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E3 - Square Enix Shows Fantasies, Kingdoms, Samurai
Thanks to GamingHorizon for its summary of the pre-E3 Square Enix press conference at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, during which the company mentioned they "are determined to expand their reach across all forms of media, not just limiting themselves to the gaming market", before holding the Dear Friends: Music From Final Fantasy concert in the same venue. However, specific game-related material includes details (though not downloads) of a new Final Fantasy XII trailer, alongside new direct-feed screenshots of the title, as well as snapshots of Before Crisis - Final Fantasy VII, a mobile phone-only spin-off. Also revealed is information on the previously unannounced Musashi Samurai Legend, a sequel to "the original Brave Fencer Musashi on the PlayStation" featuring "Tetsuya Nomura handling the character design... [and] Studio Gainax creating the animated cutscenes", as well as new details on Disney-licensed sequel Kingdom Hearts 2 and its handheld partner, Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories.
There might not even be a need for it, J2ME is pretty well established on a number of mobile phones. Using it (as most downloadable games do) lets you reach a lot of customers. Or maybe BREW, but I'm not sure if its catching on.
:)
It becomes interesting when, say, Nokia tries to establish a proprietary platform which is incompatible to other mobile phones. Personally, I wouldn't expect a move like this to be successful. But you never know
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I'm not sure how comparable the current situation is with the former ringtone/picture-SMS protocol from Nokia. Several years ago, Nokia stepped forward and extended the SMS protocol to allow the easy installation of ringtones and pictures on their phones.
:)
Then, EMS and MMS appeared (as a standardized format supported by the majority of phone producers) and rendered the proprietary format obsolete. Phones are now able to display JPEG, GIF and play MIDI/MP3 ringtones. While the formats are standardized and customers have the ability to install their own ringtones/pictures for free (simple upload to the phone), content creation is not as easy.
The same COULD happen with games. Depending on the market volume, Nokia might take the lead again, and the other producers might follow, creating another standard in the process.
But I totally agree: let's hope it won't happen.
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I know next to nothing about the original Brave Fencer Musashi, but now I have an incentive for checking out the sequel...