as long as it wont be forums like the ones on gamefaqs or the na-se-members site - there is no overview - the playstation forum where I'm the most time uses lithium comfartable and good organized but with some stupid (bonus)functions since the last updates^^

mfg
Olli

Hi Phil, and welcome! I have a couple of requests that I'd appreciate a response to.

Firstly, could you work on releasing imports of PS1 classics that were only released in the US. Things like Chrono Cross and Xenogears would be awesome.

Secondly, I'd love to see SE-published PS2 games on the PS store. Specifically, Dragon Quest 8!

Please reply, I'm used to being ignored :(

I see, so it's pretty definite it'll be vB4. I won't object that; vB4 is good enough. I hope a custom theme will be in place!

Heya Phil! Welcome! Can't wait to see what idea's you have planned for the community and I hope you enjoy your time at Square Enix! :)

vBulletin was a forum software of choice for a long time, but has declined heavily in the recent years. vBulletin 4 is decent, some are satisfied with it whereas others think it's no good. Final Fantasy XI uses vB4 and it seems to work well, although I'd guess your developers did quite a bit of changes. vBulletin 3 is still widely used version and a lot of administrators are still satisfied with it. The growing concern of vB3 being outdated is something that should not be overlooked though. vBulletin 5 is a disaster and it should be stay away from.

phpBB is one of the, if not the most popular free forum software, and while it does its job properly, its features are lacking compared to commercial alternatives. It is not suitable for a main forum of a company of this caliber.

Other options include Invision Power Board and Xenforo.

Invision Power Board is in my opinion (and realistically) the best commercial forum software right now. It has plenty of useful features, good and growing 3rd party support, and great future prospects.

XenForo is one very fine piece of forum software that is praised by many users and webmasters alike. It is lightweight while at the same time feature-rich. The only issue is that the company behind it is in a legal dispute and thus an unreliable solution--right now. You should definitely keep an eye on this one. The dispute is due early 2013 I believe. Its developers are UK-based, I'd think that's a plus as well.

It would be great if you could provide a list of features or just wants from a forum software so we can analyze it further and possibly narrow down definite recommendations.

Phil, can you please share what options for the forum you're considering? I'd really like to make an input on it as I am experienced with forum softwares of all sorts.

@alistair6969

my point was the cost off dub could fund the localizations cost, meaning more games.

@dgnfly1

I like how your response to my arguments is to just ignore them and go on whining.

Way behind everyone else here but... Hi Phil!
Not much of an active member but it's great to see more staff engaging with us members.

I could come up with a couple of improvements for the website, but I'd just be repeating some of the things others on here have already said... Then again, you wouldn't happen to know if the SE Online EU Shop will be coming back do you. I really wanted to get some items from the store but it was taken offline before I had the chance. Any news on that would be great!

Welcome Phil!

Will you guys at the community team be doing any fan events for the London Final Symphony concert in May next year? The Distant Worlds morning earlier this month was fantastic. Anything in the pipeline?

What a nice welcome you got Phil =)

Just to add my 2 cents: Having more options is always good. If SE hast the original VO (Japanese) and needs an english VO to sell more units in the west, why not include both audio files and let the player decide which he likes better? Last time I checked my bluray has enough space...

But once again, welcome Phil. Welcome to your new home...

* i say this before FF13-2 was outsouce to tri-ace that would cut the costs & time, FF13-2 i thought it was funny release a game so quick wonder why?

1st it was outsouce, 2nd it was made dueing the development of FF13, SE had a plan were the FF13 saga was going & also the plan to try the DLC that recoup costs back too.

so i say if You SE haven't got the stomach to release Imports outsouce them to someone That can? :/

Here my 2 pence worth I'm english & i dont like japanese dubs at all, However i got corpse party that in japanese but it wont be the Norm.

i can't learn japanese i tried and Fail big, i dont believe 1 second all english like japanese dubs more only a few, as for cost to dub things FF13 & FF13-2 would be costly but it still come out in both japanese & english.

i thought the reason for no imports was localisation not dubs, but i say this FFv13 is very costly SE are going over budget that be time wasteing.

so i say this that be in doubt, but give SE credit due they do like to alienate the EU-fanbase & split the community down the middle that what we doing argument between us.

@Tanthalas

funny you say cheap looking cause all i see square enix releasing these days are cheap shovelware or reboots they haven't shown anything original in years. let alone cared enough about their european consumers 2 release either Crisis core on psn or the ps1 imports.
all you do see is cheap games like FF-13 which has alrdy been announced as square enix most horrible final fantasy only reason they keep releasing new one's cause it's cheaper on cost 2 reuse old stuff.
it's gonna be the new COD constant repeat off the same stuff if you actually read online 1 person who worked at square alrdy said they don't care much for a good story any boring thing will do as long as the graphics are shiny.
all i really care about is seeing the classics games released on europe psn after that it can go bankrupt for all i care. and looking at their financial business it won't take long with yoichi wada as CEO.
like former Square enix CEO said square enix has no vision for the future. and he is right they haven't produced a good games in year. although i did like the tri-Ace developed games.

@dgnfly1

Sorry, but the English dub isn't stupid. SE releasing their games without an English dub would just make them look cheap, and would likely cost them sales. Companies don't localize voice-acting because they want to be nice to gamers, they localize it because they know it generates more sales.

You mentioned that a 13 episode anime cost about 170.000, but does it cost the same for a game? More importantly, how many games need to be sold for SE to recoup the cost of the voice-acting?

The development costs of localizing a game is far, FAR less than the costs of the original game development in Japan. So if in Japan they can pay for the voice-acting in addtion to the development of the game, I'm certain that the costs of English voice-acting are easy to recoup with sales.

@SPEEDY1001

o plz don't get me started with german dub. seeing german movies or series in the original language i don't mind. most off these users just prefer english dub cause they can't understand any japanese so it's like the anti-christ for these ppl. i'm just saying if it wasen't for english dub you'd get a lot more games released here. mangauk said dubbing a 13 anime episode cost about 170.000 to me it's more a waste off money that could be spend bringing the game to the west. and probably cause it's a high profile game it's probably cost a lot more. basicly it's a depends on what the person likes but in my opinion i'd rather have games i would never get because off stupid cost like english dub.

aren't we a bit off-topic^^

I can only add here in germany english dubs/subs are mostly prefered - not because of its good quality but in 9/10 games/movies/animes and so on the german version sucks....

The voice actor just read their text like it was an instruction manual for the toaster or the translations are just bizarre.... (Kiddy Grade final episodes -.-")

mfg
Olli

The reason why it makes more sense for the non-UK/Ireland European countries to get the English dub and not the Japanese dub in SE games is because the amount of Europeans that understand English far surpasses the amount of Europeans that understand Japanese.

I'm Portuguese myself and I'd rather SE release their games over here with English voice-acting than just with Japanese voice-acting. It would be incredibly stupid for us to get the game with English text and then only have Japanese voice-acting.

And its not like the english voice-acting is bad either, SE usually delivers games with great voice-acting.

That's not to say that I'm against SE games having a Japanese dub option in addition to the English dub, but I'm firmly against SE games not having an English dub.

@dgnfly1: I have to say there were some things wrong with your post.

First of all, I am obviously European myself, otherwise me being on this site would be rather idiotic.
Second of all, I am Dutch, so my native language is not English and I am not English. So your point of english people only wanting english dub is invalid, and very wrong, because that is just not true at all. There are many English people who prefere the japanese dub, as I stated in my previous post regarding the ''Catherine'' thing.

Wasted money on dubbing? Do you have any idea how richer the expirience was do to the voice acting? Some games are better without voice acting, while other games NEED voice acting. Just like FF XIII, how else would the game as it is right now work? Do you have any idea how weird it would be if FF XIII, as realistic and well made it as it is would have no voicing and just a screen. The characters are 3D and it looks as real as possible, but then, all of a sudden a screen pops up with a picture of lighting. Yeah, I don't think so.
And do you honestly think that English dubbing will make everything else suffer? If so, it would be like that with any other language as well, then there should've been no japanese dubbing either. But this is not the case. Dubbing is not some over priced fancy tag to a game, if that's what you think.

And that made no sense, honestly. You are telling me to learn English, because I want english dub? Lolwhat? You aren't saying I can't speak English there, you are just saying I can't READ, yet you are still saying I can speak English, so watch what you say, before you say it.
And how can I not read, when I've read this blog? Your posts and most of all, typed all this.
If you are going to make accusasions, at least base them on something legit.

+ ReakoDivine

english ppl only want english dub any other european country could care less if it was in japanese.
sure saves on wasted cost for dubbing could pay for Type-00 locaclizations cost or the ps1 imports and many other games that never see a western release. and your one 2 complain at Mansonurien your 2 lazy you need english dub in the game yet if he wants something like that he should learn english why don't you learn how 2 read then. you can't blame us that your a Literacy

I forgot to ask in my last post for new avatars (mostly I would like Kingdom hearts avatars), please :)

@dgnfly1: I normally am not one to react to this, but if this is all you are going to say, please leave. Becaues you are in no right to call the English dub bad, while all it is, is amazing and nothing short of it. I prefere the english dub over any others that would come and Lightning's voice, done by Ali Hillis is amazing. All the voice actors/actresses should be praised for their amazing job, and not pushed into the ground. If you really want different language voiceing over it, do it yourself.
It was the same with Atlus, they were all complaining about that Catherine didn't have a Japanese voice option, but why would it need that? The English voices were done amazing and were all so realistic. And the game is even supposed to be American themed, and yet you want to take away the full experience by haveing a non-American language over it. I do not get this.

@Mansonurien: Please, for all that is good, go learn English.

Honestly, I've been on these pages for the past months, following things. And I, as a SE fan am very happy with it's products. But it's fanbase is just awefull, just very very bad. All you guys do is moan and complain. You are the most horrible fans there are. I get there are things you want improved and everyone does, but please, things cannot be done with a magical button.

I'm done lashing out now. And excuses, but this has been on my mind for a long time now.

giving feedback at SEE is pointless you only get ignored most off the ppl on here should know square enix think we are 3rd rate so ignoring will continue about any ps1 imports games we would like or any other stuff we might like 2 see. only thing you'll find on this blog is boring westernized games. that seems 2 fail in expectations.

Square enix can be summed up with 1 Word GREED they only care about your money not wat you think or what you would like 2. as seen by the failing FF14 a copy and paste game in the past now they suddently care 2 remake it with a more original touch after japanese fans bombed the whole game.

Type-o won't make it here they alrdy said so they were near completion with localization but then found that the psp was dying in the west so they stopped caring. anyway the english dub Square picks are godawfull. sugesting otherwise on here is also pointless cause fans asked at the start off FF13 for *** dub which would cost money and they only like 2 steal our money not invest in a good product.

Hi Phil!
A long time ago a very similar news was posted, asking for new ideas to improve the site. I remembrer that the one of the most discussed things was opening a forum section in the site, where users could dialogue between themselves. So I simply would like to remind that idea.
Also it would be nice if we could comment what other users write in the news.

@Jib_jib2003 and minkyboy
First this is no support page from Square Enix and especially not this topic here. Please avoid this kind of “spamming” or the people will most likely ignore you.

This page is more like a newspaper for support and co you have to go to the support page (link at the end of the webpage (http://support.eu.square-enix.com/main.php?la=2&id=1160).

Especially when its concerning the PSN-Store your first choice should be the PSN-Support(Forum) – they are responsible for their market-platform not the developer. When you buy something in the PSN-Store you normally don’t get no code you can just simply download the game. Have you checked your download-list in the PSN-Store or tried to find the game-entry direct?

@Jib_jib2003
Some more information would be useful like region/version/platform and so on.

mfg
Olli

How to unlock Skurky and Travis gun apart from buying ?? How to have them as a target in Contracts mode,,,which map ??? Hitman need to improve cinematic while doing point shooting and there are still button left while holding instinct button ,, more moves like in Stranglehold would be nice,,,i saw those empty button,, I thought it would unlock more moves during the game but it didn't

hi i bought hitman from psn but i didnt get the access code to the game!? can you help me where it is.
ps3 name is minkyboy
thx 4 the great game

I'm 1 of the natives ehhehe.....

Welcome phil we a very nice natives, the other concern we have most have is the lack of your SE imports backlog, I know in the past it can be tricky but surely the time was longer now.

To iron out things we have our import store in EU PSN store & only 1 publisher that put games do you think that is fair while SCEA get yours, monkey paw but only monkey paw only serves us lowly EU that biggest market then USA plus we pay for more FOR LESS. That is true. :/

I'm all for the music store too.

Hi Phil.. I would like to say welcome though I am not as active as some of the members here.. Lol.. But I cant wait to see what is coming..

Anyhow, please let me bug you on the FF Type 0... Well, please please release it on the PSvita.. I beg of you to tell square Enix in Japan.. And also FFX HD or remake news... I have been waiting and stop myself from getting PSVita just so that i can buy the special bundle you guys offer with unique and distinct designs SE always manage to create..

So yea, I sincerely do hope it can happen though.. And lastly, thank you for hearing us!! :D

Hi and greetings from germany.

mfg
Olli

Translate the web page and the games to spanish, and other languages, please.

I hope the natives are nice to you Phil. Its good that Ben now has someone to share the pain with.

I'll echo Chaosprower's post about the music store. It would be great if you guys could update it and put the more recent soundtracks on it. I want more FFXI stuff on my iPod.

Asides from that, more news is always great.

Hello Phil.

I don't know if we'll be hearing from you a lot, as so far we've had only one person managing the public relations at a time. Hopefully we will.

I've had plenty of ideas for this site basically since it's been opened; unfortunately even the basic improvements on the site take months, years to be implemented so I'm reluctant to even try. I'm sorry but to be honest, that's how it is.

The about only good thing about this community is the communication amongst ourselves and with the staff (shoutout to Ben).

A suggestion for the site...I think it's kinda curious that the main sections of the site are "Games, Blog, Music and Store" but clicking on Music takes you to a flash site that hasn't been updated in years. Also, some of the soundtracks listed there are no longer available on iTunes. It could be improved a lot, maybe even include a music store like there is for games?

About the blog. it would be better if there were more transparency on the release of the games on mobile platforms, you are releasing titles like Chaos Rings Omega almost in stealth mode, with just a post in the same day it's available. And I have no idea when Final Fantasy Dimensions is going to be released on Android, could be tomorrow, could be in two years. So yeah, more info on that.

Oh so that's where I recognise the name from, GamesIndustry!

Anyway welcome aboard :D

(PS. I know it is kinda sad and all that but do you think you guys could sort out the Games section that lists the games? Looks messy :( ).

Type-0 and Versus please and thanks, I think the issues with localization of games should be addressed for people who've been decades long supporters of Squaresoft then Square-Enix