A few days ago, Julien Merceron, global CTO of Square Enix, gave
an interview to SINA Game, in which he illustrates topics ranging
from game developing to the outsourcing marketing of the industry,
together with his personal experience. The following is the
detailed dialogue:
1. Since this is your first trip to China to give speeches
and to get involved in discussions upon the invitation of
CGOC’s organizing committee, what do you personally
expect from CGOC 2010, and what topics are you going
to share with participants of the conference?
Julien: 2010 is a cornerstone year for many Companies in
the Video Game Business, and it is also a key year for China and
Shanghai as well, because of the Expo. The Expo is a very
international event, so I hope CGOC 2010 can be special in that way
as well, more “international” than previous installments. I would
like CGOC 2010 to deliver a strong message to the Game Development
Community inside and outside Asia. And I expect my talk to be in
that vein - I’ll talk about the future of Graphics, and the new
type of techniques that Game Developers and Outsourcing companies
will certainly want to embrace, which will help us identify more
opportunities to all work together. My talk is going to try to
highlight how fast techniques change, how dynamic our community is,
how much room for innovation there is, and highlight the importance
of R&D.
2. The characteristics of the updated video technology are
mentioned in the speeches you are going to deliver in CGOC
2010, then, what superb gaming experience will 3D technology
and the innovation of next-gen engine bring to players? What does
this innovation mean to game outsourcing companies?
Julien: The data representation we use for graphic assets
won’t be that optimal in the future, as it tends to require more
memory and bandwidth than FLOPS. As we know that the amount of
FLOPS available for rendering is going to grow a lot faster than
the amount of memory and bandwidth available, that means that we
have to look into other approaches, like Subdivision surfaces and
displacement maps; this model is a lot more memory and bandwidth
friendly. Coming back to your question about 3D, I think that will
also have an impact on the way assets are built. Bump Mapping and
Parallax Mapping don’t really have real depth influence, so
surfaces using these techniques will appear flat when viewed with
3D glasses… unless you do something special about it! And I’ll talk
about this as well.
3. We learn from your CV that you have really rich experience
in the games industry. Would you like to share with us both the
differences and similarities regarding the style of UbiSoft, Eidos
and Square Enix?
Julien: All three companies are very different in shape
and style, and their strategies are slightly different as well.
That said, their respective approaches are very much relevant, as
these are just tailored to their respective strategies. That means
also that the type of Technology Strategy I work on now is very
different from the past two ones, and I find that very interesting!
As you might have seen on the internet, I’ve often praised the
Final Fantasy franchise in the past, so for me it is amazing to
think that maybe the initiatives I’m currently working on will be
helping Square Enix to make an even better Final Fantasy in the
future!
4. Would you like to give us a brief introduction of SE’s
global business ranging from R&D to outsourcing? What is the
percentage of outsourcing services from China in SE’s global
business? And, what kind of role do they play accordingly?
Julien: Wow, that is a very wide question! Please
remember I joined Square Enix recently, so I would probably feel
more comfortable answering that question in a year or two from
now!
5. Final Fantasy XIII’s traditional Chinese version is going
to the Taiwan and Hong Kong market, so, does SE have similar plans
of promoting simplified Chinese version for the games it will
present? Is there any special plan for SE to develop games for the
Chinese players?
Julien: Square Enix has been launching and supporting
Games in China in the past. As the Chinese Game Development
Community and Chinese Video Games Market are growing extremely fast
these days, I think that it means even more opportunities for that
in the future!
6. Are you engaged in the R&D of FF XIV or other on-line
games? Would you like to introduce some of the innovated techniques
applied in this epoch-making game? We learned that the FF XIV team
is talking over a marketing plan with relevant authorities in China
for its mainland operating of the game, what do you think about
this? Do you think that the Chinese players will also become one of
the leading forces of SE’s on-line games?
Julien: I agree with the term you are using: epoch-making
game. I think that the work that is being done on Final Fantasy XIV
is really fantastic. A lot of it is unfortunately very confidential
at this stage, that said I think you’ll hear a lot more about this
game soon!
7. There must be many technical partners of SE here in China,
and then what do you think of China’s game developers? In your
opinion, which special field needs improvement for China’s gaming
enterprises?
Julien: You’re right, we have many partners in China. As
you know, I’ve come regularly to Shanghai since 1998, and I’ve seen
things changing and growing with my own eyes! The Game Development
Community is very impressive: a lot bigger now, covering a wide
range of platforms, services and game genre. From my experience, I
can say I’ve been amazed by the skills of certain artists and
programmers! One special field that could maybe benefit from
improvements is probably Game Design, that said you’ll agree with
me that there start to be pretty well-known Game Creators in
China!
About CGOC
The first China Game Outsourcing Conference (CGOC), co-organized
by Howell International Trade Fair Ltd. and Shanghai Multimedia
Industry Association, will take place at Shanghai International
Conference Center simultaneously with ChinaJoy 2010. With an
aim to provide a platform for the Chinese game outsourcing Industry
to communicate and exchange nationally and internationally, the
first CGOC is composed of seminars and business negotiations. The
conference will not only provide an opportunity to share experience
but also facilitate a direct communication between the outsourcing
suppliers and buyers, which will practically promote the
development of the game outsourcing industry. CGOC will become
another major industry event following CGBC (China Game Business
Conference) and CGDC (China Game Developers
Conference).
About SINA Game
SINA Game is the largest Chinese game media, which consists of
seven sections, including PC online games, PC console games,
electronic games, video games, mobile games, casual games and game
industry. The Channel offers mass mini flash games, numerous
pictures of game beauties, free high-speed game download, test
playing, HDV game trailers, game news, game forum as well as
players’ community. In total, there are more than 2,200 special
zones for hot games, and daily information upgrade amounts to 1,200
for special topics.
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