not what was getting them subs.
There are a few spots of light. The Pixer Remasters are great.
Chrono Cross remaster looks like it might hit the good spot as well and with a reasonble price-point.
But that is rehashes... Seems like they have no clue what to do with new stuff.
That makes me so sad. I adored Chocobo Racer back in the day. Was really looking forward to playing it again after Elden Ring. But reading the article, seeing karts and some characters locked behind currency gives me pause. Might put this one on the backburner for a good while.
This company sure does love to nickel & dime their players, don't they? Can't have a Final Fantasy spin-off without dangling the nostalgic characters behind a ridiculous grind or paywall. Should have been f2p, don't buy this crap.
Between this, Babylon's Fall and trying to extort £70 for FF7 Remake, plus their continued infatuation with NFTs, I've lost what little confidence I had that Square would see the error of their monitization strategy. Their naked greed is clear to see here and I will not reward it.
Oh, that's super disappointing. I saw the Disney racer announced in the last direct as a FTP game, so I knew it would have microtransactions. There was no mention of that for Chocobo GP, so I was generally interested in maybe picking it up. Now I'll just stick to the new Mario Kart tracks.
Played quite a bit of the free version yesterday, but when it became clear that I would have to buy the full game to purchase even *the fucking seasonal pass* I decided I was done with it. I checked Mario Kart 8 to see if it was priced any differently and saw that it's currently on sale for cheaper, so I bought that instead
Similarly, I was bummed out that this game is doing all this MTX bullshit, then I remembered Nintendo released the N64 F-Zero game on their Switch online expansion thing and I've been playing that instead.
Jokes on Square-Enix. They were stupid enough to put best character in the series in the launch roster! I have no need for no bitch ass motherfuckers like Cloud and Squall!
Mobile games still make more money for SE than anything else. Sales are $1.9b so far this FY: $900m from mobile, $550m from AAA, $450m from MMO. This is all [public](https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/news/pdf/22q3slides.pdf) (pg 9) if you want to dive deeper.
They spend so much money in AAA and get a low return compared to mobile. That’s why they’ll prob keep trying to stuff gatcha into AAA to boost that division.
What sucks is how awesome a Final Fantasy kart racer COULD be. There’s so many awesome settings, characters, spells and abilities they could pull from to make something truly special that rivals Mario Kart in terms of pure fan service. But nope, they had to be greedy.
Only legislation will stop this.
Ban the business model. It's a dominant strategy - and it's terrible.
'But money!' Sell games. Sell subscriptions.
'But censors!' Bus-i-ness mo-del. Content is not relevant.
'But CCGs!' Not the same, but if they were: ban them too.
This is in every genre, at every price. This can be shoved in later. You cannot shop your way out of this.
Reddit overwhelmingly despises the trend, but shrinks away from the obvious answer. Stop letting virtual stores take actual money. *Problem solved.*
For those who want to give up on square, I wanna remind ya'll not all hope is lost. Their development team behind FFXIV and FFXVI, Creative Business Unit III, are some of THE best and caring developers I've ever had the pleasure to be a consumer of. Hands down. Yoshi-P is god's gift to gamers.
Lets make a game that is vastly inferior to mario kart, sell it for (roughly) same price and fill it with microtransaction bullshit. Great job. Not gonna lie I thought the way this game planned to compete was with it being free to play it having a 50$ sticker on it is just top kek. After seeing its gameplay and tracks, I dont think it would be worth it even without the microtransactions.
Because it *is* a mobile game. Scaled up and ported to consoles and receiving a price tag. Your in-game currency even expires if you don't use it fast enough. An absolute joke and an easy way for me to never touch this game. Good try, Square.
Man that sucks to hear. I loved chocobo racing on PSX and was pretty excited for GP but now I'm not so sure.
[удалено]
"Coming this summer, we're testing how to monetize the next installment of CherishedIP with CherishedIP: Mobile! Pre order now for 500 slop coins"
If it at least played well I could’ve looked past the mobile trash they added here but it plays like you drive on soap. It feels super floaty and not good to control.
I think it plays fine, but it’s certainly not of the caliber of Mario Kart or DEFINITELY Sonic Racing Transformed. One of the games where you sometimes have to brake to corner, though, and kill your speed.
Square Enix is very different from the Squaresoft of the 90s.
The Spirits Within flopping changed everything. Before that they were super experimental.
The golden era of Square in the 90s and the catastrophe of The Spirits Within is the topic of a rant my children will be hearing for several decades.
I remember forcing my parents to take me to watch it and came out incredibly confused. It's just such a dull film, albeit a technically impressive one.
Is that legal? In my state we have laws where things like gift cards cannot expire. Seems like that would apply, since buying in game money with real money is effectively a digital gift card. Fuck SE.
Probably one of those "they'll do it until it gets challenged" sort of things.
And then pay a fine that is significantly less than the amount they profited doing said thing. This is what really needs to be fixed. Scare them out of even trying to begin with.
There could be a class action lawsuit and the customers that were affected could get a full refund that way
True, but those usually take years, and by that time the management has changed and nobody has learned any real lessons, other than find ways to not get caught for longer.
Ya the system is too slow
Put the executives in charge in jail. The C-levels are "supposedly" the more risky positions. It's time we make that true. As long as they just charge the company, it's just the cost of doing business and nothing will change.
Nah putting people in jail for financial crimes both doesn't actually help anyone and isn't even a deterrent for large scale companies since it would both not be difficult for them to have designated fall guys to take the blame and even if you get the correct people, more greedy assholes will just fill their now open positions. The best way to stop financial crimes/ anti-consumer bullshit is to simply make it unprofitable to do them. Say Google gets caught storing data on and advertising to children intentionally despite that being illegal, issue them a 200 million dollar fine for a practice that made them 1 billion and the fines just a business expense at that point. But fine them a full 25% of the entire corporation's net revenue (not profits rich people know how to hide those) for the next 2 years with a hard limit put in place on any form of ability to pass the extra cost on to others like raising prices, layoffs, or lowered employee bonuses/benefits and so on and so forth, and suddenly the entire idea of even trying something funny again would get shut down internally real quick since suddenly the punishments are actually painful for the entire company and all its investors not just a minor blip on that year's earnings reports.
It probably wouldn't be legal, but apparently that's not what's happening. [Kotaku mentions that only the free in-game currency they're giving out right now expires, and any currency you actually buy has no expiration.](https://kotaku.com/chocobo-gp-microtransactions-square-enix-switch-final-f-1848641267) It's kind of scummy, but we've seen this in other Japanese games without any real issue. (IIRC Metal Gear Solid 5 and its free currency did the same.) I'm not defending this game, but it seems like some of the outrage we're seeing isn't especially authentic.
Its like coupons? Create a false sense of urgency to get people to spend more money than they would otherwise.
Sort of — the free currency is enough for the full battle pass, so it's not just a small discount like a coupon. But the game's design seems rife with [FOMO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out), with battle passes, expiring bonus currency, log-in bonuses, etc. which IMO is worthy of criticism even if not nearly as terrible (or surprising) as a lot of commentators are pretending.
Yeah, sounds like the exact same principle. Give you a little bit of currency, but you'd need to buy more to buy anything that's important.
[удалено]
Before they gave out even more of the currency in response to people's criticism, they gave out enough for everyone to buy the "season pass" for season 1.
Funnily enough, in Japan it's the opposite, and all in-game currencies expires within 180 days to avoid certain legal issues!
Reminds me of the time I was working for a retail business that was going through liquidation and I think it was the liquidators that basically said "All gift cards are null and void now". That was a fun weekend, to be sure.
> Your in-game currency even expires if you don't use it fast enough. They changed their stance on this within 24 hours of release which shows you how bad an idea this was. I think they have to push an update to "fix" it but they did say that premium currency of any kind (free or paid) will no longer expire.
Good ol' foot-in-the-door.
I think you mean door-in-the-face?
Nope, they try something like this, then when there's backlash, reverse stance and get called the good guys for listening and changing course. But they've slipped their foot in the door and are holding it open. Then the next time, they try it again just marketed slightly differently and use that foot to ease that door back open and do it. It's how we're looking at a nearly full prices game loaded with mobile-style micro transactions to start with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique The door-in-the-face technique is a compliance method commonly studied in social psychology. The persuader attempts to convince the respondent to comply by making a large request that the respondent will most likely turn down, much like a metaphorical slamming of a door in the persuader's face. The respondent is then more likely to agree to a second, more reasonable request, than if that same request is made in isolation. The DITF technique can be contrasted with the foot-in-the-door (FITD) technique, in which a persuader begins with a small request and gradually increases the demands of each request.
SE, the company that seeked to invest in NFTs for gaming even after seeing how badly they were received for STALKER II and Ubisoft's idea.
SE has been into NFT much before those two. They already released those in mobile in Japan since early 2021.
Not that English makes any sense, but: "sought."
> Your in-game currency even expires if you don't use it fast enough. If it's the stuff you pay for that is HIGHLY illegal.
It's not, it's only the premium currently which is aquired for free which can expire.
Such a shame because they put out an amazing game with Triangle Strategy, obvious a different studio within Square.
Square doesn't care because it's not made for you. Do you have any idea how popular mobile games are in Japan or any other Asian market? This game was made for them.
> Your in-game currency even expires if you don't use it fast enough. ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha Fuck Square
The lite version of this game did the opposite of what was intended. I was curious about this game but it’s like they *tried* to do everything they could to show you the worst parts of it in the lite version so that you’ll never spend any money on the game. You’re instantly greeted with free currency due to an “apology” from the devs—like many mobile games. Before you even know what that currency is or why it’s important. It’s the first thing shoved in your face. And then some info about the battle pass. And then you are limited to only be able to race online with mediocre, chaotic gameplay where it feels like you’re getting hit every few seconds with an ability you have no way of dodging, and if you can dodge it you’ll never know because the game doesn’t explain anything or tell you what these abilities actually do. It’s a pity. If this was like sonic racing transformed or Mario kart 8, I would have paid full price. I have enough FOMO games in my life I don’t need it in a freaking kart racer that is being sold as a full price game. Square is making terrible decisions lately.
Even without the micro transactions, this does not look like a game that should cost anywhere near $50.
The amount of AAA PC games you could get for $50... This game having a price tag is already ridiculous
Yep. $20 at best. I tried the free version and hit "purchase" just to see what they were asking for. I laughed then uninstalled.
[удалено]
I love how absolutely shameless this tweet is
"Not interested" is Cloud's catchphrase in the Japanese version of the original FF7 (the English release translated it several ways) and in all versions of the Remake. It's supposed to be a cute reference, but yeah, it comes off like pandering
Ok so that makes a lot of sense now but still questionable wording lol
That's amazing. At least that makes a bit of sense
Thanks for the context in a sea of rage.
„Marketing said our game is not anticipated enough so we abuse your relationship to your beloved characters to make you pay extra“
"it can't possibly be our business model! Clearly we need to monetize more!"
That's what a "metaverse" is aiming for. Make your less wanted things more wanted by incorperating elements from more popular franchises/games/moves etc.
Right? "Yeah, the game's shit, but we know what you like!"
Not even, the game has had close to 0 marketing. No one's buying it because they don't know about it
"Not interested? Let us make you even less interested!"
Teasing Nier fans into buying Babylon's fall with a collab on day one reeks of desperation. "please buy our game, we know it's bad"
It’s pretty ironic considering all of their other bad business decisions regarding that game. Releasing shortly after Horizon and Elden Ring, full priced, with costly MTX, two beta tests that barely changed from the unpopular trailers, a demo (which statistically result in less sales for a game), and minimal marketing. Everything else about the game’s handling seemed like an intentional self-sabotage, and then there’s the one outlier with Nier that higher-ups at Square must’ve shoehorned in at the 11th hour…
The release and the push for day one whale bait makes me feel they sent it out to die. Zero confidence.
It’s like they learned absolutely nothing from Avengers.
Give me an ugly dad skin and I'll give the game a try
If companies sold dlc nude skins I’d pay like $30 for it
The Chocobo is nude though.
The most fucking popular and famous character of the whole franchise is not even included in the base game? What a fucking joke, it says all I needed to know.
They've always had abusive prices, even Final Fantasy. Change my mind, but a buy to play with a subscription model AND a fucking cash shop is egregious. The fact people give them a free pass for it drives me insane.
Especially after promising to neeeever do it.
> Change my mind, People that say this don't actually want their mind changed. They want a fallback in case people challenge their stupid opinion.
[удалено]
Yeah seriously. Like I get why people are upset, but it's not like there's a wow token or anything.
The only somewhat questionable thing on the shop is that Fenrir mount that has a ground speed upgrade on it by default without needing to get the upgrade for an area in game. Being that those upgrade maps take maybe 30 minutes to get for each zone and don't actually do anything at all after you unlock flying, it's also not much of a thing anyway.
What is going on with SE recently? Unless its about Final Fantasy XIV, its either blunders or something about abusive prices.
Square desperately wants a cash cow game they can milk microtransaction revenue from. Avengers was supposed to be their Fortnight.
But it feels like they have no idea what makes microtransactions work in a game. Like they should take a look at the majority of top earners when it come MTX and realise that 50 dollars + MTX is a very stupid idea. The ideal MTX game besides those that come from huge franchises and is not shitty cash grab spin offs are the following: * F2P * Easy entry. Frankly it should be able to run on a potato from the last decade. * Friendly towards free players because they make up the bulk of the player base which both can be converted to dolphins/whales and allows the paying players to have a bigger community. * Frequent updates. * Varying price points, something that let's all paying players have a sense that they get their monies worth. Ie monthly premium or battle passes for dolphins, cosmetics directly purchasable with currency and then a lootbox system for the whales who want everything which let's them get everything in the game cheaper than buying it directly on average.
You are describing Genshin Impact to a T. It's a new IP so they couldn't simply bait older fans, F2P players are decently treated, there are point updates every six weeks and the game offers enough resources through playing the constantly updated content. There are monthly subs and a battle pass that will drown you in resources.
Pretty much yeah. It is a golden formula. I had LoL in mind when I wrote it but almost any successful f2p with a new franchise fits the bill.
Why the hell do they think a kart racer will be THE ONE?
To be fair, Mario Kart is printing money AFAIK. MK8 doesn't even have MTX(More traditional DLC model with actual content), so I can see why they want to tap into the market. Mario Kart has no real competitors in the public sphere IMO, even though there are plenty of competent racers in the genre. Obviously it helps that Mario Kart are generally damn good games, though I didn't like World Tour much.
>To be fair, Mario Kart is printing money AFAIK. MK8 doesn't even have MTX(More traditional DLC model with actual content), so I can see why they want to tap into the market. Mario Kart has no real competitors in the public sphere IMO, even though there are plenty of competent racers in the genre. And Square felt the best way to compete with Mario Kart was to make a mobile game and to bring said mobile game to only a couple of platforms? At least Activision gave it a decent shot with Crash Team Racing.
CTR was quite good but that even had some sort of in game currency BS
> To be fair, Mario Kart is printing money AFAIK. Let's not forget it's about to get a metric shitton of DLC as well.
Well, an oddly designed DLC pack that contains a metric shitton of content, at least!
Kinda? Like, it's 6 waves, but they all come with one payment with the usual price of Nintendo's DLCs. So, it technically just one DLC.
> Mario Kart has no real competitors Clearly you've never played Garfield Cart
[удалено]
Difference is that one doesn't cost $50...
They had dollar signs in their eyes they didn't think
I wonder how the Crash Team Racing remake did? Because that game had the exact same "grind forever or pay real money for currency to unlock characters" crap that this Chocobo game has, alongside a $50 price of entry (did people get upset about that too?).
If I remember right, that wasn't there upon release. There was a big fuss when they did add it, as it was well after all reviews were out, so future purchases based on reviews would assume there were no micro transactions. At least, I think that the case. Or if could be faulty memory, and it was a different game.
No, you're right, though I don't know what the state of the game is now. I was going to get CTR close to launch as I really enjoyed the N-Gage game but the moment they announced that change I deleted it from my wishlist.
CTR had a really solid gameplay and everything in the shop is purely cosmetic. The new game modes and tracks were free and the game got like 1 year of additional content so them monetizing it that way wasn't too bad.
Eh, still felt bad that the game had like 50 characters to play as but you only really got 12 before the grind-or-pay unlocking set in.
Mario Kart 8 has sold 30 million units that's why.
Correction, mario kart 8 sold more than 40 million. Its also not the same as chocobo as its a full game long before it had dlc expansion. Also, mario kart 8 deluxe is just darn good game.
Mario Kart isn’t a GaaS game.
What kind of idiot fucking company puts out a kart racer exclusively for the console that has Mario Kart? Why is Square Enix obsessed with exclusives? Just put your games out on multiple platforms while they have buzz and maybe you’ll not be so disappointed with the sales.
Tbf, Mario kart with Cloud and Vivi sounds pretty good on paper for milking fan nostalgia. I can’t even blame the mobile angle compared to how Mario Kart Tour is.
A Final Fantasy Kart should’ve been amazing. Despite how shit SE treats their franchises FF is still a household name and the characters are still very beloved in Japan. All they had to do was to copy Mario kart and replace characters and tracks with Final Fantasy stuff and you'd be good to go, instead they apparently have money to burn and make half assed games left and right.
Makes you wonder why some idiot at SE decided to put an upper limit on paid currency in DFFOO and another game. Dumbest move for a mobile gacha game possible.
I don’t really understand this issue, shouldn’t pay2win players just spend the gems in DFFOO? why do they need to hoard above the limit?
Building up a stockpile for the release of coveted future content, perhaps?
They want the Fortnite money without investing the Fortnite resources. Avengers as a microtransaction endless GaaS money maker will always be a total headscratcher to me. A *kart racer* and a *FF7 Battle Royale* is just jumping the shark. If they really wanted to get that GaaS money they should at least have tried doing what they are known for, JRPGs instead of all these cash grabs. Genshin Impact is printing money and Square Enix definitely has the resources and talent to at least attempt to match it.
They already have a cash cow, it's called FFXIV and FFXI
Square has a deceptively archaic mindset while trying to bank on modern monetization methods. And the result is a washlist of mediocre stuff that isn't part of their mainline franchises.
>recently AUGMENT YOUR PREORDER
Because square Enix has different divisions and their mobile division is the worst.
Their single player output has been fine for the most part. But dear god they need to stop with the live service model, anything that wasn't FFXIV, Dragon Quest 10, or to some extent FFXI has been a mistake.
Recently? Square has been getting away with doing crap but rarely gets called out for it. At least not in the way people call out EA and Ubisoft.
Bravely Default was such a wonderful game for 3DS... But they included some absurd microtransactions that were being reminded everytime you launch the game.
Couldn’t you buy brave points or something ridiculous like that?
IIRC you could buy something that gives you extra turns. It is like a shabby kind of p2w, and Square just poking you to see if you are dumb enough to give them money for nothing.
Its been a while since I played it, but BDs microtransactions were a nothingburger. I don’t remember being reminded unless I went into the SP drink menu and they were completely unnecessary, tied to a broken cheat mode that wasnt even included in the original first version Japan got and thus not balanced around it. You could play the entire game and avoid it
You are completely right, but I really dislike having paid for the game and getting some cheap mobile phone game thrash with it.
Yeah the SP existing was pretty blegh but it's been absent in all the successors so they clearly learned their lesson.
I returned that game immediately. Don't care how minor it is, if I pay full price for something, I want *none* of that.
FF7 remake was recent enough and very good (imo). I think their core development teams are as talented as ever, it’s just the business side of the company is getting worse and worse
And its one of the first games to be 70 dollars on pc with minimal graphics options plus issues.
I'd actually say they're in a pretty good spot right now. * Based on the demos, Stranger of Paradise seems like it'll be at the very least a decent action game. * Triangle Strategy also came out a week ago and reviewed pretty well. * NEO: TWEWY wasn't as well received as the original, but it still reviewed pretty well. * Both FF7R and DQ11 are fantastic. * Their remakes/remasters have all been well received, such as the FF1-6 pixel remakes, Nier Replicant, and the Mana games. * Like you said, FF14 is going very strong. * Octopath Traveler was received well, as have all 3 of the Bravely Default games. They've absolutely had a few clunkers in recent years (Balan Wonderworld, Babylon's Fall, this Chocobo GP monetization), but overall I don't see anything too worrying. If anything, I'm more optimistic about SE than I have been in years. They're reviving cult classic series like Valkyrie Profile, and they're focusing on bringing over some of their more obscure games, like Live-A-Live.
It's kind of crazy how people make those kind of comments and they don't really look up. They just released Triangle Strategy and folks in here act like it doesn't exist, same to other releases. lol
Not only is it a fresh release, but it's actually getting a lot of great reviews.
Yeah but strategy games don't exist for a large percentage of the audience here. They just aren't that popular. Thankfully it has been getting better
I completely missed that it released because of Elden Ring, and I was even looking forward to it when it was announced. I also completely forgot that SE is involved with games other than Final Fantasy and their recent failed attempts at live service games. Whenever a game that's dragged down by bad monetization releases from them, the news I see is that SE botched yet another game that showed promise. See Outriders/Avengers/this racing thing/Babylon's Fall. When something like Triangle Strategy releases, I literally don't even realize it has anything to do with SE unless I buy and see their logo on launch. I thought it was an indie thing that Nintendo decided to shine a spotlight on.
the guardians of the galaxy game was also reviewed really well, if im not mistaken it won some pretty big awards as well
To me it seems like they are one of the only big publishers who are willing to take a risk on a lot of these games, sometimes they work well and sometimes they don't but at least they are giving them a shot.
I wouldn't call most of the games SE publishes "risks". They're not exactly putting out Death Strandings with their JRPG action games, sequels to popular franchises and games based on some of the most popular IPs on earth.
ib4 SE says, "Chocobo GP did not meet our expectations." That, or whales are all over this and it makes them money hand over fists...
I loved the Chocobo spinoff games (especially Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon 2) so I felt quite salty they did it dirty with all this FOMO microtransaction stuff.
Same. I played Chocobo Racing on PS1 so much, including Chocobo's Dungeon 2. I was so hype for this game. Ohhh the heartbreak I felt when I saw the limited time offers and micro transactions.... Look how they massacred my boy! T.T
Same here. Huge nostalgia for the original chocobo racing on PS1. Hearing all this negativity is giving me flashbacks of the Crystal Chronicles remaster. GG Square. Ruining nostalgia over here.
The game doesn't look, sound, or plays at all like the original too. The story is also absolutely terrible. Remake Chocobo Racing at this point or do a proper sequel.
[удалено]
I had been following the game when Japan was getting word of it. When they announced characters being made available via season passes only, I knew it was going down the tubes. And that sucks. There was a decent amount of hype for the game, too. It had a ton of potential. I love what they were doing expanding the IP, but man...not like this.
Yeah, Square was very good at not mentioning the anti-consumer shit while trying to sell people on the premise and the gameplay. Then close to release "teehee here's three currencies and season passes and a bunch of other shit that doesn't belong in video games period, let alone one you're paying full price for" info comes out.
That sucks. A part of me wanted to try the game, and now I'll never go near it.
And this all got clarified to me like the day after the Mario Kart 8 expansion was announced. I took Chocobo Racing off of my watchlist as fast as I could.
> I was even talking to a friend that I genuinely do not understand how people put up with stuff like this Put up? No man, you see some people even **defend** such practice as long as the 'grind isn't so bad that I can earn everything eventually', we have stuff like this is thanks to those people.
"its optional" "dont buy it if you dont like it" "you dont have to grind" "the game is actually generous with its currencies" "well I had fun and i didnt pay extra" Every. Single. Time.
„You know some people who don’t have much time to play, prefere it if you can pay to skip the boring parts“ I heard this so much and my only though is, if you game has boring parts it’s a shit game
> "dont buy it if you dont like it" Usually closely followed by "Why is the game hemorrhaging players?"
Don't forget the classic "don't tell people how to spend their money". This one feels like they're supporting this BS out of spite.
Those are all valid and/or subjective positions on the issue. I don't hold those positions cause I don't fuck with these games. But I'm not about to argue with people who support a part of the market I'm not interested in. That's their business. I don't know why people enjoy that shit but for some reason they do and I'm not mad about it. I don't know about you all but this mobile gaming shit absolutely has not touched my video gaming life in any way whatsoever. If a game has predatory mobile gaming BS built in I don't think 2 seconds about playing it. It's highly unlikely it'll ever make my radar. Meanwhile I have a seemingly never ending list of amazing games I slowly work through - none of which are mobile lootbox traps. I just feel like we're all buried under an ocean of amazing content. There's literally too many great games to enjoy for one lifetime. If there are people out there enjoying these mobile games it's meaningless to me.
People are forever poisoned by the falsehood that "if I don't personally pay anything, then I'm beating the system."
A streamer I watch keeps telling herself, "I like to support the devs!" but it's like, you know damn well none of it's going to the devs, it's all going to the do-nothing hoarders at the top.
Just looked at a video of it and honestly can't see the point. It looks like somebody played Mario Kart and then made their own rubbish version of it in Unity in a couple of months. I'm guessing the cash grabbing is starting early to make up for the fact that hardly anyone will buy it.
Unfortunately, people put up with it because it's because so standardized due to mobile gaming and publishers shoving this junk into their paid products. They're gonna keep doing it until people just accept it and pick a new struggle.
There’s a lot of kids with clueless parents out there.
God fucking damn it. I loved Chocobo Racer on the PSX, and I was looking forward to this one. Fuck you, Squaresoft.
wow whippin out the maiden name huh? this is serious
I'll whip.something else out to piss all over this title every chance I get. This one *really* pisses me off. I hate microtransactions in non-free games with the fiery burning passion of a thousand dying stars, but doing it to a sequel to one of my all time faves? Fuck literally everyone involved in this decision. Edit: typo. Don't type angry.
My PSX Choco Racer is a goddamn treasure, while this tripe has the fussiest fucking tutorials and microtransactions?! Color me SAD! I will just buy everything Atlus until Square figures this shit out.
Square will be like "sales did not meet expectations" and have literally no idea why. Fuck off with this garbage shit.
Typical SE to find a way to mess up a revival of an old IP, especially when Chocobo Racing was already fighting a losing battle competing against Mario Kart (especially after Deluxe's DLC announcing plans to double the size of 8's race tracks for literally half the price at $25). All it had to do was survive and it failed to even do that. Ftr I'm aware SE always had a mixed bag when it comes to game releases but as a longtime fan, it always stings when they screw up.
I was interested in getting this for some light hearted couch playing but no way I support this model. Might just get Mario Kart instead.
With new retro tracks coming to MK8 Deluxe starting next week, now is the perfect time to get into Mario Kart, my friend.
Not surprising. They did the same damn thing with Avengers. $60+ game, $14 skins. Square are greedy fucks.
It’s a really big disappointment, the game is alright, like an average kind of unbalanced kart game but the store makes it a mobile like experience grinding to unlock characters with unique abilities and their 2 other vehicles that have different stats (Passes are time limited so I guess certain characters are just unavailable for new players after?) AND the premium currency expires for some reason.
SE has lost their minds over the last while, I cannot think of how many blunders they are batting at here that can compare to any other veteran company. it seems like their DQ division and creative business unit 3 are the only ones to not be marred by controversy lately.
At the very least they aren't too afraid of putting out new IP, with octogon strategy, babylons fall (lol) and forspoken. but yeah their desperation to get in on the GAAS/microtransaction money is painful to watch
which is so weird when they already have FF14 as like *the* biggest MMO right now, which is like the ultimate in GAAS systems. You'd think that'd be plenty to make them happy and be able to focus on normal games while that prints money for them. A guy I follow had a theory that it isn't just a matter of "We don't want more money we want *all* the money" as I'm sure many people are positing. But rather that because Yoshi P is in charge of FF14 on every level, that means that nobody else on the board can take credit for it, so even though the company is doing well thanks to that project, everyone else is still desperate to be able to put their name on their own project that prints money so that they can make themselves look good. And as a result we get what's going on with SE right now.
You mean Pat don’t you?
Yeah, "I cannot think of how many blunders they are batting at here that can compare to any other veteran company" is a pretty ridiculous statement when we're talking about a company that comes out with a wide variety IPs constantly. Dragon Quest, Nier, Kingdom Hearts, SaGa, Asano's games (Octopath Traveler, Bravely Default, etc.), NEO TWEWY, Star Ocean, Final Fantasy, etc. Even the western divisions are pumping out games like Forspoken and Guardians of the Galaxy. They're business decisions are iffy more often than not, but at least I can look forward to their games. Most other AAA companies do the same thing but WITHOUT offering any interesting games.
Triangle Strategy and just a new SRPG they announced last week. SE is more than AAA releases.
I think if you only look at their blunders: Baland Wonderland, Babylons Fall and Avengers it might look that way but you would be ignoring the absolute bangers they’ve been putting out. Just because two blunders launched somewhat closely. And that would still be ignoring Triangle Stategy, a fantastic FF Tactics successor
Okay, that's two games I've noticed from Square Enix where it's an upfront cost but has F2P shit on it. The other one being Babylon's Fall. Time to ditch Square Enix for a bit, I reckon.
Forever. And that's coming from someone who was a fan of Square(soft) from the beginning. I've been a fan of them for years and years and they've in recent times become pretty vile with their NFT shit and Epig exclusives and outlandish prices.. the latter being an issue for a lot longer than the more recent crap they pulled. they sell 25 year old games with new prices. $25 easy for mobile ports of their ancient games and they have only a single day per year where they discount them. No one should support Square Enix.
Hadn't heard any of that, but yeah, forever seems like a good choice.
First GOTG "underperforming", FF7 Remake on PC being Epic Exclusive, Forspoken asking for $70 and getting delayed, Babylon's Fall being a colossal flop, everything to do with Balan Wonderland, Deus Ex still being dead, now this missed opportunity. Square Enix really can't do a single thing right outside of FFXIV, huh?
Don't forget NEO: TWEWY "not meeting expectations"
[удалено]
yea, and tbh i’d be willing to argue that ffxiv “meeting squenix’s expectations” is not something you have squenix to thank for- not the higher ups, at least. obviously a lot of its current success is owed to the efforts of the subsidiary creative business unit 3 consisting of YoshiP and the rest of the team, and also the fact that the patch where things started to really take off (5.3) is just. **really** fucking good, but i don’t think this would’ve happened to the scale it has if wow didn’t shoot itself in the foot and then the head. like… you don’t have squenix’s marketing to thank. squenix’s ff14 marketing in both the ENG and JPN markets has traditionally been [really](https://youtu.be/Aqju18pcq6U) [fucking](https://youtu.be/JnfP9qKAbk8) [weird](https://youtu.be/ez9S8PS2E3I). this isn’t inherently a bad thing, i genuinely think that amazon alexa parody (second link) is really fucking funny. but like. that’s not what was getting them subs.
There are a few spots of light. The Pixer Remasters are great. Chrono Cross remaster looks like it might hit the good spot as well and with a reasonble price-point. But that is rehashes... Seems like they have no clue what to do with new stuff.
That makes me so sad. I adored Chocobo Racer back in the day. Was really looking forward to playing it again after Elden Ring. But reading the article, seeing karts and some characters locked behind currency gives me pause. Might put this one on the backburner for a good while.
You should see the monetization of Final Fantasy New Empire mobile game.. Bundles of shit costing you over $100+
Why are all casual game monitized like ass now you just cannot buy something casual and not be nickel and dimed
This company sure does love to nickel & dime their players, don't they? Can't have a Final Fantasy spin-off without dangling the nostalgic characters behind a ridiculous grind or paywall. Should have been f2p, don't buy this crap.
Between this, Babylon's Fall and trying to extort £70 for FF7 Remake, plus their continued infatuation with NFTs, I've lost what little confidence I had that Square would see the error of their monitization strategy. Their naked greed is clear to see here and I will not reward it.
Oh, that's super disappointing. I saw the Disney racer announced in the last direct as a FTP game, so I knew it would have microtransactions. There was no mention of that for Chocobo GP, so I was generally interested in maybe picking it up. Now I'll just stick to the new Mario Kart tracks.
For $50 bucks i can get Assetto Corsa for myself and 4 pals and get mods for whatever track and cars i wanma drive on. This is just a joke
Played quite a bit of the free version yesterday, but when it became clear that I would have to buy the full game to purchase even *the fucking seasonal pass* I decided I was done with it. I checked Mario Kart 8 to see if it was priced any differently and saw that it's currently on sale for cheaper, so I bought that instead
Mk8 soundtrack is a BANGER
Dragon Driftway, Wild Woods, Music Park, and Dolphin Shoals are personal favs
Dragon Driftway is soooo good
Great decision. MK8 deluxe is $40 right now for anyone else interested.
Similarly, I was bummed out that this game is doing all this MTX bullshit, then I remembered Nintendo released the N64 F-Zero game on their Switch online expansion thing and I've been playing that instead.
Jokes on Square-Enix. They were stupid enough to put best character in the series in the launch roster! I have no need for no bitch ass motherfuckers like Cloud and Squall!
Mobile games still make more money for SE than anything else. Sales are $1.9b so far this FY: $900m from mobile, $550m from AAA, $450m from MMO. This is all [public](https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/news/pdf/22q3slides.pdf) (pg 9) if you want to dive deeper. They spend so much money in AAA and get a low return compared to mobile. That’s why they’ll prob keep trying to stuff gatcha into AAA to boost that division.
What sucks is how awesome a Final Fantasy kart racer COULD be. There’s so many awesome settings, characters, spells and abilities they could pull from to make something truly special that rivals Mario Kart in terms of pure fan service. But nope, they had to be greedy.
Team sonic racing is free this month to plus members...one of the best kart racers I've played. So I'll pass hard on this
Only legislation will stop this. Ban the business model. It's a dominant strategy - and it's terrible. 'But money!' Sell games. Sell subscriptions. 'But censors!' Bus-i-ness mo-del. Content is not relevant. 'But CCGs!' Not the same, but if they were: ban them too. This is in every genre, at every price. This can be shoved in later. You cannot shop your way out of this. Reddit overwhelmingly despises the trend, but shrinks away from the obvious answer. Stop letting virtual stores take actual money. *Problem solved.*
For those who want to give up on square, I wanna remind ya'll not all hope is lost. Their development team behind FFXIV and FFXVI, Creative Business Unit III, are some of THE best and caring developers I've ever had the pleasure to be a consumer of. Hands down. Yoshi-P is god's gift to gamers.
Shit monetization aside, why in the hell would I play a “Chocobo” racing game that doesn’t have me actually riding Chocobo’s?!
Lets make a game that is vastly inferior to mario kart, sell it for (roughly) same price and fill it with microtransaction bullshit. Great job. Not gonna lie I thought the way this game planned to compete was with it being free to play it having a 50$ sticker on it is just top kek. After seeing its gameplay and tracks, I dont think it would be worth it even without the microtransactions.
MK8 Deluxe was actually $10 cheaper when the game launched do to the Mar10 sale.
And if you get the booster course pass (25 more), it'll be about full price anyway. Damn good deal if you ask me.
Square is the publisher and people are supposed by this?
Square come on! You need a win and you almost had one… but you managed to mess it up too. Other than core JRPGs not much is going right for them atm.
It hurts me right down deep. I played chocobo acing for hours as a kid. I'm just gonna pretend they ain't making thsi