Square Enix president and representative director Yosuke Matsuda has shared select plans for the Nintendo Switch, new titles, Steam, and Left Alive. This information comes in via Square Enix outlining its results briefing held on November 8th, 2017.

If you happen to be a follower of Square Enix and enjoy the games made by said publisher/developer, president and representative director Yosuke Matsuda has released a Q&A via the company’s results briefing held on November 8th that has now become available to read.

The first question on the Q&A list wants to know Square Enix thoughts on the current state of its smart device game business and where it’s headed:

“We now have an organization in place that should prevent us from repeating the same mistakes. Once you’ve improved upon quality issues, it all comes down to how fun the contents you produce are, so our next challenge will be to increase the success rate of our titles.”

The next question surrounds that of Dragon Quest Rival and how it’s been performing well, but wants to also know how the company expects smart device game earnings to trend going forward:

“It’s true that “DRAGON QUEST RIVALS” is off to a good start, but there are some titles slated for release in the remainder of FY2018/3 that we are going to have to revisit. As such, some uncertainty surrounds our earnings outlook. I would like to reserve any judgment on that until we’ve seen what kind of start the new titles get off to.”

The Q&A also touches on what Square Enix thinks about Nintendo Switch and how the company plans on developing content for said platform:

“Nintendo Switch is seeing rapid uptake, and we welcome
the arrival of such a platform. We intend to be proactive in
our development efforts given that it’s a platform that is well suited to the mid-sized titles at which we excel.”

As for development and securing resources going forward, Square Enix had the following to say:

“We want to be proactive in recruiting talented resources regardless of whether they are new grads or mid-career hires. What is key is that our company, brand, and titles be attractive to creators. Our 30th anniversary events and Square Enix Cafes have been part of our efforts to enhance our brand value.”

The question part of the Q&A also touches on competition in the gaming sphere and wants to know why has it increased. Square Enix answer lies below:

“Players have become extremely discerning about game quality. Providing new experiences is also important, and to that end, we would like to make proactive efforts in the mobile AR space.”

Moreover, one of Square Enix upcoming titles Left Alive also found its way into the Q&A, which is said to be a triple-A brand that is hardcore:

“We want to make it into a AAA brand, but that does not mean that we intend to devote massive development costs to it. Content-wise, the game will be satisfying in a hardcore way, and that’s how we want to market it to players.”

Square Enix also touches on development lead time, re-works, bringing new games, and how things are going as planned:

“I believe you will be able to tell how long our development lead times are based on the launch dates we will be announcing for our games going forward. I will say that we are facing less risk of having to engage in re-work thanks to the precision with which we are approaching our designs in the initial phase of each development project. I believe that the development efforts for the new titles we will be launching starting in FY2019/3 are proceeding in line with our plans.”

Lastly, we learn about Square Enix’s thoughts on Steam:

“Steam has many users, but our games tend to get lost amongst the many titles it offers. As such, we think it’s important to guide users from our sales website to Steam.”

You can read the full Q&A session that involves Square Enix by heading on over to hd.square-enix.com.