Square Enix Is SCREWED! Visions of Mana Studio SHUT DOWN Upon Release…

[@matthewhardwick8208]

Christ this industry is completely hopeless. Why would you even consider working for any of these big companies if they're going to shut you down. It doesn't even matter if you make a decent product anymore.

[@pvtred]

Better to consider the big name companies or the ones under a big publisher, short term work to pad out a resume. Hopefully game devs don't make big moves to a new city to work for those kinds of companies. Indie is really the only stable option, and only after securing another job.

[@AJ-dx6bn]

Blame the activist and SBI scam company

[@BlueBD]

@@pvtred The Resume with AAA companies only really matter if your looking for work... in other AAA companies. but clearly they are ALL garbage.

[@kingrainbow5432]

Tech now doesn't need massive developers for games good riddance to AAA titles

[@domm6812]

Square Enix has been on a constant downward trajectory for many years now. It's sharply accelerated in recent years with so many idiotic decisions and flat out mismanagement. They need to fire their management ASAP or they're done. They're easily as bad as Konami. Together they're the two worst Japanese publishers, the equivalent of EA or Ubisoft.

[@yumyumeatemup]

Biggest thing that sucks is that the director of Visions of Mana was unfathomably based. He believed that in order for Japanese games to thrive and succeed they NEED to retain their inherent "japaneseness". The dude GOT IT. Japan is going down the road of DEI and ESG and the closing of this studio after releasing such an amazing looking game speaks volumes to just HOW SCREWED the Japanese videogame industry might be getting itself into. FML!

[@alexkogan9755]

Would not be the first time. I still remember the 2009-2015 dark age. Tecmo sunk themselves into appealing puritans and have yet to fully learn that lesson. SquEnix has been shite for years. And then there’s Capcom which pulled themselves out and then sank themselves down again (same problem, different variable).

[@TheMan21892]

Yoshi P. NEEDS TO LEARN THIS LESSON!!! WE LOVE JAPANESE GAMES BECAUSE THEY ARE UNIQUELY JAPANESE, NOT SOME STUPID AMALGAMATION OF WOKE WESTERN IDEOLOGY!!!

[@Schwenakasven]

The main fault for destabalzing the country in any way is the fault of america , france and UK. Sadly to say that. I mean of course the political agenda of those countries. Not the people itself. its all about the higher ups and their money. and Companys like the one who did Visions of Mana is now done for because of this shit westernes political Woke agenda shit.

[@terrysyvertson9205]

not all Japanese developers are giving into forced and woke dei, Nintendo isn't giving into forced woke dei, they are doing natural dei

[@chucknorris2418]

That sucks. I hadn't followed the game and assumed it was going for the ever elusive non-existent modern audience. Shame that the director stood on business just to get the rug yanked out from underneath him.

[@R3tr0w1]

Hi-fi rush all over again

[@LordTyph]

Granted, with Hi-Fi Rush, their makers apparently had wounds and battle damage from past flops and Hi-Fi Rush just wasn't enough to pull them back out.

[@Valkirth]

except Hi-fi rush studio was saved.

[@Mohgenstein]

Lol buddy comparing Hifi Rush with this midness. Hi Fi rush devs were actually saved too.

[@LPetal86]

I REALLY hope these _Visions of Mana_ devs get saved the way _Hi-Fi Rush_ got saved. Or that they do what the _Chibi-Robo_ devs did, where they just jumped straight to Kickstarter for funding their new game.

[@JMrealgamer]

Yep. Except this isn’t Microsoft doing it liked we’d expect. I hope this 💩 is t contagious. 🙄🤦🏽‍♂️ We are doomed if other companies start doing this.

[@Official_RetroMania]

Is a huge shame because they made good games. Why do teams who made games like Concord, Sushi Squad, Dustborn, Flintlock... Can stay open while Mana devs get shut down!

[@Ihasexp]

Unlike the passionate studios those woke ones use government money. They don't have to worry about failing because their money isn't on the line.

[@Official_RetroMania]

@@Ihasexp But Sushi Squad costed Warner Bros over 200 million, I highly doubt they got 200 million tax money or even if they got cheap loan money, they still need to return that load money sooner or later. It feels almost as if they are willing to burn money to "send the message" like Disney does nowadays.

[@R3NEGADE43]

They'll get their time in the sun, I'm sure.

[@BARDI77]

the thing is that this game only has 500 reviews on steam, thats really bad so I can see why they decided to close the studio and its a shame because it really looks good, maybe the mistake was to not give more promotion since at least I havent heard anything about this game until now, it could also be posible that everyone is so focused on hyper realism from square enix games that this one just went over everyone radar,

[@Official_RetroMania]

@@BARDI77 Yeah, they really didn't bother promoting it. I remember seeing 1 or 2 trailers and that's it. Mana definitely deserved more promotion than some of the other games at Square. No I am scared about FANTASIAN Neo Dimension although I shouldn't be, is just a port but you never know.

[@SleeplessTVgames]

NetEase (which is Chinese) saw the success of Wukong and is pulling their funding from Japanese studios in order to fund Chinese studios. It's literally just a shortsighted move by investors to try and get more money.

[@praisetheoak]

+20million copies sold as of right now, Wukong is a great game. I do believe we are witnessing the era of Chinese AAA single-player dominance, and I'm honestly ok with it, but it sucks for the Mana devs. Japan is having kind of a rough time right now since they've been pushing for DEI/ESG initiatives as a ""noble"" (it's a crappy concept that only produces slop) investment but they are failing hard left and right, and restructuring and moving away from it takes time, so the next few years look bleak for the Japanese market.

[@RaginCanadian-gx2zl]

shortsighted i think not with dei infesting japan china pulling out is gonna help them stay away from it.

[@hanchiman]

It looks more like seeing how Japan now fallen into the DEI crap, where Capcom and Bandai already sold their souls to DEI and Konami is basically a money laundering business and useless. I guess Japan is doomed. So far only Nintendo still stand but that because they have the money to invest in other business, like Hanafuda cards and licensed product, Basically like LucasArt before George sold it to Disney

[@zonzillamagnus5902]

@@praisetheoakThere is nothing noble about DEI

[@tilting_cat3344]

​@@praisetheoaknoble? pft flop then call ppl racist what a "noble" idea

[@Python_Bacon]

Man that’s harsh, all these companies that pretend to truly value their employees, just full of shit.

[@Andulvar]

I like how people think Japan runs their businesses like the West.

[@ricardohoang8452]

​@@Andulvar netease is from china lol

[@odindarkll3706]

Further proof that companies aren't your friends.

[@selpharessecret3899]

They always are at best trust your own team in a company, anything else should be watched cautionous.

[@Tacitus_kilgore_1903]

There isn't a company on earth that puts employees above profit... that's just not how life works

[@Melchiah28]

When you go to the stock exchange as a company, you open the door for Black Rock and Vanguard. They will corrupt the company from within.

[@CD-vb9fi]

and they use a large chunk of your 401k to do it too.

[@Become-Eggplant]

If I remember correctly, Nintendo banned Black Rock and Vanguard from purchasing their Stocks. Atleast thats what I heard. Companies really need to follow suit with that idea. Its not all about the money, its about Making money for the long term, than lose money in both short and long term.

[@Melchiah28]

@@Become-Eggplant Yeah thats right.

[@lucbauer]

it's a shame. The game is delicious and the studio deserved all the appreciation for their hard work.

[@shinvolcano]

Who refers to a game as "delicious" how suspicious.

[@PetitTasdeBoue]

@@shinvolcano That's what I was thinking, who says that lol

[@Eldergloom]

Delicious? Lmao what the fuck

[@Konfide4043]

Eat me while I'm hot

[@jessekoepp3928]

@@shinvolcano Gamers sure don't, but "gaymers" probably do lol.

[@IamMarkSmith]

Companies like Netease, Tencent, and Embracer group are helping to ruin the game industry.

[@VOAN]

And Microsoft.

[@iamLI3]

@@VOAN and sony

[@grundged]

It wasn't Square Enix bro. Netease shut them down.

[@samuraidoggy]

Its a bit unfair to blame SE for this. They just outsourced another company to make this game, since SE didnt have manpower or budget for it. This chinese outsourced company, then created a new team+studio JUST for this project. It was never meant to be a long term commitment to SE, but outsourced project. They delivered the project, got paid for it, and do another project with other people from now on. This is very common in all industry, not just games.

[@samuraidoggy]

For example, most movies are made this way. There is a company made just for that 1 movie. Which then is shut down when movie is done.

[@KelemERF]

who fixes any bugs? if there are none,l its most stupid to close the studio, splitting the team.

[@iam16bits]

They have the manpower and budget, it's just that they put almost all of it into Final Fantasy.

[@samuraidoggy]

Guys, I am not saying that this is a good way to make things to last in entertainment industry. I am just saying, that they werent technically ever "hired" by Square, since it was outsorced production to other company who handled it like this. Like if you buy a house, you are buying the house, and not committing to fulltime employing the builders for the rest of your life. The studio was fully aware this being a project for 1 game, most likely they are transferred to another similar project now already or soon. Not fired by SE whatsoever.

[@agamersinsanity]

Square Enix most likely outsourced the work to Ouka Studios

[@nightvampire1]

This is a crying shame right after launch. I will definitely be playing this game later in the year. Loved Mana since the beginning.

[@odindarkll3706]

This is Tangle's Hi-fi Rush all over again.

[@JustPeasant]

For last 10 years, we witnessed Square Enix fumbling up everything that isn't Final Fantasy or Kingdom Hearts. It appears that it's heading the way of Konami.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Square fumbled the fuck out of both of those series... What?! Kh3 was garbage. Ff10-15 are mid games

[@JustPeasant]

@@fillerbunnyninjashark271 Square Enix is going down, that is cretain. Lots of sands has passed since they had a hit in their hands that sold millions numbers of copies, both physical & digital. Forspoken shouldn't be made. You can clearly see that a LOT of money went into it's production. Unfortunately, those millions of $, ¥, € and whatnot couldn't gloss over a poorly writer plot and terrible characters (the protagonist really sticks out).

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

@@JustPeasant the cracks started showing during the PS2 honestly... They released games like the bottom of the barrel Musashi sequel, Dawn of Mana, Dirge of Cerberus, any of the Saga games, front mission 4 (5 was great again but we didn't get it)... And code age commanders, which they showed off like crazy here but bombed in Japan so they canned the entire project. PS3 just hastened their fall and it's been the same trajectory down since

[@planescaped]

Square Enis being utterly incompetent is not talked about as much as it should be. For the longest time they have been so obsessed with trend chasing. They're truly a shadow of their former selves with management who seem legitimately out of touch with their consumer base.

[@SWOTHDRA]

They fumbled kindome hearts 3 and ff15 and 16. Only thing they didnt fumble is octopath

[@derikbradford3836]

Visions of Mana doesn't just LOOK GOOD, it is GOOD, One of the funnest games I have played in a while that is story driven above skill and can appeal to all ages not just the hard core or casual gamaers. Proving not ever game has to be "Souls Like" or "Farming Sim" to be fun.(There is nothing wrong with those games, it just feels like that has been the only options in the fun department recently) Level progression RPG is still one of my favorite Genre.

[@BQD_Central]

It really "feels" like a Mana game. 5 hours in, bought it because for some reason I replayed SOM remake and found Primu super endearing, saw that VOM was going to land on store shelves, and bought it. Super cute, and even a little bit sad, just as Secret of Mana was back in the day.

[@YanDaMan263]

I feel like this isnt really a SquareEnix thing but more of a NetEase thing. Ouka Studio was probably just a contractor to work on the game and Tencent just dont want to support their Japanese devs anymore because speculation is that after Wukong's massive success they want to focus more on domestic devs and dont want to keep their Japanese devs floating. Which sucks. Being owned by a Chinese company is very risky nowadays but what can you do when they got the money.

[@kgoblin5084]

Yeah, doing the obligatory research, the studio was a subsidiary of NetEase, & Squenix farmed off the development to a contractor. Squenix has literally ZERO input into what NetEase does with their subsidiaries, sans refusing future business because of the thrash that closing the studio causes them.

[@wrayday7149]

Well.... waiting on a steam sale for that one. Square said long ago "If we remake FF7 we will go out of business shortly thereafter as it meant we ran out of ideas". Looks like that is starting to come true.

[@BQD_Central]

Squenix just bombed their franchises, so this was a saving throw for them.

[@annienunyabiz6627]

This sucks. This coming out after the Trials of Mana remake made me hope was the start of a resurgence of the Mana series. Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger are what got me into gaming in the first place.

[@SmashJT]

Sammmme!!!

[@VOAN]

The Mana series was only good around the era of the Super NES, PS1, and GBA. Outside of those the series was never good. All the DS, PS2, and mobile Mana games were terrible and of all the Mana remakes only Trials of Mana is good, the remakes for Adventure of Mana and Secret of Mana were both garbage and doesn't play that well.

[@annienunyabiz6627]

@VOAN And? They were good, started to get bad, and as you aptly pointed out, the recent Trials remake was good again. Hence hoping that meant the series was making a resurgence. That also means hoping the series going forward are good again.

[@mikeehrmantraut1899]

@@SmashJT Ik people are really going to hate me for saying this but, Tales of Symphonia did a far better job with real depth or interesting characters than Vision of Mana and I'm sorry but how does Tales of Symphonia from 21 years ago has better real depth or interesting characters even it story while Vision of Mana in 2024 has terrible writing without real depth or interesting characters at all. One more thing that I would like to add is that Vision of Mana doesn't feel like Vision of Mana it feel like Tales of Symphonia without real depth or interesting characters

[@SmashJT]

@@mikeehrmantraut1899 I loved Symphonia - sad to hear you feel mana isn’t as good but that’s strong competition

[@Joao-lw5pj]

I don't think Square Enix has anything to do with this though. SE published the game, but the owners of Ouka Studios is NetEase.

[@mauricioaguilera3194]

NetEase ... Is not surprising

[@sinfulpistol7704]

They essentially pulled a Microsoft and shot their golden goose for a potential extra dollar.

[@1kbmahan]

The financial decisions they made they probably had no choice even if it’s not “ethical” at the end of the day they’re a business not your friend.

[@Larry]

TBH, i thought the price was pretty steep for what it was, so was planning to wait until it came down. But, The Mana series doesn't quite have the same legacy as titles like Final Fantasy has in the West, Only Secret of Mana came out under it's original name, with the others either being renamed to a Final Fantasy title, or not released at all. So there's no connection for most casual players. That and the remake of Secret of Mana was absolutely abysmal.

[@SmashJT]

Many good points - my only contention is the remake of Secret of Mana was average at best - I wouldn't call it abysmal but yeah it was a big swing and a miss for what it could have been, sadly. If it was done like Trials of Mana - oh man...That would have been incredible..

[@Larry]

@@SmashJT Squeenix got lazy and just slapped a mobile phone game on the PS4, rather than taking the time to make a true remake. Nerrel made an amazing video on it's flaws.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Trails of Mana remake was exactly what both original Mana games should have gotten. Both remakes were trash cash'ins

[@SlimeySludge]

Fancy seeing you here Larry! Top ten things Peter molyneux put on his bum was phenomenal

[@kgoblin5084]

"Only Secret of Mana came out under it's original name, with the others either being renamed to a Final Fantasy title, or not released at all." Sorry Larry, but that's just not true past the 8 & 16-bit era. And arguably not true for the 1st game in the series, since like SaGa it WAS originally billed as a final fantasy spinoff in both English & Japanese. 1st game: original Japanese title was Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden. Later titles dropped the final fantasy bit & kept Seiken Densetsu as the series name, but translating the 1st game as Final Fantasy Adventure is just not at all unreasonable. With the exceptions of Trials of Mana (or, as it was long known in the west - SoM2), & 3 JP only mobile games circa 2013-2014 & 2022, literally every Mana series title has released in North America/Europe later in the same year it was released in Japan. They just never made as big an impact as Secret of Mana; with an obligatory nod to Legend of Mana which has a certain cult following.

[@eldensquall6158]

Everyone, email + tweet the developer and let them know we will support them as an indie studio. They were closed by not accepting consultants. Insider info.

[@yufeng1707]

Square Enix is a western company now. It lost its Japanese roots.

[@DFDark2]

Just look at FF7R. I was originally excited for the game to come out, but then I started hearing things like "Oh we're splitting the game into 3 games now" and what the director said "It's not for the original audience of FF7". SE died to me long ago and it's kinda sad, considering how much of FF fan I used to be. (6~12 were great for me)

[@yufeng1707]

FF7R could have been so much more. But what really irritates me like no other is that it's not a Final Fantasy 7 Remake, it's a Final Fantasy 7 Revision. It's "not made for the original audience" yet requires knowledge of the original game to make sense of. Never before has it felt so far away from what made it a JRPG classic. I'll be sticking to Atelier and Falcom games now for my JRPG fix.

[@DFDark2]

@@yufeng1707 I'm with you there on the falcom. Atelier .. i'm not sure, since there were some news about some censorship.

[@MaxBraver555]

Did you even watch the video or just based it on the title then made this comment? Because this news isn’t about Square-Enix pulling the plug.

[@jeltevl8868]

for the people that blame square enix. Square enix was just a publisher. They didnt own the or had not much shares in the company that made visions off mana. The big ones here are tencent and neteasy who have started to completely stop funding into japanese studios. And they owned around 90% off the company through shares. but as usual they like to blame others. In this case square enix.

[@minakatahizuru]

Hope they find better place.

[@loboneiner1034]

Welcome to the great collapse folks!

[@iller3]

this is way more accurate than I think most people here realize...

[@Become-Eggplant]

@@iller3 A friend told be this is the Modern Great Depression Era.

[@geralt7144]

If the studio is gone, who is going to fix possible bugs and glitches? I mean if you buy it and something is busted you are screwed.

[@BQD_Central]

Square Enix of course. They will have core support with them for a dedicated amount of time for legal reasons alone.

[@geralt7144]

​@@BQD_CentralHopefully 🤞

[@GrandEvoker]

This is the double edged sword of accepting foreign investors money.

[@The_Primary_Axiom]

Damn, I heard this game is really good too, and not full of western woke garbage. Hopefully the developers go to another good studio and help them because they are talented. I think probably why is because a lot of people are not gonna buy this game. They’re too busy buying garbage like outlaws and assassin’s Creed shadows.

[@CommDante]

Personally, I got so annoyed with all the woke and censorship from square that I stopped checking out their new releases. Maybe I'll make an exception for Visions though.

[@sonic-bb]

western woke garbage? so japanese woke garbage instead. Where they worship white people and europe. Having japanese people in a European setting so japanese can imagine themselves as white lmao. or where the they make the main character japanese but the "hot girl" or second protag, or the girl he's into, is blonde and blue eyed

[@bluedistortions]

This sucks so bad. 😢 Hey, have you heard about the redesign of Joanna Dark, from the N64 game Perfect Dark? In the comments under the reveal trailer theyre calling her "Jaw-anna" and "crimson chin." Theyre releasing her new game soon, and shes been given the modern audience treatment. 🙄

[@TheBlueberryWhite]

I hope that is a lesson to all games developing studios to not join forces with NetEase

[@VOAN]

Or Tencent.

[@dnlkr]

Welp, with the studio gone and the devs probably getting no revenue share there's no point in buying the game.

[@tlotpwist3417]

Who's getting the revenue, SE? At least it would tell them people loved these Mana remakes as they are, 100% jrpg.

[@jojipoji2322]

@SmashJT I recommend you do some investigative journalism behind the wokification of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. You may find it interesting how little people speak on this.

[@ricardohoang8452]

FF hardcores: *triggered*

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Hey look, another consumer response. Product definitely isn't your personality

[@jonpro9637]

​@fillerbunnyninjashark271 did a cat piss in your cereal this morning?

[@jojipoji2322]

@@ricardohoang8452 No joke I consider myself an FF hardcore, and I kid you not. Rebirth was a tremendous let down for me... From the woke trash to the destruction of characters and story. But honestly, call me a bigot, but I cannot stand NEW PLAYERS to the series telling me they liked Rebirth WHEN THEY HAVENT EVEN PLAYED THE ORIGINAL. That really grinds my gears.

[@Luca-nq4gy]

@@jojipoji2322 I don't really hardcore but i play from original, tactic up to 10 but not after combined with enix, what i can say is i don't have any hope for FF anymore. and can just tell me what actually happening in FF wokification? aren't this because SE also part of DEI, SBI even list them.

[@joeherrera8826]

The worst part is that this was a studio that was just created not too long ago. Just bought Visions of Mana its a really good game so far from what I played.

[@krux02]

It seems like studios are forced to keep their product as a hostage. The devs are able to break their own product, and that is literally the only power they have over the publishers: Hurt their sales.

[@AllGodInfinity]

Bring Ouka Studios BACK! And give all of Ouka Studios developers raises!!

[@UteGirlz]

Sweet Baby: "Hey we didn't touch this one."

[@nightwingnl5354]

it never ends does it

[@AllGodInfinity]

Legend of Mana was PS1 gold! I've enjoyed many Mana games. Sword of Mana, Children of Mana, Dawn of Mana just to name a few of them.

[@cobaltfog]

So much for any patches or updates. Given the way SE games launch, I'll wait for a huge sale to even consider it.

[@agamersinsanity]

most likely the code is handed to SE and their developer can most likely add fixes to it.

[@BQD_Central]

They will be developed by a team from SE, as they are legally obligated to patch their shit.

[@bubblegutgaming6201]

In have a feeling modders are going to keep the game going for a while because of this.

[@WhatBeDaPointMon]

I'm not that worried, Japan will course correct faster than we have. I'd like to believe they won't tolerate the kinds of losses we have tolerated in the US.

[@BQD_Central]

Japan is way too stubborn to adapt to that shit. The entire national mythos is to do their own thing, taking outside ideas, never to be ruled by outside ideas.

[@NickEnlowe]

"It always comes down to follow the dollar." How naive. Corporations are far more nefarious than only caring about the dollar these days.

[@J-P89]

yep look at all the CEOs on the Epstein flight logs

[@Whelp140]

The biggest thing that square could do to stop them from losing so much money and I know it's crazy but just hear me out when Final Fantasy VII part 3 comes out it needs to not be PlayStation exclusive they need to stop letting Sony have all their ship exclusively for a year that hurts them big time

[@Toni-ic7ki]

No one needs to hear you out, friend it's the truth. FF7 part 1 was a perfect storm of the huge PS4 playerbase and Covid, and they missed their chance with Rebirth, which could've been delayed a little. I hope they course correct for Part 3 and just get it on every platform, at least PC and Xbox, with maybe a much later Switch 2 port.

[@medzawesomeness69430]

Wow, those Japanese devs have Wills and Morale of Iron to finish their game knowing their studio is gonna get axed after releasing it.

[@Toni-ic7ki]

Finally, a real ass comment. They worked on this game knowing it's over, and the other $70 JRPGS (FF7) got all the attention and budget. It's truly the worst timeline for these devs, lol

[@vincentvega3093]

Another reason not to preorder. Now ill wait for a 50% discount at least

[@SpiderSora]

They better not touch Kingdom Hearts 4 bruh, if they do, I'mma have to unleash the realm of darkness

[@KeyBladeMaster-Dan]

With them and Disney in the shit right now I'm genuinely worried about the series future

[@EldritchErik94]

This shut down was NetEase’s doing, not Square Enix.

[@The_Primary_Axiom]

This studio is actually based and talented. Think they moved these developers to another studio and just closed this Studio. This was probably planned for a long time.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Kh3 was trash. The fuck are you even looking forward too?

[@SpiderSora]

@@fillerbunnyninjashark271 KH3 being trash is your opinion, other people admitted they like KH3, and KH4 isn't even out yet nor have we seen A SINGLE BIT of gameplay EXCEPT the reveal trailer from 2 YEARS ago, I do not need someone's permission to be excited for something thank you very much, have a good day

[@ryandodrill6904]

One thing to consider on this is the size of development teams now. I don't know about this game but when you do look at the size of dev teams they're massive now. People don't realize it but games 20 years ago were often made with teams of 20-50 people. That massively cuts down on development cost and makes risk taking much less risky.

[@BRGKasumi77Main]

I always wondered: Why some gaming companies doesn't last long? Maybe from many factors including competing against other ones, like Square Enix!! Shame on you, Ouka Studios!

[@PandaMan02]

this is why you cannot sell to a large studio/company, unless you are okay with your passion being closed. you'd think this bigger studios buying up small studios and closing them would trigger a monopoly investigation.

[@Runeforged]

I’m so sorry for them man :( They made such a great game..

[@DeadPhoenix86DP]

The gaming industry is truly dying... Sad days are coming...

[@TaranTatsuuchi]

Final Fantasy 14 is basically carrying SE...

[@Kairax]

And se fucked up their ff14 expansion with dei bs and quality drop. I'm really worried for ff14 actually dying.

[@MellowFungus]

Dawntrail is so crap I unsubbed, I won't be buying the next expansion.

[@manishlimbu1]

I heard they refused to "westernize" the game.

[@BulbaSmasher]

Pre order numbers should not be a factor anymore (besides from physical collectors editions and such) almost Noone pre-orders.. literally makes no sense to pre-order a digital game until the night before lol

[@skibidi.G]

Reject DEI, embrace Mario ✌️😊

[@vodkastudios4170]

Chrono Break can save Square Enix alone.

[@odindarkll3706]

Never heard about this game, let alone SE being "saved"?

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Loll, no. Chrono trigger was okay

[@odindarkll3706]

@@fillerbunnyninjashark271 ah, so "Chrono Break" is suppose to be a sequel to Chrono Cross or something? As a fan of Chrono Trigger, I don't think SE has the creative chops like they did back in the 90s. If that's the case, then I'm inclined to agree with you.

[@vodkastudios4170]

@@odindarkll3706 It was supposed to be the third game in the chrono series.

[@vodkastudios4170]

@@fillerbunnyninjashark271 it is only considered to be the best game by sooo many rpg fans and gamers in general, not even the best jrpg, literally the best game.

[@desmien679]

I'm definitely not surprised about Netease doing this. Netease is about as bad as Tencent in their business practices such as buying out studios that made successful games that were competing against them just so they could kill off the game with overmonetization and run it into the ground. They do this with all of their games but I will say they have been trying to break away from the Tencent practice of games having a lifespan of a few years. Unfortunately they don't get the fact that the overmonetization of P2W mechanics and their business practices with their games is what kills off games after a few years.

[@ryuuotaku35]

That’s sucks. 🙁

[@STBill]

On the bright side, Square Enix is on the right side of history. Stay woke devs ✊

[@mid191]

Chinese owned studio no surprise there.

[@RavenousSpectre]

Been loving the game but man I hate to hear this

[@SuperFerret-b4l]

There needs to be laws to stop bigger companies from shredding apart smaller companies like this

[@CRAM079]

I thought Netease owned the studio, and Squenix was just publishing it.

[@agamersinsanity]

they outsourced one of their IP's to them. Sadly NetEase had other plans it seems.

[@CRAM079]

@@agamersinsanity so I wouldn't really put the blame on Squenix, it feels like this is all on Netease

[@jong4tv]

The video game was released and the video game company was shutdown is very suspicious indeed. Maybe Square Enix has money problems. What a shame

[@garudanathanael5257]

DEI kills arts. Couldn't be more true.

[@slapthekillswitch]

This was outsourced nothing to do with Square

[@AngryB4ker]

Square shuts down another Studio after not learning how to read the room nor market their games that aren't final fantasy? Tell me it isn't so, Sherlock... who would have thunk it

[@qrowthebird7496]

Netease owned the studio not Square. Shows you didn't listen to the video.

[@rVesperialGaming]

Visions of Mana is a Revival of the Mana Series. One of the Legendary Games out there even been over 30 years and with Like Final Fantasy Adventure, Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana are the classics.

[@Linkwii64]

Everyone mad at SE. This is NetEase player should be angry at.

[@agamersinsanity]

People are dumb. x)

[@scotthotvedt9057]

It's definitely strange to suddenly happen right after a game release, it had to be planned well before, game companies plan everything ahead.

[@Rietto]

I swear, Yoshi-P and his FFXIV team are the only ones at Square who have their shit together. Square-Enix has been circling the drain for years now, and as someone who's first RPG was Secret of Mana on the SNES, I have a ton of affection for the series and was gutted to hear this news. Even if they announced a ChronoTrigger remake I wouldn't trust Square to not eff it up somehow.

[@AbelMusa]

But NetEase is Tencent. Square is just the publisher. This is in line with Tencent's strategy to pull back from Japan and go back to Chinese-made games.

[@Arutima]

A Chinese company not caring about a Japanese company

[@Serge_Jackson]

Yeah all the big companies are hopeless time to go indie

[@Choom2077]

Does this mean Visions of Mana will not get any technical support, patches, etc, if the studio is gone? WTF, the game still needs work done to it. Yikes to all the people who bought it, if they don't have a QA division looking over it.

[@lordchaos9148]

This had nothing to do with square enix.

[@xathlak]

Guess I'll wait a bit to see if there are bugs that won't be patched before buying

[@cronotimelord8577]

I preordered visions the moment it became available. I finished it 100% already and while it has some issues, the occasional invisible treasure box, misaligned voices, and questionable design choices, its a very fun, very pretty game. I loved it.

[@kuality1416]

I can't help but notice the games making the biggest profits for Square-enix are the smallest ones such as Octotraveller.

[@gamer11011101]

This shocked me. I'm not a Mana fan myself, but I know how popular it is. I thought it was a joke or a mistranslation or straight up fake news when I heard the Studio shut down. All I could think was "Why?"

[@TwilightWolf032]

WHY ARE THEY SHUTTING DOWN STUDIOS THAT MAKE GAMES PEOPLE WANNA PLAY AND FINANCING STUDIOS THAT MAKE GAMES THAT NOBODY WANTS TO PLAY!?

[@hacktormike3679]

Dude they are firing everyone to replace them with AI

[@Frigid_Knight]

This might just be me, but the way I see it, if a dev team ends up making a game that sells really well, they should get some sort of bonus as part of sharing the profits. Gutting the team just after launch seems like something that would be done to get out of paying such bonuses (as much as possible) in order to keep as much of the profits as possible. Crazier still is that such shameless, unchecked greed ends up cutting off the people who made that decision from collecting more profits that could have been made off of future games.

[@Azureskies01]

This is good, big companies have indeed lost the plot when it comes to games. The more that they fail the more that the indie scene grows and it will take us back to a time when passion ruled over the almighty dollar. Granted the dollar was important but making a good game that respected the players enough not to be broken as fuck at launch or have a store full of macrotransactions was more important.

[@slashinghades7347]

The game is neither broken or full of microtransactions. The studio, which is made up of former Mana devs, was contracted to make the game under Netease with Square publishing it. They've known since Spring that the studio was going to close down once the game was released.

[@Azureskies01]

@@slashinghades7347 I'm not specifically point to this game as being bad or having those things that players hate but im talking about the "elite" game companies (and their games) in general.

[@KisekiFan]

Let's not forget they also closed down the studio that made Deus Ex and others, they also cancelled the Episode Aranea, Lunafreya and Noctis where we would have got a new and happier ending. They also shutting down mobile title Brave Exvius and have shut down Dissidia which was the most friendly gacha game I have ever played with no chance of offline mode like Megaman X Dive for preservation or anyone to play again.

[@udggy]

It's not surprising square Enix is consolidating all its smaller developers to save money. By the sound of it they plan to release games less often and not a ton of games. Which means they should be able to concentrate on quality rather than quantity. I also think people are getting sick of remakes and same game over and over. As for single player games there is no need to buy a pre order anymore and most games go on sale after awhile $80 is just too much these days.

[@Delimon007]

I actually was interested in this game and was probably gonna buy it in the fall/winter. . . I'm getting pretty tired of these mega corporations in the gaming industry now. I hope people take an F'in hint and stop dealing with these publishers.

[@josie_the_valkyrie]

It’s a really good game!

[@MrMorbuis]

This is 100% because Square Enix decided to pander to the "modern audiences" and Tencent, being a chinese-based company, definitely do not want anything to do with the so called "modern audiences" and Wukong is a big showcase of this.

[@Tacitus_kilgore_1903]

The good news is these publishers decided to pander to the modern audience years ago and the games are just coming out... they're all simultaneously realizing it doesn't exist

[@josie_the_valkyrie]

The director of Visions of Mana was very openly based though. Hence the Gamespot 50/100 score.

[@asaka616]

Indy and double a seem to be the future.

[@rodneymathews6775]

Yeah, Square Enix's mistake was having this game released roughly a week after Black Myth Wukong didn't help their cause. Plus, a lot of people are still either playing BMW or just bought it this past weekend, like myself who are now just starting to enjoy the experience of what the others were playing when the game was first released.

[@elymX]

Square Soft was like Blizzard North, when they merged with Enix they became Ass and people who made Square popular in the 90s early 2000s already left.

[@TerraWare]

I know it's popular and in many cases justified to dunk on these companies and Square Enix especially but I think it's important to keep in mind the industry is in a bit of a crash at the moment and while Visions of Mana looks great perhaps it didn't sell that well. The Steam peak concurrent player is 5K, I suspect actual copies sold is probably 4 to 5 times that. That's not great and if a studio isn't bringing a profit the unfortunate reality is the big company doesn't want to lose money. I don't think this means the company is evil. It's the nature of the business and the state we are in economically.

[@jeankirchstein2552]

It has something to do with netease pulling funding out of Japanese studios from I could gather this was planned long before the game even launched so they were going to shut them down regardless of how well the game sold

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

Game has been out for a week

[@slashinghades7347]

​@@fillerbunnyninjashark271 It came out Thursday.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

@@slashinghades7347 okay so almost a week.... Still

[@randalthor6872]

Sounds like some internal strife. Perhaps the devs didn't want to inject propaganda into their game and so they got fired?

[@agamersinsanity]

it has been going on for a few months now.

[@DARKZONE-ul2mx]

This is on netease not square square only published it square should have done this in house

[@mikecampos1193]

Isn't that division back by Chinese money that tells me one thing China doesn't have the money to pay for studios outside their own or something's up.

[@CircuitReborn]

Ones behind Mana need to go start their own studio.

[@mangasaint]

It probably sold okay but selling a game during Black Myth and Astro bot wouldn’t help its sales. Unless it sold a ton of games on day one it’s gonna get gutted in our current economy.

[@danielmulder8447]

It probly doesn't have a battle pass that's why they dropped it. They are far to money hungry