Square Enix Supports Sony, But Not Too Much

Next-Gen reports that Square Enix is throwing just the right amount of support behind Sony. In some fairly non-humble statements, Square Enix senior VP Michihiro Sasaki talked about their positioning in the next generation market. "'We don't want the PlayStation 3 to be the overwhelming loser, so we want to support them,' he said. 'But we don't want them to be the overwhelming winner either, so we can't support them too much.' Sasaki's comments (which were pulled out of context and dropped into the WSJ article) don't exactly take the humble approach regarding Square Enix's heavy influence on the popularity of the PlayStation brand. The PS2-exclusive FFXII sold over 1.7 million units for a premium $80 equivalent price tag in the first four days after its Japan launch."

Comments

What else is new?

[Guppy06]

This is the same Squaresoft prima donna we saw ten years ago. "Cater to us or your silly little console will go down the tubes." I think they're still in a state of shock over

• the fact that Nintendo is still alive and well, and
• the fact that all of their non-RPGs were more or less panned (and even many of their non-FF RPGs weren't all that great, either), and
• the fact that Sprits Within bombed

Of course, I don't think the way Sony bent over backwards to get Final Fantasy exclusively onto the PlayStation really helped Squaresoft come back down to earth.

Squaresoft always saw themselves as being on par with Nintendo or Sega, able to produce top-rate titles in any genre they choose to grace. They still haven't learned they aren't.

I still feel like Enix is the big loser with this merger. Enix was that good, Squaresoft just thought they were.

Re:What else is new?

[Astarica]

Enix was a non presence outside of Japan. While Enix might have been content to what amounts to printing money in Japan, the merger was necessary to get any kind of worldwide status.

On the subject of being arrogant, Enix did not support Nintendo either in the N64 era. While SQIX might be a significant presence in Japan, they might be surprised to find that the rest of world do not care about them as much as they think, just as Japan does not care about Madden 0X or GTA. However the rest of the world is a bigger market than Japan, so it'd be a good idea for them to start catering to the rest of the world.

Re:They don't have to take the humble approach...

[masklinn]

There are two franchises which move consoles in Japan

Mario, Link and Pikachu say hello