Square & online games
Posted by @ 1:52 PM, EDT
Here an bit of an article from the Nikkei Industrial Daily Wednesday edition about Square and its online plans:

Square in January announced a project to develop an online gaming service on its Web site that will be accessible from personal computers, handheld devices and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStation2 console. The service's revenue will come from a monthly membership fee of about 500 yen, game-playing fees of nearly 1,000 yen, and advertising and online product sales.

The reaction from the investment community has been lukewarm. Analysts estimate that to break even, Square will need to sign up 3.5 million gamers, about as many subscribers as leading Internet service provider Nifty Corp. An analyst at Commerz Securities (Japan) Co. questions whether Square will be able to bring in enough online revenue to cover the considerable costs of game development and servers to run the site.