Square Enix松田洋祐：东西交融的开发策略

（Square Enix的CEO松田洋祐的东西交融的开发战略以及AR和VR技术在游戏中的应用）

原作者：James Batchelor 译者：Vivian Xue

日本游戏发行商Square Enix的西方游戏出现了很多问题。

今年年初， SE从《杀手》（Hitman）系列开发商IO Interactive撤资，二者正式“分家”,看来去年发售的章节表现没有达到双方预期。旗下游戏《杀出重围：人类分裂》（Deus Ex： Mankind Divided）销量一度惨淡，我们的姐妹网站Eurogamer的报道中曾提到过这个系列已被搁置。早在五月份，SE旗下工作室Eidos Montreal的主管David Anfossi用诙谐的方式发推表示，由于缺乏资源，《神偷5》开发暂时无望了。

就连《古墓丽影》（Tomb Raider）这样非凡的作品，在这家游戏发行商眼中，成功也非一帆风顺。这款游戏2013年的销量未能达到预期，发行一年后才突破了利润预期。

tomb raider effect(from thepunkeffect)

人们很容易认为Square在西方市场的运营正面临困境，但事实并非完全如此。SE社长松田洋祐此前向GamesIndustry.biz透露了SE放弃《杀手》IP的原因，并分享了公司其他系列游戏的现状。

对于大众认为公司西方游戏举步维艰的观点，松田洋祐表示：“我认为这里存在很多的误解。首先，《古墓丽影》是我们很重要的一个游戏IP，这是不变的。”

“我出任董事（2013年）的上一个财年公司的总体营业额并不乐观，而就在财年末，也就是三月份，《古墓丽影》发行了，因此我们对它都抱着很高的期待。现在回过头来看，当时我们设的目标过高了。”

“我说的这些不过是后见之明罢了，但是当时《古墓丽影》的开发人手少得可怜，我们所有人大概都把希望寄托在这部作品上，指望它能在年终带来不错的收入。不过最终它的销量没能达到我们的预期。”

当然，这部冒险游戏新作还是取得了傲人的销售成绩。如今，2013版《古墓丽影》的全球累计销量超过1100万，2015年的系列续作《古墓丽影：崛起》的销量将近700万，要知道它发行第一年还没推出PS4版本。（PS4是游戏市场的主宰）

对于之前媒体对《杀出重围》系列将再无续作报道，松田洋祐马上给予否定，“我们从没说过要停止这个系列的开发，但不知道为什么市场上出现了这样的谣言。”

“我只能说，Eidos Montreal一直在开发《杀出重围》，问题是我们现在没有足够的资源。我们同时在开发几个大型游戏，这从某种程度上会影响开发的阵容。当然，如果可以每时每刻进行所有项目的开发自然是最理想的，但是事实却是，有些项目不得不等一等，《杀出重围》就是其中之一，目前它还在我们的开发队列之中，因为我们手头还有其他的项目。”

他补充道，《杀出重围》是一个十分重要的IP，它作为一款第一人称射击游戏，在SE的众多作品中的无疑占据着独特的地位。松田说：“我们已经在内部研究讨论如何开发下一部《杀出重围》了。”

尽管松田并没有明确谈到《神偷》系列，但这一系列同样是Eidos Montreal开发的，因此毫无疑问目前它和《杀出重围》情况差不多，都将被搁置一段时间。这很大程度上是因为SE联合漫威宣布了一项多年期的合作计划，作为SE旗下的工作室Eidos将参与多个游戏的研发。

据悉《古墓丽影》的开发商Crystal Dynamics 也参与到了这个合作计划中，目前正在开发复仇者联盟的主题游戏。目前给人的感觉是，SE旗下许多工作室团队几乎都投入到了漫威的项目中。

“我无法给出确切的数量，”松田告诉我们，“但我们确实正把大量的开发资源投入到他们身上，尤其是西方的工作室。”

漫威是当下最大的娱乐产业品牌之一，但与每年量产各种超级英雄电影的巨头好莱坞相比，人们得等上更长的一段时间才能看到SE公司与漫威的合作成果。难道这个日本发行商就不担心到了产品准备发行的时候，人们早已对这些超级英雄们感到厌倦了？单从漫威和DC两家排队上映的电影数量来看，观众难免会对同样的套路心生厌烦。

“如果我们抱着这样的想法，我们将什么都做不了，”松田说。“这（观众的喜好变化）不仅仅是游戏行业的一个因素，整个娱乐行业大体如此。无论如何，我们会做到最好。”

“就目前来看，我认为我们正在开发的游戏的水平十分令人惊叹，很快你们就会看到相关新闻。我一直坚持定期检查游戏制作，看起来简直棒极了。”

近年来该公司的西方游戏或许让大众有些失望，但日本本土游戏IP的表现却截然不同。依靠近期日本最畅销两大游戏《最终幻想》（Final Fantasy）和《勇者斗恶龙》（Dragon Quest ），SE公司获得了创纪录的利润。

这一切多亏了《最终幻想》系列的“起死回生”，Rob Fahey年初讨论过这一点。去年发行的《最终幻想15》获得的巨大成功和MMO游戏《最终幻想14》持续被热捧再次验证了旗舰RPG游戏对SE的重要性。

“它（《最终幻想》）是我们将一直开发下去的系列，这个系列不仅对我们来说很重要，同时也带给了我们极大的乐趣，”松田说，“每次选择《最终幻想》开发团队对我们来说都是一个挑战。这些开发者们总是承受着很大的压力。”

“游戏开发过程中，创新是关键。一方面要保持主题的连贯性，但同时我们也应当挑战自我，试着做出一些超越上一部作品的东西或者从没出现过的东西，我们在第14和15部中保持了这一传统。我认为这是一种成功。”

《最终幻想15》是SE迄今为止在跨媒体制作上最大的一次尝试。在游戏发行前，SE先推出了一个简短的角色介绍动画和一部前传电影。此前SE对《杀出重围：人类分裂》也有类似的计划，在游戏中构建一些《杀出重围：宇宙》的元素，但这一想法没能实现。难道《最终幻想》让松田破例开始为游戏增添其他娱乐形式了？

“《最终幻想15》 是一个成功的例子，”CEO承认，“至于未来我们是否会试图将跨媒体应用到所有的游戏中，我想应该视具体情况而定。有些情况下很合适，有些却并不合适……所以未来我还是会基于个体做决定。”

“归根结底，我们已经在游戏行业扎根了。开发游戏才是我们工作的基础，这一点是不变的。”

《最终幻想》和《勇者斗恶龙》的热卖，后者也许稍逊一筹，为这个游戏开发商带来的不只是日本本土的成功——《最终幻想》在西方市场表现也十分优秀。是日本开发商们越来越善于制作具有全球吸引力的游戏，还是西方消费者们开始接受东方观念了？松田认为这是行业内正在发生的变化。

“鉴于PS3和Xbox 360的普及，日本开发商意识到他们得跟上步伐，”松田认为。“SE也不例外。但是后来的一场换代的确给我们上了昂贵的一课。”

“在开发《最终幻想15》时，我告诉开发者们，他们认为什么最好就怎么去做，不需要过于在意西方开发者的做法。他们应该按照自己的想法去做，这样才能做出最吸引人的东西。当时日本其他的发行商大概都抱着这样的想法。大家开始致力于充分利用自己的优势。”

“无论是日本的开发商还是西方的开发商，我相信只要他们充分挖掘自己的特质，他们同样可以制作出最棒的游戏。”

《最终幻想》和《勇者斗恶龙》的回归抵消了人们对SE的西方游戏的失望，但SE坚持认为东西交融的产品组合策略才是最佳的选择。尽管在过去的一年里，日式游戏是公司的大部分收入来源，松田也注意到一些由海外工作室开发的游戏表现也十分优秀。

他补充道：“在我看来，公司并没有对东西方工作室进行区分管理，而是统筹安排全球项目的开发。”

这位CEO还注意到产品的生命周期越来越长，这使得产品在发布后能够为公司带来更长久的经济效益。他举了《正当防卫3》（游戏邦注Cause 3）的例子，这一游戏让SE摆脱了折旧成本，对公司的收入做出了坚实的贡献，《古墓丽影》也做出了主要贡献。

“从收入的角度来看，这些生命周期长的产品才是真正有吸引力的产品，”他说：“如何开发出这样的产品对我们的商业模式来说至关重要。”

有趣的是，SE公司在手游领域也同样保持 “东西平衡”。这家游戏发行商的大部分手游都是在东方开发的，因此更有可能吸引日本、韩国、中国和其他相似市场的消费者，但它在西方市场也具有吸引力。

为吸引更多的西方智能手机用户，松田称Square Enix Montreal（Hitman Go、Lara Croft Go和Deus Ex Go的开发者）的就是SE手游业务的“中坚力量”，但他也认识到西方手游开发工作室的数量必须得到改善，这涉及到产品的最终用户。

“如果说还有哪一块我们还没能够尽全力去做的话，应该就是美国——呃，西方市场没错，但尤其是美国。”如今关键是如何让我们的游戏进入榜单，一个方法是发挥我们的IP的影响力，特别是日本本土IP。”

该公司确实这么做了，日美合制游戏《王国之心》（Kingdom Hearts）和一款基于《最终幻想15》的策略游戏，风格近似加州游戏开发商Machine Zone的大热作品《战争游戏》（Game of War）都取得了不错的成绩。但是松田还是想做出些新鲜的东西。“我相信Square Enix Montreal有能力开发出一些和日式游戏风格不一样的作品，同时能吸引到美国玩家”他说，“他们有能力制作出全球热卖的游戏，尤其是美国市场。我们现在正致力于探索F2P游戏不同的可能性。”

松田向我们透露说，Montreal团队对AR技术格外关注，虽然他无法详细告知我们任何潜在的项目。

“我相信移动端AR市场的吸引力在未来必将得到证明”他说，“我们的这个团队无论在研发还是技术方面都有很深的造诣。在AR领域，新兴的游戏公司就比较难获得成功了，因为它需要强大技术支持。”

多亏了Google和苹果两家公司提供的开发工具包，AR成为了当下的投资热点。但是这一经过多年实验的技术却尚未在游戏中得到广泛的应用，目前的AR技术在游戏中更像一种噱头，被视为AR游戏时代曙光的《精灵宝可梦GO》（Pokémon Go）的新奇之处也不过是让玩家看到在沙发上生成的皮卡丘罢了。

松田当然也意识到了这一点，“一款成功的AR游戏在设计时就必须加入AR元素，否则是没有用的。”

“苹果和Google公司当前正致力于提供更复杂的技术，AR元素终将成为游戏的重要部分。到时，游戏创作将成为关键因素，游戏将变得更加吸引人，我相信我们马上就会迎来这一天。”

相比之下，SE目前更加关注VR领域。尽管该公司已经尝试制作了《最终幻想15》的衍生VR游戏Monsters of the Deep，他们认为，无论是对于游戏公司还是玩家来说，当前的市场尚未成熟，投资和被投资均无法得到保障。

“当前VR和AR区别在于VR对于使用者的资金投入要求很高”松田解释道，“PlayStation相对没那么贵，但是其他的VR设备，比如头戴式显示器等，需要大量的资金，消费者们会因此犯难。也许随着时间的推移，VR设备价格高的问题会得到解决，但在那一天来临之前，如何获取大量的用户，我觉得是一件很困难的事。”

“我们的原则是，如果我们能用VR创造出有趣的元素，我们会很乐意向大众提供它。但我们不会为了做VR而做VR。”

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

It’s would be easy to argue that Square Enix has suffered a lot of problems with its Western-developed franchises.

Earlier this year, the publisher split with Hitman developer IO Interactive, indicating that last year’s episodic outing hadn’t performed as well as either party had hoped. After disappointing sales of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, our sister site Eurogamer reported that the series had been put on hold. A humourous tweet back in May from Eidos Montreal studio head David Anfossi implies there’s no resources for a fifth Thief game.

Even the mighty Tomb Raider seems to have struggled in the eyes of the publisher, failing to meet its initial sales expectations back in 2013 and only beating profit expectations a year after release.

It’s would be easy to argue that Square Enix has suffered a lot of problems with its Western-developed franchises.

Earlier this year, the publisher split with Hitman developer IO Interactive, indicating that last year’s episodic outing hadn’t performed as well as either party had hoped. After disappointing sales of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, our sister site Eurogamer reported that the series had been put on hold. A humourous tweet back in May from Eidos Montreal studio head David Anfossi implies there’s no resources for a fifth Thief game.

Even the mighty Tomb Raider seems to have struggled in the eyes of the publisher, failing to meet its initial sales expectations back in 2013 and only beating profit expectations a year after release.

“What I can say is Eidos Montreal has always developed Deus Ex, and the issue is we do not have limitless resources. We have several big titles that we work with and that’s partly a factor in what our line-up looks like. Of course, it would be ideal if we could work on all of them all of the time, but the fact of the matter is some titles have to wait their turn. The reason there isn’t a Deus Ex right now is just a product of our development line-up because there are other titles we are working on.”

He went on to add that Deus Ex is also a “very important franchise” for the publisher, highlighting its unique position in Square Enix’s portfolio as a first-person title, and added: “We are already internally discussing and exploring what we want do with the next instalment of it.”

While Matsuda didn’t address Thief specifically, the stealth series is also developed at Eidos Montreal so is no doubt in the same position at Deus Ex. This is in no small part because Eidos Montreal is one of several studios working on Square Enix’s multi-year, multi-game partnership with Marvel Studios.

We already know Crystal Dynamics has also been assigned to this, currently developing an Avengers game, but the impression is that many of the publisher’s studios have some if not all of their teams devoted to Marvel.

“I can’t really go into specific numbers,” Matsuda tells us, “but I can say we’re dedicating considerable development resources to them, especially out of the Western studios.”

Marvel is one of the biggest brands in entertainment right now, but while the Hollywood giant is able to churn out multiple superhero flicks per year it will be a much longer wait before we see the fruits of its Square Enix partnership. Is the Japanese publisher not concerned that by the time its products are ready for release, the public will have grown bored of superhero outings? Certainly with the number of films planned from just Marvel and DC alone, it’s easy to imagine cinemagoers tiring of the formula.

“There would be nothing we could do at all if that was the view we took,” Matsuda says. “That’s not just a factor in the gaming industry, this is something that’s true about the entertainment industry in general. At any rate, we intend to do our best.

“I believe that the level of the game that we’re developing right now, as far as I have seen, is amazing and you’ll be seeing news about it going forward. I make a point of regularly checking on the build, and to me it looks amazing.”

While there may have been some disappointments from Western franchises over the past few years, it’s a very different story for the firm’s long-running Japanese-based IP. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest have been the publisher’s biggest sellers in recent times, helping Square Enix achieve record profits.

This is in no small part thanks to the dramatic turnaround seen from the Final Fantasy series, which our own Rob Fahey discussed earlier this year. The triumph of last year’s Final Fantasy XV and ongoing success of MMO outing Final Fantasy XIV has reaffirmed how important the flagship RPG franchise is to Square Enix.

“It’s not something we could ever discontinue, so in that sense it’s a very important franchise for us but also a source of great pressure,” Matsuda says. “Each time, it’s a challenge for us to decide what kind of team to put on Final Fantasy. The developers always work under a lot of pressure.

“Innovation is the key. Of course the motif is consistent, but we need to always challenge ourselves, to do something that surpasses the previous instalment or to provide something different to what we’ve had before. I think we were able to maintain that tradition with both XIV and XV, and I see that as an achievement.”

FFXV also represented Square Enix’s biggest attempt to date at creating a transmedia franchise. The game’s release was preceded by a short anime series that introduced the characters, and a prequel movie setting up the story. There were similar plans to build around Mankind Divided with a range of Deus Ex Universe products, but this never came to pass. Has Final Fantasy encouraged Matsuda to take his brands into all forms of entertainment?

“Final Fantasy XV was an example of that going very well,” the CEO acknowledges. “As to whether we intend to do that for all titles going forward, I would say no, it’s going to be on a case-by-case basis. There are some instances where that will fit very well and others where it won’t… so I want to make that decision on an individual basis going forward.

“At the end of the day, we are rooted in the games industry. Having solid games is at the basis of everything we do, and that’s not going to change.”

Strong sales for Final Fantasy and, perhaps to a lesser extent, Dragon Quest are not just a Japanese boon for the publisher – the former certainly performs well in the West. Have Japanese developers become better at creating games with global appeal, or are Western consumers simply showing a taste for Eastern ideas. Matsuda believes this is the product an ongoing industry shift.

“Given the popularity of PS3 and Xbox 360, Japanese developers became particularly aware they needed to catch up to those things,” he posits. “That also was actually going on at Square Enix as well. But then there was a generational shift and I will acknowledge that we learned an expensive lesson.

“In the case of Final Fantasy XV, I told the developers they should do what they thought was best, that there was no need for them to be overly conscious about what the Western developers do. They should do what they wanted to do and that would prove the most attractive. And probably the same kind of thing was going on at other Japense publishers as well. People started working on leveraging their own strengths.

“This isn’t something that just applies to Japanese developers but also to the Western developers. I believe they’re able to create the best games when they develop titles leveraging their own individuality.”

The resurgence of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest may have offset any disappointments with Western releases, but Square Enix maintains that its portfolio will always benefit from a blend of East and West. While the past year has seen the majority of earnings from new titles generated by Japanese games, Matsuda observes that catalogue sales show “quite strong performances from the products of our overseas studios.”

He adds: “From my perspective, the management doesn’t make a distinction between the Japanese and Western studios, but rather checks the line-up across the board.”

The CEO goes on to observe that the “lifecycles of our products has been getting longer”, enabling them to bolster Square Enix’s financials long after launch. He offers the example of Just Cause 3, for which Square Enix “no longer has any depreciation costs”, making it a solid contributor to the publisher’s earnings. Tomb Raider is also a major contributor.

“The catalogue titles and them selling over a longer period of time is very attractive from an earnings perspective,” he says. “How we go about building a backlog of titles like that is actually very important to our business model.”

Another interesting perspective into the balanced between East and West at Square Enix is the mobile space. The vast majority of the publisher’s mobile titles are developed in the East, and therefore most likely to attract audiences in Japan, Korea, China and other similar markets. But it does still have a Western presence in the mobile space.

Matsuda describes Square Enix Montreal – developer of Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go and Deus Ex Go – as “the centrepiece of our mobile effort” to attract more Western smartphone owners, but recognises that the number of Western studios working on mobile games is “something we need to bolster and work hard on”. This also extends to reaching the end users, he says.

“If there’s an area where we have not done all that we could have up until now, it would have to be the US – well, the Western markets but especially the US. The question there is how we go about getting our titles into the upper rankings, and one way we can do that is by leveraging our IP, especially our Japanese IP.”

The firm is already seeing decent performances from a mobile outing of Kingdom Hearts and a strategy game based on Final Fantasy XV, styled much like Californian developer Machine Zone’s insanely popular Game of War. But Matsuda remains determined to bring something fresh to the space.

“I believe Square Enix Montreal is capable of producing titles that have something of a different taste from what we offer in our Japanese titles, something that will appeal to US players as well,” he says. “They have the capability of providing games that can be successful in the global market, especially the US. We’re currently exploring different possibilities with free-to-play, so that is something we’re working on.”

The Montreal team is particularly focused on augmented reality, Matsuda reveals to us, although he is unable to offer any concrete details on potential projects.

“I believe the mobile AR market is going to prove to be attractive going forwards,” he says. “That team is very skilled in terms of both development and technical prowess. In particular, AR is a space where you need strong technical skills so I don’t think it’s an area where a newly-emerging game company is going to be very successful, but I think Square Enix Montreal can perform well in that space. We’re working on mobile AR efforts across the company, but in particular it’s an area where I have high expectations for the Montreal team.”

Augmented reality is enjoying a fresh wave of investment at the moment, thanks to efforts by both Google and Apple with their respective development tools. But several years of experimentation with augmented reality has yet to deliver many titles where the technology is little more than a gimmick – even the mighty Pokémon Go, hailed (perhaps incorrectly) as the dawn of a new age for AR games merely offers the novelty of seeing Pikachu in your lounge.

This is something Matsuda is also very conscious of: “For AR to be successful, the game design has to make it so that there’s some element that has to be AR or else it doesn’t work.

“Apple and Google are putting a lot of effort in at the moment so the technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated and we’re reaching the point where the AR element can be an essential part of the game. Once that happens, the only key element that remains is the creators, so I do think that we are reaching the point where it can be an important factor in the game that makes it more appealing.”

Square Enix is being much more cautious with virtual reality. While it has dipped its toe in with FFXV spin-off Monsters of the Deep, the publisher believes that the market has not been established enough to warrant significant investment – and this applies to both games firms and consumers alike.

“What separates VR from AR right now is the heavy investment that VR requires from the users,” Matsuda explains. “The PlayStation offering is comparatively inexpensive but other VR options require significant investment from users. It requires the head-mounted display and things like that, so there are considerable hurdles to getting users to try it. Those are things that time will eventually resolve but in terms of what to do up until then, until it gets a critical mass of users, I think it’s quite difficult.

“Our policy is that if there is some kind of fun element that we can generate with VR, that it has to be VR in order for it to be fun, then of course we would like to provide that. But we don’t have the intention of doing VR for the sake of it.”(source：GamesIndustry.biz ）