Could Square Enix and Eidos create IP together? Could they work with each others' IP? Here, Square Enix CEO and president Yoichi Wada and Eidos CEO Phil Rogers discuss with Gamasutra the intertwined creative future of the two companies.
Japanese third-party giant Square Enix has completed its takeover of embattled UK publisher Eidos. Now, the two must move forward in building a meaningful relationship between the two companies.
At last week's E3 trade show in Los Angeles, Gamasutra got the chance to sit down with the executives and discuss these plans in depth -- and here, we present an extract of that interview, in which the two execs describe a roadmap moving forward for potential IP collaboration for the companies.
The question jumped off from a discussion of the Foundation 9 studio Double Helix's latest game, announced at E3 -- Front Mission: Evolved, in which the California-based studio creates the latest entry in a series originally pioneered at Square's Tokyo offices in the pre-Enix merger Super Nintendo era.
Something that interests me very much right now is seeing Front Mission: Evolved announced at E3, because it's being developed by Double Helix in North America. Before I jump to conclusions, is there a possibility that one of the Eidos development teams could work with what was originally Square Enix IP, or vice versa?
Yoichi Wada: I think that's possible. But what's more important is that the two companies, for example, are going to be creating a new IP together.
What's going to be important is to be able to get a mutual understanding of each of the quarters so that we will be able [to create it], and what is going to be born from this new unity.
But I believe that there is also going to be the mutual exchange of the IPs between the two parties as well. That can happen in areas outside of the game as well; for example, Square Enix not only has IP for games, but there's also IP for animation or manga, as well. So those IPs might be leveraged, for example, by Eidos -- in order to turn them into a game.
Or it can be vice versa as well: the game IP that the Eidos team has might be transferred over to the Square Enix team to turn it into a comic book, for example, or animation, or figures as well. And so those are some of the areas that this question concerns, as well.
Do you have any reaction to the idea of potentially collaborating in that way? Or any of these ways?
Phil Rogers: I think the short term opportunities and ideas that we're already thinking about... Certainly, we look at the broad exploitation and management of IP expertise at Square Enix, so the potential to further IPs in that direction is quite clear.
So, figurines, or comics... We have tried this in the past, and had some success, and had some challenges as well, but we should keep working on that direction. I think I'd be disappointed having the same discussion in five or 10 years' time, and we haven't seen that IP exchange. I see that within Eidos today.
And it's an interesting trend, too: three years ago, a certain studio may never have thought about working on someone else's IP, or actually having the confidence to say, "I wonder what this studio within the same group could do with this IP." We're trying to create a very strong studio structure now within Eidos, and have a lot of good exchange and great competition, and I think with that trust we'll see that information on IP exchange. So, you know, I hope we do. I hope we do.
The full interview with Wada and Rogers will run on Gamasutra in the near future.
I knew it! Here comes the Tomb Raider RPG people. I can see it now. Turn based super high end graphical Tomb Raider RPG's in the style of Final Fantasy.
Thanks! I was being totally serious, in a joking manner of course. It was actually the first thing I thought of back when the deal was first announced. There are plenty of characters from Lara's past that could join her to make up a cohesive RPG party a la FF style. It just might be the thing to shake up the Tomb Raider IP enough to revive it in a new way. If SE+Eidos did such a thing that is.
It may be worth noting that there has not been a lot of meaningful crossover between Taito and Square Enix, though there has been some. For instance, the kids' Dragon Quest arcade game never would have happened without the Taito acquisition.
@Andre Thomas - They made Super Mario RPG:SoTSS and Kingdom Hearts? Those were both good. If they made a Tomb Raider RPG with that level of quality I would buy it.
@Hélder Gomes Filho - A platformer Front Mission? If done right that has the potential to kick ass. What great idea. I would do it similar in style to Ratchet and Clank personally, but that is just me. Mechs are always good!
You guys do realize that Double Helix is working on a Front Mission action game -- Front Mission Evolved -- right? I doubt it's really a "platformer" but not sure what it IS yet. The trailer was all CG and the screenshots so far released are fakey.
@Christian Nutt - Well all I cam really remember Double Helix doing was Silent Hill Home Coming. It was good, but not really super great. We will see what they do with the FM universe. I hope they do it well as FM has a pretty solid core fan base.
Thanks! I was being totally serious, in a joking manner of course. It was actually the first thing I thought of back when the deal was first announced. There are plenty of characters from Lara's past that could join her to make up a cohesive RPG party a la FF style. It just might be the thing to shake up the Tomb Raider IP enough to revive it in a new way. If SE+Eidos did such a thing that is.
See: http://www.dq-card.com/
@Hélder Gomes Filho - A platformer Front Mission? If done right that has the potential to kick ass. What great idea. I would do it similar in style to Ratchet and Clank personally, but that is just me. Mechs are always good!