Wada says Square Enix is platform-neutral

By Games Industry.biz Published 29 July, 2008

Always considering "territory and hardware".

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has told GamesIndustry.biz that the RPG specialist is neutral when it comes to dealing with publishing and platform partners.

The company shocked Final Fantasy fans at E3 when it announced that the latest title in the series - Final Fantasy XIII - would appear on the Xbox 360, sparking intense debate amongst followers of the evergreen RPG franchise previously associated with Sony and the PlayStation brand.

"We always consider the territory and hardware for titles, and I just want to make sure that we're neutral about dealing with companies," said Wada speaking in an exclusive interview published today.

"In Japan we know that the Xbox 360 isn't really that strong yet, but for me I feel very calm about dealing with any company, and we're not partnering exclusively with any particular company."

Wada said that the company will continue to support multiple formats in its efforts to reach beyond a core audience, and the Xbox 360 offers strong opportunities to expand into the US market.

"In North America Microsoft is doing very well with its hardware, and for that reason it's a very important partner for us," he said.

"We're now in the age of the multi-platform, but depending on age and territory, users have different tastes.

"Therefore it's very difficult to just deal with one company or one hardware platform - in order to offer our product to the vast majority of gamers we need to deal with multiple companies and platforms," added Wada.

The full interview with Yoichi Wada can be found on GamesIndustry.biz.

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Comments (36) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • quantumsheep #1 4 years ago

    Makes sense.

  • LunatikCajun #2 4 years ago

    The biggest evidence of this pragmatic approach has got to be the switch from nintendo, to sony, as sony had the right platform for what square where doing (ie discs over cartridges)

    Now, Microsoft has a platform that is up to spec, so as quantumsheep says, makes sense that they would go multi format to get the game out to as many people as possible, where it is financially viable
    Edited by 2 at 29/07/08 @ 08:20

  • Darren #3 4 years ago

    I'm still confused about why Square-Enix decided against releasing FFXIII on the Xbox 360 in Japan. Surely if they're acknowledging the machine isn't popular, they should be releasing this very game in order to entice people to the platform there? By NOT releasing the game in Japan it gives people one more excuse not to buy the console, not to mention it's a kick in the balls for those people who actually went out and bought an Xbox 360 there. :?

    Isn't the Xbox 360 cheaper than the PS3 in Japan? Isn't it therefore possible that Japanese gamers might choose to buy an Xbox 360 instead of a PS3 to play RPGs on? I mean it's not like the 360 is short of RPGs... last time I checked it had MORE RPGs, both western and Japanese, than the PS3!!! LOL

    Edit: spelling
    Edited by 1 at 29/07/08 @ 08:42

  • GamesConnoisseur #4 4 years ago

    Darren:

    To lessen the blow to Sony and PS owners, as evident in many of the posts in EG and elsewhere that certain number of PS owners say ' but not available for X360 in Japan where its matters the most' or similar. Also there may be a form of an agreement between Sony and Square Enix for Japan specific.

    Agreed that its doesnt make business sense to do things by half measure!

  • Shakey_Jake33 #5 4 years ago

    They're not releasing FFXIII 360 in Japan because they're not even starting proper development until after the Japanese PS3 game comes out. They're then creating the game on 360 in English primarily, simultanious to the localisation process.

  • Sevens #6 4 years ago

    Traditional exclusives for the win.

  • mcbi4kh2 #7 4 years ago

    Surely if they're acknowledging the machine isn't popular, they should be releasing this very game in order to entice people to the platform there?

    You're quite right, people seem to forget its up to Square Enix to shift the 360 hardware in Japan.

  • JonFE #8 4 years ago

    Does that mean that Final Fantasy 13 Versus PS3 exclusivity is also in jeopardy?

  • kissthestick #9 4 years ago

    "In North America Microsoft is doing very well with its hardware, and for that reason it's a very important partner for us," he said.

    Pretty much, yeah..

  • kissthestick #10 4 years ago

    Does that mean that Final Fantasy 13 Versus PS3 exclusivity is also in jeopardy? "

    i doubt the game is anywhere near development to even consider an official platform for it.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #11 4 years ago

    It's very possible that Sony have paid them to remain exclusive in Japan as the 360 seems to be a good RPG machine and it could take something like FFXIII being released to start seeing an increase in sales. It wouldn't have cost them much to do either given the small install base of 360's and potential profits SE would make from a JP 360 version.

    If this isn't the case then I wouldn't be surprised if it does get released at the same time as the English language versions. Once the 360 conversion has been done, slapping on the JP localisation from the PS3 version would be a piece of piss. It would be silly for them not to really, even if they were only expecting 200-300k sales.

    The only problem with this is that the PS3 version will have been for sale in JP already so any potential FF fans may well have it on that system or have migrated to that system. They'd need to announce it soon.

  • Moz #12 4 years ago

    Darren, I'd guess that the Japan situation is evidence that this was a recent decision. They've probably only just started on porting over to the 360 but don't want to delay the Japanese release. They'll then finish the 360 version during the translation period. Just hope that it doesn't delay the western release beyound the normal delay in FF games

    @SpaceMidget75: Even if they do release the 360 version in Japan it's going to be about 6 months after the PS3 version, So it's likely to only be foreigners living in Japan that would wait that for the game.
    Edited by 1 at 29/07/08 @ 09:18

  • Raziel #13 4 years ago

    What worries me most is the fact that after they finish the PS3 Jap version, they'll start on localization and porting.
    Could that mean I have to wait even longer for my PS3 PAL release due to the fact porting it to 360 will take longer than localizing it?

  • mcbi4kh2 #14 4 years ago

    @Raziel

    Yeah I wouldnt be surprised if that was the case. Did you used to play cs:s by the way?

  • Moz #15 4 years ago

    This is probably a daft question but is there a chance that the Japanese version will have English subs like alot of their Anime?

  • Widge #16 4 years ago

    Square are strange ones though, they're not wholly platform neutral in the EA sense of the word. I mean they'll craft individual titles for each machine, FF remakes for the DS, Crisis Core, Dissidia and Star Ocean for the PSP, Crystal Chronicles for the Wii.

  • Raziel #17 4 years ago

    @mcbi4kh2
    Not long enough for anyone to know me. Raziel is still an often used name.

    @Moz
    Why? Thinking about a JAP import?
    The Asian version of Lost Odyssey had English text and voice options in it. Hopefully XIII will have something similar. Blu-Ray should have the space for it.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #18 4 years ago

    Thanks for repeating my last paragraph moz. ;)

  • Moz #19 4 years ago

    on the versus XIII front they're like to see how XIII does on 360 then deside from there.

  • Moz #20 4 years ago

    @Raziel, if it has English subs then yeh, i'm assuming it wont have an english dub as that's part of the localisation part as they get in half decent voice actors compair to some anime. But Japan has a fair number of residence who don't know Japanese that well so subs is a possibility.

  • kissthestick #21 4 years ago

    @ moz

    or Versus 13 gets turned into a movie :)
    Edited by 1 at 29/07/08 @ 09:31

  • Moz #22 4 years ago

    @kissthestick they're already a good 50% into development for Versus 13, just the versus team got moved over to the main game a month or 2 ago to get it finished on time.

    Talking of which what is the JP release date for FFXIII?

  • Raziel #23 4 years ago

    @Moz
    I see what you mean. I'll have to keep an eye on that then. If the Jap version has the option for English menu's/subs I'll be sure to import it.

  • Widge #24 4 years ago

    If it means the three other 360 games that SE announced are going multiplatform, then its certainly win win!

  • Moz #25 4 years ago

    The problem with everything being multiplat is that eventually everyone will see that one piece of hardware is better then the rest and that machine will gain a monopolly which would see prices rise and hardware development grind to a holt, exclusive content is what keeps the industry moving.

    In 5 to 10 years times the hardware will be at a point where graphics aren't going to get much better, then the industry can consider looking at a inifide console standard. With lots of companies making hardware that all games will play on, like DVD players. Which will be a win situation for devs and players but that can only happen once the hardware has reach near hollywood image quality (Something that ATI are getting close to)

  • sneetch #26 4 years ago

    @Widge
    I thought two of those games are multi-platform anyway? I think they're "exclusive" releases for the 360 for now, but I don't think there's any reason why they couldn't release them on PS3 too, as they've shown; these things change.

    @mcbi4kh2
    "You're quite right, people seem to forget its up to Square Enix to shift the 360 hardware in Japan."

    Bam! Well said, they also seem to forget that most companies especially don't give a crap about any console "war" they're here to make sure that they make a profit so that they can continue to make games. It just makes sense for them to release on Xbox as well as PS3. They don't owe the console manufacturers anything.

    As for why they're not releasing the Xbox version in Japan; well, I'd imagine it's partially to sweeten up Sony after yanking the rug out from underneath them on this (and placing said rug squarely beneath Sony and Microsoft) and partially because there are so few 360s in Japan that it's not worth the cost of aggravating Sony further (not sure how many 360s are there) or maybe they have an exclusivity agreement with Sony that only covered Japan. Who can know?

    Edit: spelling
    Edited by 1 at 29/07/08 @ 11:53

  • Rash' #27 4 years ago

    Darren, What he's saying is this decision was made by the company, not a deal struck between MS and SN. Therefore, where's the incentive for them to publish the game in a market 360 is selling poorly in? It makes financial sense to sell the game where it's likely to sell well i.e. America and Europe (or should we say UK?). What I'm curious about is whether this is an admission that those 360 exclusive RPGs that MS have clearly struck a deal with are timed exclusives...
    Edited by 1 at 29/07/08 @ 11:33

  • Rash' #28 4 years ago

    Widge, Aren't those exclusives governed by the specifics of the hardware?

  • Rash' #29 4 years ago

    "You're quite right, people seem to forget its up to Square Enix to shift the 360 hardware in Japan."

    LOL! I didn't put it like that, but it's certainly a way of getting the point across.

  • HermitArcader #30 4 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • CunningLinguist #31 4 years ago

    May I remind you guys about the PAL version of FF X, with borders and 50hz. Now that was Square porting from NTSC to PAL on the same console. Can you imagine them porting from PS3 NTSC to 360 NTSC to 360 PAL? I don't know how relevant the tv standards are today, considering most new tvs support all signals. But I think the 360 is region locked so you'd still need some tweaking between regions.
    The good thing with the PS3 version is that you can import the US version if you're an English speaker, and that way you can avoid the localization wait. In my opinion this is still going to shift most units on PS3, and I wouldn't be surprised if some money changed hands to make this come to the 360. But yeah, good that it's on both consoles as long as the PS3 version isn't going to suffer from this.

  • des #32 4 years ago

    KH3 on Wii incoming...

  • deaner #33 4 years ago

    Interesting statement.

    I think that in less turbulent times (pre Spirits Within), Square's creatives had more of an influence on their development plans, and were perhaps more inclined to develop on challenging and interesting platforms - than for scaled-down PC-compatibles.

    But with their misfortunes and post-Enix, Yōichi Wada and Square have been forced to be more 'business-like'. And therefore play more like EA than like Jeff Minter.

    This unfortunately, makes a pretty dull medium of videogames. Where regardless of console, we all buy the same tired titles and imagination is not included.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm not down on the XBox scene. In the hands of it's market, some cool and surprising titles have been developed... but that's in spite of it's bland, cynical, corporate design - not thanks to it.

    Hopefully fortunes improve for companies like Squenix, and they'll go back to stunning naratives and worry less about dollars and yen.

    And console-gaming will return to the days of custom-hardware, exclusive games, steering-wheel peripherals and cartidges with extra controller ports in the tops...

    Otherwise we're all better off PC Gaming. At least if Ron Gilbert buckles-down.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #34 4 years ago

    What's all this bullshit about "alienating Sony"? What a load of rubbish!

    What do you think Sony are going to do, throw all their toys out of their pram and say SE can't make games for their consoles anymore?

    SE will make games wherever they can't get profits. If they can get profits from deals with the console owners they will, if not they'll go where the money is or will potentially be.

  • NotSoSlim #35 4 years ago

    People need to forget about Versus...by the time thats released in what like 2012 who know what console wwill be out maybe the new MS machine!!

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #36 4 years ago

    When you look at the other systems SE support along with the 360 exclusives, I think it's obvious that business is business to SE and goodwill doesn't even come in to it. Especially as we're only talking about the reason one game would be exclusive in one region.

    I still don't see where the goodwill can really be rationalised in this debate. So Sony are a big player, but I re-iterate my point, Sony are never going to stop SE releasing PS games, they won't stop them releasing films on BD or stifle SE in any of the other 'pies' they're involved in. Remember that we're just talking about FFXIII and it's Japanese exclusivity. This is down purely to either lack of potential profits, a back-hander from Sony, or in fact there will be no FFXIII exclusivity.