Remember when Square Enix talked about investing in the “games as a service” model, which immediately made players believe that the company would look into a loot box-like monetization later? As per CEO Yosuke Matsuda, the term itself as a “very wide meaning.”
Speaking to Metro, Matsuda noted that “games as a service” for Square Enix meant keeping its fans engaged with their games for longer periods than normal. He also believes that the recent implementation of loot boxes in games has resulted in “games as a service” having somewhat of a bad rep.
“Recently people have been discussing loot boxes and people not using that properly, I think that’s all linked to this bad perception people have to the words ‘games as a service’. But really, the way we’re looking at it, what it boils down to is…that idea of keeping people engaged with our games and enjoying them for longer periods of time.”
Matsuda went on to note that, “The way we use that expression, really…the whole idea, for a single-player game particularly, is the idea that you have the game released and you keep adding more content to keep the players engaged and enjoying the game. And that helps to make it more of a full experience, and that brings in more players to the original game. That’s the rough approach we take to the idea, and that’s why we described games as a service in that sense.”
If you think about it, Final Fantasy 15 could be a good example. On top of paid DLC, Square Enix has added free updates that allow for switching between characters, additional story content, new options and much more. There have also been events like the Assassin’s Festival which tied into Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise.
He also assured fans that, “We really do want to continue making single-player games,” in case recent remarks by Eidos about focusing on online gaming had anyone worried.
