Square Enix: We take too long to make games

Square Enix president and CEO, Yoichi Wada, has told GamesIndustry.biz that he believes his company takes too long to produce new games, and that cost performance and quality are not mutually exclusive facets in game production.

Speaking at one of the first interviews given since the acquisition of Eidos last week, Wada-san was answering a question on the practice of releasing games before they were truly finished in order to meet financial deadlines - and if gamers buying Eidos titles from now on could have more confidence in the brand.

"Yes - that's what I hope to achieve for the entire group," said Wada-san. "But we at Square Enix also have a problem - it takes too long for us to produce a game...

"In reality I think the issues we have are basically the same. 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.

"So we have the same issue in the management and control of the process isn't strict enough. Even though we're producing entertainment products we need to have the right production process in place - and that is something that I'd like to implement across the entire business in our group.

He went on to hint at possible conflict with those working on the games over those production processes, noting that the group would be trying to "change the mindset of the creators".

"I personally believe that having a good cost performance and having a good quality game can co-exist - I think that this relationship is actually a positive one. But when you look to the creators they tend to think that if they're asked to pursue a better cost performance, they have to sacrifice quality.

"It's not true, but we have to change the mindset of the creators."

The first part of the interview with Yoichi Wada, and Eidos CEO Phil Rogers, is available now.