Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

The very thing that created Square Enix was a strategic alliance between two companies. The first two companies that formed this new one were Square and Enix. I think that the company itself might not believe they are an alliance anymore but originally they were. In the future I think they should should former alliances with other gaming companies to make a new sort of mashed up game. If not this than an alliance with a game distributer like GameStop or someone else. Since the majority of gamers go to this chain to buy their games, it makes sense for any gaming company to do this. An incentive for buyers would be to offer an exclusive item or collector's edition to get people to buy at that location.  Currently Square Enix isn't attached to anyone but maybe Disney because Goofy and Donald Duck are two main characters in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

A strategic alliance might not be necessary at the moment for Square Enix but I hope one day that if they have one, it'll be a good match up and great things come out of it.

Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

All games when they are released have an ESRB rating on them. This helps come up with the target market for that specific game. Square Enix usually has a target market that is in most cases teens and up or everyone. Many Final Fantasy titles are rated T for teen by the ESRB.

This is the latest title of the series that was released this year. As you can see the rating of this game is T for teen as shown in the white box below. It's good to have these ratings so it's easier for players to recognize whether the game is targeted towards their age group or not. It is also easier for the company itself to produce new content without having to think too much about who their target market is because it has remained unchanged with this franchise for so long.