Wada predicts all consoles will die
Squenix boss won't blink when they do.
Square Enix overlord Yoichi Wada won't be surprised when one morning he wakes up and consoles have disappeared forever, because he reckons that's what Microsoft and Sony have been planning all along.
"Let's say in ten years time what we traditionally call 'console games' simply won't exist. The exact timing at which it will go away is hard to determine, but somewhere around 2005 the console manufacturers' strategy shifted," Wada told Develop.
"In the past the platform was hardware, but that switched to the network. So a time will come when the hardware isn't even needed any more, because the true strength of the Xbox 360 is Xbox Live.
"Instead of relying on the hardware layer the network becomes the operating system," he added. "That move away from clients to the network is something Microsoft has done - moving from clients to the server is something Sony has done. If we take a look at the PS3 we can see that it is like a home server in a sense - the Cell chip is well matched to the parallel processing we use on server-based games."
That's an "over-simplified explanation" but more-or-less what Square Enix thinks is going on at those companies. Wada you think about that?
For now however, Wada's attention will be on today's Japanese release of Final Fantasy XIII, and the subsequent European and North American launch on 9th March 2010.
Oh and after that he'll be busy with Final Fantasy XIV, an MMO due out sometime next year. That's not to mention his new publishing taken onboard after buying Tomb Raider maker Eidos earlier this year.