Square Enix Announces Forthcoming 'Sliding Heroes'
posted by Blake Patterson on September 18th, 2009 11:28 AM EDT in Strategy, Upcoming Games, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Square Enix, the studio best known for their Final Fantasy series and who brought us Crystal Defenders and Vanguard Storm for the iPhone, has today announced a new forthcoming iPhone title, Sliding Heroes.
Sliding Heroes is a real-time strategy game where you control units by tilting your iPhone or iPod touch and making them slide across the screen. Your units are of classic fantasy classes, like warriors, clerics, and mages. The dangers that they face aren't only fearsome monsters (of which there are plenty!), but a great number of insidious traps and obstacles that bar the way to each map's goal! The gameplay is simple, but you'll need to use your wits and dexterous hands to lead your troops to victory!
The studio has just setup a Facebook page for the game that's presently rather sparse of information, but we'll keep an eye on it and make sure readers stay in the loop.
They are killing me. Give me a damn final fantasy game will you.
Another casual game by Square Enix? Does anybody really care? C'mon, bring us some Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest or Chrono Trigger!!!!
that's annoying… won't they understand we want good RPGs like a final fantasy ? why can't they port a psx game on the iphone ? even a snes game would be nice… but noooo, they'll persist on making crappy turn-based towerdefense strategy suckmychocobo games. I'm sorry for those who enjoyed these apps, but they are capable of so much more… I hate them. give me a vagrant story port !
uhuh, and I though I was going to be like a renegade or something. may they read toucharcade…
I suggest a boycott on this one.
lolwut?
Could be fun, but it sure sounds like arcade or maybe puzzler, not RTS.
If they ported over Final Fantasy 7, they would make millions, even Snes games like Chrono Trigger would be pretty damn awesome, but we get another dull looking "cellphone" game.
I think it is clear that we want Final Fantasy! I am all for the boycott!
Considering Square-Enix could make a DS game and sell tons of copies at 5-10x the price of an average iPhone game, its not unexpected that they don't make such titles for the iPhone. The DS is also a lot more common in Japan than an iPhone/Touch and making the same title on both platforms would lose them profits if people with both devices opted to buy the iPhone version (which would probably get sold much cheaper).
Spot on analysis.
I'd also rather have games that actually "fit" the platform. Squeenix has shown that they can make very enjoyable iPhone/touch games that don't merely market to a niche audience. And, yes, FF fanatics, your beloved series, on this platform at least, would be decidedly niche at best.
Are you sure ?
How many sells for the other Square Enix game on the app store ?
Not so much. it's strange 'cause based on your theory, the choice to make very very casual games are the good choice.
You are SURE that there isn't more more bigger market for a REAL licence (FF) ?
You are wrong when you think the Iphone user aren't the same who enjoy playing on their PSP or their DS. It's the SAME market 'cause this is the same player.
FF on Iphone = millions of sells
this crap on Iphone = a niche market for casual players who like to play crap games from big compagnies. Not a lot.
You forget how much the games cost.
How much does a full on FF game cost to develop on this platform vs. a mobile-centric sort of game as Squeenix has done so far? Even if they aren't on the top 100, the sales of the games, which are priced from $4.99 -7.99 are enough to generate Squeenix significant enough returns to make up for the low investment cost as well as generate them some nice tidy profit for such a comparably minimal effort. A full on FF game has to sell much more to pull the same thing off, and on this platform, with this market, there's no guarantee that will happen.
As for the idea that it is the "same" consumer as DS and PSP, it's simply not the case. Is there some overlap? Sure. But the iPhone userbase skews older than BOTH DS and PSP, and the consumer market on iPhone/touch is NOT focused simply on games (there are other types of apps sold, after all) because the device family isn't focused primarily on games. The consumer market for this platform is quite a bit different, and even if you zero in on the submarket for games on the platform you'll see that the type of games purchased don't exactly mirror those on focused portable game systems like PSP and DS.
I'm not saying a full on FF won't sell well for it's niche (and it is a niche, not a guaranteed top #1 game seller for this platform), I'm just saying that the safer route, and possibly the more conducive to better probability of returns on investment (and profit) is exactly the route Squeenix has chosen to take: lower dev costs, lower need to sell a great deal many units to break even.
well, at least its not another TD game
Just port an old game and I'll be happy.
Square won't port their games because it will only de-value them. Most high profile games sell for 5-8 dollars and most people aren't going to buy a Square-Enix rpg for 30+ dollars on the iphone, especially when there's games like Zenonia selling for a measly few bucks.
are you kidding ? old psx games are as easy to find on the internet as were the snes roms in the 2000's. the ones you talk about are merely rentable for the psp and are turning in closed circle in discount stores
PSone classics on PSP are to own, not rent.
They're selling the port of FF VII on the PSP and PS3 network for 9.99.
Let's see… devalue a 15 year old game, or sell 100,000 more copies at $5 a pop. Hrm.. tough decision.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Boring! GIVE ME the real FINAL FANTASY!!!!!!!!!!!!
If its how it is, then let's jailbreak and emulate.
Another piece of crap from square. Those guy's arn't threating us seriously arn't they?
Gief decent rpg or die square!
It would be really nice to see some SNES title, like FFIV or FFVI in here.
Maybe some of the remakes that were released for the DS only, like FFIII or something like that. Even titles like FFVII before crisis that were only aimed for mobile phones. Let us hope for Square-Enix to also listen their long time fans
I really like Square but when it comes to their iPhone devision, I just have trouble liking that. They just don't listen to what the people want and go ahead and make a mobile game that they find easiest to make. In fact, the iPod click wheel users have gotten the closest thing to a real RPG that they have made… I just think that if they listened to what we want, they might make the right kind of games for once.
FF games are all over the place. I find it hard to believe you people can't get one if you want to play one.
Square-Enix will start publishing their games on the app store when the app store is capable of supporting a game at a price they finds acceptable. The DS remake of FF4 goes for $30. The GBA remakes were priced similarly. With the not-insignificant amount of complaining that goes on about games costing only $5, it's not surprising that SE doesn't think there's a market at the price they want. So they develop for the price point the app store supports.
LOL! Give us a Final Fantasy?
Unlike 95% of the dodgy devs out there, if Square made a real FF game it would take years.
You guys have been spoilt with these 'built in months' clones that aren't as good as the worst RPG's on DS.
wow, an instant not buy.
but ff would be an instant 4 sure, got it enix?
like all of us do,i hate them,i'm waiting for them to take iDevices seriously,don't they want to earn money like other big companies like EA?
Chrono cross port will do for me,haizt…
That's sexy. I just like it because it shows that they care a bit more than they did before. They made an original game that would make people want to play the iDevice. I'm not sure about this game at all, how it works or anything. And I'm not sure that I will buy it, but it's definitely a step in the right direction!
I DEMAND CHRONO TRIGGER NOW!
I don't know if Square even could make an iphone version of FF if they wanted to, I bet they have deals with Sony and/or Nintendo already for the exclusive rights .
Sega, Capcom, Square, Konami DO NOT BUY FROM THEM ON THE IPHONE
They don't care about quality
30$? no way, keep in mind that the distibution costs on iphone are none agaisnt DS, cartridge isnt the cheapest media to store data. If it goes for incmes its better to sell 1 000 000 copies for 10$ then 200 000 for 30$.
Square simply ingores us…
As much as I love the FF games, I have versions for every system they've come out on; enough is enough. The iPhone/Touch isn't a good platform for FF ports, simply because of battery life. I've spent hours at a time playing them on other systems, and to do it on my ipod Touch would mean being tethered to my laptop or buying an external battery pack. No thanks!