To be fair, at least for those of us in the west, FFX+X-2 HD will have new content. They're going to be the International versions that are being rereleased - so english players will finally have access to the extended postgame of FFX and the extra maingame content/Last Mission of FFX-2. Also, hey, two of my favourite FF games on a portable device.
The reality is that "HD Updates" are basically the modern version of just porting games to a new system. They don't require huge budgets, but people will pick them up for a variety of reasons, from "I wasn't able to play this game before" to "I really want an excuse to replay it". They work.
I think the honest problem is that Square is succumbing to the problem that comes with being a modern "Triple A Gaming" company. Everything has to have absolutely huge production values and it's only going to get higher and higher as we get into the new generation era of consoles. Even if a game's sales are a few million, the sheer cost of developping is failing to be evened out because games are requiring years of time in development and still getting rushed out the door when they finally escapes development hell (XIII-Versus is the obviously famous example but even XIII itself spent way longer being scrapped and restarted than it did in actual production to my understanding). It's what brought THQ down and it's causing other companies to start struggling that otherwise were doing fine (among, y'know, other issues).
I mean hell look at what Drake posted. FF games used to be released a couple years apart. That development cycle has become significantly longer and now requires significantly more people as well. Even if a game did just as well as it would have before it would hardly be recouping losses anymore.
So, I mean it's shitty, but to use another example here: Why would they make a Kingdom Hearts 3? At this point the development costs and times associated with it would be huge, especially to fulfill expectations. Meanwhile, rereleasing older games with "HD Graphics" and focusing on developping new content on cheaper-development handhelds gives the company the income it needs for bigger projects.
(How the hell did I made a reqoute of my post? lol)
Anyways, in my personal experience. I never liked FFX-2. I mean, if you ever think about it. Sequels/Prequels to FF games are always "incomplete" in a way than the original. I'm not saying I hate them, FFVII sequels and prequels rock. So sure, it's a way to get their profits back up, but the thing is, Square Enix likes to give people a lot of hype, and they always expect high expectations. Look where they got themselves in now. They make HUGE games, instead of starting with smaller basic "new" games to get their income. Now they're desperate to even go as far to remasters. Well not that I'm complaining I don't want to play it myself(...heh, trophies.). Still they need to focus themselves to one game at a time, not tell the whole world that "We're developing an awesome game for ya guys", then a few months to a year later, "We're developing an awesome "
new" game for ya guys". Developing teams doing separate yet at the same time the same work. This is one reason why they're losing their credentials, and dignity as a "one of the most famed Video Game companies". I mean, look at the games they've released EVEN as a publisher. The list is soooo longer than it was in the earlier years. Being a MEGA publisher also has it's downsides you know.
FFXIII Versus might already have claimed the longest FF in development from FFXII. Those excuse for "lack of team developers", and "couple of years apart" for each FF. With technology advancing so much these days, it would atleast be at the same speed as it was before, but no...they focus too much on a lot of games, THAT EVERYONE EXPECTS to be awesome.
Yeap, expectations, hype, and
SOOO MUCH WORK. Sure they have a lot of subsidiaries(which is also a reason, they buy a lot of companies, which is stupid if it's just for the rights of a dead game), but
that's not an excuse to focus on a lot of games. Recently I'm beginning to see Japan Studio and Atlus with Vanillaware doing better work than them.
