Squeenix: “We Take Too Long” to Make Games

Square-Enix boss Yoichi Wada has confessed that he thinks it takes too long for his company to make a game.

In an interview that GI.biz held with Eidos CEO Phil Rogers and Square-Enix CEO and President Yoichi Wada, Wada was asked about the public perception of Eidos prodcuts: Given that the reception of recent Eidos offerings has been lukewarm at best, was Wada concerned that attaching those games to the Square-Enix brand (known for releasing polished titles, if nothing else) would be damaging?

Wada answered that while he thought the financial support of Square-Enix would allow Eidos to spend more time and money on a game to hopefully restore gamers’ faith in the brand, the parent side of the company had their own problem: “(I)t takes too long for us to produce a game…”

“In reality I think the issues we have are basically the same,” continued Wada. “On one side you might say that because of the budgetary constraints they released the games without having the games polished to perfection, but on the other side we take too long to release the game.”

This news should likely come as no surprise to gamers, as Final Fantasy XIII won’t be coming to Western shores until 2010 – almost years after FF12.

On the other hand, while five years is a bit uncomfortably long to be working on a game, it could be worse. After taking five years to release Half-Life 2, Valve spent almost eight years in development of Team Fortress 2, announcing the game back in 1998 and releasing it in 2007. Development on StarCraft II started back in 2003 after the release of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, and Diablo III has been under development in one form or another since Lord of Destruction came out in 2001.

Of course, even notoriously-glacial Valve and Blizzard can’t compare to 3D Realms’ Duke Nukem Forever – 12 years in development, and counting. So cheer up, Square-Enix. As slow as you guys might be, you’re in good company.

(VG247)