Video game developer Square-Enix deserves credit for giving credit where credit’s due. The makers of the blockbuster Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises, has released disappointing 2007 financials, leading the company’s president, Yoichi Wada, to say his developers need to “stop making games that only they wanted to play.”

Square-Enix’s profits dropped 20 percent and it ceded significant North American market share to competitors. Most of last years sales game from Final Fantasy spin-offs.

Square already seems to have a strategy in place involving new, innovative properties as Wada says, “We need to go beyond traditional Square-Enix.” Instead of shaking the Final Fantasy-tree to economic death, Square released The World Ends with You, an amazing, creative, and deep game that plays to Square’s longevity as the premiere RPG developer while expanding include a myriad of genres in one game. Upcoming new franchises like Infinite Undiscovery and Last Remnant could be Final Fantasy-lite or rejuvenating franchises. The company doesn’t need to do away with RPGs or even focus on other genres. Diversity and innovation in any capacity can feed the industry and be rewarded with rejuvenated fans.