But Edvi says that's had no impact on the Collective. Square Enix has gone through a substantial change over the past year, particularly in the West with the sale of its major Western studios and IP, including Crystal Dynamics and Tomb Raider. We try to give this feedback to them if that is the case." But is there a market for it?' When we look at games, the first thing we ask is can they actually make it? Or is it just something they wish they could? The second thing is how can we sell it and obviously make profits for them and ourselves? Sometimes you see a great game, but it feels out of touch or out of time. "Sometimes I put my marketing hat on, and go: 'OK, this is a great idea. I personally would like to make games with more diverse characters" "We really want to attract and engage diverse teams. My marketing background also helps, because when we speak to indie teams about what they need from us… one of those things is always marketing support and how they can stand out. When this opportunity came about, I was like: 'I can do this, I want to do this'. "Phil and I worked closely on finding, marketing and publishing the games, together with the whole team. "But I was always interested in making the games, not just marketing them. "I always felt like I could have become a marketing director or a brand director, or something like that," Edvi explains of her move away from pure marketing. Then it was a move to Spain and a stint at Gameloft, supporting the promotion of popular smartphone titles such as Despicable Me: Minion Rush. She has worked for agencies that supported Xbox and Nintendo's marketing and PR efforts across Eastern Europe, including working on the launches of Wii, 3DS and Wii U. Edvi began her games career at various Hungarian studios in marketing positions, including at Digital Reality. She's spent over seven years at Square Enix, with most of that time working on indie games in various brand and marketing roles.Īnd she's a games marketing veteran. And now Square Enix Collective is eager to let us know what it's up to, and to introduce the world to its new leader.Įdvi isn't new to the Collective. It's commendable, but putting the devs into focus doesn't have to mean fading into the background entirely. But it was intentional, not putting the Collective branding into the focus because we wanted the games and the teams behind it to be in the focus. "But you know why? It is in our DNA – and I speak for the whole team here – that we really want to always want to put the devs and the game in focus. "I'm not surprised," said Timea Edvi, director of indie publishing at Square Enix, who took over the role vacated by Elliott in February.
We knew about Futurlab's hit game, of course, but we hadn't realised that Square Enix had handled the publishing. Because it turns out that not only is Square Enix Collective alive and kicking, but it's responsible for publishing the hit indie game PowerWash Simulator, which has racked up over seven million players. Then earlier this year, Elliott left to become CEO of Modern Wolf.īut we weren't looking closely enough. Remember Activision Blizzard's Sierra publishing label? Or GameStop's GameTrust? Or Sega Searchlight?Īnd in 2022, Battalion 1944 developer Bulkhead – one of the Collective's early success stories – cut ties with the company. Sometimes because they've served their purpose, and other times because priorities have changed.
We've seen big companies launch publishing labels, and then scale them back or quietly close them.
#Enix video games plus#
Which is quite surprising when you consider how much we write about indie publishing, plus the fact that the Collective was started by former editor and publisher Phil Elliott.Ĭandidly, a few of us may have assumed the division was coming to a natural end. It's been six years since we last spoke to Square Enix Collective, the indie publishing arm of the Final Fantasy company. Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox
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