Sega looking in-house for social gaming development

With companies from EA to Disney spending millions of dollars to acquire hot social and casual gaming companies, it might seem like a gold rush mentality has set in amongst the established mega-publishers. Well, the mentality has yet to reach long-lived publisher Sega, it seems. In a recent GamesIndustry.biz interview, Sega West president Mike Hayes says the company is hesitant to buy its way into the social gaming market at this point.

Hayes compares the social gaming market today to the mobile gaming market of five years ago, when heavily-hyped-but-unprofitable startups sold for inflated prices. "I'm not saying that about social gaming, but the value of what is current - you could argue is actually too high," Hayes said. "If you look at a lot of famous companies, I won't mention any names, but look at their balance books and they are not making any money."

That's not to say Sega isn't interested in the social and casual gaming markets -- they'll just be focusing on those markets through their newly established San Francisco digital division, rather than by scooping up an existing company. The key, Hayes says, is taking the time to come up with new ideas and models for sustainability, rather than throwing money at a quick cash-in. "Controlled profitable growth in digital is key," he said. "It's nothing we have to rush into and use a lot of money on. It's something some company's need to get into quickly but carefully, and that's exactly the way we're going to approach it."

Square Enix brings freemium RPG to Japanese social network

RPG-maker Square Enix's "exploration" of the social game space seems to be continuing apace -- in Japan, at least. SiliconEra reports that the company has released classical RPG Knights of the Crystal on Japanese social network GREE.

With a look reminiscent of the company's popular Final Fantasy series (thanks to Final Fantasy Tactics A2 artist Ryoma Ito), the game is reportedly a standard turn-based RPG in the Square Enix mold. One major difference from most Square Enix RPGs, though, is that the game is being offered as a free-to-play game on browsers and mobile phones, with money generated from in-game item sales.

This isn't the first time Square Enix has dabbled in Japanese social gaming -- previous titles on GREE include historical tactics game Sengoku Ixa and farming adventure game Chocobo's Crystal Tower. The company hasn't been nearly as active (or, um, active at all) in the American social gaming scene, but they've given every indication that they're interested in breaking in.

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