Japanese developer Square Enix has revealed the firm will be looking to grow its presence in India and expand its business in the region in 2020.The Japanese company entered India in 2013 only to shut its doors a year later, laying off all its staff. In 2015 it was present at the Nasscom Game Developer’s Conference to vet potential Indian studios to work with. Now, in a statement labelled ‘A New Year’s Letter from president’, Square Enix’s president and representative director Yosuke Matsuda, has said that Square Enix plans to re-enter India and pursue “robust expansion”. Which is interesting when you consider it usually focusses on polished, mid-core games versus the usual casual fare that makes up most of the app stores and mindspace of Indian gamers.
This news was made public via a New Year’s letter posted online by Matsude, who confirmed that India’s “developing telecommunications and payment infrastructure” makes the market “extremely promising” for entertainment consumption.
In the letter, Matsude also noted the increased interest in Japan’s mobile game market but mentioned how “its growth has slowed” due to the best-selling games remaining on top for the large part of the year. Going forward, he believes that people will be looking for something new and original more than ever, with those that are able to achieve this being able to survive in the new era.
At the time, our sources also let on that the Japan-based company was looking to publish “midcore, AA games for mobile with an emphasis on story.” Midcore games usually sit between complex console and PC fare like Dota 2 and mobile games like Subway Surfer, such as Machine Zone’s Game of War: Fire Age.
Other topics touched upon included the increased awareness of cloud streaming and the role that 5G will play in the coming years:
“Our efforts to develop cloud-native or cloud-centric titles are already underway, and we will strive to create new gaming experiences.We naturally face a mountain of challenges, including technological hurdles that must be overcome and issues with telecommunications costs. However, we have no doubt that cloud gaming will represent a major trend over the next five years as we enter the age of 5G and that our strategies for flexibly responding to that trend will be key.We intend to stay on top of new developments and leverage cloud gaming to drive new growth,” said Matsude.
Signing off the letter, the president states the importance of further incoming technologies such as AR glasses, XR and blockchain. All of which the company sees as “opportunities”.
Square Enix profits from games increased by 33 per cent for the six months ended on September 30, 2019, with its mobile division contributing heavily.
