Square-Enix, if it wasn't obvious already, is not heavily supporting any console. Their allegiance is with handhelds now and I feel in the future, more and more games and franchises will be lost on consoles to the handhelds. Dragon Quest has already changed allegiances. I think it's only a matter of time, maybe 5-6 years at the most and we'll be seeing the main FF series change to a handheld exclusive. Just look at the DS and PSP support:

DS

Children of Mana
Chrono Trigger DS
Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime
Dragon Quest IV
Dragon Quest V
Dragon Quest VI
Dragon Quest IX
Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker
Egg Monster Hero
FF Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
FF Fables: Chocobo Tales
FF Fables: Chocobo Tales-The Witch, The Girl and the Five Heroes
FF Fables: Chocobo Tales-Cid and Chocobo's Dungeon
Final Fantasy III
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy Tactics A2
Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings
Front Mission
Front Mission 2089
Heroes of Mana
Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Sigma Harmonics
The World Ends With You
Valkyrie Profile: The Accused One

PSP

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy II
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Dissidia
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
Star Ocean: First Departure
Star Ocean: Second Evolution
Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth

Now here's the combined games for all three consoles(Wii/360/PS3)

Dragon Quest Swords (Wii)
FF Chronicles: Crystal Bearers (Wii)
FF Chronicles: My Life as a King (Wii)
FF Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon (Wii)
Final Fantasy XI (360)
Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)
Final Fantasy Versus XIII (PS3)
Infinite Undiscovery (360)
Project Sylpheed (360)
Star Ocean: The Last Hope (360)
The Last Remnant (360/PS3)

See the difference? I wouldn't be surprised if the main series of both Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy were both on handhelds within 5 years. Square is abandoning consoles very slowly but surely. Even if you look towards reviews, their handheld offerings have reivewed better also. A handheld oriented Square is a rejuvenated one. The console Square is lazy as all hell and uninspired.

Wow, Final Fantasy Crystal Bearers looks awesome. Anyways, I some what agree with the OP, but u worded it wrong. SE is not giving "shovelware" to Nintendo, it's more like their big games are going to the HD consoles.

Shovel ware is perhaps a bit harsh... or perhaps not when you think of the quality games that this company is capable of.

I personally believe the only reason the 360 is getting Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery is because of a big handout, and the only reason the PS3 is getting FF XIII and Versus XIII is because they started it under the assumption the PS3 would sell like hotcakes. I think Square's strategy is to focus on handhelds because that's where they feel they can grab an audience and because development time is considerably short. I'm sure the DS projects feed the FF XIII projects, but that's because the FF XIII and Versus XIII budgets are monsters and haven't produced any income yet, and won't for a while still. Square understand with the same resources they could probably create 10-15 DS games and the combined total of them will far outsell FF XIII. That's why I wouldn't expect them to stick with PS3 to develop on. The DS, and to a lesser extent, the PSP, is their future. Everything else will be getting the scraps.

Think of it this way IF Mr Iwata didn't patch things up with Square back when the previous president had step down. we wouldnt have gotten Crystal Chronicals or other related RPG titles like the DS remakes in the forst place. If Iwata continues to repair more of Squares and Nintendo friendship then someday (dont know when BUT) someday......nintnendo might get the FF franchise back

 They wanted it to fail because of the DS.

SquareEnix was pretty much commited to Sony's platforms considering their success on PS1 and PS2. They placed their bets on PSP and PS3 before they were even announced. Back them their commitment to DS was there but not a strong point. However, other developers noticed a potential to compete against SE with Nintendo's new handheld. When the DS became a huge success, the developers were ready to deliver RPG's to the public and SE could not keep a blind eye to noticed that an overshot market could be their demise in the future. That's why they started to fight back. Unfortunately for them, DS owners aren't as much SE fans but RPG hungry gamers.

With the Wii, another fear came because Nintendo was replicating a strategy on consoles, and DS developers also saw an opportunity to move upmarket if the console turned to be successful. You can see with the first FFCC video that they were doing pretty much what they did with the GC. But their bet turned against them and it was just a matter of time before other RPG developers could move to Wii and make games for RPG hungry gamers... this is the first change of Crystal Bearers, the trailer we saw.

Then came Monter Hunter 3, Capcom's switch to Wii for their successful RPG franchise in Japan. This move is very clear for they want to expand outside Japan. Namco started to be serious with Wii and Monolith Soft under Nintendo's wing is just too much. They had to take action and release a lot of DS RPG's and started to be serious as well. This is why they had to port their Engine to Wii and started to use the console's capabilities.

Nontendo's platforms don't need Final Fantasy, they need RPG's. (you know what I mean)

Sounds fear of disruption to me

 well they dont take to much longer to develop,also hasnt the 360 been out just a bit shorter then the hand helds?

This topic is just ill conceived. S-E didn't just whip these games together that fast. How would they have known FFXIII would take so long, they would have time to make a whole bunch of games to fund it? They would rather the game gets completed sooner, and take up even more development costs.

Exactly my point. Take Star Ocean for instance. Let's say it'll cost 20 million to make Star Ocean. How many DS games could be made for the same amount? Maybe 5 games? Now what sounds like the better investment for Square? 5 DS games on a 70 million + userbase or 1 360 game on a 20 million + userbase? You can even apply this to the Wii to a lesser extent. For the cost of one Wii RPG, Square might be able to make 3 DS RPGs. What's the better way to go? This is why the DS is going to stay their primary platform for releases, both in quantity, quality and coming soon...popularity. Just you watch as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts end up as DS games. Don't say never, because three years ago we would have all said the same thing about Dragon Quest IX.

Handhelds have changed and can now sustain main series on their own that used to belong on consoles. Syphon Filter, Final Fantasy Tactics, WipeOut, Valkyrie Profile, Front Mission, Castlevania, Contra, Dragon Quest, Ape Escape, and the list will grow in time. DS games can sell past 10 million without bundling. Even damn close to shovelware can massively succeed on the DS. The DS has built franchises and genres from scratch. Brain Age. Nintendogs. The DS has turned a modestly popular franchise like Animal Crossing and made it a juggernaut. Do you think Square is oblivious to what the DS can offer them?

Final Fantasy III=2.21 million copies sold. How big do you think that budget was? 2 million?
Dragon Quest Monsters=1.88 million sold. This is a spinoff! How big do you think the budget was on that?

Even if a Wii, 360, or PS3 game can match the sales Square can get on the DS, they can't match how much of that is profit.

DQ9 will outsell FF13 by a couple gazillion, on the Richter scale.

And don't talk shit about my Rocket Slime.