Actually, SE isn't just a game company anymore. They're something of a media conglomerate, with a manga publishing division that has also branched out into anime - not including the two Final Fantasy films that were produced in-house. The following is from Wikipedia:
The business model of Square Enix is centered on the idea of "polymorphic content", which consists in developing franchises on all potential hardware or media rather than being restricted by a single gaming platform. An early example of this strategy is Enix's Fullmetal Alchemist manga series, which has been adapted into two anime TV series, a movie and several novels and video games. Other polymorphic projects include Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Code Age, World of Mana, Ivalice Alliance and Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII. According to Yoichi Wada, "it's very difficult to hit the jackpot, as it were. Once we've hit it, we have to get all the juice possible out of it".
The company also has a manga publishing division in Japan (originally from Enix) called Gangan Comics, which publishes content for the Japanese market only. Titles published by Gangan Comics include Black God, Papuwa, Pani Poni, Spiral, He is My Master, Yumekui Kenbun, Doubt, Bamboo Blade, Pandora Hearts. Black Butler, Soul Eater, Zombie Loan, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Other titles include manga adaptations of diverse Square Enix games, like Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts and Star Ocean. Some of these titles have also been adapted into anime series.
Fullmetal Alchemist so far is the most successful offspring of Square Enix's manga branch, with more than 30 million volumes sold in Japan alone. The anime series obtained great popularity and even spawned a movie sequel. Both series and movie are licensed to many locations worldwide (in North America by FUNimation Entertainment). The same occurs with its manga series, licensed in North America by Viz Media. Kingdom Hearts and Spiral were licensed in North America by Tokyopop; Tokyopop dropped Spiral, but the title was later licensed again by Hachette's Yen Press, which has licensed other Square Enix titles including Soul Eater, Bamboo Blade and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Other titles like Soul Eater, Sekirei, Bamboo Blade and Shikabane Hime also were adapted to TV and licensed to other countries, including a second Fullmetal Alchemist anime series which debuted on Japanese television in 2009 and America on Adult Swim in 2010.On top of all that, SE publicly complained about how "hard" it is to make a game on current gen HD capable consoles.
This is one of the reasons why the video-game industry is in such deep trouble. For example, Gran Turismo 5, which was in development for about five years and cost over $60 million to produce, included high-res textures and cockpit views on only about ¼ of the total available cars to drive. Over 700 of the cars had PS2-era textures. Now while the game was excellent overall, that kind of thing really makes you take notice. How much more money would it have taken to properly render all 1,000 cars? It's very sobering. The video-game industry may have become a victim of its own success, with consumers expecting a quantum-leap in performance and graphical capabilities with each successive generation of hardware. But creating the hardware to meet consumers expectations is no longer the big hurdle it once was. Things have advanced to the point where companies are finding they can no longer afford to produce games that can take advantage of today's awesome hardware – or at least not to its fullest.
I feel the need to amend my earlier post, now that I've thought about things more clearly. Certainly, a lot of problems have been caused by ignorant executives making poor decisions, but I also believe a select few have seen the writing on the wall and just aren't sure what to do about it. If game-companies can't maximize the potential of the current generation of hardware, what hope is there for a PS4, or a new X-Box? The 1990's was an age where everything was cutting-edge and developers were always expanding the limits of what a game could do. Those days are over. The development costs have become too high. I fear the 2010's will become an era of scaling-back expectations, and that true AAA titles outside of an unexpected niche will become exceedingly rare. Can the industry survive that? In a word: no. The market will shrink so much in this decade that I don't think any of us will recognize it by 2020.
Video-games will never go away completely, but they will become divided between cheap casual entertainment and ultra-expensive bachelor's toys. Remember the Neo-Geo? For those of you who weren't around in those days, the Neo-Geo was the absolute top-of-the-line gaming console you could buy – essentially a 1990's arcade machine reduced to console size. That system cost $700, and the games alone cost upwards of $200. (And that was in 1990's dollars!) For fans of the cutting edge, that is what we are looking at, and it's frankly a wonder it hasn't happened already. Video-game production costs have skyrocketed while the prices for those games – considering inflation – haven't gone up that much. That is not a sustainable business model, and I think that's why Square/Enix is spinning its wheels on the subject of giving us the games we really want. The industry has reached a dangerous crossroads: Either the quality of the games go down to maintain profitability (as we have already seen), or prices go up. There's no escaping it. How much can the industry jack prices before pulling the rug out from consumers and triggering a mass-exodus from gaming? How much can the industry sacrifice quality before causing the same? It's a bad situation any way you look at it.
