Square Enix Seeking Programmers For New US Studio

[Green Man]

According to a recent listing under Gamasutra’s JobSeeker catagory, Square-Enix is currently looking for employees to help fill in their new studio in Los Angeles, California.

That the first title we can possibly expect from this new studio is an action-oriented original IP currently slated for the X-Box 360 and Nintendo Wii.

This news may seem shocking to some after Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada called for a “Japanese Alliance” to combat the loss of market shares to Western developers, at the 2008 Tokyo Game Show.

It now appears that Square’s new strategy is to make games targeted to western crowds; a definite change for the RPG powerhouse. Which is something I’m personally excited to see as long as it doesn’t end up like “The Bouncer“; a PlayStation 2 beat-em-up that was poorly received by fans and critics alike.

If by any chance you happen to have five or more years of experience, a Bachelor’s Degree, and at least two games published including an X-Box 360 title; Square Enix might have the perfect job for you.

Link

The Playstation 3 isn't even mentioned. One can only hope that it's some super amazing game that makes everyone Jealous but it'll probably be something shitty like a Dirge of Cerberus clone.

[recursivelyenumerable]

this will be their 4th attempt at setting up an American dev studio, after the ones in Seattle (Secret of Evermore), LA (Parasite Eve) and Honolulu (Chocobo's Dungeon 2, Chocobo Racing, Final Fantasy 9, FFTSW, Flight of the Osiris)

also this guy needs to go to remedial semicolon school.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

in my mind, this studio has already folded after spending 2.5 years turning out a 7.0 action RPG that fails to find an audience in either Japan or Europe. I dunno how anyone could join up with a Square US studio in good faith at this point

[recursivelyenumerable]

well they can always just blame Sakaguchi for all the previous studio failures.  why did they close the LA one, anyway?  PE was reasonably successful, wasn't it?

[y2kev]

I'd join up if it got me KH3 before everyone else

this will be their 4th attempt at setting up an American dev studio, after the ones in Seattle (Secret of Evermore), LA (Parasite Eve) and Honolulu (Chocobo's Dungeon 2, Chocobo Racing, Final Fantasy 9, FFTSW, Flight of the Osiris)

also this guy needs to go to remedial semicolon school.

I wrote this while playing WoW, answering a ton of messages on Xbox Live and after being up since 8am YESTERDAY. I planned on fixing it but it went up while I was in the shower and I needed sleep.

Hey tardface, he wasn't even talking about you. You didn't even fucking use a semicolon.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

they've got good timing to be hunting for talent.  There are scads of former THQ, Midway, and EA dudes and dudettes that will probably jump at the chance to not be jobless anymore.

Also, Square Enix has been needing to diversify badly, very badly, since they even became Square Enix.  I think this is a good sign, and that they're funding Supreme Commander 2, which has no chance of being a mainstream success, shows to me that they're serious about building cred amongst western gamers.

I'm happy about it and I'm looking forward to the inevitable third person shooter they cook up.

[Joe Molotov]

Master's Degree in Waggle is a must.

[Bebpo]

in my mind, this studio has already folded after spending 2.5 years turning out a 7.0 action RPG that fails to find an audience in either Japan or Europe. I dunno how anyone could join up with a Square US studio in good faith at this point

You forgot to mention that it's in FPV.

[chronovore]

It'd be great if S-E was actually interested in creating a new studio with western devs that could make titles that (a) aren't the cookie-cutter RPGs they've got about 20 of coming out this year, and (b) are less specifically targeted at a very, very Japanese core audience.

I keep hoping they'll just 'fess up, and launch a FF collection with the title "Androgyny Anthology."

[tiesto]

I'm not interested at all unless we get another game as good as Secret of Evermore out of the deal...

spoiler (click to show/hide)

which wasn't amazing, per se, but better than every Mana that came after SD3

[close]

[Yeti]

I'd join up if it got me KH3 before everyone else

this will be their 4th attempt at setting up an American dev studio, after the ones in Seattle (Secret of Evermore), LA (Parasite Eve) and Honolulu (Chocobo's Dungeon 2, Chocobo Racing, Final Fantasy 9, FFTSW, Flight of the Osiris)

also this guy needs to go to remedial semicolon school.

I wrote this while playing WoW, answering a ton of messages on Xbox Live and after being up since 8am YESTERDAY. I planned on fixing it but it went up while I was in the shower and I needed sleep.

Hey tardface, he wasn't even talking about you. You didn't even fucking use a semicolon.

I'm pretty sure he was talking about me.

As stated earlier, you didn't even use semicolons in your post, so how could he be chastising you for your use of semicolons? Unless I'm missing something?