Squaresoft on Gamecube, not a joke!
 

It's all right here... as the article says, Satan is donning his parka!

http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.c...n=item&id=2747

I, like many others never thought I would see this announcement. I guess time really does heal all wounds. Now the question is, how long until we see some RPG goodness on the Cube from Square?

Yikes!

Interesting stuff. There are some great possibilities if they create linkable GBA and GCN Final Fantasy games.

This is HUGE news. Not just the fact that the games willbe coming, but it shows just how more seriously companies are taking the Gamecube.

I'm not a fan of the FF games, at least the older ones. However the GBA hookup could be quite promising.

Anyway, this is big any way you look at it.

Because Sony has a huge grasp on Square, I doubt that we will see FFX on any other system as the series is supposively going online in the future, possibly indefinitely. I don't think Sony will let this one slip out of there hands so easily. I do see FFXI on all platforms as that means more money for Sony in terms of monthy access fees. Don't expect an FFX port, by the time that decision is made, we will discussing PS3 and XBox2.

I love this quote by one of the planetgamecube guys...

"Billy says: This has been confirmed officially by NCL. In a related note, millions of gamers have just **** their pants."

uh huh
millions of ps2 fanboys

haha

One of the guys there made a good point when he said the key word was "Square Affiliate." Which means that more then likely we'd be seeing games outside of the main Final Fantasy series. Games like Final Fantasy Adventure or Final Fantasy Tactics. Or late ports of FFX and FFXI. Not a bad thing but I'm hoping for same day releases of all games and hopefully an update of Super Mario RPG.

Unfortunately most of Square's recent games have been OK at best. This will help Cube sales though.

The only games I really want from Square right now are FF4, FF6, Secret of Mana, and Chrono Trigger all on the GBA. Vagrant Story 2 on the Cube would be nice too.

here's IGN's take on the situation:

Fantasy Becomes Reality
It's official. Nintendo confirms that Square's Final Fantasy series will return to GameCube.

March 08, 2002 - The long-awaited news has finally struck. According to Nintendo of America and the morning edition of the Nihon Kezai Shimbun, Square's acclaimed Final Fantasy series will return to Nintendo. Via a new agreement, GameCube and Game Boy Advance will see Final Fantasy branded software. The aforementioned agreement comes the way of Nintendo's recently announced Q Fund where start-up developers can borrow money from the Big N to finance software.

The interesting twist in this story is that the Final Fantasy branded software will return via a new Square affiliate. The unnamed development house -- poised to be titled by the end of the month -- will use cash from the Q Fund to produce the FF software. In light of the fact that it is a Square affiliate producing software, it is unclear whether the new start-up will be porting games in the main line of the Final Fantasy series such as Final Fantasy X, XI, etc or if GameCube and Game Boy Advance will see entirely new FF-branded content.

Nintendo of America confirmed the news to IGNcube this morning, but offered no further details. Square US said it could neither confirm nor deny the news, but indicated it would have an official comment soon.

IGNcube will have more details on this exciting agreement as it develops.

Interesting
 

I wonder how Sony will react to this news? As of late JMHO mind you Sony has fallen asleep at the wheel lately letting x-box and GC to make deals of this magnitude if this keeps up they could loose their place as market leader in the gaming industry but then again this news should also be a wake-up call to better secure their market share before it gets taken away from them.

well, since I don't like square games, it doesn't mean much to me, but for the cube, this pretty much secures it in second place.

WOW!

I don't think there's anything Sony can do about this because I don't think developers like it when one company dominates the video game market.

I agree. It seems like Sony just isn't doing anything to capture the headlines lately. I think that their announcement of online plans was pretty uneventful. No HDD, and no real announcement of the actual online service. If they don't watch out Microsoft will pull the rug out from under them in the online community.

well, i think it's is ok. i have a ps2 but i certainly didn't like being forced to get ps2 b/c i wanted to play gran turismo 3 or FFX.

but i did :D i was forced, i tell ya! forced! :D

Re: Interesting
 

Fallen asleep? Sony OWNS 20% of Squaresoft. They make money on this deal. And incase you didn't read the article, Square isn't publishing the games for GC, it will be a new company. What does this mean. High profile games like the FF series are made by Square and this company may port them, or they may choose not to (also decided by wheter they are allowed to). Also, the only exclusive games you will see on the GC (if any) will be Chokobo Racing 2 or some game like that playing of a better games name. Don't everyone get so "end of the world". All this means is that GC will get some Square games.

As for X-Box, Sony doesn't have a big enough wallet to pay off developers like MS does. The only reason for a company to have an exclusive game is because either they are loyal to that company (MS is way to young in this business to have loyality privledges) or you got paid off big by that company. I don't blame MS for what they are doing, just don't get the wrong impression that Sony and Nintendo can work the same kind of deals as MS.

This is a smart move by Nintendo and great news for GC owners. Square's games will definitely help the GC become more competitive with the rising Xbox and the (As of now) dominant PS2.

I think you're the only one with that attitude. :)

Re: Re: Interesting
 

Sony has deep pockets like MS too, don't kid yourself.

Also, and trust me on this, the GC will see the FF games, for christs sake, for the last 9 months if not more Square has been complimenting Nintendo. They want a piece of the Nintendo pie. GBA is a gold mine for any company that can produce good games, if they have to make GC games too to do it they will. I don't think Nintendo is going to pay to creat a joint venture like this to get some half bit racing game. (Okay, so it's Not Nintendo's money, but it basically is.)

And no one here is getting all "end of the world" here.

Whoa -eek-, I'm gone one day and all this big news starts coming out. I already own PS2 so I was all set with square, but this is exciting to me because I really hope they support the GBA too. They already made me really jealous by releasing cool looking remakes of FF1 and FFIV on the Japanese Wonderswan. If they release these, FFVI or the Secret of Mana on the GBA it would make my day!

Sony owns 20% of Squaresoft or is it 18%?
 

I'm not disputing the fact that Sony owns 18% or 20% of Squaresoft stock I'm sure they will make a profit everytime a GC owner purchases a game from square but I take issue with you on the fact that Sony doesn't have the wallet to pay of the developers exclusive rights for their games Sony is a multi-billion dollar company and the PS2 gaming console is not the only product they make just walk into a home electronics store and you'll see their brand name on many items form VCR's to DVD players and televesion sets etc. etc. The real question why have they not done so? Is it because they are complacent if not arrogant in their share of the market or are they getting lazy? What I have seen so far is that Sony is focusing on hardware development and not software and ask anyone the lifeblood of any system is software and competitive pricing. And their curent press releases in regards to online gaming have been meet with how can I put this with a lukewarm response? Now is it just me or is Sony loosing the initiative in the gaming industry?

I think that maybe Sony approved of this deal. look they would rather have Gamecube as the number two console than Xbox. if the Xbox drops down to number 3 maybe the Xbox 2 disappears. so Sony lets Nintendo pay Square to finance a new division and lets Square port over a few older FF games to help the Gamecube get over the Xbox. Right now they are close. this type of deal might be the difference the GC needs to pull into the lead and become the number 2 console.

I doubt Sony is asleep at the wheel on this. If I was an Xbox owner i would be far more worried than those "PS2 Fanboys" should be since the PS2 is and will be the number one console for this whole generation.

I know I am not worried at all. i am just smiling a bit at the reactions :)

I agree with this statement but if Gamecube gets complete 3rd party support why would anyone want to own a PS2 over a Cube?

How do we know Square won't announce a similar deal about the Xbox soon?

Re: Sony owns 20% of Squaresoft or is it 18%?
 

For FY01, Microsoft made a net income of $7.346 Billion while Sony made $134 Million. To me, at least, it looks like MS has a lot more money to spend than Sony, but thats just me.

You aren't hearing the buzz about online here yet because no one knows when it will be here. In Japan, everyone is awaiting the release of FFXI, and when it makes its way accross the ocean, it will be much talked about over here. Sony is still in there. They just can't afford to make all the "deals" MS can.

Who said they were getting complete 3rd Party support?

Re: Re: Sony owns 20% of Squaresoft or is it 18%?
 

That's not right. Sony sold more than $134 million in PS2 units. That may be Microsoft's total revenues against Sony's profits, and that's not too bad for Sony considering they lost money, for a while, at least, on the PS2 hardware.

This is definitely good news for the gamecube. If they get some exclusives it will sell some GC's and if they get FF games ported it will sway a few people to get a gamecube instead of a PS2 if they don't already have one. It should also put them, along with Resident Evil, securely into second place in the console battle, unless of course Square comes out with a similar announcement for the X-box. I doubt we'll see that though. Sony owns 19% or so of Square, and they consider the X-box to be the biggest threat right now as it is targeting the same older audience as Sony. So it's pretty unlikely that Sony would let them support the X-box. I doubt Sony has the power to keep them from publishing on X-box, but you can be sure that they will voice strong opposition to it. They don't view the gamecube as much of a threat, as they consider it to appeal to a different market, namely younger gamers.

Re: Re: Re: Sony owns 20% of Squaresoft or is it 18%?
 

I know how to read financial statements. Both of those numbers represent Net Income for FY01. Remember that net income is represented by total revenue minus total expenses. Sony may have sold more that $134 million in PS2 units, but it cost money to make, advertise, etc. those units. Those numbers come straight from the Financial Statements as displayed on their investors pages.

Oh this news must be killing PS2. I'm so ecstatic to see Nintendo and Square back together. I'm not looking forward for FFXI….It's NOT FF! haha. Personally I just have to wait and see about that game. I know I'll buy it…just more fun to bitch about it. Any rate I remember Square talking about Remaking some of their earlier games and more recent ones. I know for one would love to see FF6, FF7, and FF9 on my GameCube.

Well I have to admit this is the first time I'm happy to see Nintendo making deals with third party. Nintendo had to realize they can't be an island in this market or they'll pay the cost.

No one. This is a BIG step in the right direction though.

This article confirms it - Square actually had the blessing of Sony before establishing this subsidiary to work with Nintendo. Also, the main Final Fantasy series will remain on the PS2.

http://www.planetps2.com/mmcafe/

1- Square is scheduled to release multiple titles for the GBA within the year 2002, both new and/or remake titles.

2- According to Nintendo's public relations, the two companies have been planning since the end of 2001, ever since Square executive Akiyoshi Kawazu made a request to create a new game software that will play in conjunction between the GBA and Gamecube.

3- Square's IR division also mentions that they have conveyed to their second major stockholder (18.6%) Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), prior to actually negociating with Nintendo to develop again for their platforms

What can we expect?

Final Fantasy I-VI (I&II together, III, IV, V, VI)?
Chrono Trigger?
Secret of Mana?
Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2)?
Mario RPG?

I would buy all of those. This will definitely up the RPG ante on GBA.

Same here. I was a bit disappointed that only a few RPGs were on the way for the GBA. This really fixes that problem though.

Wow thats good news for Gamecube owners. The idea of being able to do something on the GC and GBA would be very cool. My one complaint would be playing FF with those gamecube controllers. I use the D-pad in FF so I'd imagine my thumb would get rather sore playing it on the GC controller.

You'll notice Nintendo is the one doing all the talking. Square still hasn't even said anything (except for the quickee info for their investors) yet. It's funny how obvious Nintendo's being trying to get people to buy Gamecube. :rolleyes:

People talking about the "second coming" need to just get over it. Companies are going back to multi-platform. Just like my friend said, this is no bigger than RE on Gamecube, or the like.

Nintendo has the world's best 1st party games by far. With a few exclusive 3rd party games like the RE series and some general 3rd party support including Square, Nintendo will once again dominate the video game world.

Well, certainly not in this generation. Nintendo seems to have designated Game Boy as their flagship product, and GameCube almost in a supporting role. Game Boy is the most profitable, per unit, item in video gaming, and has a commanding user base.

Due to the smaller installed base, and heavy competition, the Gamecube is almost subsidiary to the Game Boy.

As for this announcement, I am convinced that Square can no longer act in a way that runs counter to Sony's interest. Sony is their largest single stockholder, and Sony bailed them out after their failed foray into Hollywood. Also, this announcement certainly comes at a time when the XBox, which competes more directly with PS2 for market share than Gamecube does, has just launched in Japan.

I agree with ScandalUMD, not this generation. I just don't see them closing the gap between themself and Sony any time soon.

And Scandal, Sony is Square's second largest stockholder, next to the owner of the company.

:lol: Yeah, how dare Nintendo try to get people to buy their consoles?