By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - Nintendo banned Square from their offices for 10 years after FFVII went to PlayStation. EDIT: japanese business model is akin to Yakuza

Tagged games:

 

What do you think

Nintendo is God they never make a mistake 7 26.92%
 
Square the ones who to be blame 8 30.77%
 
I dont why i just hate Sony 2 7.69%
 
I 9 34.62%
 
Total:26
Azzanation on 28 April 2020
Fight-the-Streets said:
It's funny, back in the days when it was announced that FF VII will not be released for N64 but instead exclusively go to PS I didn't saw it as a big deal. I knew that the FF-series is big in Japan and has some fans in the US but weren't even published in good old Europe. Just because of that fact I thought the FF-series can't be that big - otherwise, why would you miss the European market? Especially as it wasn't absolutely necessary to translate it - back in those days we were still used in Europe to have English in-game texts (but a translated description in the package - oh man how I miss those). I guess Nintendo saw it likewise and didn't see it as that big of a loss. They thought, FF VII would sell about as much as FF VI, with Sony's marketing power pushing it maybe all little more but no that much more. So, like myself, Nintendo didn't see a danger in losing FF VII.

As far as I know the mindset of old Nintendo, I think even after it was clear that FF VII is a massive hit, Nintendo just shrugged its shoulders and thought we can do our own big RPG IP or let someone else do it for us and we will have publishing rights. It think up to now, Nintendo think of themselves as the best gamer makers, period! No matter which genre - we can counter! That's really much their mindset. Nevertheless, I don't think that games like Mario Kart, Smash Bros, the divers Mario Sports games, Mario Party, etc. are meant as a counter to any other existing IP out there as Nintendo embraces the blue ocean strategy and are more focused on themselves than on what others do. Still, I think Nintendo wants to proof themselves and the gamers that they are the "masters of all genres". Splatoon (online-shooter) and Arms (innovative online-fighting game) are just their newest foray into new genres (they were not known for).

That's definitely not far from the truth, its a mindset of knowing they can do better which technically they did with Zelda OoT. FF7 was extremely important to the PS1 as Sony weren't known for making great games back than, they relied heavily on others making the games for them, basically doing an Epic Game Store and stealing the 3rd party games from under their feet of their competitors. While Nintendo just comes out and basically lets them take the 3rd party knowing they will do there own thing and as history has shown, Nintendo lives up to their own hype train on many occasions. With Rare by their side, they also conquered many other genres with Golden Eye/Perfect Dark dominating the FPS market and Killer Instinct taking it up there with the best of them just to name a couple games.

Nintendo to me has always been about the quality, similar to Blizzard back in their days as well, delivering the best games in their respective genres.



Around the Network
Hynad on 29 April 2020
padib said:
Alby_da_Wolf said:

You must be really young if you don't remember that there were far more console makers before Ninty conquered a near monopolistic market domination for almost ten years, interrupted just by the first Playstation. Sure, Ninty rose on the ashes of competitors burned by a big crisis, but from then on it actively prevented most of them to rise again and new competitors to rise for years, only Sega could barely compete for long period. Sure Sony just interrupted the monopoly, but it did nothing to increase plurality, MS could enter the market just by the brute force of its money and the force of its brand in PC market, while the new trimurti of console gaming merrily crushed poor Sega, the only survivor left, besides Ninty itself, of console golden age.
BTW, I'm not a Sony gamer, I'm a PC and Android one, the last console I owned was the Intellivision. I was on the brink of buying a PSV, because I tried it and it was the first portable of which I ever felt really comfortable with the form factor and control layout, but its commercial decline and the rise of cheap tablets made me change my mind. OTOH both my sister and some of my ex-gf's had a GameBoy, but I never liked it enough to buy one. Tried DS, I liked it more than GB, but still not enough, then 3DS came and I really didn't like its 3D screen. PSP, I liked some games, but unlike PSV, and despite having a control layout just a little different, it gave me hand cramps after playing for a while, so I didn't buy it either.

Ho 35 anni, quindi non direi che sono particolarmente giovane, ma grazie per il complimento. 

GoOnKid said:

Yes, I'm pretty sure Sony pushed the marketing of FFVII to unknown hights and took a major part of the costs. This in turn made the game reach a much bigger audience. Square was able to create the game they envisioned, unbound by storage capacities and with a nice cash boost by Sony. Sony happily made this game their flagship title for the Playstation because they knew what kind of big deal it was. Win win.

I think Nintendo was indeed very strict with third parties, and we all already know why they were that way and how that created the gaming market that we know today. I think they were not ready to let third parties go a little loose at that point. They probably should have trusted them more. Or at least some of them. And this distrust may have been a reason why many third parties turned their backs. However, I find it pretty tasteless and salty by Square to actively convince other third parties to stop developing games for Nintendo. I feel like this is kicking your opponent when he's already down.

At the end of the day I think it was a combination of several reasons. Nintendo, Square and Sony all played a part in this story, so putting the blame into one's shoes like some of the people in this thread are trying to is just too simple. But at the end of the day all of this lead to several new developments: Nintendo's relationship with third parties is nowadays better than ever, Square is desperately trying to reignite Final Fantasy's magic and doesn't understand what made it big anymore, Nintendo publishes most of Square's Wii, DS, 3DS and Switch games, and Sony became a major player in the gaming industry.

I want to highlight this post because it's beautiful. While all 3 players hurt each other and themselves by their behaviors, all 3 in the end came out strong and are who they are today due to these bad games they played. What consoles me the most is that Nintendo in the end really proved its pedigree, that, while pretty much the entire industry turned against it, the one who essentially rebuilt the industry, they were strong enough to rebuild and rise strong like a Phoenix. Still, it is important to highlight that Nintendo's existence in the market was truly put in jeopardy. For anyone who cares about the diversity and creativity in the world of gaming, this is a very sobering thought. So anyone cheering what happened and praising it as karma, you might want to give that a second thought. Nintendo was brought low, but they couldn't be kept low and that to me is an inspiring story in self-belief.

Do they have some Holy book so I can understand the mindset better?



Leynos on 29 April 2020

You know that 3rd party-list Nintendo would put up at E3 and other events to boast they have support. People may remember it from Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U esp, and how each time it ended up being a letdown in what they produced? That began with N64. Gaming mags were praising the N64 3rd party devs signed up. Acclaim was considered a big one and a very strong one in that era. (To be fair Iguana made Turok and many of those people went to form Retro Studios) Switch maybe the only console they produced since SNES where 3rd party support been somewhat strong and people supporting them.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

Remake Geist Force SEGA!/Remake Omega Boost Sony!

Soundwave on 29 April 2020

Water under the bridge at this point.

I mean ultimately you can't really be that mad. FF7/FF8/FF9 just wouldn't have been possible on the N64 in the way Square wanted to make them, Nintendo should've at least offered Square a CD-ROM drive for N64 (64DD went nowhere anyway).

As for them wanting the PS to win, it's kind of like getting mad at an athlete for wanting to beat his old team on his new team. Should've kept the player happy if you didn't want that.