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As much as I would love to gloat about the most shocking news since the Resident Evil announcement I am not going to. You see there is very little to gloat about, other than the fact that two of the biggest games in Japan (Resident Evil and Final Fantasy) are avalible on one console. Whilst last time I flapped my arms and ran around in excitement, this time I had a much more interested approach, because you see I don’t really like Final Fantasy! And after reading news article after news article I have discovered that bringing one of the worlds largest games series to the Gamecube was a cleverly orchestrated plan that developed over many months.
The industry was very cruel to Nintendo last time, falling out with developers and stubbornly sticking with Cartridges was sure to have a negative effect on the company but no one could predict it would nearly destroy them. But Nintendo are finally doing what they should have done many years ago, being ruthless to survive. Nintendo were stubborn to believe they needed anyone other than themselves to do well, but after suffering humiliation to Sony they were proved wrong and so as they go into the next phase of console wars they needed to re-think their strategy. They switched to discs, they made their console amazingly easy to develop for, they got exclusive rights to the main Resident Evil games and they are selling their console way below its competitors, and why? To kick the opposition where it hurts that’s why. They have grabbed as many 3rd party developers as possible and are selling for an extremely cheap price something that did not happen on the N64. But Nintendo had one major problem; the need to re-claim the fans they lost and the majority of those fans disappeared along with the Final Fantasy series, they need to swallow their pride and get Squaresoft back.
Squaresoft left Nintendo over a row regarding Mario RPG, they knew Nintendo needed them even if Nintendo didn’t and they switched to Sony. Sure enough Sony discovered how successful the Final Fantasy series was and bought a 20% share in the company, which meant to Square no Nintendo (against popular belief Sony could stop Squaresoft making games for Nintendo as Nintendo can stop RARE going multi-format). There is one way that Squaresoft could switch sides and that is if Squaresoft bought their shares from Sony. But Squaresoft had no reason to return to their old best friends, which was until the Final Fantasy movie was released. Good it may have been but a flop it was definatly, Squaresoft spent a VERY large sum of money making and advertising that movie and they soon fell into debt. So all of a sudden the Gameboy Advance’s popularity became a very attractive prospect to Square, but Sony simply wouldn’t have it and Square didn’t have the funds to buy their shares back it all seemed bad for the Japanese software giant.
We all thought Nintendo hated them, how wrong we were as Nintendo and Square prepared to orchestrate a plan that would mean we would see Final Fantasy on the Gamecube and Gameboy Advance. First thing Square would need is money, they simply didn’t have the funds to make and publish Gamecube games, Sony wouldn’t publish them and Sony wouldn’t let Nintendo. So Yamauchi, head of Nintendo, the guy who was hurt most by Square’s departure set up Fund Q. Some of you will know all about Fund Q, it was a fund set up to help young developers, where they can borrow money so they can make their ideas come to life on the Gamecube or Gameboy Advance. But Square isn’t a new and small developer, so Square set up an "affiliate" (a company that works with another like Crawfish who converted Doom on to the GBA even though they never made the game). This company is legible to take money from the Q fund without taking money from Nintendo directly avoiding the whole Sony mess. Now Squaresoft can start making Final Fantasy on the Gamecube avoiding the wraith of Sony.
We wondered why Nintendo aren’t prepared to reveal their online plans, Phantasy Star Online Version 2 is ready to go. Now PSOv2 is all well and good but if you are looking for one singular title to guarantee a success online then it wouldn’t be SEGA’s game it would have to be Squaresoft’s Final Fantasy XI (or Final Fantasy Online), which is one of the biggest game names in the world. If tones of people buy Final Fantasy XI and a modem, then Nintendo can release Mario net or Pokémonline with little worry considering the success of the net, meanwhile if FFXI doesn’t sell that well then Nintendo will be successfully warned of the dangers of releasing any online titles of their own.
Another thing that has already been confirmed is GBA-GC link up, now Sonic is already running around parading the idea of connecting the two but if Final Fantasy did the same then Pokémon, Sonic and Final Fantasy will be 3 major reasons to get both consoles! With this in mind giving Square the money to develop games on the Gamecube wasn’t such a big deal for Nintendo considering what they would get out of it.
All this shows to me is that Nintendo are being ruthless, they have gone into this war, all guns blazing. First Namco, then Capcom and now Squaresoft! Now I can’t think of anything that would surprise me even if Rockstar announced GTA3 or Konami announced Metal Gear Solid 2. And it makes me happy to see Nintendo finally realising, nice guys finish last.
Here’s to the Future.
Dringo.
The industry was very cruel to Nintendo last time, falling out with developers and stubbornly sticking with Cartridges was sure to have a negative effect on the company but no one could predict it would nearly destroy them. But Nintendo are finally doing what they should have done many years ago, being ruthless to survive. Nintendo were stubborn to believe they needed anyone other than themselves to do well, but after suffering humiliation to Sony they were proved wrong and so as they go into the next phase of console wars they needed to re-think their strategy. They switched to discs, they made their console amazingly easy to develop for, they got exclusive rights to the main Resident Evil games and they are selling their console way below its competitors, and why? To kick the opposition where it hurts that’s why. They have grabbed as many 3rd party developers as possible and are selling for an extremely cheap price something that did not happen on the N64. But Nintendo had one major problem; the need to re-claim the fans they lost and the majority of those fans disappeared along with the Final Fantasy series, they need to swallow their pride and get Squaresoft back.
Squaresoft left Nintendo over a row regarding Mario RPG, they knew Nintendo needed them even if Nintendo didn’t and they switched to Sony. Sure enough Sony discovered how successful the Final Fantasy series was and bought a 20% share in the company, which meant to Square no Nintendo (against popular belief Sony could stop Squaresoft making games for Nintendo as Nintendo can stop RARE going multi-format). There is one way that Squaresoft could switch sides and that is if Squaresoft bought their shares from Sony. But Squaresoft had no reason to return to their old best friends, which was until the Final Fantasy movie was released. Good it may have been but a flop it was definatly, Squaresoft spent a VERY large sum of money making and advertising that movie and they soon fell into debt. So all of a sudden the Gameboy Advance’s popularity became a very attractive prospect to Square, but Sony simply wouldn’t have it and Square didn’t have the funds to buy their shares back it all seemed bad for the Japanese software giant.
We all thought Nintendo hated them, how wrong we were as Nintendo and Square prepared to orchestrate a plan that would mean we would see Final Fantasy on the Gamecube and Gameboy Advance. First thing Square would need is money, they simply didn’t have the funds to make and publish Gamecube games, Sony wouldn’t publish them and Sony wouldn’t let Nintendo. So Yamauchi, head of Nintendo, the guy who was hurt most by Square’s departure set up Fund Q. Some of you will know all about Fund Q, it was a fund set up to help young developers, where they can borrow money so they can make their ideas come to life on the Gamecube or Gameboy Advance. But Square isn’t a new and small developer, so Square set up an "affiliate" (a company that works with another like Crawfish who converted Doom on to the GBA even though they never made the game). This company is legible to take money from the Q fund without taking money from Nintendo directly avoiding the whole Sony mess. Now Squaresoft can start making Final Fantasy on the Gamecube avoiding the wraith of Sony.
We wondered why Nintendo aren’t prepared to reveal their online plans, Phantasy Star Online Version 2 is ready to go. Now PSOv2 is all well and good but if you are looking for one singular title to guarantee a success online then it wouldn’t be SEGA’s game it would have to be Squaresoft’s Final Fantasy XI (or Final Fantasy Online), which is one of the biggest game names in the world. If tones of people buy Final Fantasy XI and a modem, then Nintendo can release Mario net or Pokémonline with little worry considering the success of the net, meanwhile if FFXI doesn’t sell that well then Nintendo will be successfully warned of the dangers of releasing any online titles of their own.
Another thing that has already been confirmed is GBA-GC link up, now Sonic is already running around parading the idea of connecting the two but if Final Fantasy did the same then Pokémon, Sonic and Final Fantasy will be 3 major reasons to get both consoles! With this in mind giving Square the money to develop games on the Gamecube wasn’t such a big deal for Nintendo considering what they would get out of it.
All this shows to me is that Nintendo are being ruthless, they have gone into this war, all guns blazing. First Namco, then Capcom and now Squaresoft! Now I can’t think of anything that would surprise me even if Rockstar announced GTA3 or Konami announced Metal Gear Solid 2. And it makes me happy to see Nintendo finally realising, nice guys finish last.
Here’s to the Future.
Dringo.
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However much they owner, it's not a majority share, and Sony will benefit from this as much as anyone.
I shalln't repeat myself as to why I think so, read the All's Square in love and Console War thread, and you'll see what I'm getting at.
I shalln't repeat myself as to why I think so, read the All's Square in love and Console War thread, and you'll see what I'm getting at.
Nah i heared they bought 19% after the movie flopped.
Nah Meka- after the FF film slop, Sony completely bought out Square's US studios giving them a share in Square over 40%!
Sonic
Sonic
aren't some guys who worked on Secret of Mana (they are no longer working for Square though) working on an RPG on the GBA??? Sure I read that somewhere...
===SONICRAV---> wrote:
> Good post Dringo!
As it happens, after
> the film flopped, Sony completely bought out Square's American studio- where the
> film was made. This gives them a massive proportion of the company (Can't
> remember whether it's 40% or 50%).
Hmmm, I'd heard that it was only 19%...?
As for going
> back to the GC, I still can't work out why they've done this... but it's pretty
> good to hear!
I remember Square saying they wanted FFXI to be multiformat, can't remember exactly why, so no doubt that will appear.
I guess it's pretty risk free for Square, being funded by Nintendo's developer fund anyway, so what have they got to lose? Multiformat is the future.
> Good post Dringo!
As it happens, after
> the film flopped, Sony completely bought out Square's American studio- where the
> film was made. This gives them a massive proportion of the company (Can't
> remember whether it's 40% or 50%).
Hmmm, I'd heard that it was only 19%...?
As for going
> back to the GC, I still can't work out why they've done this... but it's pretty
> good to hear!
I remember Square saying they wanted FFXI to be multiformat, can't remember exactly why, so no doubt that will appear.
I guess it's pretty risk free for Square, being funded by Nintendo's developer fund anyway, so what have they got to lose? Multiformat is the future.
If they started to really love each other a remake of Secret of Mana would probably be the best thing ever in the history of the word 'ever'.
Tarrent and some others would agree.
Come on Nintendo, come on Squaresoft. Bring it.
Tarrent and some others would agree.
Come on Nintendo, come on Squaresoft. Bring it.
Yeah and in order to fund this the affiltrate is using the q fund.
Hmm... I'm still not sure HOW Square got around the Sony owning share things... let me see if this is right:
Square set up an affiliate which was able to take funds from the Q fund set up by Ninty... This affiliate will be the company manufacturing the GC games, so Square aren't directly releaseing games for GC, but doing through a third party, avoiding the Sony share thing...
Is that how it happened???
Square set up an affiliate which was able to take funds from the Q fund set up by Ninty... This affiliate will be the company manufacturing the GC games, so Square aren't directly releaseing games for GC, but doing through a third party, avoiding the Sony share thing...
Is that how it happened???
Ah has Sonic been proved wrong :D
hmmm...
It'll probably be a FF7 port :p
Sonic ;)
It'll probably be a FF7 port :p
Sonic ;)
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