June 2010

SQUARE ENIX General Meeting of Shareholders 2010

SQUARE ENIX General Meeting of Shareholders 2010
	Today I want to introduce some points from the SQUARE ENIX General Meeting of Shareholders 2010 which are interesting to gamers.
	That's held on June 23.
	Answerer was CEO Yoichi Wada. During the question and answer session, many points about content and the company itself. I want to explain those points at the end.
	I'll be the questioner then.
	Let's go.
	How is the new title other than FF and DQ going? How about iPhone ver. and 3D?
	"Kingdom Hearts", "Fullmetal Alchemist" and "Black Butler", Eidos' "BATMAN", "KANE & LYNCH" and "DEUS EX" are working. Developing new IP. We had announced some at E3, and some projects had not. We had used new producers who have no experience for 4 years, not so good. If the game can't launch next year we'll pay more effort. iPhone has titles too. Some TOP sellers too. We'll continue that. 3D will be a change for game and graphic, but we need to examine its importance carefully. Some plan going on., try to show FF14 in 3D and made a 3D trailer of FF13 before "Avatar".
	How about the number of PLAYONLINE users? FF14 beta test seems to be PS3 mainly, how would you gain new users?
	PLAYONLINE was the platform of FF11, but we are considering if we should expand it. Number of user is confidential as it had ran for 7 years and is the basis of FF11, data would be misleading. FF14 need more time to decide the launching period of each platform. If you got a plan to gain user please tell me. We'll focus on core online gamer with normal promotion.
	How about a e-book of "Shonen Gangan"?
	We've already got a Gangan online. We release comic from that flexibly. Cost is low and we can find new author. Comic release on cellphone, we are thinking of new browser. We are thinking new genre e-book too. Some interactive strategy guide would be fun. Some HOW TO content like the DS era. iPad will have new style, we won't be late.
	Software development need 3 years so you need to have insight. I don't like violence. Europe and America have anxiety and Japan face the same thing. People want hope. Violence can eject your stress for short time but we need some game give us confidence. SQUARE ENIX was successful by such games in the past, you should go back to old style.
	You're right. Customer's taste diverse, and creator's are the same. Too much brand is confusing to customer. Hope is important. Recently we lift all restriction to make all kinds of games to find what we can do well and what customer want. We spread our target in 2 to 3 years and will find what should we focus.
	"Fullmetal Alchemist" ended, how would be the magazine's sales? SQUARE have unique world construction, how about you teach those author to construct a world?
	Shonen Gangan need to fight hard. Publishing is doing well and "ARAKAWA UNDER THE BRIDGE" is hot this year. We've got new comic every year. We try to use material again. "Deus EX" is made by new staff. "The 3rd Birthday" has new explanation by new creator. We keep on rebooting old titles.
	You talked about overseas few years ago and now many foreign company is deficit. It's just a myth. Mobile market is just the same. You should focus Japan only.
	We talked about oversea market, not company. Japan only share 10 to 14% of global market. Overseas is huge. SNS is big in China and America has games on facebook doing well, that spread to India and South America too. Overseas company focus on particular field and facing difficulty, but we spread our target. Global doesn't mean you can sell Japanese product to the world, you need to make games suitable to each market. "DRAGON QUEST IX" can sold 4.1 million in Japan but hard to do the same in the West, so Nintendo will sell it for us, hopefully we can hit 10 million worldwide. "BATMAN" is the best stealth game and hit 3 million worldwide, Japan only share 10%. FF13 sold equally in Japan, America and Europe, about 6 million. If we just focus Japan, "BATMAN" would be doomed, FF13 only one third, and DQ is OK. In America DQ would be doomed, FF13 only one third, and "BATMAN" half. We should focus global market. Online and mobile is trend but we don't aim to continue the recent model. Trend is changing, and the recent model can only continue for 5 to 10 years.
	That's all.
	They had talked about management and Japan-oriented stuff too. If you know Japanese you can check MakoNako Japan.
	And CEO had one more opinion.
	He said as follow. We aimed to do new thing to change, but not as good as planned. Overseas titles' localization in Japan is not successful. We will improve that. We held many meeting to discuss strategy. We need to change our mind and culture. Some of our work are careless, and we should apologize to our customer. You guys are too kind to mention our failure here, but we are sorry for that. We will do better.
	What's that?
	In Japan you can't sell foreign games directly. Not only language problem, but you need to modify some violence effect. "JUST CAUSE 2" had cut some content which existed overseas, and create problem.
	I see.
	And the "oversea" here means outside Japan. That's all for SQUARE ENIX General Meeting of Shareholders 2010.

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BANDAI NAMCO Holdings' General Meeting of Shareholders 2010

BANDAI NAMCO Holdings General Meeting of Shareholders 2010
	Today I want to introduce BANDAI NAMCO Holdings' General Meeting of Shareholders held on June 21, 2010.
	Why?
	During the question and answer session, shareholders asked some question about product and anwered by the company. I want to introduce those stuff, nothing about management here.
	I'll be the questioner then.
	I'll be the answerer.
	How about combining old content with new content? You can make something suitable for both adult and children by using old content.
	Pacman 30th Anniversary had been announced at E3. We look forward to the next 30 years. New platform included iPod.
	PreCure is already old. My 12 years old daugther abandon it. How about Asia strategy?
	PreCure last for 7 years. PreCure All Stars film made old fans return. Tamagotchi is hot, but we will make new version with new system to gain high school customers. We've got a Ciao shop too. Asia is linked to Japan, Gundam's Sangokuden is hot, and we'll expand it. Power ranger is hot too.
	Card games like "Kamen Rider Ganbaride" and "Super Sentai Battle: Dice-O" have the same target, are they eating up each other?
	Data Carddas's market is half of its peak, 30 billion yen now. We have 60% of share. One Piece and Tamagotchi targeting girls, we spread our target.
	As for online game, Gundam Universal Century ended when its max. login below 10,000. GNO3's member is about 10,000. SD GUNDAM Capsule Fighter Online is free of charge, how is the target user number?
	We set up Bandai Namco Online on October 1 last year to fight back. You mentioned 3 Gundam online game. Gundam Universal Century had a big scale but is too early to the era and the fee system is no good. GNO3 is the 3rd title of the 10 year series. Monthly fee model, GNO 1 and 2 had 80,000 constant users. Since the server is old we started GNO 3. Only 10,000 constant users. SD GUNDAM Capsule Fighter Online was launched in Korea and China, now it is available in Japan. Need 1 year to see the result.
	PreCure would end in long-run. How about the next content?
	PreCure is still hot in particular user zone. Of course we have new girl-oriented content but not ready to announce yet. We have different content for Europe and America too.
	About digital content, how is 3D going on?
	3D is hot in E3. SCE's PS3 support 3D TV, that should be a future standard. Game is suitable for 3D. 10% cost raise can make 3D CG. Nintendo 3DS will be popularized by 100 million scale, that's a easy platform for 3D. BANDAI NAMCO group have toys, video, game, music, many content like Gundam, Tekken and Tales are suitable. That's need technology but we think all anime and game will be 3D in the future.
	Sunrise said there will be a GUNDAM SEED film, but no update. Is that still making?
	GUNDAM SEED is making but we don't have a release date yet. 00 scheduled for this Summer. Unicorn Chapter 2 is set for October.
	That's all.
	BANDAI NAMCO have deep relation with anime and game, so there are many title mentioned. You should be interested in that.

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