Theory: Reason Square Enix kept Final Fantasy on Sony Systems in the past
- Thread starter IbizaPocholo
- Start date
Well I'm glad that Xbox and Switch owners can finally enjoy these games as well. I'll be triple dipping on FFX for Switch personally.
Mostly because there is no modern version of the game, iirc the one that is sold in Steam is just the Windows version that released back then with some fixes and that's it.
yea this was discussed on the EZA podcast last time. I had totally forgotten about Sony helping Square but yea, that's stock purchase was true.
Probably Sony prefers to pay just a bit extra and get some timed exclusives instead.
Probably Sony prefers to pay just a bit extra and get some timed exclusives instead.
Yeah, the first tweet refers to Game Designer's Studio that was formed using Nintendo's Q-fund and was what created Crystal Chronicles. Thing is, how is that allowed to be ported to PS4 when Nintendo funded and published it? That money was from Yamauchi when he retired IIRC and also gave birth to ND Cube and Genius Sonority.
I guess time passed and any ties Nintendo had to the original Crystal Chronicles expired so SE were free to do as they pleased.
Eventually GDS was merged with Taito, but evidently still operated as such since we got Crystal Bearers and Rings of Fate I think by the same team.
I guess time passed and any ties Nintendo had to the original Crystal Chronicles expired so SE were free to do as they pleased.
Eventually GDS was merged with Taito, but evidently still operated as such since we got Crystal Bearers and Rings of Fate I think by the same team.
The most surprising one to me honestly was Final Fantasy X. If nothing else, I thought that that particular game would never come to any other console outside of PlayStation. With Cloud being in Smash, I thought VII was going to happen sooner or later, especially after Square said that VII Remake would be coming first to PS4. But X? Yeah, that was the megaton for me. On the Xbox, no less.
I'm not convinced this captures the full (or even majority share) of the complexity of the situation.
I just wish all 3rd party games release on every possible platform.. I want the games to sell as much as possible so the industry I love gets healthier and bigger.
In the next tweet he says that nothing has been confirmed. Reality is what he says doesn't make sense becasue SE made XIII back in 2009 a multiplatform game which was a an enormous blow to Sony at the time and SE had no problems making Final Fantasy games for DS and 3DS.
Actually what I think is the real reason for this is that SE mentioned in their finanical results that they are going to focus more on multiplatform developments and I think this a result of that.
Something was up, but whatever it was it's good that its over with. I think the Kingdom Hearts compilations are next for Switch and XBox.
The idea that Sony had some kind of perpetual exclusivity on the games was always complete crap.
Game Designer Studio was formed because Squaresoft had a deal to exclusively make games for Playstation but when they merged with Square Enix that deal was voided.
In general I think we have to lose the thinking that Publishers make the best, most logical choices all the time and that producers/directors don't have biases or preconceived notions.
Game Designer Studio was formed because Squaresoft had a deal to exclusively make games for Playstation but when they merged with Square Enix that deal was voided.
In general I think we have to lose the thinking that Publishers make the best, most logical choices all the time and that producers/directors don't have biases or preconceived notions.
That's not a confirmation, that's just speculation.
Not like Nintendo will do something with it when they have two rpgs already
Not like Nintendo will do something with it when they have two rpgs already
OP
OP
I guess he must have verified his sources. He wouldn't be much of a senior editor if he hadn't.
When you think about it. It's the perfect timing.
The Switch already made people want that exact kind of support. RPG work well, the console is hybrid, has nice tools and is quite powerful so it can handle a wide array of games.
I hope it becomes a very varied machine with an amazing library of both new and old titles.
The Switch already made people want that exact kind of support. RPG work well, the console is hybrid, has nice tools and is quite powerful so it can handle a wide array of games.
I hope it becomes a very varied machine with an amazing library of both new and old titles.
This sounds plausible, and the stock thing was actually true, who knows though, this is still internet speculation.
Your second sentence is the complete opposite of the first haha
I think it was mostly because porting wasn't that much of a thing except for Capcom and Sega. By the time Square-Enix caught a whiff of this, they had to get caught up on making versions of their classic games that could run even without the PS1 architecture, which was only done recently with Final Fantasy VII on mobile and the rebuilding of the PC version.
Nintendo wasn't a seducing platform to port things on at the time. Mobile was more interesting to them than a Nintendo console was, and now they're porting what they already have to the Switch because it is a system that has seen success.
The shell company was used to circumvent the exclusivity deal when it was Squaresoft.
Nintendo wasn't a seducing platform to port things on at the time. Mobile was more interesting to them than a Nintendo console was, and now they're porting what they already have to the Switch because it is a system that has seen success.
The shell company was used to circumvent the exclusivity deal when it was Squaresoft.
I have a huge backlog on Switch and if FFX was releasing tomorrow I'd happily forget it all and triple dip.
Former Square President Hisashi Suzuki once let "Father of Final Fantasy" Hironobu Sakaguchi run wild and make a terribly-expensive bomb of a movie called "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within". It lost a ton of money, and could have almost killed Square. Sony apparently felt kind of responsible, having encouraged Sakaguchi to do it, so Suzuki arranged for Sony to bail out Square by buying 18% of Square.
That patched things up, but Square's shareholders were still upset, so they basically fired Suzuki and Sakaguchi (in spite of them putting Square on the map) and put Yoichi Wada in Suzuki's place, and Wada quickly merged Square with Enix, and then proceeded to pretty much ruin both companies for many years (Suzuki laughed on Twitter when Wada's SquareEnix crossed the threshold of being in a worse position than Square by itself was when Suzuki got fired). The merger with Enix also had the effect of severely reducing Sony's ownership of SquareEnix. Although Sony never owned a controlling share of anything, they were just an important major shareholder, and still were after the merger, so... *shrug*
SquareEnix then proceeded to make Final Fantasy games on the GameBoy Advance, and Final Fantasy 13 on the Xbox 360, Dragon Quest 9 on the DS, Dragon Quest 10 on the Wii U... and this is after the PSX Final Fantasy games were ported to PC, where they've been hanging around almost forever.
Sony recently sold their share in SquareEnix.
This reporter is apparently theorizing that the sale of Sony's shares broke some sort of contract that was locking Final Fantasies 7, 8, and 9 (just those three) to Sony consoles (except PC, because reasons), and that those three games could've appeared on Wii U but didn't because Wii U, and that's it's not a matter of SquareEnix simply not caring to port those three games around until now. Well actually, the Wii U part was SquareEnix not caring, but everything else (umm, GameCube and Wii?) was contracts.
This theory had always been dumb and nonsensical, and Cheerilee subbed that up beautifully up above, well done.
I'm more inclined to just think they never thought it was worth the effort until recently, especially after Cheerlie's post. If Sony had any such deal it was probably during the 32-bit era, and even then probably not thanks to Windows ports, the N64 lacking storage that could handle it, the Saturn being in free fall by the time FFVII launched, and it being "unacceptable" most likely on next gen consoles. Hell, you could just buy and run them on the PS2 so that was probably good enough for awhile!
So yeah, just kind of didn't make sense for a long time, especially with the PS3 too being able to run them and handhelds... well, the PSP had an option, and the DS couldn't handle it most likely, and 3DS they kind of dropped the ball with anyway. Sony being assholes with the PS4 running older software (I don't even mean just not letting you pop a disc in, I mean making PS2 games jump through hoops and PS1 not even showing up) combined with porting to mobile was probably a big part of what prompted it being worth pursuing.
So yeah, just kind of didn't make sense for a long time, especially with the PS3 too being able to run them and handhelds... well, the PSP had an option, and the DS couldn't handle it most likely, and 3DS they kind of dropped the ball with anyway. Sony being assholes with the PS4 running older software (I don't even mean just not letting you pop a disc in, I mean making PS2 games jump through hoops and PS1 not even showing up) combined with porting to mobile was probably a big part of what prompted it being worth pursuing.
this is a theory, as the original tweet says. not an "answer."
the horse was still twitching, huh?
Are we talking about the same company that shut down several 1st Party Studios and that stopped PSV support as soon as it wasn't profitable enough?
To have more control over an at the time incredibly prolific, successful (as in videogame sales specifically) and the most important and influential 3rd Party IPs for the Japanese market besides Dragon Quest from Enix, is a far more rational reason.