Final Fantasy Creator Sakaguchi Joins Microsoft

Anonymous Coward writes " Microsoft today announced that Hironobu Sakaguchi, video game legend and president of Mistwalker game studio, has joined with Microsoft(R) Game Studios to develop role-playing game (RPG) video games exclusively for the next- generation Xbox(R) video game platform. Sakaguchi is best known as the creator of the "Final Fantasy" franchise, which has sold more than 60 million units worldwide, and was executive vice president in charge of game development at Square Enix Co. Ltd. until February 2001."

Comments

Before this gets blown out of proportion

[zenintrude]

1. He'd already left Square

2. Square still owns Final Fantasy

3. Yes, Microsoft is still evil.

Re:Before this gets blown out of proportion

[Alkaiser]

See, that's the comparison based on the pull he USED to have. A better Wetern equivalent to his current stature is Peter Molyneux, someone who had a good long moment of glory, and has started tumbling down the mountain with his recent works.

As far as a better statement that they intend to get stuff right in the Japanese market, they should probably announce that they're going to make the NeX-Box smaller than the XBox.

What about Mistwalker's DS game?

[Zigg]

So, wait a minute. With this news, what happens to Mistwalker's announced DS title? The press release is about as clear as to what's going on (beyond the creation of some titles for Xbox) as mud.

What took so long?

[MBraynard]

This is the kind of move that should have been made in the ramp-up to the release of the first Xbox, not the second one.

Still, at least it demonstrates one constant about MS: It learns.

Re:If you don't know the history, RTFA.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm... and Square has released pure crap since then too. Now I know correlation is not the same as causation, but...

At least now I think I understand it better...

Re:Slapped in the face.

[tc]

Slapped in the face? Why?

Since right now you own neither a PS3 nor a Xbox2 (or whatever it will be called), why is it a slap in the face that a developer announced they are working on titles for Xbox2? Doesn't it merely inform a future purchasing decision?

Re:May ensure the Japanese Market

[NonSequor]

EXCUSE ME! The peak was at 6 thank you very much.

Re:Slapped in the face.

[WaterBreath]

FF has never been console exclusive

The series as a whole maybe, but that does not apply to the games themselves. Name one FF game that was simultaneously released for more than one system. Note that even the collections of old SNES games that were re-released were still only released for PS1.

this is 10 times worst than when RARE went to MS

This is not Square going to MS. This is just one guy, who was far from embodying the spirit of FF, except maybe in the first few games, where he was both planner and director. Anyway, this guy did have a hand in capturing the hearts of millions of Japanese gamers, and so MS's motivation is quite clear. You've got to hand to them, this is an extremely smart strategic move on their part. Just having Sakaguchi's name attached to MS could really help break the XBox into the Japanese market for real.

this ... might not be bad

[blacklite001]

Considering the wild back-and-forth direction that the Final Fantasy series has taken after the completely insane success of FF VII (PS1), from 'back to the roots' in FFIX, to the confusing X2, to the online experiments, I think there may have been too much attempted intervention by the upper management at Square. I think Sakaguchi definitely needs more room, and less fan outcry when he tries something new with a brand that they think can't be touched, and I think that is probably why he started the new development company.

Microsoft's Xbox division seems a lot more intelligently managed than the rest of their company is, and I hope to hell that they treat him right and he can come up with some good stuff there. I think it's definitely possible, and he certainly sounds positive about the whole thing. Here's to hope.

And, yeah, I'll be buying the successor to the Xbox.

Mistwalker

[Elranzer]

A lot of people here don't seem to understand that Sakaguchi left Square a while ago to form his own development company, Mistwalker. As Mistwalker is just a developer (not a publisher) all this means is that some Mistwalker-developed games are going to be published under Micrsoft Game Studios. This doesn't mean M$ is Mistwalker's only publisher.

This doesn't mean at all that a Final Fantasy game will appear on (another) Microsoft system (not counting Windows PC). More likely though is the Final Fantasy series jumping to Nintendo's Revolution if the PlayStation3's Cell processor Assembly code proves more trouble than its worth (Square already knows PowerPC Assembly well, which is what Gamecube games are coded in, and PPC ASM is not the same as Cell ASM).

Heck, even Nintendo published some of Square's developed games (Final Fantasy I/NES, Sword of Mana, Crystal Chronicles).

Interesting to note is that Nobuo Uematasu (the music composer for Final Fantasy's 1 - 10) is now working for Mistwalker. This means some diehard game music buffs are going to have to buy an Xbox Next when it comes out.