Mattalos

That's interesting ... Wish I could summon people.

young

i can summon my dog! (sometimes...)

interesting news. i say, make it for the other platforms... diversity is good.

s}{ammer

Sony caught off guard eh, gotta love it when rich guys are worried.

Day Lahs

I dont know why sony is so ****ing mad They dont own Square just a piece of the pie square can do whatever they want to do.



*Cant wait for the Final Fantasy Game on GC*

joshd2012

As a major stockholder, you usually have the ability to sit on the board. Being that Sony owns almost 20% of Square, that means that every major decision which is voted on, Sony automatically has 20% of the vote going their way. Square owns 30 somthing percent (?) of the company, which means they automatically have 30% of the vote. That is only half the votes. The other half comes from other investors. Now, are these people going to side with Sony, the multimillion dollar corporation that continues to turn profit and therefore increase share price, or Square who just lost a whole bunch of money on a film project?

For some reason, it appears that they didn't vote on this. I guess it wasn't a big enough decision. But don't hold your breath on FF coming to GC or X-box any time soon.

Scheherazade

Prolly mad because they want exclusive games that are sure to be huge like Final Fantasy so people with GameCubes and no PS2s who want to play it will have to buy one. Sounds like they have every right to be mad to me if they had a previous agreement stating such. Them not minding the development for GBA is simply because GBA doesn't provide that much direct competition to their console.

Just smart business.

~Scheherazade

Day Lahs

From IGN.com



March 08, 2002 - Earlier today Nintendo of America confirmed an article first posted by the Nihon Kezai Shimbun, that Square's acclaimed Final Fantasy series would return to Nintendo. The news piece, broken in Japan, stated that Nintendo and a still unnamed Square affiliate -- a company backed with money from Hiroshi Yamauchi's Q Fund and led by Square director Akitoshi Kawazu, were already underway jointly with undisclosed projects for GameCube and Game Boy Advance.
Since the announcement IGNcube has been able to uncover more details.

While not officially announced, the first Final Fantasy game thought to be in development under the agreement is Final Fantasy Unlimited, a title based on Square's anime series of the same name. In the anime series, a black pillar appears mysteriously in the waters near Japan and begins to summon monsters from another world. A Geologist named Dr. Hawayaka and his wife enter the portal and return later to write about their adventures. When they attempt to travel to the other world for a second time, though, they go missing. And this is when their children, Ai and Yuu decide to look for them.

Akitoshi Kawazu, who worked on Legend of Mana and SaGa for Square, began development on a Final Fantasy Unlimited project for an unnamed console as far back as October of last year. His role in the Q Fund startup studio suggests that the game is indeed bound for GameCube and Game Boy Advance. The titles, according to Nintendo of America, will be totally interactive with one another and will arrive, at least in Japan if not America, before the end of the year.

"This is very exciting news for us and surely for gameplayers around the world," Nintendo of America's vice president of corporate affairs Perrin Kaplan told IGNcube today. "Square's talent is well-respected. Between the combination of their good work, and Nintendo's exclusive connectivity ability between GCN and GBA, the result will be great."

The first titles, whether they be Final Fantasy Unlimited or not, would appear to be originally created for GameCube and Game Boy Advance. The link between the two consoles will certainly be emphasized, said Nintendo of America.


Seems realiable to me

Outlaw

I'm not sure why but that announcement seems just really funny to me that the guy in charge didn't know what was going on. I mean first Square announces dealings with Nintendo, and every major gaming site, magazine, and japanese newspaper covered and publicized it, including Square Investor Relations. Then no news for a couple of weeks. All of a sudden more than a month after they announced it the president comes out of nowhere and says "Hey! no one told me!" Either way FFXII is way too far in development to switch platforms anyway, I think its coming out in about a year (which is soon considering how long it takes to develop games).

Grimfarrow

I'm surprised no one asked this but....source? I didn't see this article anywhere on any of the gaming sites I visited.

Mattalos

The source TheFinalFantasy.com which sourced XenGamers (which is Cloud Chaser and Core Magazines new offspring).

Decker

Sure, you could summon Hisashi Suzuki if you wanted to, but you have to wait through the elaborate five minute CGI sequence before you can use him in a battle!

Day Lahs

you must didnt read but i put (From IGN.com ) at the top of the article

Groucho

I believe he was talking about the first article posted by Mattalos, not your article.

AgtFox

The problem with the IGN one is that they contacted representatives of Nintendo of America. NoA, along with all the other American branches of Japanese game companies have a habit of making things seem bigger than they truly are. The true source would have been to contact Nintendo of Japan and get the real scoop, but the American branches make a better news story.

I only forsee GBA games out of this. The aforementioned FF Unlimited and probably some remakes of FF Tactics and the FFs that came out originally on the NES/SNES. Nintendo loves the retro games (look at Mario Advance 1 and 2) and I can see Square's old games selling well on the GBA console. Sega is also going down this road with releasing Phantasy Star 1-3 on GBA in one cart.

joshd2012

Day Lahs - obviously you did not read the thread when this story originally posted. All that article says is that they are putting a FF game on GBA. Then they speculate that Square will be taking advantage of Q Fund, which has not officially been announced because they are still in negotiation. And even if they were to use Q Fund, it doesn't mean that they will use it for this game. And who is to say that the link to the GC will be to Chocobo Racing 2 or just simply link to the memory cards? Until they officially announce what is going on, you can't say that a FF game is coming to GC or the X-box. Considering the article which originally started this thread said that Sony is against it, I doubt it will happen any time soon.

jeffdsmith

Well the deal is that the game, whatever it is has to hook up to the GC someway. Who knows what that is.

Anyway...

I use to be a big fan of FF, but after 7 it went downhill for me. I would really like to see a new Mario RPG team title...

Groucho

As I understand it, Square has been jonesing to develop for the GBA since the beginning but Nintendo has been saying "No go, unless you also give us something for the Gamecube." There must have been something offered up by Square to get Nintendo to relent. What that is, however, is yet to be seen.

Kellehair

Do you have any idea how much more money Square could make by going multiplatform? That's not even considering the GBA/GC connection. That's a gold mine, pure and simple.

Groucho

In the current environment, a developer is going to get most of the console gaming world by going after only two consoles: the PS2 and the GBA. If you can reach those audiences (which Square is already doing, and will most certainly do with the GBA), there's really no point in spending time and money going after the smaller fish (Xbox and Gamecube).

ScandalUMD

"Final Fantasy: Unlimited" is apparently an anime, so the game probably wouldn't be a traditional Final Fantasy game, and probably wouldn't be done by the Final Fantasy teams. It also probably would not be released over here, because Americans haven't seen the anime.

Josh H

I don't think that would matter. Final Fantasy is one of the biggest names in video games. Final Fantasy Unlimited would sell over here simply because of the Final Fantasy name. It wouldn't matter that Americans haven't seen the anime.

AgtFox

exactly

Kellehair

The Gamecube user base will probably be nearing 12 million by year's end. That's a hell of a large audience to ignore, especially when they would be satisfied by a few PS2 ports and the afformentioned GBA/GC gold mine -- I mean game.

Mattalos

I'm starting to doubt the fact that FF Unlimited games may happen ... the anime was supposed to be a 52 episodes series, but was cancelled prematurely at 26 because of very low ratings. After the first few episodes ratings dropped VERY sharply I like the FF U anime ... but I guess that's me.

jeffdsmith did you play Final Fantasy X?

joshd2012

Source?