Square Enix to open Next-Next-Gen studio

Looks like a new Square-Enix studio is on the way in good old Canada. No surprise there of course; opening more Canadian studios is what ALL the cool publishers are doing these days, mainly due to the rather generous tax incentives and subsidies the Canadian government keeps throwing at the games industry (hint-hint Mr Cameron). So why even bother mentioning this one if it’s so common?

Well It seems that Square Enix are being surprisingly upfront about what this studio is actually for: “The new consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will require more attention and more staff, we want to prepare ourselves”. That’s right ladies and gentlemen, they’re gearing up for the PS4, Xbox 720 and [insert whatever ridiculous name Nintendo give the Wii 2 here]. They ain’t half-assing it either, the studio will have at minimum 100 employees right off the bat and may end up working in tandem with Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex 3, Theif 4). So if you’re one of the untold number of developers that have been laid off by Activision recently then it might be a good time to head up north.

While the idea of a new gen of consoles is always rather exiting, don’t get pumped up for an E3 to remember just yet! The studio’s not set to open until some time in 2012 and will likely need at least a year to get any decent projects off the ground, which kinda implies the big 3 ain’t ready for a generation shift just yet. Not sure I’m ready just yet either; hell I still have a big ol’ stack of PS2 games to finish!