Square Enix: Nintendo saying no to cross-platform MMOs

[patjuan32]

Here is a portion of an Interview by Adam Riley & Lesley Smith of Hiromichi Tanaka

AR: Do you think it’s possible that Final Fantasy XI could make it onto a system like the Wii?

HT: First of all it’s a bit difficult at the moment because of the technology side. We can’t really have FFIX on Wii because of the specs – so it’s a bit difficult to have it on Wii. But also there’s another thing that makes it difficult to have MMOs on Wii because Nintendo’s style doesn’t allow people to contact this third person, unless you are friends – they have different concepts. So, unless we come to agreement…and even if we do come to some agreement at some point, we are not sure if we have enough staff / manpower for people to work on FFXI for Wii…

Since Square is making an MMO for the Xbox 360 and Vista, there is not enough staff members to work of FFXI for the Wii.

Chrono Trigger being of the VC is also discussed:

AR: *Ahem* Recently Chrono Cross was mentioned in an interview with you and you stated there would not be a sequel to Chrono Cross because it would be too difficult to get the original team together again…? Does this rule out any possibility for the Chrono series in the future at all? Because Nintendo fans are always asking about a Chrono Trigger remake…

HT: There’s still a possibility, but since the main director is not working for Square Enix now – he’s working on other titles in a different company, Namco Bandai, it’s a bit difficult to ask him to come back and be the head of a team again. And also, Kato-san is working on the fourth game in the Mana series. So there’s still a possibility that he might think he might want to make it again…

AR: It seems to be…the Chrono series seems to have a huge following across the Internet. People are always asking about Chrono Trigger, maybe it will appear on the Virtual Console for the Wii…?

HT: It’s a 50-50 possibility – we’re not sure yet. It contains a really difficult problem of copyright issues, such as Akira Toriyama’s artwork. We’re discussing with Nintendo, but haven’t really come to any conclusion.

Link to the Interview:

http://www.cubed3.com/news/6783/