Well, that didn’t last long. The reactor door of Square Enix’s cloud-based gaming service that launched in 2014 has been firmly closed, forcing an “extraordinary loss of approximately 2 billion yen” upon the Japanese monolith. That’s approximately $16.8 million. Yikes.
Square Enix are responsible for a quite a few role-playing games – check out our list of best RPGs on PC.
Named after the electric power supplier/unscrupulous mega-corporation from Square’s Final Fantasy VII, Shinra Technologies was said to differentiate from similar cloud-based alternatives by allowing developers to harness the power of multiple servers, that would in turn allow the (possibility) of better graphics and more sophiticated physics engines in new games.
When it launched in September 2014 with Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada at its helm, there was much talk of “super-computers” and other such hyperbolic sales-led language floating around the Shinra Technologies website but, alas, a notice posted on the company’s corporate page today said: “A couple of wholly-owned subsidiaries of the Company have decided to dissolve and liquidate, and as a result, the Company will book an extraordinary loss”.
Shina Technologies joins OnLive – the first game streaming service that met its fate last April – in the cloud-woven gaming cemetery in the sky.