Square, FF on GCN, GBA

**Posted:** Fri Mar 08, 2002 6:12 pm

Major props to Powder, who sent us this extremely important news tip! According to the Saturday morning (in Japan) edition of the popular Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper, Square and Nintendo are getting back together to bring Final Fantasy back to Nintendo fans on both GameCube and Game Boy Advance! Here's an excerpt from Nikkei's website. You can see the full story by registering there (credit card required, but you get a two-week free trial period during which you can cancel at any time). OSAKA (Nikkei)--Nintendo Co. (7974) has agreed to resume procuring the popular "Final Fantasy" video game software for its game consoles from Square Co. (9620) after a five-year hiatus, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun learned Friday. The big news in this is not only is Square coming back, but Hiroshi Yamauchi himself is funding Square's return, by virtue of Fund Q, the fund set aside to help spark game development on GameCube. The new company to be stared by Square and Akitoshi Kawazu (one of Final Fantasy's developers), should be founded by the end of March. Another important quote ... The deal calls on the Square affiliate to produce software allowing users of two Nintendo consoles -- the GameCube and Game Boy Advance -- to play together by the end of the year. "... to play together"? What does that mean??? Surely the first game to come out of this new venture will be Final Fantasy XI, as Square has been adamant about wanting the game on every console. But could we see a port of Final Fantasy X? And how does the GameBoy Advance fit in? There are a lot more questions to be answered yet. Still, gamers' prayers have been answered. Square is officially back on Nintendo. Source: Planet Gamecube well...wow. <Center><img src=http://zeth.homestead.com/files/siggy.jpg></center>

**Posted:** Fri Mar 08, 2002 6:37 pm

Being a PS2 owner I won't bitch or anything, In fact thatÂ’s cool it's finally going to other consols, most notably because FFXI will be online. The more consoles its on the better. As long as the FF series and Square keeps on bringing out titles on the PS2 it's all good. IÂ’m just pissed FFXI is pay to play I probably wont even buy it. Why cant FFXI have an offline version?....oh well <img src=http://users.townsqr.com/ale/ml1.GIF><img src=http://www.desktopstuff.com/images/tenchi.gif><marquee>This signature has been made possible through grants from the following organizations: The Institute for Yattzee theory, The Society for the Preservation of Spanish Rice, The Bank for people on horseback, The Ancient and Honorable Order of Pricks, The International House of Cream and Sugar, Local Twelve of the Ball Busters Union, The Laser Enema foundation, and The National Society of total Pecker Heads. </marquee><img src=http://www.rpgicons.com/images/icons/ff6/npcs/chocobo/walkr.gif>Â“History is written by those who have hanged heroes.Â”<img src=http://www.magicdragon.com/Wallace/melbluebutton.gif><table width=250 align=center><TR><TD><img src="http://www.tasuki.com/ffx/kimahri.gif"></TD></TR><TR><TD>You are Kimahri! Always faithful, and a little quiet, you're a true and noble friend. You'll stick up for them and always put them above yourself. People wouldn't want to be your enemy. You're often judged by your appearance.</TD></TR><TR><TD>Which Final Fantasy X Character would YOU be? Take the <a href="http://www.tasuki.com/test/sfesurvey.cgi?ffxquiz">test</a>.</TD></TR></TABLE>

**Posted:** Fri Mar 08, 2002 6:43 pm

This is fishy... I'll shut my mouth until I actually see a game for GCN... To start with, a new Chrono Trigger with 3D graphics would be good... ... Akira Toriyama...or possibly an RPG of DBZ... ^_^ hehehehe ^_^ <img src="http://drunkntaichimaster.netfirms.com/marios1.jpg" border="0"> Captain, why did you bring a woman here??? These men have sworn to follow a vow of chastity like their fathers and forefathers did before them!

**Posted:** Sat Mar 09, 2002 1:20 am

In the words of the great Kool-Aid man: "OH YEAH!!!" ZL Empires wax and wane; states cleave asunder and coalesce.

**Posted:** Sat Mar 09, 2002 8:35 pm

yep! just as it sounds DBZ on GC its goonna kick @$$

**Posted:** Mon Mar 11, 2002 2:26 pm

<a href="http://www.planetgamecube.com/news.cfm?action=item&id=2751">www.planetgamecube.com/ne...em&id=2751</a> News Article: Nintendo and Square Settlement Details News Date: 03/11/2002 Source: Weekly Toyo Keizai Discuss it in the Forum! Weekly Toyo Keizai, provides us more info on Nintendo and Square deal. Discuss it in Talkback! The latest issue of Weekly Toyo Keizai, a Japanese business magazine, features an article on SquareÂ’s decision to once again develop games for NintendoÂ’s consoles. Here is a summary of the article (translated from Japanese, of course). Akitoshi Kawazu, the leader of SquareÂ’s second production unit and a board member, will head the new company, which will be formed in March. The new company will be responsible for porting some of the existing popular Square titles to the GBA. The company also plans to develop games that utilize the GBA and GC link. The company received development funding from Fund Q, which was formed by NintendoÂ’s president, Hiroshi Yamauchi. Sony, who owns 19% of Square, agreed last October to let Square develop under the condition that this settlement will not influence future PS2 game development decisions. As a result, to meet this condition, Square will form a new company that will be independent from Sony. It should also be noted that Square invested 49% into the new company while KawazuÂ‘s investment represents 51% of the stake. Since Kawazu has the majority of the stake, he will have control over the companyÂ’s operations. The article continued to comment that this new company will be no more than a paper company as the actual development will come from the second production unit of Square, which consists of around 10 developers. Square was established in 1986 making games for Nintendo. In 1996, Square announced that they no longer support Nintendo, and went on developing FFVII for PS. Following the announcement, the previous president criticized NintendoÂ’s management strategy, which led to a standoff between Square and Nintendo. However, the poor performance of the Final Fantasy movie put Square in a management crisis. SquareÂ’s current president realized that to stabilize revenues, reconciliation with Nintendo was one of the necessary conditions. In the past, Square game creators that were specialized in anime and 2D games wanted to develop for Nintendo. There were also cases where many of these developers left Square. Therefore, it can also be said that this move is an attempt to protect SquareÂ’s own intangible assets. For these reasons, SquareÂ’s president also wanted to reconcile with Nintendo quickly. The reconciliation would not have been possible if Nintendo and SonyÂ’s relationship have not changed. From NintendoÂ’s perspective, its rival Sony has just dug a grave for itself. Even to Sony, Nintendo is a very formidable competitor. However, the entrance of Microsoft with the Xbox relaxed Sony and NintendoÂ’s long standing rival position. On a side note, the release of Final Fantasy for BandaiÂ’s portable handheld help sold the Wonderswan. The recent settlement has closed up any hopes of Wonderswan surviving in the handheld market. The article concluded that Square has mapped new roads by being able to effectively use its existing assets while Nintendo will gain an extra spurt in selling its GBA, which has seen mediocre performance recently. The settlement will bring profits for both companies, and can be considered as a good move resulting from a rational and economical decision. *Great news all around for Nintendo fans and Square ones too! Especially with the older games going to GBA!!!* ZL Empires wax and wane; states cleave asunder and coalesce.

Square, FF on GCN, GBA

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