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Forums - Sony - Square Enix did it again to PS3 fans

chris1_16 on 04 June 2009

If FFXIII ever became a timed exclusive on 360, there will be blood



 

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Pristine20 on 04 June 2009
Domicinator said:
Pristine20 said:
Domicinator said:
I love how people think the developers make it a personal thing when they're developing games. They're just looking at numbers. Square Enix is not sitting around the office saying, "I hope the PS3 fanboys aren't going to be mad at us for releasing this on 360." THEY DO NOT CARE. Money is money.

Well, at its core, a corporation owes it's allegiance only to it's shareholders and those are the people it's CEO ultimately is accountable to. However, you shouldn't mix this up with individual developers who may not see a dime of moneyhats or other incentives that may sway decisions at the top as they're likely to be different. You should know this if you ever worked for a comany before.

I've worked for several companies, both public and private.  Shareholders want to see companies succeed so that their shares are worth more.  Developers want to make as much money as they can because development budgets are just getting bigger and bigger these days.  Square Enix knows that it's pretty stupid to release a game only for the 22 million PS3 fans, when there's another 30 million 360 fans, a percentage of which will also buy their games.  Shareholders are largely NOT PS3 fanboys and are largely NOT going to be offended or angered by Square Enix releasing a game to MORE potential buyers.  PS3 owners are largely NOT going to skip out on buying a game just because it also came out on the 360 and they're all butthurt about it.  The whiners you see on the internet about loyalty and "this game should only come out on this platform" are the minority.  Most gamers don't care as long as they get to play the games they want to play. 

This concept is becoming more and more prevalant which is why third party developers' word means absolutely NOTHING (I'm looking at you, Splinter Cell: Conviction) when they say that a title is exclusive.  If the console maker doesn't have a hand in the development as well as rights to the name, it's probably not going to stay exclusive for much more than a year.  That's just the way the industry is now.

You didn't get my point at all. Yoshinori Kitase =/= S-E corp. Someone like him probably made nothing from the pricecut. His salary doesn't change regardless of FF sales. maybe an extra bonus but i doubt he'll get anything major. These are the people I refer to when I use the term "developer" i.e the people that actually create the games. Their role in the company is a lot different from management.

The only point I made was that the devs may not even agree with their companys course of action and delaying the ps3 version just sounds stupid.



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phnguyen89 on 05 June 2009
lilwingman said:
phnguyen89 said:

http://kotaku.com/5274205/final-fantasy-coming-to-xbox-360-in-spring-2010

Hmm, I thought they weren't going to work on the 360 version until the JPN PS3 version is done.  This leads to one thing: timed exclusive for the 360 in EU and NA.  I predict their reason will be: "The PS3 is more difficult to work with than the 360.  We need more time."

Obviously you have not been following development of the game at all.  The plan has always been (since it was announced multiplatform) to release the game simultaneously worldwide on both platforms (excluding Japan, of course).

LOL.  Have you been following SE lately?  They tend to not stick to their plan.  "Okay, FFXIII/VERSUS is exclusive to the PS3".

A little time passes.

"Okay, FFXIII is going multiplatform because we want more people to play it.  But Versus is still going to be exclusive.  We will finish the PS3 version before working on the 360 and translation of the JPN version.  The 360 version will be equal to the PS3 version.  We might not include the JPN audio on the 360 version because of the limited size of the DVDs."

During E3, "Hey look at FFXIII on the 360."

I didn't know that the JPN was done and shipped.  I'm pretty sure the translation of text is much more difficult than porting it over to the 360 (/insert sarcasm).  What I'm getting at is that SE is going to mess with the PS3 version somehow to be more "equal".  It's already unfair that the PS3 version is being delayed, the audio track because of space might screw us over too.  Sigh, luckily for me, I still have Cross Edge/WKC/Trinity Universe/NGS2 to look forward to.



Alby_da_Wolf on 05 June 2009
Domicinator said:
Pristine20 said:
Domicinator said:
I love how people think the developers make it a personal thing when they're developing games. They're just looking at numbers. Square Enix is not sitting around the office saying, "I hope the PS3 fanboys aren't going to be mad at us for releasing this on 360." THEY DO NOT CARE. Money is money.

Well, at its core, a corporation owes it's allegiance only to it's shareholders and those are the people it's CEO ultimately is accountable to. However, you shouldn't mix this up with individual developers who may not see a dime of moneyhats or other incentives that may sway decisions at the top as they're likely to be different. You should know this if you ever worked for a comany before.

I've worked for several companies, both public and private.  Shareholders want to see companies succeed so that their shares are worth more.  Developers want to make as much money as they can because development budgets are just getting bigger and bigger these days.  Square Enix knows that it's pretty stupid to release a game only for the 22 million PS3 fans, when there's another 30 million 360 fans, a percentage of which will also buy their games.  Shareholders are largely NOT PS3 fanboys and are largely NOT going to be offended or angered by Square Enix releasing a game to MORE potential buyers.  PS3 owners are largely NOT going to skip out on buying a game just because it also came out on the 360 and they're all butthurt about it.  The whiners you see on the internet about loyalty and "this game should only come out on this platform" are the minority.  Most gamers don't care as long as they get to play the games they want to play. 

This concept is becoming more and more prevalant which is why third party developers' word means absolutely NOTHING (I'm looking at you, Splinter Cell: Conviction) when they say that a title is exclusive.  If the console maker doesn't have a hand in the development as well as rights to the name, it's probably not going to stay exclusive for much more than a year.  That's just the way the industry is now.

You are right saying that the vast majority of FF on PS3 fans aren't fanboys and aren't offended at all if SE releases its games also on XB360, even simultaneously. But you can bet they would be offended if the PS3 version, even if ready, were delayed to please MS. Existing fans are almost sure money, offending them is the wrong thing to do, SE can get new XB360 users and please them in a lot of ways that don't imply offending existing PS3 ones. This said, IMVHO SE would be even more right releasing a Wii version too. About pleasing MS: FF main titles are usually so huge that there's no moneyhatting that could compensate lost revenue from sales, so pleasing user bases of each console without pissing off the others is of the essence. And about shareholders, maybe they aren't games fans, but they perfectly know it's games fans that pay their dividends. It's like FIAT with Alfa Romeo, maybe it's getting huge economies of scale, but if they really ditch typical Alfa Romeo suspensions in next models, the only real mechanical difference remaining besides engines tuning, they'll waste a lot of this brand potential, losing more from missed earnings than they get from savings.



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.:Dark Prince:. on 05 June 2009
starterman1989 said:
I think at this point in time, anything they're planning to do will be wrong:

-. Delay work on 360 version until ps3 version is done:
"I knew it! They're going to delay localization of ps3 version because of 360 version!"

-. Start working on 360 version now:
"They lied again! They said work on 360 version will not begin before ps3 version is done!"

The best posts are always ignored.

+1 man.