Square Enix to acquire majority stake of Taito

neoalphazero · Post by **neoalphazero** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:36 am

Given their ample support of the shmup market lately I thought this warranted a mention.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050822/kyodo/d8c4om0o0.html

I guess Taito has been having money problems lately, hopefully this has no impact on the titles they publish. *-neo

gundamalpha · Post by **gundamalpha** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:59 am

oh god please not. or else all taito shmups will be rpg'ed in the future. and no more hope of future taito shmups having 60 Hz mode in pal territory

sjewkestheloon · Post by **sjewkestheloon** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:27 pm

not necessarily a bad thing if it's a purchase of the studio and not simply a buy out. squenix's money could really help to push some products in different terretories

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:42 pm

Moved - closer to OT than Shmups Chat

Dewclaw · Post by **Dewclaw** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:59 pm

.__. Taito's games won't be turning into RPGs just because they'll be a Square subsidiary. This just means that Square will be getting a cut of Taito's profits, and Taito will benefit from Square's deep pockets.

Post by **Ghegs** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 2:19 pm

First thing that came to my mind when I heard about this? A sequel to Einhander. Square has the license, Taito has the know-how. It could be a match made in heaven.

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:13 pm

gundamalpha wrote:oh god please not. or else all taito shmups will be rpg'ed in the future. and no more hope of future taito shmups having 60 Hz mode in pal territory

You have a point there. SquareEnix are incredibly lazy when it comes to putting 60Hz into PAL games.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:54 pm

We'll either see a new Darius game, Lufia game (most likely, since it's an RPG series), or SquareEnix will just be bastards and just assimilate the Tatio guys into their collective.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:55 pm

Square Enix was responsible for the mobile phone port of Aleste.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:58 pm

BrianC wrote:Square Enix was responsible for the mobile phone port of Aleste.

What's with shmups on phones anyway? Kinda pointless, don't ya think? Port the stuff to real handheld system like the GBA, DS or PSP!!

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 5:02 pm

gundamalpha wrote:all taito shmups will be rpg'ed in the future.

Sqaure has made games in other genres in the past, and if they wanted a company to make RPGs, why the hell would they buy Taito?

UnscathedFlyingObject · Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:17 pm

sethsez wrote:
gundamalpha wrote:all taito shmups will be rpg'ed in the future.
Sqaure has made games in other genres in the past, and if they wanted a company to make RPGs, why the hell would they buy Taito?

Watch out for arcade-RPGs

. I reckon Square wants a piece of the arcade market 'cause they have saturated the console JRPG market all by themselves. They haven't released a good game in ages, meaning anything besides RPGs or RPG-like games.

ThirdStrike · Post by **ThirdStrike** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 6:35 pm

This could either be a bad thing or a good thing.

Good points:

More money for Taito to Make games
Taito gets to use Square liscenses
Taito gets more games distributed outside of japan
They make a Bubble bobble CGI movie
They make a Final Fantasy Arcade game

Bad Points:

They change the Taito name to Square Taito Enix
Square buys Taito just for their properties
Square closes TAITO just to lessen competetion
They Make a Bubble Bobble Cgi Movie
They Make a Dragon Quest arcade game

sethsez · Post by **sethsez** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 9:47 pm

ThirdStrike wrote:Square closes TAITO just to lessen competetion

Taito is in absolutely no way competition for Square.

BrianC · Post by **BrianC** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:26 pm

sethsez wrote:
ThirdStrike wrote:Square closes TAITO just to lessen competetion
Taito is in absolutely no way competition for Square.

I agree. How can some poorly done remakes of Ys games (or so I heard. Not to be confused with Konami's port of Ys 6) and a remake of what many consider one of the lesser games in the Langrisser (Langrisser III) series be considered competition?

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:18 pm

ThirdStrike wrote:They make a Final Fantasy Arcade game

Sorry, arcades usually close at 5 pm.

They Make a Bubble Bobble Cgi Movie

I'd love to see that.

superhitachi4 · Post by **superhitachi4** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 1:11 am

gundamalpha wrote:oh god please not. or else all taito shmups will be rpg'ed in the future. and no more hope of future taito shmups having 60 Hz mode in pal territory

Yeah, I like Square and all, but I hope they don't tinker too much with Taito's shooters. I don't want to have to cast Knights of the Round while playing a shmup.

Specineff · Post by **Specineff** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 2:11 am

Worse: Imagine your bullets missing because you accuracy rate is lower than the enemy's evasion.

Stormwatch · Post by **Stormwatch** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 3:55 am

What remains of Taito nowadays? Didn't some of their best coders and artists leave to start G.rev?

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:07 am

FatCobra wrote:
BrianC wrote:Square Enix was responsible for the mobile phone port of Aleste.
What's with shmups on phones anyway? Kinda pointless, don't ya think? Port the stuff to real handheld system like the GBA, DS or PSP!!

Actually, the mobile phone port of Aleste was done by Macrospace. Sqenix just published it. That said, the Aleste port is actually quite good. A little easy, but a good rendition of the original and fine for a quick blast while you're waiting for the bus.

And shmups on mobile phones could actually work quite well if they were implemented in a way that took the systems' limitations into consideration better. Aleste is on the right track and I'm convinced it's possible to do even better.

Randorama · Post by **Randorama** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 8:16 am

Stormwatch wrote:What remains of Taito nowadays? Didn't some of their best coders and artists leave to start G.rev?

Most of Taito programmers left between 1998 and 2000 (G.Rev were 5 out of the roughly 40 people leaving), the others started working on console products.Except for a few dedicated cabs, Taito has basically outsorced their arcade production: Psyvariar, Shikigami, and all arcade games published by Taito after Raycrisis (G.Net) and Landmaker (F3) on non-dedicated cabs, have been produced by third parties. Actually, the Battle Gear series is also external...i think the last "internal" (developed by Taito programmers) is Zoids - infinity.

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 3:00 am

Randorama wrote:
Stormwatch wrote:What remains of Taito nowadays? Didn't some of their best coders and artists leave to start G.rev?
Most of Taito programmers left between 1998 and 2000 (G.Rev were 5 out of the roughly 40 people leaving), the others started working on console products.Except for a few dedicated cabs, Taito has basically outsorced their arcade production: Psyvariar, Shikigami, and all arcade games published by Taito after Raycrisis (G.Net) and Landmaker (F3) on non-dedicated cabs, have been produced by third parties. Actually, the Battle Gear series is also external...i think the last "internal" (developed by Taito programmers) is Zoids - infinity.

Taito's Battle Gear 3 racing game is developed or at least made in collaboration with Nextech (Ranger-X), who are also associated with Time Crisis 3. IIRC the first two titles may have been done internal.

If they want a new Darius, it wouldn't surprise me to see them outsource to G.Rev. Battle Gear 4 may also be a Nextech game.
http://www.nextech-corp.co.jp Nextech's HP