They can. Check out Cactus' web site.

Honestly I don't even know how SE is still in business it seems their business decisions are crazy. From requiring Eidos to their huge budget games. SE would be so much more profitable if they didn't spend all their revenue on big budget HD games. Based on sales their portable division seems most profitable.

I'm fairly certain it is. It would probably take 4-5 DS projects to equal the cost of making one HD project.

Your statement can be interpreted like "making 4-5 DS games would always be more profitable than 1 HD project". Things are never that simple. I'm pretty sure one cod4 would always yield waaay more profit than 5 "The world ends with you". Initial cost can be worth it with appropriate planning.

I'm not saying that statement like we're living in a vacuum. I know how much the DS projects make, I know there are remakes with very low costs, and I've seen what Square's recent console games have made. Thus far, it's pretty obvious what's doing better. However I'm not an idiot. I know Final Fantasy XIII is going to be more profitable than 4-5 DS projects. Unfortunately, most of Square's console efforts are not pulling anything remotely close to FF numbers, and many of the DS titles clearly outsell them.

Then again, I can make the point that Dragon Quest IX can likely pull that FF XIII-like level of profitability(or be in the ballpark) and still cost consideribly less to create.

Different terms

I see you were only talking in the frame of S-E's endeavors alone. I wasn't sure what you meant thats why I phrased my response with doubt. You're right, S-E has definitely performed much better on handhelds than consoles this gen. This is why I used the term "poor planning". However, assuming a moneyhat was really involved with S-E's projects this gen, it is plausible that they've actually been very much worth it. It's hard to believe that CEO's couldn't conceptualize things your average gamer can figure out.

You're right, DQIX would probably make more profit than FFXIII for PS360. This also has to do with planning and demographics. However, I'd question your judgement if you argue that FFXIII for DS would be more profitable than FFXIII for PS360 if they chose that path instead. Some games are just better served on some platforms.

Of course I'm talking only about SE. Each publisher operates under different circumstances. SE is majorly popular in Japan, and Japan is having a huge shift towards handhelds. Console gaming is becomming less and less enticing over there for Japanese developers still concentrated on making Japanese centric titles. Because of these reasons, I don't think it was poor planning on their part. They see the shift and they reacted with huge support to the dominating platforms in Japan. Unfortunately, without an admittance or figures, it's impossible to say whether money played a factor in the 360 titles. I'm sure it did, but there's still no way to know how much, or whether it was worth it.

Some games are better served on certain platforms sure, but I don't see any reason to believe that a numbered Final Fantasy can't come out on the DS and be a massive success. Final Fantasy III, a remake of an FF hardly remembered or praised, managed to pull in 2.27 million.

My "poor planning" was in reference to 360-only JP-centric titles. It has "epic fail" written all over it.

As for FF, I guess I started with the PS era and have become accustomed to new FF = epic, grander scale, graphical powerhouse (the games have always been claimed to set the new graphics standard). They've always set the bar for the JRPG genre. I think things like voiced NPCs (FFXIII demo) are a bit extreme but thats just FF as I've known it. IMO, a new FF for DS would be a huge step back for the series the way I see it but I won't claim to know all so it's quite possible that I'm the one who is blind. The old FFs aren't a good comparison because we've accepted their age. FFIII DS has more potential for the very fact that it is unknown to the majority of FF fans.

I don't see FFxiii DS doing more than 2-3 mil at best and I think FFXIII PS360 has a shot at 7+mil but it's only IMHO nd I have no facts to back it up unfortunately. Personally, I won't mind if FFxiii looked like FFX but taking things down to DS level is just too far.

No shit.