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Square Enix Considering Next-Gen Xbox Development?
Thanks to GamesIndustry.biz for its article discussing an interview with Square Enix president Yoichi Wada, as he discusses a perceived "evolution in the thinking" at Microsoft, and "said that his company... would consider working on Xbox 2." The analysis, which uses as its base a GameSpot interview conducted during E3, has Wada mentioning of Microsoft's Xbox Live service: "The attempt was to create a closed network in a closed environment. That is completely contrary to our concept of networked business", and ends by suggesting: "Reading between the lines of Wada's comments, it seems likely that [more 'open' online] concessions could be integrated into the standard terms of the online service on Xbox 2... making the Xbox into a much more attractive platform for companies such as EA and Square Enix."
You might want to read through some of the EA/Microsoft announcements that have been floating around. I am pretty sure I read one of the announcements that EA talked Microsoft into letting EA run their own servers for the EA Sports titles on XBox. So it would seem that XBox Live isn't quite so closed anymore, at least with reguards to EA. That was one of EA's main complaints about XBox Live is that they didn't want to give control of the game servers over to Microsoft but rather handle it in house like they do for the PS2 games.