Square Enixloves revealing games early. Ever since the beginning of the PS3/Xbox 360 generation brought with it the decade-spanningFabula Nova Crystallisanthology, Square has been calling its shots years in advance. Most of these games tended to reveal with full game titles and a trailer that gave the gist of what each was supposed to be. This sometimes frustrating, but often exciting practice has continued to this very day, but the most recent examples aren’t like the rest.
Over the past eight months,Square Enixhas announced two major games with working titles,Project AthiaandProject Triangle Strategy.Project Athiais the latest game from Luminous Productions, the studio formed midway throughFinal Fantasy 15’s development with the intent to work on titles using the new Luminous Engine.Project Triangle Strategyis the next game fromOctopathTraveler’s team, and aims to be a spiritual successor toFinal Fantasy Tactics. Both games are allegedly set to release in 2022, which is very strange for games without proper titles. Why is Square Enix suddenly revealing games only by code names?
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A Coded Puzzle
Previously,Square Enix announcedProject Athiaat the PlayStation 5 event in June 2020. The game was said to be an open-world action-RPG built on the Luminous Engine, and would take full advantage of the PS5’s increased power and speed. Square fans have become used to the company revealing games far in advance, with recently released examples includingKingdom Hearts 3and theFinal Fantasy 7 Remake.
Most of what was shown demonstrated the game’s visual assets, so it was safe to assume that it was very early in development. However, a PS5 sizzle reel from January was altered to remove release windows which suggested that, among other things,Project Athiawould release in January 2022. That is within a year of this writing, and seems awfully close for a game that has yet to be named.
That stood as an enigma for quite some time, but now a new title has left fans even more perplexed.Project Triangle Strategywas revealedat the February 17th Nintendo Direct, and now has a demo available on the Switch eShop. TheOctopath Travelerstudio is no stranger to putting out demos for games with codenames, even ifOctopathended up using its code name as its real name. While it seems unlikely that that will repeat here, it is once again puzzling that a game with a polished vertical slice and a clearly defined identity is being shown to the public under an obvious working title.
Determining The Business Strategy
Even if it could be explained by simple creative differences regarding titles in two separate teams, the fact remains that this is an uncommon sight in the gaming industry. This change towards advertising games with their project code names could be explained by a shift in company culture over the past year. However, withvariousFinal Fantasy 7-related trademarksappearing with clearly defined names, it appears not to be a fully consistent shift. Regardless of its precise reasoning, Square Enix is clearly behind this move towards publicly using games’ code names, even when each is midway through development.
There are enough benefits to using this approach that it could be considered valid, but it is also very risky. Not knowing exactly what a game’s title is gives it an air of mystery, encouraging fans to theorize how it will turn out in the end (even ifTriangle Strategy’s demo is giving them a chance to influence the final result). However, these games need to assume their final titles eventually, and even if both end up being calledAthiaandTriangle Strategy, there will still be a shift that throws some people off. As recently seen withUbisoft’sGods and MonstersbecomingImmortals: Fenyx Rising, a mid-marketing name change can lead to confusion.
While bothProject AthiaandProject Triangle Strategyare deep in development, their apparent 2022 release windows coupled with their reveals under such names set an odd precedent for Square Enix. These might be special cases, but it’s just as likely that there will be more titles revealed under code names in the future. Thelaunch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/Shas been strange, and it remains to be seen if this console generation will produce even stranger trends.
Project Athiais currently in development for PS5.Project Triangle Strategyis currently in development for the Switch.
