Slashdot Mirror
SquareSoft to Develop for Nintendo Again
magicsquid writes: "GameSpot is carrying the news that Square has finally returned to Nintendo systems after a 5 year absence. This brings with it the knowledge that Final Fantasy XI will truly be playable on every console as well as PC to be uniquely massively multi-player." Planet Gamecube has a similar story.
Neither company has affirmed the port status of FFXI. It's almost a sure thing, but it's *not* confirmed.
"Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
My mistake. They have promised a modem add-on and a NIC add-on. History has shown that peripherals don't succeed in general, although if FFXI is potentially the "killer app" that could move them. The problem exists for the PS2, of course.
Now that will be truly impressive. The MMORPG has really caught on, and really has suffered no limitations. Combine that with the incredible success fo the FF series, which has led to some people purchasing game systems solely for that game, and you have something unbelievable. Combine THAT with the top four gaming platforms and you have a virtually guaranteed cash cow. If they can pull this off with the quality of an EQ or DAoC, Square will be able to afford another bomb, er... movie.
(Invidentally, I really enjoyed the FF movie. It's just too bad that nobody else did.)
-- Minds are like parachutes... they work best when open.
While it is possible that Nintendo would have the Gamecube modem and broadband adapter ready in time for a MMORPG Final Fantasy Game, this seems far more likely as just the other day Miyamoto was talking was talking about the problems with online console gaming. Personally, I would rather have a great, offline RPG that can compete with the goodness of FF4-6 than something I have that requires me to shell out a lot more money for hardware (hence the $199 GCN in the first place :)
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
Er, um, considering that there are plans for broadband and modem connections for the Gamecube (check those upgrade slots in the bottom), I think it's just as likely for a Gamecube Final Fantasy XI as a PS2 (since, unless you use a USB ethernet adapter, you haven't seen the PS2 broadband adapter yet either).
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
If I remember correctly, Chrono Trigger used the X button to bring up the menu and the Y menu to bring up the save screen. These could be easily changed to Start, or even L and R (which are as easy to press on the GBA as L and R on the SNES. The SNES did have the L and R buttons as well, but few games ever used them. In the GBA, they are in a good position, as well as having the threshold pushing (or whatever it is called).
"First they backstabbed Sony with the N64 CDROM deal."
h tm ... but the whole story is in an early issue of Next Generation magazine.
Do you mean the Super Nintendo CD? If so... then this isn't exactly true. What happened there was that Sony wanted an all in one unit that played Super NES and the new CD-Based games where they could slap their name on the unit, call it 'PlayStation', and get royalties for every game made. Here's a website that tells part of the story: http://www.emulationzone.org/consoles/snes/cdrom.
"They backstabbed Square by refusing to move from the outmoded cartridge game format, keeping Square from being able to create Final Fantasy VII."
Nintendo didn't backstab Square by going with cartridge format. Nintendo made a very wise choice that cartridge was the way to go with the N64. There were several advantages to it:
- Fast Load times.
- The system would be a lot cheaper (like $100 cheaper).
- The system would be far more reliable, ie. fewer moving parts. The original shipment of Playstations were horribly made and had a 1:4 defect rate where I worked.
- Game companies would be more inclined to make an original game for the N64 instead of diluting it with ports of PC games that used CD ROM. (Remember the 'Dream Team'?)
- Very hard to duplicate compared to CD's
- Nintendo could get more money per cartridge because CD's were cheap to make.
- Good games can be made to fit on cartridges. N64 proved that.
N64 royalties were high. I'm not disputing that. That wouldn't have hurt Square though, I remember people paying as much as $80 for FFIII (including myself). What really happened was that Square decided they wanted to do Full Motion video along with the game, they wanted to try something unique. The N64 wasn't what they wanted, so they moved to Playstation. That was a smart business decision to make, particularly since Sony gave them a deal they couldn't refuse. Where Square backstabbed Nintendo was when they told other developers not to develop for it. That was just wrong. Square may not have been able to do FFVII for the N64, but they could still have made games for it. They have a lot of franchises. Instead they just flipped Nintendo off and went into Sony's court.
"Thus the rise and domination of Sony. It's interesting to note that every platform Square has seriously developed for has been the dominant platform: NES, GameBoy, SNES, PlayStation, PS2."
Sony may have beaten Nintendo, but not by much. N64 did very well for itself. Nintendo also has provided a lot more to the game industry that Sony has. Nintendo has a game audience that Sony should be extremely envious of.
The N64 was not a fiasco of any sort. Nintendo was quite profitable with it. It has a lot of high quality titles for it. And, must amusingly, the first party work done for it carried most of the weight for it. Even if Sony sells a billion Playstations, Nintendo still has a loyal audience to play their games. Sega had that too, to a lesser degree. Sony does not. Sony and Microsoft could win the war in a particular generation of games, but they always risk getting ousted by a new guy. Nintendo can be very successful even when they aren't #1. I much prefer Nintendo's position than the other guys.
"Derp de derp."