Square Enix Gives Fans What They Want: Same Old Thing

Square Enix Party 2007 offered more sights, sounds, and insights than any blogger dare ask for. But the overwhelming theme of the event was just how dedicated the company is to retreading and extending its classic Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises. And while I'd be a bit of a hypocrite if I said I wasn't looking forward to playing Final Fantasy IV a fifth time on the Nintendo DS, from a purely objective standpoint this cannot be a winning strategy in the long run:

Cashing in on the Final Fantasy pull might be lucrative now, but too many mediocre games and fans will no longer automatically associate the name with quality. Most troubling about Square Enix's strategy is that this very thing has already happened. The company released three games based on the classic Secret of Mana franchise over the last year in rapid succession. A Nintendo DS version sold well, a critically panned
PlayStation 2 game sold worse and the most recent – a real-time strategy game called Heroes of Mana – barely choked out 50,000 copies last month before being marked down to fire-sale prices.

And yes, of course I see the humor in having just destroyed a fake story about Square Enix changing their business model to one focused entirely on re-releases and remakes, then going to Square Enix Party and realizing that truth isn't that different from parody.
Square Enix Gives Fans What They Want: Same Old Thing [Wired News]