Josh H

from cube.ign.com

Square Fantasizes about GameCube

Final Fantasy's creator says Square is very enthused by Nintendo; would like FFXI on all consoles.

July 13, 2001

Today's Los Angeles Times interviewed Final Fantasy creator and Square executive vice president Hironobu Sakaguchi about his involvement and thoughts on the new feature film, and the future of videogames. The Square man had several interesting comments to offer in regards to the release of the movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and he also said exactly what Nintendo fans have been waiting to hear for a long time.

When asked whether or not Square would develop for Nintendo GameCube or Microsoft Xbox, Sakaguchi commented: "That certainly is a possibility. In fact, executives at Square are very enthusiastic about Nintendo."

The name and logo of Square's upcoming online RPG
"Square is moving into online games," Sakaguchi added. "'Final Fantasy XI,' which will be released next year, will be a fully online game. To make that work, you have to transcend hardware. If we want to do financially well online, we need to exist across all consoles."

IC_Freeze

too bad Nintendo doesn't want them back

RJainMJ

That just doesn't make any sense to me! Why wouldn't they!?! One reason I bought my PS2 was because I knew that the FF series (and other Square RPGs) were going to be on it. I know I'm not alone. However, the article did mention FFXI as a possible GameCube title. It really wouldn't help the GameCube sales as by then most would already have purchased a next-gen system. By then, these systems would barely count as "next-gen". But if Nintendo could gain Square for their next system, they could gain many Sony fans.

Josh H

A couple of months ago Nintendo said they were interested in having square as a developer. However, I bet they will reverse there positions when square is ready to give them a version of FFXI. I could care less as I haven't liked one of their games since FFVII and haven't loved one of their games since FFIII, but I care on the standpoint that it will sell more Gamecubes and help put them on top. I want Gamecube to be successful and stick around because I have decided that it will be the only next-gen system I buy. I simply don't have the money to buy multiple systems and games anymore, and I hardly have the time to keep up with all the games that I want to play on one system, much less three or four as in the past. Having Square on board will eliminate one of Sony's biggest advantages. When the third party support becomes equal, Nintendo gains the advantage as their first party games are much better than anything offered by Sony IMO, and probably better than anything MS will come up with.

Deftones

joshhinkle. good points. I honestly think that Nintendo needs to bite the bullet and allow Square to make games for their system. Nintendo and Square have had a sketchy history with each other ever since the SNES. I think, in order for Nintendo to succeed to the best of their potential, they need to make amends with Square. Square would be a valuable ally to have in the console wars, especially if they weren't exclusive with Sony anymore.

AgtFox

Things went sour between Nintendo and Square around the time Super Mario RPG came out. This was a joint effort between Nintendo and Square. Something went wrong in that time and Nintendo has pretty much shut out Square from ever developing for them. Square was prepared to make an RPG for the Game Boy Advance, but Nintendo poo-pooed that idea. All Nintendo is doing is hurting themselves and the gameplayers that stand behind them. I like both Nintendo and Sony, but for Nintendo to thrive at the next level, they need some RPGs...it's why the N64 wasn't as popular as it could have been.

Square has always been willing to go back to the table with Nintendo (or at least in the PR business they have shown that they are). I'm not sure what kind of deal Sony and Square have, but I know it at least included FF7 and 8...I'm not sure about the others though. I'm sure Sony would love to purchase Square and finish off any thought of Square going to other consoles in addition to their own. Microsoft is on a buying spree with developers, why can't Sony buy some big names?

Deftones

The potential of someone buying Square dropped as far close to zero when Electronic Arts had sort of a merger with Square. Square publishes all the US titles for EA in Japan and EA publishes all the Square titles in the US. EA does now own a portion of the company, I do believe, so I'm pretty sure it would be hard to wrestle Square away from EA's hands.