Japanese publishers are keeping PC gaming a priority.
Most people associate the Japanese gaming industry with consoles. It is a natural leap to make, after all, Japan was traditionally the console heartland, thanks to Sega, Nintendo, and Sony. However, as big US publishers continue to fixate upon console releases, the Japanese are focusing more and more on the PC.
It may be a minor victory but Capcom announced overnight that its upcoming, downloadable UFO animal-herding game, Flock, would hit the PC first. Admittedly, it is only a day before Xbox Live Arcade and two days before the PlayStation Network release, but I’m still happy to claim it as a win for PC gaming.
More importantly, Square Enix has announced that its games will be coming to Steam. This arrangement will kick off with the PC version of The Last Remnant (which will use Valve’s Steamworks development and publishing software for DRM). This Xbox 360 role-playing game has been a polarising title, with some reviewers loving it and others with nothing but complaints. It is promised to be only the first of many Square Enix’s titles to hit the digital distribution service.
This fits well with an announced push by the company to develop and publish Western titles. The first of these is Gas Powered Games’s Supreme Commander 2, which Square Enix is publishing. As part of that announcement, it also indicated that it was actively looking for similar opportunities outside of Japan.
The next of these opportunities is Eidos. Square Enix announced its intention to purchase the struggling UK publisher in January, and it appears that the deal is rapidly moving forward. It announced overnight that it has acquired 32 percent of Eidos’s shares, and with major investors already supporting the deal, it now seems to be inevitable.
As Square Enix grows into a global publisher, being tied in with Steam is incredibly important for us PC gamers. Steam is more than just a distribution system – it is the socially acceptable face of DRM. By tying in with the system now, it means that Square Enix can properly leverage the PC market, and this should hopefully translate into more of a focus on the PC as a viable gaming platform. While it is inevitable that a majority of Square Enix titles will be console ports, titles like Supreme Commander 2 show that the publisher is keen to keep PC-centric titles as part of its overall strategy.
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mcgarnagle
2009.02.25 12:10
This is so long overdue. The UK recently surpassed Japan as the 2nd biggest contributer to worldwide gaming revenue after the US, and both SE and Capcom have a massive western fan-base.
It's heartening to see a big Japanese company like SE banking on Steam (and by extension PC gaming). I wonder if they'd consider using Steam as some kind of Virtual Console type store-front for playing emulated classics?
Eh… probably not. It would limit their opportunities to re-release them as DS games…
VannA
2009.02.25 14:10
Steam still needs to be cheaper.
I can buy the boxed version of DoW2 for 87$ from Tricky Dickies, and it is 55US$ on Steam.
That's a 5AU$ difference, at .67:1, and thats about what the 6gb costs me in quota/time and storage.
mcgarnagle
2009.02.26 12:33
I'm confused… are you complaining that the more convenient option isn't offered at enough of a discount?
And if you're going to add the bandwidth/time costs to the Steam version, you should probably add the petrol/public-transport cost to the retail version. The time argument is irrelevant to the downloaded version unless you sit there staring at the progress bar, and probably still compares favourably with going to the shops even if you do.
Storage I'll give you, although I would point out that you could skip one game and buy enough storage for 50. Skip two and you're laughing.
Like I said; confused. Don't get me wrong, I think that it would be great if the prices were better (like Valve's own game pricing which is excellent), but I'm not about to complain when the convenience is so great.