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Square Enix has stopped working on 'Go' mobile games
In many ways, Square Enix' Go titles were textbook examples of how to make good mobile games: for a little cash up front, you'd receive a truly mobile-friendly experience that felt like it received just as much attention as a blockbuster console release. However, that strategy has apparently run out of steam. Square Enix Montreal head Patrick Naud told PCGamesInsider.biz in an interview that his studio has stopped working on the Go series. The premium mobile game market is "diminishing," Naud said -- there are too many genuinely high-quality free games for many people to pour money into games unless they're riveted by the concept. While Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go and Deus Ex Go had strong reviews and "great revenue," only a small number of people played them.
The best mobile games
Mobile gaming has come a long way. Over the past few years we've gone from simple distractions like Snake, Words With Friends and Doodle Jump to full-on narrative experiences crafted specifically for Android and iOS devices. What's more, at least a few traditional console game developers have shifted entirely to mobile at this point, and, in a bit of a reversal, they've ported their games to consoles. By 2012, game-design toolsets like Unity and Unreal made a charming indie designed for mobile devices indistinguishable from one you'd play on a PlayStation or Xbox. As such, for the purposes of this list, we're focusing on games that have been released within the past five years.
Rock the vote for your favorite game in the GDC awards
Want to make your voice heard in this year's Game Developer's Choice Awards? How about doing the same for the Independent Game Festival's accolades? Boy howdy, you're covered in both cases. Once again, the GDCA and IGF are opening up the floor for audience votes ahead of the 30th annual Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco this year. Winners will be revealed on March 16th and the awards will stream on Twitch starting at 6:30 PM Pacific that day.
Square Enix Montreal gets what makes mobile games great
Apple recently named Lara Croft Go its game of the year, and deservedly so. But the back-to-basics 2D puzzler wasn't developer Square Enix Montreal's first stab at mobile gaming. The studio was initially formed to work on a now-cancelled Hitman project for consoles and then transitioned to making premium smartphone and tablet games.Since releasing Hitman Go in 2014 the team has been quietly kicking a lot of ass in the space, launching the excellent Hitman Sniper and Lara Croft Go within roughly two months of each other. It's this type of repeat success that's afforded lead programmer Antoine Routon and his mobile-exclusive team at Square Enix Montreal the freedom to tinker with publisher Square Enix's biggest properties in fresh ways."We have a lot of creative freedom we acquired by delivering good games," he says. "What's the opposite of street cred? Exec cred?" he asks, laughing.
Lara Croft's awesome mobile adventure adds a free tomb to raid
Lara Croft has a pretty big adventure on Xbox One this fall with Rise of the Tomb Raider, but her grand mobile mission is about grow too. Developer Square Enix Montreal announced it's dropping "The Shard of Life" expansion for Lara Croft GO tomorrow for free on Android and iOS (sorry, Windows Phone folks) with some 26 fresh puzzles to tackle while you're waiting in line at the grocery store. More than that, the publisher is knocking 40 percent off the game's price -- it'll run you $2.99 for a limited time. Oh and its hosting a Twitch event tasking the game's community to solve the new puzzles.
