Square Moves into Serious Games Biz

Kotaku has the word that Square/Enix is moving into the 'serious' games market. Serious Games, as they're known, attempt to do more than just entertain. Square has never previously created games for education, and so it's quite notable that company strategist Ichiro Otobe is now slated to give the keynote at this year's GDC Serious Games Summit. From the release: "The serious games market represents a new outlet for our skills as a game developer, and it means that we will be serving totally different customers. As such, there are many different kinds of hurdles that must be cleared in order for it to offer meaningful opportunities. I plan to speak about Square Enix's approach to these challenges, and hopefully provide both business and design inspiration for everyone interested in the uses of games beyond entertainment."

Other rumours

[Turn-X Alphonse]

I have to wonder why this is the news story when we have current rumours saying Square are selling off Siken Densetsu, Chrono and the Kingdom hearts franchises. Wouldn't this be a massive news story as opposed to Square failing in the educational market?

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[badasscat]

I have to wonder why this is the news story when we have current rumours saying Square are selling off Siken Densetsu, Chrono and the Kingdom hearts franchises.

Could it be because your post is probably the first anyone other than you has heard this "rumor"? And since when are rumors posted as news?

I'll let you in on a little secret. At any given time, there are probably 100 rumors flying around the periphery of the game industry about publishers, developers, and consoles. 99% of them are ridiculously fal

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[Gothic_Walrus]

Considering that part of the appeal of Kingdom Hheats is the Final Fantasy characters, I'm sure Disney wouldn't let Square go very easily.

And lest we forget, weren't both of the games uber-successful? Why stop doing something that's guaranteed to give you buckets of money?

One game I hope they never make

[antifoidulus]

"Moogles and Chocobos teach sex education"

Hmm...

[__aaclcg7560]

So Square is coming to a full circle in game design?

Makes sense for the Japanese giant

[muel]

If anything, this announcement should've come months ago when games like Brain Age took over the Japanese sales charts. Such "productivity" titles make perfect sense for a massive studio's diverse portfolio, as they cost less to make and tap into a broader market. Perhaps the studio's ties with Disney will come into play with educational software, for starters?

educational RPGs? :D

[Hes Nikke]

FFX meets... the lewis & clark expedition... just imagine the boss battle when they get to the mouth of the columbia river... :D

Re:educational RPGs? :D

[Glowing Fish]

"Sephiroth jumps out of nowhere and stabs one of your party to death. He also breaks your wagon axle and spoils 254 pounds of food."

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[C0rinthian]

Can you keep going right on the river, ultimately going in a circle and levelling the characters by repeating the same battles over and over?

Turbo controllers FTW.

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[C0rinthian]

Nah, just set it up so it has each character do the action you want, tape down the A button, and turn off the TV for a few days. Just make sure Lewis heals every time it's his turn, and you're good.

Re:I really don't think serious games is a good na

[meringuoid]

Games like Civilization and Colonization have done this to some extent for me when I was learning history at school.

Among other things I didn't know before:

- When the Royal Navy used to send gigantic steel warships to shell the crap out of some primitive town from several miles offshore, they had to take precautions against being sunk by the local spearmen.

- The tobacco and cotton plantations of the American colonies were worked mainly by Indian converts and by transported criminals; no slave labour was used at any time.

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[wolfing]

I think he meant like, the Civilopedia and stuff. I did read those entries in Civ 1 and they were interesting reads. Of course, after I closed Civilopedia my Tank was killed by a spearman :)

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[Rysith]

Civ didn't teach based on what you did in the actual game. That should be obvious given that we haven't launched anything at Alpha Centauri, and nobody has yet achieved world domination. However, if you read the civilopedia, they do give you a substantial amount of information on what happened in real life. That bit of learning is even more present in Civ IV, where they give short bios of each of the leaders and things like that. All an educational game needs to do to be successful is give you enough inform

So, the results will be

[geminidomino]

Replacing 'entertain' with 'teach':

They don't teach you anything, but they look absolutely fahhhboulous while they do it!

Chocobo games

[Metasquares]

I get the feeling that these games will be titled along the lines of "chocobo teaches typing", "chocobo math", etc.

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[shadowcabbit]

I get the feeling that these games will be titled along the lines of "chocobo teaches typing", "chocobo math", etc.

So, "hunt and peck", huh?

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[C0rinthian]

so 2 + 2 = Wark

"Serious?"

[Guppy06]

"Serious Games, as they're known, attempt to do more than just entertain."

Back in the day, they were called "edutainment," but as I recall they all died of cholera.

Serious Games != Edutainment

[oneiros27]

Edutainment was typically used to characterize child education games, which is only a small subset of the 'serious games' category.

'Serious games' seems to be used to describe job training exercises, exercise games, games with political messages, and the casual puzzle games that are supposed to 'stimulate your brain'.

Do the labels really mean anything? Probably not, but if you think of edutainment as the only type of 'serious game', you'll miss a lot.

(hmm ... some would argue that politics is a game, and

Well, that's a relief...

[Valdrax]

'Serious games' seems to be used to describe job training exercises, exercise games, games with political messages ...

Well, that's a relief. I was worried that they might be terrible and boring, like educational games were!

I took 100 hours to beat FF12...

[Quiet_Desperation]

...and now they say it's not a serious game?

ObWTF: WTF?

Looking forward to FFFF One!!

[madhatter256]

Looking forward to Square's version of a Fire Fighter simulation that was showcased at the GDC Serious games summitt last year but with Final Fantasy characters. They should call it Final Fantasy Fire Fighters or FFFF for short!

Seriously?

[syntaxglitch]

Video games: Serious Business.

serious games != edutainment

[phonics]

The "Serious Games" buzzword frequently refers to military training, first responder simulations, interactive political simulations, etc. They are typically not designed to be even remotely entertaining. The phrase is relatively new and should be more like "interactive simulation".

The "Edutainment" buzzword typically refers to K-12 educational games, and simple simulations. It's a pretty old phrase and pretty well understood.

Because Square has no actual *product* it's tough to tell where they lie.

In other words: Squarenix goes to DS

[Soiden]

I mean, DS is the preference when we talk about education/learning games. And it's for a [good] reason. I think the Chocobo and the Magic Book [Or something like that] game goes that way.