Square Enix has a company has been throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks. One of their new developments has been in production for some time, called Gameglobe. We want to go over what they are trying to do with it, things that have done like this before and whether this will work for them as a company.
The Gameglobe System Itself
The basic idea centers around Little Big Planet style art and creation tools that allow you to make games from templates. Things like beat-em-ups and platformers, as you might expect. You create your world from sets of tiles and terrain. Set the rules for it, then play. We have seen more than a few systems like this in the modern day but it does look nice at least.
The Mixed History of GameGlobe
This game went from being highly promoted, to having a beta and then on to having free registrations. They eventually closed everything up and left some people wondering what is going on. Now they are finally putting out new videos and gearing up for what appears to be a second full release, perhaps in a different format. If you want to play it well, you may have to wait for a bit. At the time of this writing the site was still closed up. However we find it a safe bet they are firing it back up since they are releasing PR videos in 2014.
We believe this may have had to do with the fact that at the time the internet was swarming with sub-par make-your-own-game sites. To some extent it still is. However if your game gets lumped in with that it can become very hard to sell. It seems that Square-Enix has told some of the press to ignore the past on this matter as people are doing “previews” for the “hot new game”. How amusing.
Will Gameglobe Finally Work for Square-Enix?
As well as anything else they have tried recently. From the successful Deus Ex to the Lackluster responses to Final Fantasy and the remakes of Tomb Raider they are a company without an identity. Square had FF, Enix published Dragon Quest among others.
In the modern day their conglomerate is all over the place. They have a ton of franchises that do not work with each other well. They try new games out that sink or swim. While trying to innovate should always be applauded, we are worried that the company may be hurt by not having a plan. Tell us what you think about it.
