Ben-DutkaIf there are two publishers that take a gigantic amount of heat from gamers, it's the Call of Duty mega-company Activision and the ailing one-time RPG gurus at Square Enix.
The question is, will the majority of gamers ever learn to love either publisher again? There was a time when Square Enix was Squaresoft during the first PlayStation generation, and everything Square touched turned to gold. I'm referring to more than games in the Final Fantasy franchise; let's not forget about Vagrant Story , Chrono Cross , Legend of Mana , Xenogears , and even Einhander (a side-scrolling space shooter, for crying out loud). They were all pretty damn amazing. These days, RPGers are wondering what Square Enix has done to their precious FF series and other projects they've tried have fallen flat. The fans just don't like their constant emphasis on appealing to Western tastes.
During Squaresoft's reign, Activision was suffering, as they were struggling with bankruptcy right around the time the PlayStation debuted. Now, Activision rules the world, but at the sacrifice of the hardcore gamer crowd that despises the publisher's apparent money-grubbing ways. The outspoken majority also sees Activision as really only having two massive successes in CoD and World of Warcraft , despite what Hirshberg says . The strange part is that because CoD seems to cater to a great many casual gamers, who really don't care what company publishes the games, Activision gets no love from those millions. Fisher Price could produce CoD, for all the fans care. But the older gamers who aren't quite so enamored with either CoD or WoW are a little miffed for a number of reasons.
So the questions is- will either company ever break free and become loved in the eyes of the avid game enthusiast? If so, which one?