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Yesterday a fake piece of news circulated around bunch of gaming sites claiming that Square Enix had formally announced a change in their business plan in which Square Enix committed to only produce new versions of their old games. Many websites took it seriously for a while, including us; I was just about ready to post it when the news got debunked. Its still worth mentioning this though, the original satire piece is indeed a result of Square’s recent releases.

Even though rehashing franchises isn’t anything new to the industry, the gaming gods know Nintendo and EA to be guilty of this quite often, re-releasing the very same game with updated graphics is something that we had not seen much of until this past generation. Now Square Enix has been raking in the cash by releasing many of the first Final Fantasy games for mobile platforms while their new IP’s and even the new entries in their old franchises have been lackluster to say the least.

Of course when Final Fantasy XIII hits the streets it will be a huge seller just like the ones before it, but any true Final Fantasy fan will tell you the series has been in a slow decline since IX or X. Is Square Enix is becoming a company better suited to retell old stories than to create new ones? And if so, isn’t this analog to retiring? Like a grandfather telling a story to his grandson about the days of yore.

Then again, great things could come out of this business model, the new generations of gamers will seldom take the time to track down an old classic like FFV, Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger. Releasing them once again with a graphical update would please old fans and create a legacy out of those classics.

Are we better off if Square Enix decides to move to Florida and spend its days reminiscing about the good times? Yours truly hopes not, Square has created some of the best games in the history of gaming and I’m certainly hoping that this streak of rehashes serves as a reminder to Square Enix of how to make great games and that the RPG powerhouse, while down, isn’t out of the game.