Since I kinda started using this thread to punch Square Enix in the face, can I do it some more?
Last night I was thinking about this thing:
http://www.siliconera.com/2014/03/31/bravely-defaults-success-west-making-square-enix-rethink-jrpgs/ (That Jimquisition episode probably helped.)
You know what's totally stupid about this? Nope, not the part about how a company went blindly for mass appeal, when they knew to formule to success all along. The stupid part is how they learned that lesson.
Bravely Default was published by Nintendo in most parts of the world. Nintendo was the one that figured: Well, these traditional RPGs will always have their audience and this one is relatively high profile. Let's publish it, put it in some Directs and promote it on our website. It should do well enough.
And it did. Better than expected even. Nintendo may out of touch with mainstream gaming, but when it comes to games they know their stuff.
But... what if Nintendo hadn't even known that? It's extremely likely Square Enix wouldn't have published Bravely Default outside of Japan themselves and I doubt they would have entrusted one of their titles with a smaller company. If Bravely Default had never made it across the ocean, would Square Enix have stayed on their original doomed path or were the Bravely Default sales just a platform to elegantly launch their 'we changed our mind about this whole mass appeal thing because it clearly isn't working' statement from?