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Last month, Former Square Enix top man Yoichi Wada announced that he would be helming a new company named "Shinra Technologies." No, they're not going to try to drain the planet of its life force to use as energy. Yet.


This is Shinra Technologies. It's Square Enix's new venture into cloud gaming, headed up by former… Read more

In an interview with Weekly Famitsu, Wada talked about his new company and what they are currently hoping to accomplish. "Since 4 or 5 years ago, we were certain that the next technological breakthrough would be cloud gaming." Wada explained. "So we began researching the sort of content that could be realized and the sort of game that could have its essence distilled by cloud technology."


According to Wada, while there has been progress in cloud technology, there hasn't been what he would call a "breakthrough." "The game business progresses and evolves through three elements; technology, business models, and content design." Wada said. "However, there hasn't been a recent breakthrough on the technology side."

While cloud gaming offers the potential for people to enjoy playing games on any console through streaming without having to worry about the processing power, Wada believes there is more untapped potential in the technology.

While Wada did not give specific examples on how, he is certain that cloud technology will revolutionize gaming. "This is the age where it's possible to create explosive hits." Wada said, bringing up games like Angry Birds or League of Legends as examples. "I feel the idea of releasing low-risk content for already established markets is a 20th century concept." Wada believes that this is a chance to not just create new revolutionary games, but to create new genres of games.

Asked about the name of the new company, Wada did acknowledge the evil corporation from Final Fantasy VII. "In all seriousness, we wanted [the name] to have a 'game-like' image. When thinking in terms of games rather than IT imagery, we used the association with the term 'cloud' since the protagonist of Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII is named Cloud." Wada explained, adding, "Of course, we have nothing to do with the Shinra Company from the game – They're the bad guys after all."


Currently, Shinra Technologies is looking to begin service in 2015 with a basic foundation, and build in stages from there. PCs with be the initial target platform, with smart devices coming later.

If all fails, they could probably focus on life-stream energy technology.

ファミ通.com [ファミ通.com]

Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

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