Like Fumanchu said, tri-Ace developed it. It's not the first time Squaresoft/Square-Enix has published games for somebody else. They originally published Breath of Fire for Capcom for much the same reason: JRPG knowhow.

And I don't think it was a shitty game at all. To each his own and all, but did you play the game?

Shitty may have been harsh. I was going by what it's reviews were and what i have heard other people say about it especially compared to the likes of FF and DQ. It may be a game that I might actually like but no I have not played the game and I never will because it's only on the 360.

SE has published every single one of Tri-Ace's games. If MS published it it would have been the first time ever SE didn't publish Tri'Ace's game. Not that it makes Tri-Ace a part of SE, but it's a little different then publishing a game for capcom. I guess we should assume that MS would be paying Tri-Ace not SE. Hmm...

The article was written for something called "Playstation Lifestyle" -- so of course it is going to favor a Sony-centric perspective.

That being said, some of the points are legit. It is taking S-E forever to get FF-13 out the door. Xbox 360 exclusives of former Playstation exclusives are irritating to long-time fans. And the Eidos takeover is somewhat strange.

Mike from Morgantown

(For the record, I own only a Wii this generation but have a PS2 and Xbox from last time. I am commenting here as a neutral observer. Honestly, I think multiplatforming would have been a better strategy).

I'd agree that Square has declined, I used to buy everything they made on the ps1 simply by brand name, but quickly learned that once they temporarily merged with EA at the end of the ps1 cycle, their stuff was sliding.....then on the ps2 I began to not like many of their games, I dunno if the talent all left or the management went south....

their DS stuff is really good though still...

This is actually a very good article.

I've written an essay that I've yet to submit on Square and Enix, the shield and sword of Square, and the decline of Square Enix. Basically the same stuff as this article.

It's been a downward spiral since FFVII as far as I see it. I don't see them recover.

For me, once Uematsu left, it was a big alarm bell. I didn't believe Sakaguchi leaving was important, as he has no real talent. I said that when Mistwalker began, and I see it was more than proven bby its track record at Mistwalker that he doesn't have any talent by himself. I'm more of the kind that believe Sakaguchi is an excellent catalyst, but he needs big talents in every area around him to be good.

Also, Square still has lots of talents, but not in enough key areas to be successful.

I don't know if Wada is a cause for their decline, but surely he's not the only cause.

Fortunately, Dragon Quest already has its small team of talented people, Yuji Horii first, that can support the series. Seems to me DQ is treated like the lesser franchise by SE, thus why they try to destroy it by releasing only a spinoff first this gen (and this is Wada's fault). But I feel DQ will crush FF and just take the crown, just because they took the right decisions since the first one, and despite a difficult transition to the last generation, managed to move the series.

The releases on XB360 are just the pinnacle of retarded decisions (again Wada's fault). Square just deserves what happens to them, and though I was a bit relieved that FFXIII went to the XB360, the decisions taken at the same time are just as retarded (delaying PS3 version for XB360 one). Given its development time and HD costs, I'm not even sure FFXIII will be a financial success anymore, despite being on two platforms.

I'm not really concerned about Square Enix. As far as I'm concerned, they can die since FFVIII. But the problem is that the JRPG genre will likely sufferif they die. Pokemon and Fire Emblem will still thrive, both being the pinnacle of their respective genre of JRPG (traditional and strategy JRPG). But retarded 3rd parties don't follow Nintendo, at least for now. At least I hope DQ doesn't die.

Funny that long ago, Square was the better company in my view, and Enix releasing only games I thought were bad. Now, I'm far preferring Enix.

I really don't see this being a "retarded" decision.  Delaying a game on one platform severely lowers sales expectations on the latter platform's release.  A quick look at Bioshocks sales on the PS3 is all the verification needed to support a multi-platform simultaneous release.  The development costs would still remain the same so it's not exactly making it any more expensive by delaying the release.

It's oppurtunity cost. You will lose PS3 sales to the 360 version (same with Eternal Sonata and Bioshock, vice versa)  by not releasing it when it's ready. You also anger your fanbase by having the next game ready to release but holding it back due to money.

Why would Square Enix care that they lost PS3 sales to the 360 version? All they're interested in is selling more copies of the game, something greatly achieved by virtue of the fact that the advertising, hype, word of mouth at its height, will have a market of 48 million instead of 20 million (time of writing).

We are talking about a very large company with a very broad range of titles (in Japan) with year after year profits.

Don't get me wrong, declining profits suck. Declining profits don't necessarily have anything to do with product quality.

When you look at the 10 and 5 year trends, the Yen is getting stronger and stronger v. USD, Euro, and GBP. Sales numbers were going up, production costs per unit sold were going down. The currency is killing these japanese companies.

It's funny that everyone picks on SE when they are one of the most profitable companies in Japan (Nintendo, then SE if I remember correctly).

If you are talking artistic decline, then that is a matter of opinion. People vote with their money, sales quantity and revenue are up, so I would guess that people like them better. Yen strength is all that holding profits back, but profit is profit (especially in this gaming market at this time and in that country).

http://www.square-enix.com/eng/ir/ar.html

So why would they care if a late 360 version lost sales to the PS3 version? Why should they care?

That's my point.