Oh dear. Somone sounds annoyed because their PS3 purchase hasnt been validated by being the console of choice for his favourite publisher.

I'd imagine that SE is making bags of cash off the DS so far - with much lower dev costs than for the PS3 so I cant understand the writers point about SE going to hell in a handbasket.

Addtionally comparing the purchase price of a publisher like Eidos (which still has a large European business - look it up) Vs a small developer like Free Radical (which owns 1 noteable IP and most of its staff were gone ) looks really uneducated.

I'm pretty sure Sony paid for FF back in the day when Square needed support.   They bought a percentage of the company , gave SE TONS of help on the technical side, free dev workstations and a big fat publishing break in the beginning....

Yep. It was a pretty gutsy move to go from Nintendo to Sony, and I think Nintendo's own arrogant attitude at the time had alot to do with it (the cartridge format limited developers and was making Nintendo tons of money). Sony helped Square financially (though the 19% stake they bought in the company didn't come til later), lower royalties, dev support and published FFVII in America (and Europe as well?).

It was unbalanced, story was boring, grinding for money, summons are useless, Vaan is a such annoying, useless character, there's no reason for him to even be in the story. Only redeeming features were gameplay, and graphics, also voice acting was decent for what it was.

I agree with everything in the article except the Star ocean 3 thing,,, that game was fantastic !!!

Strange things that SE did:

- DQ IX for DS !! Fans need a quality RPG on a home console especially if that RPG is the main entry in the best japanese franchise! They though that by releasing it on DS they will be making easy money,, but they were sooooo wrong, this game is turning out to be the next Duke nukem Forever due to delays (it was supposed to be released in 2007)

- FF XIII & VS XIII ,,, OK both games are turning out to be something special,, but why produce 2 super production Hd games at the same time??? finish the first and begin the second!!! and the weirdest thing is that both games were announced in 2006, which is 3 years agoooooooooooo, i dont think that they will turn a profit

- Backstabing the Sony fans,,,, FF XIII is now going to be released on the 360 due to high demand by fans and new multiplatform strategy due to high costs of HD development! ok reasonable enough,, but SO4 remains 360 exclusive ?? WTF??? PARADOXXXXXXX !!!! while the last remnant has no concrete PS3 release !!!

- Western expansion, acquisitions, alliances: Dear SE didnt you notice that your games sell millions in western countries??? so can you tell me why do you want to expand ? you already have a strong foot in western countries,, so did you think that by acquiring EIDOS you will reach bigger audience ??? Weird

Right, the platform where their games reached the height of popularity. Oh man, what are you smoking?

"Cry moar" weed.

SE would be nothing without Sony, and if you weren't such a fanboy you'd see that.

Come to think of it, it's quite funny to say that SE support on the Wii is rubbish when a DQ spinoff is the best selling game from them this gen, and it's been more than three years since the 360 is out!

It's a no brainer that SO4 will easily beat DQS in sales now though.

DQS is 600k without Others. SO4 will be lucky to do it WITH others.

No they'd still be a huge company, just that Final Fantasy (and subsquently, Kingdom Hearts, Star Ocean 3, etc.) wouldn't be as popular in NA. Final Fantasy 7 is responsible for kickstarting the West to buying JRPGs.