Square Enix General

[Chaser]

Back in September Mike Sherlock, Square Enix's Chief Operating Manager, unexpectedly passed away.

LOS ANGELES (September 6, 2018) – Square Enix is deeply saddened to announce the unexpected death of Mike Sherlock. Mr. Sherlock served as Chief Operating Officer across Square Enix America and Square Enix Europe since 2015.


Phil Rogers, CEO of Square Enix Europe and America, commented, “It is with tremendous sorrow that we announce the passing of our great friend and colleague, Mike Sherlock. Mike was a principled and charismatic leader who led by example. He was extremely proud of the progress and success we have shared over the years. The entire Square Enix family mourns this tragic loss, and our deepest sympathies are with his family and loved ones.”


Square Enix’s executive team will assume the immediate responsibilities of Mr. Sherlock to ensure the continuity of its strategic direction and operations.


About Mike Sherlock


Mike Sherlock was named Chief Operating Officer of Square Enix America in July 2015, co-serving as Chief Operating Officer of Square Enix Europe, a position he had held since 2009. Mr. Sherlock first joined Square Enix Europe in 2005 serving initially as senior vice president of marketing. Prior to joining Square Enix, Mr. Sherlock held positions as president of international publishing for Acclaim Entertainment and executive vice president of sales & marketing for Sega Europe.

Today, Square Enix have announced that John Heinecke has joined as the new Chief Marketing Operator.

LOS ANGELES (October 10, 2018) – Square Enix® Inc. today announced the appointment of John Heinecke as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer. Mr. Heinecke is an award-winning marketer with more than 20 years of experience in the video game industry. Most recently, he was the Vice President of Global Publishing for Overwatch at Blizzard Entertainment. Mr. Heinecke will oversee marketing across all Square Enix titles reporting directly to Phil Rogers, CEO of Square Enix America and Europe.

“We are tremendously excited to welcome John Heinecke to the Square Enix family,” said Rogers. “John’s experience and knowledge will be instrumental in leading our marketing efforts.”

During Mr. Heinecke’s twelve year tenure at Blizzard Entertainment, he led the global launch campaigns for Overwatch, Hearthstone and Diablo 3, as well as contributing to the launches of The Overwatch League, StarCraft 2 and the first four World of Warcraft expansions. Prior to that, Mr. Heinecke worked in brand marketing at Activision and strategy at ad agency Ignited. He is a former Naval Officer and holds his MBA from UCLA and his undergraduate degree from Duke University.

“Square Enix has some of the most storied franchises in gaming and I am very excited to join the team,” said Heinecke. “I look forward to building cutting edge marketing campaigns that help to grow our global audience and to build passionate communities around our amazing games.”

 

[iron spider]

I like this one

 

[Blackrazor187]

Square Enix was the company that really made me get into JRPGS as Kingdom Hearts was my first ever JRPG and i really had no idea at all at the time games could have been so complex and the stories could have really been this rich and interesting (In Kingdom Hearts case mind boggling)

 

[Recon]

Happy birthday Nomura

 

[Deleted member 263385]

Played alot of Square games growing up and my all time favorite one is Xenogears.

 

[Deleted member 271965]

I'm always looking for more video games to play. What Square Enix games would you recommend (aside from KH and FF)?

 

[Sakuraba Neku]

I'm always looking for more video games to play. What Square Enix games would you recommend (aside from KH and FF)?

- The World Ends With You and NEO: The World Ends with You
- Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross

 

[Max]

I'm always looking for more video games to play. What Square Enix games would you recommend (aside from KH and FF)?

What systems do you prefer to play on? I don't want to recommend for platforms you aren't going to use.

 

[Deleted member 271965]

What systems do you prefer to play on? I don't want to recommend for platforms you aren't going to use.

I use nintendo switch, ps4, and hopefully ps5 in the near future

 

[Max]

I use nintendo switch, ps4, and hopefully ps5 in the near future

A lot of my Square Enix recommendations for Switch and PS4/5 are ports of old games, but they're fantastic nonetheless. Chrono Cross is great, Dragon Quest 3, Dragon Quest 11, and Dragon Quest Builders 1+2 are all great ones, the Mana series has a strong presence on Switch right now with the original 3 games and a remake of the third.

I would be willing to recommend a bunch more great RPGs on the systems if you're open to non-Square games, but I get it if Square is mainly what you like.

 

[Launchpad]

between having 4 reps in Smash and all their huge titles on the horizon, Square has been eating good

 

[Deleted member 271965]

A lot of my Square Enix recommendations for Switch and PS4/5 are ports of old games, but they're fantastic nonetheless. Chrono Cross is great, Dragon Quest 3, Dragon Quest 11, and Dragon Quest Builders 1+2 are all great ones, the Mana series has a strong presence on Switch right now with the original 3 games and a remake of the third.

I would be willing to recommend a bunch more great RPGs on the systems if you're open to non-Square games, but I get it if Square is mainly what you like.

I like Square, they're the company that makes KH, my favorite video game series, so I just wanted to see if I liked any of their other games, but I also like other gaming companies like Nintendo and... y'know, other ones that I just can't think of right now ^_^' My favorite type of game are probably RPGs, so I'd like to play some of those

 

[Darkspawn]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1522621548661809153

I have no idea how credible any of this is and these rumors fly around all the time. But I have a theory I could see happening.

Sony needed SE to sell their western studios in order to purchase them (could be for a variety of financial, legal, or logistical reasons.) Now they can go through with that.

FFXVI is apparently almost done, but the reveal had to be pushed back. What if Sony is going to hold a special showcase where they simultaneously reveal FFXVI in full with its release date and announce they’re acquiring Square Enix?

It’s not something I want to see happen, but given the circumstances, I think it may be an actual possibility.

 

[2 quid is good]

I refuse to believe this is happening, this would be terrible and square aren't in a bad position where they would desire a buyout. Plus why would they want to be Sony exclusive when they make so many games for Nintendo?

 

[Darkspawn]

I refuse to believe this is happening, this would be terrible and square aren't in a bad position where they would desire a buyout. Plus why would they want to be Sony exclusive when they make so many games for Nintendo?

It all depends on how much Sony is willing to pay and what the company would look like as a subsidiary. Plenty of other companies that have been acquired were doing just fine. If Sony wants to make a big acquisition to rival Microsoft buying Activision, SE would be an attractive option.

They wouldn’t necessarily have to go PlayStation exclusive. It could be similar to Sony’s deal with Bungie to allow them to operate essentially independently and still release non-exclusive games. Square Enix’s biggest games would be timed exclusives at least as they already are. But Sony could allow them to still release some of their smaller projects on other platforms if they don’t expect them to perform strongly on PlayStation consoles alone.

These rumors have been going around for years, and it’s likely this hear say could have been a misunderstanding over the Crystal/Eidos sell off. So I take it all with a massive grain of salt.

And I do agree it would be terrible. For market competition and likely for many of Square’s smaller IPs. Less successful series like TWEWY would probably be dropped. And I could kiss any hope of a Super Mario RPG remake ever happening goodbye. So I hope the rumors are wrong.

 

[MATGSY]

Where were the leaks and rumors for the western studios getting sold? Or Activision getting bought? Funny How we hear so many rumors on these things but the ones that happen come out of nowhere.

 

[Sakuraba Neku]

I don't remember the last time a game met Square Enix sale ecpectations:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1790227310567960626

 

[Phoenix]

FF just isn't the name it used to be, and SE has to stop pretending it is. Hopefully if FF8 ever gets remade, it's just a normal ass QoL upgrade that doesn't cost a third of a billion dollars to make.

 

[Darkspawn]

SE needs to build a new AAA family-friendly JRPG franchise. A big reason Nintendo remains so successful is the family friendly nature of the majority of their games. Kids who enjoy those games will likely come back to play future Nintendo games for life as long as they maintain strong quality.

KH was that entry level SE franchise for a lot of us who grew up in the 2000’s. But there’s a higher barrier of entry now due to the ongoing story. And while the old games hold up in my opinion, kids are more likely to gravitate toward modern games. The franchise is also potentially starting to mature a bit as we go into this new saga, though that remains to be seen for sure.

Having a casual entry level franchise would give those young players a chance to experience JRPG mechanics for the first time and develop an interest for playing more games like them. That’s how I got my start with turn based games after playing Super Mario RPG and action RPGs with KH. Eventually, they’ll graduate to the more mature games like FF and DQ.

It would need to have a KH1/SMRPG style of narrative that is simple but still has strong emotional beats. Likewise, gameplay mechanics needs to be kept simple and not rely on gimmicks or complicated systems.

World of Final Fantasy could have been this, but its story was fairly dense, gameplay was a little gimmicky, and they leaned a bit too hard into the cutesy stuff with the chibi characters. I loved it, but don’t think I would recommend it to young kids or tell someone to make it their first FF game or JRPG.