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Games Entertainment

Squaresoft To Go Multiplatform 121

Posted by Hemos from the twists-of-fate dept.
Gemini writes "Gamespot has an article on how Squaresoft is to go multiplatform, starting with Final Fantasy XI. This is good news for Nintendo." Well, good news for the Microsoft's X-Box as well, since they will release for it as well. But I'm sure Sony has happy to hear that it will be out for the PlayStation 2 first, since that will be key to their strategy for defeating the X-Box.
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Squaresoft To Go Multiplatform

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  • Bill didn't do shit.

    AMD and Cyrix were the one's that pushed Intel to produce faster and cheaper chips.

    All Bill did was to create a desktop OS that couldn't fit onto a machine lesser than a Unix workstation.

    Cutthroat competition in the DRAM market did more to make our computing lives more pleasant than anything Billy ever did.

    Infact, anything over a 486 is pretty much wasted on the common end user.
  • Yet despite of all the money they throw at "usability", they still build a buggy and complex OS that is a star of the User Interface hall of shame.

    Unless you can point to some actual examples of the failings of KDE or GNOME, your rant is nothing but the rhetoric of an ignorant Lemming.
  • George is a director. He doesn't actually know shit about the technology. That's what he pays programmers, effects techs and sysadmins for. His comment is meaningles.

    So is John's. He's not in the trenches. He's not actually coding on the thing. If he ever was a code monkey, he long since stopped being that and now is just a marketing drone.

  • XBOX (Score:1)

    by VAXGeek ( 3443 )
    With a targeted platform of the X-BOX, I wonder if it would be possible for the WINE team to get FF running under WINE. If so, this would be another feather in Linux's cap such as Quake 3, Civ, HOMM, etc. For Linux to truly be accepted on the desktop, it needs to gain marketshare with 12-21 year old males, which is the proven target audience to market PC's to. (I should know, I'm a marketing major.) Games are a major way to earn mindshare, and for Linux to be truly successful, it must have games that can compete with Windows, PS2, etc.
    ------------
    a funny comment: 1 karma
    an insightful comment: 1 karma
    a good old-fashioned flame: priceless
  • It must have captured it while I was sleeping. Do yourself a favor. Go to a local high school, pick a random class. Walk in, and go "raise your hand if you know what Linux is." If the majority raise their hands then you are right. Otherwise, you are mistaken. Linux has NOT captured the minds of the 12-21 year old males, or else we would see the majority of games written for Linux, instead of for Windows.
    ------------
    a funny comment: 1 karma
    an insightful comment: 1 karma
    a good old-fashioned flame: priceless

  • Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. (Score:5)

    by Vermifax ( 3687 ) on Saturday June 30, 2001 @01:42PM (#117842)
    "Sony really shot itself in the foot by releasing a machine so impossible to program."
    -It isn't impossible, they just made the basic avenue of programming the bare metal. Developers have been asking for this since the PSX was released

    "Numerous companies have jumped ship because of that single fact."
    -One company jumped ship. They had never done a 3d title before. Their reason is also dubious as this [penny-arcade.com]Penny Arcade comic so nicely points out.

    Companies have been all over debunking the 'hard to develop for' FUD such as in this [coremagazine.com] article.

    Some more quotes:
    Hideo Kojima - "It will take three years for games to make complete use of the total potential of the PS2. What's key is where to use those capabilities and what to make stand out. After some trial and error, titles with new ways of expressing things will appear. However, this is not going to happen right away."

    John Riccitiello (President of EA) - "It's drop dead sexy."

    George Lucas - "It's mind-boggling. What they've accomplished is just beyond comprehension, if you know anything about computers."

    Trip Hawkins (President of 3D0) - "It's historic, a mass market appliance that fundamentally changes society in the same way the printing press did."

    Jeronimo Barrera (Rockster Video Games) - "What usually happens with new hardware is, the people who are having a lot of trouble are the ones who are talking a lot of sh-t."

    Most developer house already have created their own toolsets, some are even licensing them out to other developers, the 'hard' to program issue is a dead-issue and has been for several months now.

    Vermifax

  • Eh? The original GB had FF Legend 1-3, and FF Adventure - there may have been one more, but I can't remember.

    I do remember FF Legend II fondly though =)

    I'd love to see them release FF 1-6 on the GBA - perhaps 1-3 on a single cart (those were pretty small games), then 4-6 on their own...but as others have pointed out - the relationship between Nintendo and Square isn't exactly a very good one, so it'll probably never happen.
  • Yep - confirmed from the back of the FF Chronicles instruction booklet (released just a couple days ago) - Square's planning the US release of FF X for "Early 2002"

    Frankly, I'm suprised -- Square's marketers are missing an Xmas release. That *may* be bad...

    IIRC, FF7 was an Xmas release - FF8 was late fall, and FF9 was late summer/early fall (US releases, not Japan, and I could be wrong...)
  • FF 2 and 3 (4 and 6) were both censored by Nintendo for American audiences. Anyone remember "YOU SPOONY BARD!"?

    What, you have a problem with the word spoony [dictionary.com]?
  • Who would you pick for your Fantasy XI?
  • Sony cuts PlayStation 2 price in Japan [theregister.co.uk] and PS2 set for price cut in Japan [computeran...ogames.com], note the reference to the price cut in Europe earlier this month. Significant price cuts around October time are almost inevitable.
  • The basic X-box architecture may be 'simpler',in that it only has one bus, and one bank of RAM, but that's simple as in retarded, rather than simple as in elegant. Developers are already bitching about bus bandwidth issues limiting everything you do on the X-box. Remember, there's a big difference between a flashy demo running on simulated hardware, and a real game running on real hardware.

    Agree with you on Trip though. Why does anyone listen to him these days?
  • TOOL (the devkit) is an intel box running Linux, with a PS2 dev-board. There are development tools for both Win32 and Linux. Theoretically you could recompile the Linux tools under OSX, and do Mac based development too.
  • Indeed. It's difficult to beat Nintendo's platform price. I was merely pointing out that the PS2 price has already started dropping;

    Japanese price dropped to 35,000 yen ($280.72), down from 39,800 yen ($319.22).

    UK price dropped to £269 ($380) from £299 ($424). (Ouch, I'd forgotten how much I used to get stiffed by exchange rates.)

    Given this, significant US price cuts around October time are almost inevitable. At least to $275, probably down to $250, possibly less if you figure in bundles. Add in the DVD player, and a library with a significant number of exclusive AAA titles (MGS2, GT3, Twisted Metal Black, FFX), PS2's gonna kick X-Box arse this christmas, assuming MS can even get the thing out of the door on time (GC will have been out in Japan for nearly two months before the US launch). Quite how it fares against GC, well, they're different markets. Apart from us hard-core gamers that is...;)

    Personally speaking, If I only buy one console this christmas, it'll be a Gamecube (but only because I already have a PS2).

  • With a targeted platform of the X-BOX, I wonder if it would be possible for the WINE team to get FF running under WINE.

    Alternately, with a targeted playform of the PC (likely Windows), I wonder if it would be possible to just run it under WINE without hassle. Easier than dicking around with the (later-to-arrive) X-Box version.

  • However, their entire front page is a flash applet. Doh!

    However, Mozilla [mozilla.org] works entirely perfectly with flash (insofar as mozilla ever works perfectly), so what's the beef?

    Download the Netscape version, throw the libflashplayer.so into Mozilla's plugins directory, and then restart Mozilla. Don't see the problem. =:>

  • John Riccitiello (President of EA) - "It's drop dead sexy."

    You sure that wasn't Fat Bastard from the Austin Powers flicks?

    About Square, didn't the head of Nintendo angrily say that he wouldn't even allow Square to produce software for the Nintendo machines? I'm not really interested in any Final Fantasy games, but I'm really considering getting a console once the GameCube and X-Box are out there and I can take a look at the games available (the PS2's games don't do much for me so far). I haven't even owned a console since the original NES, but I think one would be pretty sweet hooked up to my home entertainment system. Anyway, that's today's stream of consciousness post...


    Cheers,

  • But I'm sure Sony has happy to hear...

    Sony has released their official statement concerning this:
    Feel we like they sent us up the bomb.

    For great honor.

    All your Espers are belong to us.

    --
  • Now, if PS2 games could be played on generic hardware on the Linux OS, that would be impressive, but Sony will fight tooth and nail to prevent that from happening.

    I think this is sort of the wrong way to look at it. PS2 is not at all like an x86 box. It has one core 128-bit RISC chip and two vector processors. The best software written for PS2 is going to take full advantage of all of these guys.

    So yes, Sony would probably try to block PS2 games from running on generic hardware, but I suspect it's a non-issue for the most part.

    - Scott
    --
    Scott Stevenson
    WildTofu [wildtofu.com]
  • > First off, if Resident Evil 2 could fit on a
    > cart, so can Final Fantasy

    Resident Evil 2 consisted of two CDs, both of which utilized the same prerendered backdrops, as well as videos of equivalent length. For all practical purposes, you have a 1-CD game. Compress images, drop movie quality, etc, and you can cram it onto an N64 cart.

    Final Fantasy 7, the smallest of the three PSX games, consisted of three CDs, each of which contained prerendered backdrops. However, while many of these backdrops were common between the disk, many were not, thus increasing the size of the game dramatically. In addition, there were far more movies interspersed throughout the game, and the background images for the battles varied depending on the location of the fight. There were many more characters to model and texture than Resident Evil 2. And this is for the smallest of the three games! Things such as the Garden battle scene in FF8 could conceivably take up most of a cart in and of themselves.

    In other words, it would take an Act of God to put anything approaching a full FF game onto an N64 cart.
  • One would think Sony has the edge with superior craftsmanship, more software and a strong base, but Microsoft has more support in the White House, which could make the diffference in America.

    Does anyone know how linux works with the PS2? I know they are releasing an AOL interface as well as Netscape for the Playstation 2, but are they written in Linux ( we already know linux has been proted to the Playstation 2 ) or are they written directly to the PS2 hardware? If Sony/AOL use linux in any way this could also help linux users obtain more software choices.
  • I wanna know if you can play xBill on the X-Box


    "I wish I didn't care,
    but I do."

  • FF7 was September 9th, and FF8 was the 10th... I think 9 was too, but I'm not sure. Important titles for Sony systems, and, in fact, the PSX itself, were released the second week of September for quite a while... in fact, FF6 was a mid-november release. And, if I recall correctly, both FF4 and FF1's American releases were early summer... At least that's when Nintendo Pravda hyped them. ^^;;;
  • ??? The XBox is not a PC, and it doesn't run Windows. The only similarities are the Intel processor, and a bit of scheduling code from Windows 2000.
    What the hell has it got to do with WINE?

  • What I'd really like to see, beside stunning graphics which have become the norm for recent FF games, is a story in which a decision you make matters. I'm currently playing FF9 and it annoys me that when I have a choice to take a variety of actions, whichever I choose I see the same outcome.

    1. I'd really like to see something like old-school choose your own adventure books (Lonewolf was my favorite) which provide a number of different endings or varried paths to the same outcome.

    2. Moral dileams would be nice. Perhaps even a choice to be good or evil ala Fallout [interplay.com].

    I realize the game is written for teenagers and even at 22 I will certainly buy it (and see the movie), I just wish they were more challenging and had some replay value.

  • The information I read agrees with yours.
    If I had mod points I'd have modded you up.
  • except that final fantasy denotes a temination while neverending denotes continuation...
    --------------------------------- ---
  • Nintendo already refused a deal with Square. Square won't release for the Gamecube ever.
  • Squaresoft is to go multiplatform, starting with Final Fantasy XI

    However, their entire front page [squaresoft.com] is a flash applet. Doh!

    (Note: my domain name is a reference to number theory, not to any corporation. Square-free numbers are integers that can be written as the product of 0 or more distint primes (not divisible by 4, 9, 16, 25, etc).)
  • Wrong. Graphics do not mean much in the world of Consoles: Games do, especially exclusive games. This is why Nintendo has always been in a strong position: they make great games.

    Consoles like the Jaguar and Neo-Geo died mainly because they did not have great games.

  • Hmm well I really like most Nintendo games, and I think a lot of people would agree with me.

  • A year advantage doesn't always equal success. Look at the Dreamcast, it has entertaining games but its dead (although one could attribute this to Sega's previous track record catching up with it.)
  • Is there any information on whether they will be using Loki Games' SDL library or whether they will be keeping to standard OpenGL? I still wouldn't buy proprietary software and I don't have many friends who would, but it's always good to see more platforms gaining support from companies.
  • Could it be that Square didn't ask them because they knew they would say no?

    Maybe, but that seems pretty unlikely. If they asked for one and Nintendo turned them down, they could make Nintendo look like the bad guys holding a grudge against a developer, and more likely than not fans of Squaresoft games would go yell at Nintendo, etc.

    Also, even if Nintendo has differences with Squaresoft, I highly doubt they would go so far as to do something like that. They're launching a new console in the face of heavy opposition. They need all the help they can get.

  • Re:X-box (Score:3)

    by jackal! ( 88105 ) on Saturday June 30, 2001 @01:03PM (#117871) Homepage
    You say cheaper wins, right?

    Well if you already own a PS2, than it's the hands-down winner. Sony has had a year now to sell, and it's out there. So all things being so conveniently equalas you describe, the PS2 wins because it plays the same games, it's just as good, and since people already own one, it's cheaper.

    I think the X-box is going to make an impact for different reasons. I look foward to offers of getting an X-box for only 50 dollars when you buy an MS Office suite at full price, or some silly thing like that. MS is all about bundling...

    J

  • I heard somewhere that all the stories were meant to be taking place concurrently in parralel universes.


    That sounds like a fairly reasonable explanation to me.

  • I have read that Final Fantasy was Square's last chance to profit with a video game in the late '80s. In addition to Final Fantasy, they developed World Runner and Rad Racer. These titles did not do too well for Square, so the decided to go all out with an RPG. The name -- You guessed it, Final Fantasy. Since this game did well in its release in Japan in 1987, Square managed to stay alive. US RPG fans were happy when Nintendo acquired the rights to distribute Final Fantasy in 1990 for the NES. From this point on, Final Fantasy has been one of the most popular console RPG series.
  • Square left Nintendo because they were already treated like crap. FF 2 and 3 (4 and 6) were both censored by Nintendo for American audiences. Anyone remember "YOU SPOONY BARD!"?

    The Pres. of Nintendo has no love for Square, and I don't see Square developing on a Nintendo platform any time soon.

  • "Although he refrained from naming the specific platforms, the game's release will include the Microsoft Xbox and likely the Nintendo GameCube." Anyone else see something wrong with that statement? Considering those are the only 2 consoles left after the demise of the Dreamcast, it only makes sense. Square is building the PC version of FFXI from the ground up, instead of it being a port like previous PSX->PC FF games. Since the XBox is so similar to the PC, an XBox release only makes sense. Yamauchi, the President of Nintendo, has been very hostile towards Square in recent years. They jumped ship to the Playstation with FF7 and haven't released a game on a Nintendo platform since. Rumors are that Square is trying to release FF4-6 for the Game Boy Advance, but Yamauchi won't let them! If that keeps up, it may be doubtful that we'll see FFXI for the Cube. Yamauchi has always been strictly against online gaming, and in interviews has actually insulted online gamers. Once he realizes how profitable the market is, he may change his mind, but right now I wouldn't count on a Gamecube FFXI release.
  • Very true, bu I got one small correction: On the PSX, Sony gave their developers fairly standard high-level libraries and tools (C/C++ I assume), but then, after a few years, they released tools that allowed developers to write directly to the hardware.

    The developers loved it.

    Sony decided to do the same right from the start on the PS2, and gave the developers assembly-level tools right from the start. Keep in mind the wacky architecture of the PS2. This, as we have seen, possibly scared a few potential developers away. Regardless, with the system being out for almost a year in Japan, it matters little; most dev houses will have learned the hardware through and through by now.
  • Except that 4 and 5 are vaguely joined. I think Cecil is supposed to be Butz's great-grandfather. The Final Fantasy anime OAV binds the two together somewhat.

  • This page:

    http://freshmeat.net/projects/netscapeflashplugi n/

    has a Flash plugin that works perfectly well, and is licensed under the GPL. If it doesn't already work on the PPC, there's no reason it can't be ported.

    Sotto la panca, la capra crepa
  • I disagree.

    Personally, I think that FF6 is one of the best games ever made. Some people disagree with me, and say that their favourite is FF4, but none of us are picking any of the first few games they made.

    With FF7 and FF8, Square showed people what could be done on the Playstation, and took the game in a different direction. In fact, no Final Fantasy game has been related to the plot of another (except for a few summon monsters/Espers/GFs/Eidelons that Square didn't make up anyway (Odin, Ifrit, Shiva, etc.), and a few side references thrown in for amusement purposes). And with FF9, they've responded to fan's pining for the lightheartedness of FF6.

    FF4 had the standard Black + White mages, Fighters, etc. FF5 introduced the Jobs system, where anyone could take on a different role and learn those skills, then combine them in unique ways. FF6 had characters that were slightly more unified, though some were better spellcasters/fighters than others, they each had their own type of armour/weapons (Sabin's claws), and there were a few specialty characters (Gogo, Gau, Shadow, Umaro, etc.). They also brought in the Espers for the purpose of learning magic and summoning (available to all). With FF7, it was still "everyone can use magic and has their own type of weapon", but they did away with armour, and introduced Materia, which was _somewhat_ similar to Espers, but still very different. FF8 introduced the Junction system, which I really like, and GFs, which are not quite Espers nor Materia. It also had a very complex card game. FF9 has Eidelons, which are similar to Espers, except that we're back to only certain people using certain skills now. And also Abilities, which are excellent, and the way Espers _should_ have worked in FF6. I haven't played Tactics, but it's apparently a Shining Force-ish sort of battle system, and you have generic comrades who can actually die. All very different, while keeping enough elements in common to make them easily playable by fans.

    Don't get me wrong; I play nearly every Working Designs title, and sometimes buy them just because they were done by WD. But with Final Fantasy, Square has produced a stream of games which, since FF4, have never failed to entertain me. "Final Fantasy" is more like a brand than a string of movie sequels (speaking of which, the movie has nothing in common, plot-wise, with any of the games...just like the games themselves).

    Sotto la panca, la capra crepa
  • meta-meta moderators (read: /. editors)

  • simple question (Score:3)

    by small_dick ( 127697 ) on Saturday June 30, 2001 @02:50PM (#117881)
    if it's called 'final fantasy', why are there so many versions?


    Treatment, not tyranny. End the drug war and free our American POWs.
  • Despite the implications that this statement could have, I still see no reason for this to be good news for Nintendo. Square has offered to bend before, and Nintendo has refused. It seems to me that Square has never had much problem developing for Nintendo, except that Nintendo has never treated Square all that greatly. Not to mention Nintendo's statement a few months back (something like "we don't need Square")...

    News? Certainly. Good news? For some. For Nintendo? Nah... although it's enough to keep your ears open for potential developments.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Was I really the only one who got this joke?

    Granted, it wasn't that funny, but it wasn't that obscure either.
  • To make multi-platform games? This is crazy. I think they should stick to what they know, and not try and make a quick buck off this platformer gaming frenzy. At least they are going to multi-platform games, I'd hate to see even more uni-platform games.

  • ps1 is pritty much dead

    Were you born stupid, or did you have to take lessons? PS1 pretty much dead? Yeah, that's why Spiderman 2 and Tony Hawk 3 are coming out on it.

    Dead? Get a clue. They have an installed userbase of several million in the US alone. Since the PS2 came out last year everyone has been proclaiming the PS1 dead. PSX.IGN.COM have said it more times than I care to remember, than have to swallow their words and say "Oh, it may be dead, but Tony Hawk 3 is coming out on it." If it was in any way shape or form dead, developers would NOT release games on it, end of story.

    Nintendo going the cart route for the N64 was the biggest fucking mistake they ever made.

    ---

  • It comes too late for Sega. I'd have loved to see some Squaresoft games on the Dreamcast.

    *grumble*
  • Enix said that the new Dragon Quest game would go to the platform which has the largest userbase.

    PS2: At *least* 12 million units sold worldwide. Probably 16 million shipped.

    GameCube: 0

    Xbox: 0

    Further, Sony is investing in Enix's online strategy for a DQ game.

    Enix would not put DQ8 on a console that is doomed in Japan (Xbox).

  • You hook the development box up to your network and access the tools under linux. Pretty neat. Web interface for administration, and everyone can share the same dev kit. You also have the option of using something like codewarrior under windows (and maybe mac os. you could do psx dev on mac, not sure about ps2) in combination with the dev kit.
  • The next question would be how much does the TOOL system cost, and how would a normal mortal go about getting on? More than likely though, if you have to ask those questions, you will never get one. such is life. Anyone have a yaroze [sony.com] they want to get rid of cheaply?
  • Well, seeing as today is the last day of "early 2001" (i.e. the first half), I think you're slightly mistaken. I'll assume you meant early 2002.
  • I'm not sure if you realized this, but Brownie Brown [ign.com] has a chunk of ex-Square employees working for them.

    --
  • What I have seen over the years is that the most popular console system is where Squaresoft develops for. Sure, Sega was giving Nintendo a run for its money back in the SNES/Genesis days, but the SNES was more wanted. Why? Simple -- Squaresoft was exclusively developing for Nintendo. Then obviously Square jumped ship, blah, blah, and Square went to Sony! Sony then became the most popular.

    Square makes the most ass-kicking games out there. It is a total rarity that their games suck. This is why Square is important; everyone knows that Square games are good. Now, I'm going to go play on my PS2, with FFIX... then maybe turn on the SNES for FFIV (FF2 US).

  • Uh..

    Dreamcast is literally DEAD, but there are still games scheduled for release in the next 12 months.

    End of story.
  • Do you think PS2 will also be $199 by that time to match it in price? I think I read something about them chopping the price in Japan... maybe a PS2 is in my future!
  • It may be possible that the meaning of your life may be to serve as a warning to others. -- /usr/games/fortune Seriously, why don't you think before you post? By platforms, they mean PC, PS2, XBox, etc. Not like stupid Mario jumping around. And if your post was meant to be sarcastic, you should at least hint at it.
  • FF is the only reason I bought a Playstation 1. Hopefully Nintendo won't treat Square like crap like they do to all other third party vendors... FF 2 and 3 came out for Super Nintendo, remember?

  • Yamauchi hates Square: http://www.thegia.com/news/0101/n29a.html

    But then, Yamauchi seems to hate lots of things.... Final Fantasy in particular (anyone else remember his "only loner basement-dwelling geeks would enjoy such depressing, boring games" comment?). Don't have a link for the actual quote for that one.... the above should be enough, though.

  • "I'm surprised people think this is "shocking" or "new". Square, whether you like their games or not, has always excelled in marketing, and that alone has turned an almost bankrupt company from the 80's into one of the biggest game developers today."

    Well, in all honesty, most of thier games after Final Fantasy I have be pretty good.
  • Nintendo was just inept in ushering in the N64. They delayed far too long, and several companies, Square included, could not reasonably be expected to sit idly by until Nintendo decided to get its act together. The gap between Final Fantasy VI (3 in the United States) and Final Fantasy VII is still longer than any other gap between games in the series' history: it would only have been longer if they'd waited for Nintendo. Their stockholders would not have been happy.

    Then again, that's not to say that both sides didn't start acting like decapitated chickens after the fact, mind you. But this announcement isn't all that surprising: if FFXI is going to be a MMORPG, it only makes sense to open up as far as possible. I'm actually more shocked Nintendo had anything to do with it, given their oft-stated opinion of Square. But even then, I'm not that shocked....

  • Square's original marketing strategy was to rerelease the entire series in some format:
    • Final Fantasy 1 - 3 are in the process of being released for the WonderSwan Color in Japan, complete with updated graphics.
    • They had initially wanted to release Final Fantasy 4 - 6 on the GBA, but Nintendo, it seems (and Yamauchi in particular) rebuffed them. Don't know what's going on now.
    • The three Playstation games, 7 - 9 are going to be rereleased for the PS2.
    And the Game Boy Final Fantasy titles are a bit misleading. Neither was originally part of the series, and were renamed to include the title for American release. The Final Fantasy Legend games were known as SaGa in Japan (and were the precursors to the Romancing SaGa series on the Japanese SNES/SFC, which never were released here, and the SaGa Frontier games on the PS), and Final Fantasy Adventure was entitled Seiken Densetsu (Legend of the Holy Sword). Two of its sequels were eventually released in the US as Secret of Mana and Legend of Mana.
  • No, both Final Fantasy 7 and 8 were ported by Square. Look at the credits on the thing.

    The confusion is in who released it. For quite some time, Square had no American distributor. Their early Playstation releases were released by Sony (look at the intro sequences for Final Fantasy VII: "Sony Computer Entertainment America Presents"), but since Sony wasn't interested in releasing the game for the PC, Square struck a deal with Eidos to handle it. But Eidos had little to no input on the development end of things.

    By the time of Final Fantasy VIII's release, things had changed. Square had struck a distribution deal with EA wherein they formed a joint company called Square EA that would release all of Square's efforts in America (the Japanese equivalent, EA Square, released all of EA's games in Japan). Every American-released Square game since Xenogears for the PSX has been released by them, including Final Fantasy VIII for both PC and PSX.

    Eidos's only involvement with Final Fantasy VIII was for the European release. Square EA only dealt with American distribution, so Square stuck another deal with Eidos for that market. Again, Eidos had no developmental input.

    And they really were awful ports. The port of Final Fantasy VIII didn't even give you a menu-based option to exit the game, and you were forced to Alt+F4 or Ctrl+Q to get out of the thing. Both also used the PSX memory card save format, which was just... odd (and annoying, since it preserved the 15 save limit present in the console versions, despite the fact that such a limitation made no sense on the PC). In addition, there were a number of weird hardware problems: the palettes in FF8 didn't display right on nVidia cards, and only worked for FF7 with patching. In addition, a much touted DLS midibank was included with FF8; only later was it realized that the game had no option to actually utilize it....

  • My understanding of Square's partnership with EA is that they simply handle release and marketing by providing the resources so that both companies can reach markets they had trouble with previously (Square gets an American distributor, and EA gets a Japanese distributor). So, theoretically, EA could decide to go exclusively Xbox and Square could go exclusively PS2, and the partnership would remain, since EA doesn't need to work with the PS2, design-wise, to release Square's games, and Square doesn't need to work with the Xbox to release EA's.

    I don't think we really have enough to go on in regards to Sony and Square. There's no indication Sony has any problem with Square going multiplatform, provided they keep releasing for Sony's platforms. They used to have an exclusivity clause, but that ran out back in early 1998, and it seemed brought about only because, at the time, Sony was releasing all of Square's games (before Square EA's formation).

  • Actually, there's every indication Square knew exactly what they were doing in going for the WonderSwan Color rather than the Game Boy Advance, and it doesn't neccessarily have anything to do with any percieved rivalry with Nintendo (which, apart from the near-senile ramblings of Yamauchi, has likely been blown way out of proportion anyway).

    The WonderSwan gave Square several bonuses:

    1. It was due it before the Game Boy Advance, and would thus allow them to get their games out before the rush.
    2. Bandai had already announced plans for interoperability between the WonderSwan and the Playstation 2. Given that Square is still tied more strongly to Sony than any other console manufacturer, even with the multiplatform announcement, it made sense for them to get their foot in the door.
    3. Bandai would've killed for them. Nintendo didn't really need them (and, from Yamauchi's comments, didn't really want them). The Game Boy Advance already had big name developers, not to mention Nintendo themselves, ready with the "killer app". The WonderSwan allowed Square an exposure they wouldn't, and couldn't, have gotten on the GBA.
    And the WonderSwan hasn't been doing poorly in Japan, thanks in large part to Square's participation. The Final Fantasy rereleases have propelled the system, and the games, to almost record sales, and although the GBA is probably outselling it now, it was hardly a disaster. The one problem is that it seems unlikely that the system will ever reach American shores. But given that the market for nostalgic rereleases is generally larger in Japan than the US, they didn't take any major damage.

    And, keep in mind, Square has openly bandied about the possibility of releasing games for the GBA. It's Nintendo that's rebuffed the prospect entirely (which is their right, really).

    As for treating non-Japanese gamers as second-class: well, yeah. Duh. Square is a Japanese company. The console industry is significantly larger in Japan, not to mention that Square's stock-in-trade, console RPGs, have always been bigger draws in Japan. But they haven't sold the US short, in any case. The US got the special edition of Final Fantasy VII (our regular edition) months before Japan, and Japan, to my knowledge, still hasn't seen release of either of the PC ports. Their position isn't really illogical.

  • The relationship between Square and Sony, as you suggest, is subject to some of the most gross oversimplification in the video game industry today. But the situation, from my understanding, is quite different from the way you see it.

    Yeah, Nintendo's stated policy of "it's the games, stupid" is well-known, but meaningless. It's a common PR hook that really doesn't give any explanation of anything. Nintendo has been around long enough to know that quality is subjective, and that gamers will forgive hundreds of bad games for the odd masterpiece, under the right situations. Which isn't to say that Nintendo is wrong to push it that way, or that no other company would do the same, just that its a rather superficial way of looking at things.

    And no one has yet explained why Nintendo couldn't have stuck with their policy had they gone with a CD-based format. The reasons for that seem to be largely financial, and not really laudable: with a cartridge format, Nintendo owns the media, and can exact a much larger revenue from developers. Not entirely unique in the business world, again, so not deeply damning.

    There is nothing to back up the "A/V first, game second" attitude that is so often attributed to Square, either. Yes, they were interested in the multimedia potential of next gen hardware, but so what? There was nothing about the potential of the PSX to produce "A/V masterpieces" that precluded the ability to produce good games for it. This attitude seems to suggest that somehow Square was tied to Nintendo, and that switching was some massive betrayal of trust. And that's just silly. Square was free to go wherever they wanted. Nintendo was free to produce whatever system they wanted. They didn't agree on the details, and seperated. There's no villain there.

    And it ignores perhaps the most important fact of the switchover, anyway, which was a simple issue of release. When Square switched, the PSX was already out, and development tools were available, while the N64 was still on the horizon. They'd been holding off for quite some time already (look at the delay between Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy VII even as is), and to wait for the N64's premiere wouldn't have sat well with Square's stockholders. Similar delays chased away other companies, at least temporarily, and contributed to the software drought the N64 experienced after its inception.

    And, you're right, its not all Yamauchi's fault. But he's notorious for letting his mouth run wild, and saying things Nintendo, as a company, later regretted. He's an easy target, and such a fun guy to poke fun at.::grin::

    And, for the love of God, rereleasing the first three Final Fantasy games on the WonderSwan Color was in no way an attack on Nintendo. They were drawn to the WSC by promises of interoperability with the PS2 by Bandai, and, again, by a desire to get the games out now rather than wait for the release of the GBA. Yeah, they didn't talk about a rerelease of the SNES games on GBA until later, but, considering their goal was to rerelease the games in sequence, it didn't make much sense to talk about them beforehand.

    It's really no one's fault, save for some bad PR moves on both sides (Sakaguchi shouldn't have stated he wanted to develop for the GBA before talking to Nintendo, which more or less forced Yamauchi to take a hardline stance or appear weak, and Yamauchi still shouldn't have lashed out with the force he did). It's never been personal. Heck, I'm curious as to where the idea that Square has any vendetta against Nintendo in the first place came from, anyway. There's nothing solid they've ever said or done to support this, and the most anyone has to go by is vague and circumstantial evidence (Square also didn't order dev kits for the Dreamcast, does this mean they have a vendetta with Sega?).

    People pick favorites, and a lot of people were burnt and felt betrayed when Square jumped to the Playstation. They, understandably, transfer their own feelings onto the companies, even when the actual situation is significantly different.

  • Let me begin by saying I don't really believe either side is holding a grudge, at least, not a serious one. But Nintendo's actions do tend to lead one to that conclusion more easily.

    Square has never once said anything overtly negative in regards to Nintendo without provocation before the split that can't be prescribed to traditional PR manuevering. Most of the "evidence" of a grudge seems to come for dubious readings of development decision (not producing for a system should not be immediately read as an attack on the company that produces it).

    Nintendo, if nothing else, has Yamauchi's comments. But, to be fair, this isn't entirely his fault. Hironobu Sakaguchi, it seems, announced his interest in developing for the Game Boy Advance before consulting Nintendo. Nintendo, justifiably feeling that they had the right to know about plans for their system, had to be firm lest the media dogs run wild. Yamauchi's problem was in his approach: he could of put down the possibility without the ad hominem severity he did. But, then again, he's not known as for being particularly cool or collected....

  • Hmm? Not to my knowledge. There are some connections, admittedly, aside from recurring features (like summoned monsters, magic, etc.), and Final Fantasy V is a conceptual remake of Final Fantasy III (the NES version, unreleased in America, not the SNES US version, which was Final Fantasy VI). But, for the most part, they are entirely seperate.
  • I have doubts whether I should hold my breath for Dragon Quest VIII. Sure, Dragon Quest VII looks like a great game, but its quite possibly the most delayed console game of all time (it was originally scheduled for release shortly after Final Fantasy VII). And I believe Square, as a company, still outperforms Enix, even if the Dragon Quest series outsells the Final Fantasy series.
  • Ah. I stand humbly corrected, then. What I am (relatively) sure of is that the ports were designed for an American audience, and released in America first (I think, though I may be wrong about this, that the port was actually done by Square USA).

    And there's no port of FFIX anywhere. And given the relatively quality of previous ports, that's not really much of a loss....

  • Wait a moment... you blast Square while celebrating Enix, the very company whose American localization wing more or less fell off the face of the Earth following the SNES transition? Square didn't even have a nominal US localization group until after the release of Final Fantasy IV (the poor translation being the work of two employees of Square in Japan).

    Oh, and when the original Final Fantasy was rereleased for the WonderSwan, Bandai had previously announced that the system was due for American release. The fact that they dropped the ball can hardly be blamed on Square.
    They responded slowly to the American market, but they certainly did respond, and did so much better than, say, Enix, who more or less gave up when Nintendo of America lost interest. The vast majority of Square's Playstation releases have reached American shores, despite early production shakeups right before the switch to Playstation (Ted Woolsey and most of the former employees of SquareSoft quit to form Crave).

    You're not being fair, and you know it. Square was not an especially large company for most of its history. When push came to shove, Japan ranked higher than the United States in terms of coverage. SquareSoft didn't have the time or resources to translate all of their SNES-era games, so they had to pick and choose, and they choose Secret of Mana over Final Fantasy V. Yeah, it sucks that SquareSoft didn't get the chance to do more in America until the Playstation era, but its hardly unexpected. And they've still done more in both the SNES and PSX eras than Enix, or, indeed, any other Japanese RPG producer, has done since the NES era.

  • I don't care about consoles. Keep them games comin' for my PC, and all will be well. Plus, Pr0n on my DreamCast is all blurry.
  • Sony really shot itself in the foot by releasing a machine so impossible to program. Numerous companies have jumped ship because of that single fact. If you are running a game development company, you have to keep yourself afloat. The game industry is not an easy industry to survive in. Timing is everything. Taking a year a develop your game for the PS2 and learn all its intricacies isn't reasonable when you could just port your PC version to the X-BOX in three months.

    Even if you aren't porting, it's much easier to find trained directx developers and teach them a few X-BOX tricks than it is to teach coders a whole different style of programming needed for the PS2 (steaming textures in mid frame, etc) because of it's low system memory and odd design. If you can take "commodity coders" and use them for 6-8 months compared to sony-gurus for 12 months, which is a better way to make a profit?

    In a 3+ console world, a game company wants to hit as many platforms as possible while still being economical. Square is no longer producing games just for the PS2 because it wants to maximize profits. Next time around, Square probably won't do a PS version at all because it won't be worth the time/money investment compared to just doing X-BOX/gamecube versions.

  • I never said the machine was BAD. I think the design is very clever. Your article said exactly what I said. It requires a different sytle of programming and that involves a substantial learning curve. My original post claimed that spending so much time and money climbing this mountain might not be so economical when the XBOX and gamecube are simpler and, yes, much less revolutionary in design. If it costs X dollars to write an X-BOX game and x+50 for PS2 and the user base eqaulizes, why pick the PS2? The X-BOX is just a glorified PC with a fast bus. But that's its greatest strength for a developer.

    PS: Trip Hawkins says "It's historic, a mass market appliance that fundamentally changes society in the same way the printing press did." about EVERY system he is involved with. (See 3d0 multiplayer). Get some better quotes next time.

  • It makes sense, each "Final Fantasy" is pretty "Final," they don't get continued.
  • "Well, good news for the Microsoft's X-Box as well, since they will release for it as well"

    Well, looks like someone will need to make one more trip to the literary well before they're able to post very well. Well? Hehe...

  • I know he says this every time we turn around, but Yamauchi is planning on retiring (hopefully sooner than later). Even then, Yamauchi is not Nintendo in and of itself. There's a whole board of Directors which could override Yamauchi.

    Having said that, I think there's a good deal of ill will festering between represenatives of both companies. Nintendo claims that Square is unneeded and talentless, basically. Square's claims are basically "we're trying to be reasonable here" and "Its Nintendo's fault." I suspect that the truth lies in the middle, as usual. I would wager that either Square wanted to make GBA games, and Nintendo wouldn't liscence them without a promise to develop for Gamecube, or that Square wanted to do some GBA-Gamecube interaction that would have beaten Nintendo to the punch.

    Personally, I don't really care for Squaresoft anymore. They've become much more into FMV than gameplay, and Brownie Brown is stepping in to fill the void of SoM type games I enjoyed from Squaresoft. However, seeing FF on Gamecube would really turn things around for ps2 and Gamecube. Suddenly Nintendo isnt about kiddie games anymore, and FFX looks a whole lot better on Gamecube.

  • Indeed I do. To my understanding, a lot of the artists who worked on SoM are now at BB.
  • Ok, the ps2 is great. But, the X-box will be better. It doesn't matter who's making it, it just has to be cheaper than anything else and have good games to hype kids into buying it. It's how the market works. Remember how atari had the Jaguar? It was awesome, destroyed the Nintendo, but too expensive. The same thing happened with the Neo-Geo, too expensive.
    If the X-box is the same cost as everything else, has the *same games*, but looks better graphically (plus has a "kooler" sounding name) it'll probably win. If it's 20 buck cheaper, it'll destroy the market. My money's on the X-box no matter who makes it. Survival of the fittest I guess...
  • Well, the article stats that FF XI will released first for PS2 and PC. The PC windows version will maybe run under wine without problems. Older FF parts that were ported to the pc platform are also running nice under Wine.
    FF8 has worked really good for me under Wine.
    Running X-BOX games on a PC could be a difficult thing. Normal PCs will have much more cpu horsepower and memory when the xbox is released, and the videocard will have a bigger fillrate, but the XBOX with its UMA design and no such bottlenecks like an AGP bus has a much tighter coupling between cpu and videocard. I think when the xbox is released there will be a long time where the xbox could do graphical tricks and eyecandys almost no pc could do but there will be also many graphical tricks that nearly every pc could do but the xbox couldn't. 64 MB for Video and general purpose ram is really not enough. The xbox could maybe pump out tons of polygons but hasn't any space to save where they should be.
  • I don't know if you, Cheshire Cat, or anyone else will see this, but...

    Schuey Wins is referring to the motorsport of Formula One in his sig. He may also have some Axis Power fetish, but who can tell?

    Michael Schumacher won the French Grand Prix yesterday, making 50 career wins for him in like 6 years. He's winning at about a 25% rate. He's one of the highest-paid athletes (contract+endorsements) in the world.

    He's also a robot.

    GTRacer
    - F1 cars in GT3! Hooray!

  • My PC. Its already on the internet. I won't have to buy a broadband adapter, modem, or any other peripheral to make it work.

    Captain_Frisk
  • Final Fantasy XI won't be out any time soon. By the time that it is, even the xbox will have been out for months, if not a year. Its FF X that will be the difference, as it will be released in the US in early 2001, just a few months after the xbox, assuming that it is released on time. FFX is going to be out in Japan in a few days, which will pretty much seal the deal for the PS2 in Japan.
  • Nintendo is a complicated company. They often say one thing and do another. Or believe one thing and do another. For example, while gearing up for the NES in 1985 Yamauchi wanted it to be a network box that did it all: gaming, banking, day-trading, news, sports scores, web browsing (within an AOL-style network Nintendo themselves would build), music, movies, etc. However, Nintendo and all the other Japanese companies never got around to networking. Instead, they let the Americans (especially AOL and Netscape) take the lead. Even in Japan, Docomo (God I HATE that name!), Sega and Sony are ahead. Nintendo wants to build an online network, but only if they can control it, and only if children can pay for content on a whim. Basically, smart cards and broadband in every room and on every mobile phone/videophone. But that won't be ready until at least 2005. So in the mean time, they're sticking to conventional consoles with more guaranteed profit methods. And, since Nintendo always thinks about the future but never talks about it, they will be dumping R&D on a network, but they will never admit it and talk pure trash about networking until it's done. And once it is done, they will claim they've never done anything else. Yamauchi. Big Brother before Bill Gates, eh?
  • There are not so much failings of KDE and NOME but really they have done nothing to innovate. Those UI's just both steal/borrow from both Mac and Windows UI. What is innovative about iether of those UI's besides the fact they run on the all mighty linux?
  • It's like the 'Neverending Story'.

    Personally I'm glad it's over.
  • FF5 introduced the Jobs system
    It's false. FFIII (japan) introduced the job system. In fact many things (big chobocos, mugs, summon) have been introduced in FF II & III (never been released in U.S.). I strongly suggest you to get an emulator and get the translated ROMs of FF II & III (and also try the original translation of FFIV). You might like them.

    For me, FFIV is the most important Final Fantasy game for two major things: storyline and music. The original story of FFIV, not the one we got in U.S., was great and SNES sound was just good enough to show Uematsu composer talents. But I'm not saying it is the best...

  • To answer your question, not just censoring. All the relation between Edge and Rydia (except the end) has been removed and all the personalities of the characters has been weaked. Some other information like the guy from the moon (don't remember his name) was the uncle of Cecil have also been removed. Sure the story is not really different, but it's presented in an adult way, a little bit like in FFVII.
  • It's sad, really.
    There is a lot of things in 2000 that are really cool.

    Then again, I'm still waiting for that 2000/XP only game. As long as there is a need to run on 9x, applications are going to suck.

    --
    Two witches watch two watches.
  • Final Fantasy XI is going to be ONLINE-ONLY. OF COURSE they'll make it for multiple platforms. Why hit the millions of PS2 owners when you can also hit the millions of GameCube, XBox, and PC gamers too! DUH! ;)

    I'm surprised people think this is "shocking" or "new". Square, whether you like their games or not, has always excelled in marketing, and that alone has turned an almost bankrupt company from the 80's into one of the biggest game developers today.
  • But the real winning factor always has been, and will continue to be, games. Which ever console has the most games people want, is going to get the most sales. Also please remember in the console world the money is made on the game royalties not the hardware. That said, I think the X-box has a good chance in this arena. Porting PC games to X-box should be a good deal easier considering that the X-box is using farmiliar hardware and interfaces (x86 processor, DirectX API, etc). It is therefore in the best intrests of most companies to release an X-box version of games as well as a PC version since it shouldn't cost much extra.

    Now this isn't to say the X-box is the gaurenteed winner, it is possible that the PS2 will get more games people want, however based on the list of developers MS has signed on board and based on the similarity to PC hardware, I think it has a very good chance.

    look foward to offers of getting an X-box for only 50 dollars when you buy an MS Office suite at full price, or some silly thing like that. MS is all about bundling...

    Actually, I think it's more going to be along these lines: You buy an X-box for whatever price and get MSN broadband service via their deal with Qwest and other local telcos. Then, using their new .NET technologies you have access to Office, IE, and other productivity/internet programs. So long as you subscribe, you can keep using the software (since it's all running off of MS servers). Hence you have a cheap unit that servers as a game console, DVD player, internet appliance, and so on. Great for people that want a second computer for the kids, or the colledge student that doesn't have the cash for a full blown PC and all the accompaning software.

  • I found a rant from Yamauchi talking about why companies going cross-platform is bad for the console industry [dailyradar.com]. And there's this other article where he flat out states nothing to do with squaresoft [dailyradar.com]. Granted, these are a little dated, but i'm unsure of how the Yamuachi could have changed his heart within the space of a few months.

    The way I see how this is going down, Nintendo is going to go off and do its own thing, and just give Square the complimentary "Fuck You", if they ask to port a game to the gamecube. The consequences? Who knows?

  • Sqaure has been saying for several months now that, while Final Fantasy X will be a PS2 exclusive, Final Fantasy XI (a. k. a. Final EverQuest) will be for both PS2 and Xbox. Note that I didn't say GameCube. This has been on IGN's site for a while (and I'm too lazy to look up the address for you).

    I don't recall which system(s) Square said their re-releases of VII, VIII, and IX will be for, but I wouldn't be surprised if they also excluded GameCube.

    Before peeing all over yourself in joy about the possibility of Squaresoft on GameCube, remember that this is a company that decided to develop for the no-name WonderSwan (is it even still alive in Japan?) instead of Game Boy Advandce (talk about your fumbled no-brainers). They're still in the mentality that they need to compete with Nintendo, to prove that they're somehow a better software hosue than the big N. They're still trying to say "Our games can sell hardware just as well as yours can!" Even if that means going down with sinking ships.

    Not to mention Square has historically treated non-Japanese gamers as second-class (if not third), but that's a whole other rant to begin with.

    Personally, I'm waiting for the system announcement for Dragon Quest/Warrior VIII (not to mention American versions of V and VI would be nice).

  • "It was due it before the Game Boy Advance, and would thus allow them to get their games out before the rush."

    So, what you're saying is that Squaresoft totally ignored Sega's example?

    "Bandai had already announced plans for interoperability between the WonderSwan and the Playstation 2."

    And also ignored SNK's example to boot?

    "But given that the market for nostalgic rereleases is generally larger in Japan than the US, they didn't take any major damage."

    Nostalgic re-releases are one thing. Two games that may never see this side of the Pacific are something else.

    "As for treating non-Japanese gamers as second-class: well, yeah. Duh. Square is a Japanese company. The console industry is significantly larger in Japan, not to mention that Square's stock-in-trade, console RPGs, have always been bigger draws in Japan."

    Enix, on the other hand, is in exactly the same situation, yet that has not prevented them from building a top-notch localization arm. While Enix of America has given us Dragon Warrior games with flashier title screens, updated graphics, and even entire scenes that the Japanese audience didn't see until the Super Famicom remixes, the only memorable things that Squaresoft's US arm has given us are translation flubs like "spoony bard" and "this guy are sick."

    And as if that weren't enough, Squaresoft decided that the normal version of Final Fantasy IV might be a little too hard for us, so gave us the EastyType game with just about every character's special move disabled. And they were also afraid that calling those games IV and VI might hurt our heads, so they decided to confuse people for years afterwards by renumbering them.

    After that, Japan go Final Fantasy V while we got Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (later released as Final Fantasy USA in Japan). Enough said.

    While Square may be a Japanese company with mostly Japanese interests, the way they've all but ignored the US while Enix gave us the benefit of the doubt and released the first four Dragon Quest games (and almost the fifth) has shown a large gap between that which Square has done and what they could have done. And I have yet to hear an acceptable explaination for this difference.

    "The US got the special edition of Final Fantasy VII (our regular edition) months before Japan,"

    Wow, a game with two new monsters, monsters that only the true die-hards would really want to spend time levelling up to mess with. I'll keep in mind the "advantages" Square gave me when next I manage to accidentally submerge on top of Emerald WEAPON again.

    And the way they had the time to add in two new monsters and assorted items but were unable to show the script to a grammar-checking program suggests that the deluxe version already existed in Japanese before translation, and the decision of translating it before releasing it to the Japanese audience was more spontaneous than anything else.

  • Re:It's a little known fact... (Score:4)

    by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Saturday June 30, 2001 @07:35PM (#117941)
    "... That the president of Nintendo hates Squaresoft because they left the N64 for the Playstation (the reason the Playstation caught on so well) in 1995. They left because the cartridges that Nintendo had decided to use were too small to hold FF7 the way that Squaresoft had decided to create it."

    You're over-simplifying it. First off, if Resident Evil 2 could fit on a cart, so can Final Fantasy. It would be even easier if they didn't insist on pre-rendering everything.

    However, in general, Squaresoft left Nintendo over a difference of opinions over how games should be made. Nintenedo's pilosophy has always been "game first, flashy stuff later," which they've been operating under for a long time. For example, it was more important for the original Game Boy to have better games than to be technologically superior to the Lynx and Game Gear.

    On the other hand, Squaresoft would rather make a/v masterpieces and put a game in there afterwards; less of a game, more of an interactive movie, even going so far as to make a non-interactive movie.

    There were other less-important arguments between the two (the cart size of Enix's Dragon Quest V comes to mind), but this was the biggie. In the end Nintendo said "not on my hardware," so Squaresoft went off to find different hardware.

    I also feel it's wrong to place all the blame on Yamauchi. The bad blood flows both ways. For example, if Squaresoft was interested in turning a profit, would they have re-released their first three Final Fantasy games for WonderSwan Color instead of Game Boy Advance? That act can only be seen as an attempt at a direct (but poorly thought out) attack at Nintendo's cash cow. They only started talking about GBA development after they finally realized (duh!) that the GBA is the superior platform, both from a technology and sales POV. But Nintendo said "no" to that...

    ... since not long before that Squaresoft went out of their way to not write games for the GameCube. They've announced plans to bring Final Fantasy XI to both PS2 and Xbox, but haven't even bothered to ask for GameCube dev kits. Doesn't that sound a bit targeted to you?

    Their differences at the start of it all was philosophical, but it's been getting more and more personal. I think the current state of affairs are more Squaresoft's fault than Nintendo, but others see it differently. All in all, though, it's not entirely one side's fault.

  • With all these game systems, each having unique excellent games it's getting to be a tough time on the pockets of someone like myself who just has to have one of all of them. No big complaints there, I'm spending the money willingly, but it's getting to be annoying trying to figure out how to hook them all UP.

    Is squaresoft going to be producing the SAME game for each of these platforms? I've seen it before where two versions of the same (titled) game had small differences dependant on the platforms.

    I imagine it's all just different types of data files from the game perspective-- it's only the various parts of the game and rendering engines themselves that would need to be rewritten on a per-platform basis. That would mean that the people desigining the "game" part of final fantasy wouldn't care what the "engine" people were doing for the most part. Story-line, gameplay and the rest *ought* to be the same, just small differences in rendering capabilities, loading speed, etc.

    And on my first note, has anyone found anything better than a 4-1 switch for multiple game-systems? I'm currently chaining a pair of Recoton switches in order to get VHS, DVD, PS2, Dreamcast, N64, and SNES all on the same tv (the NES is the only one using an RF Modulator still).

  • Before the launch of GBA there were roumors that some of the firat FF's were going to be released on that platform. However they were discounted by both Square and Nintendo (the two havn't had the best of histories.) The only hand held to feature any of the FF's was Bandi's Wonderswan which has never been slated for a US release. But since they are aparently thinking of getting together again maybe there is a chance. I might actualy have to get GBA now.

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