Square, weaker than expected, kills studio

[Jagos]

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I can say I'm not a fan of Square's business practices. If you've heard my rant on Crimson Echoes, you know how I feel about copyright issues. I'll leave it at that.

However, I will say that karma is really a bitch. And maybe, just maybe, Square got what they deserve.[/soapbox]

Regardless, it's come to my attention that they did kill off a studio that was making a game for them.

This is according a story (translated via Google) published today by Aftonbladet, an often provocative tabloid but, with 1.2 million readers, a newspaper of record for Sweden. In direct quotes, co-founders Ulf and Bo Andersson allege that Square Enix didn't pay a cent on a roughly $20 million (USD) contract for "Fortress," (concept art pictured) the code name for a Final Fantasy spinoff that diverged from the series' JRPG roots. The Anderssons say they met all project milestones up to the company's August 2009 bankruptcy.

Now if it's a true story, I can say I'm not surprised. Square has been damn near a fortress, where they try to hoard creativity within with a select group set of designers and engineers, using the programmers to work for a small set of ideas.

Yes, every year, Square lays off a ton of talented people, to hire them all over again for a new project. Meanwhile, at Valve...

Interviewer: So, honestly, is it true that everyone at Valve has wheels on their desks and can change what floor they work at whenever they like?
Gabe: Yeah, you know why right?

Factory work…
Yeah. In fact, factories were reorganised around the military concepts in the early twentieth century.
But if you’re trying to invent things, or do novel things, a really strong hierarchical organisation can get in the way of that.
The point being that, if you’re constantly having to change, rigid notions of organisation get in the way. If you look at how quickly the video game environment is changing, what works really well in one generation becomes pretty irrelevant in the next. You go from sprites to polygons. From 256-colour 64x64 bitmaps to shaded polygonal models. Game development studios have to constantly keep reinventing themselves, processes have to change over and over.

Square hasn't learned that. The Crimson Echoes fiasco, their rigid business practices has actually hurt Square at what they do best when compared to other successful companies.

So it's kind of sad to hear GRIN go out the way of the dodo, but perhaps Square can respond to the accusations eventually. For now, I just hope they eventually get back on their feet with a better way of doing business than what they currently do.

-E- Basically GRIN was told to work with Square on an FF game, that they made their own. From what the rumor mill is saying, they did everything that Square asked, but it wasn't what Square wanted. So GRIN lost money, Square lost direction. Ain't politics grand?