Square Enix plans simultaneous worldwide releases
Yoichi Wada also blames lack of young Japanese developers for industry stagnation
Future Square Enix titles games may see their Japanese launch delayed in order to ensure a single global release date, according to comments from president and CEO Yoichi Wada.
Speaking in a new interview with website Ars Technica, Wada suggested that the unusually short three month delay of Final Fantasy XIII was a "step forward" to closing the gap between Japanese and Western releases.
Like all Japanese publishers Square Enix has recently seen increased focus on Western style games and the use of Western developers, although Wada has been less pessimistic than some on the overall future of the Japanese industry.
However, he did point to the lack of new developers in Japan as a significant issue for the country's industry. "What I'm most concerned about," said Wada. "Is that the game creator foundation is starting to become exhausted in a sense, because there aren't as many younger creators that are aspiring to become developers."
"It's tough to be able to pinpoint the reason why, but when we look at 10 years ago, all of the console manufacturers were based in Japan," mused Wada.
"And actually those console manufacturers became the information hub that connected one creator to another. But now Nintendo is practically the only console manufacturer based in Japan... so the console manufacturer as a hub is now missing."