Possibilities for FFXV

[Kirin]

New day, new rumor: http://www.vgleaks.com/final-fantasy...lusive-on-ps4/

Versus moved to PS4 two years ago, renamed FFXV, Sony co-developing.
If this is true Sony is gonna have one hell of an E3 this year.

If true, Sony Co-developing actually has me a bit uneasy.

I don't like Sony having direct say in development of whats supposed to be a third party title. This, to an extent, really limits what Square can do to "fix" the franchise because all Sony is going to want is a modern FF7 and that does nothing to fix this franchise. It just seems like an entirely unnecessary and creatively restrictive mess that will lead to nothing but more belts and CG movies.

I would argue it's not that great for Sony either. It ties their console launch window (one that Sony does not have the best track history of) to a franchise coming off 13 and 14 1.0 along with seemingly an endless supply of military shooters. Also sets a pretty dicey precedent in a 1st party having direct control over a 3rd party title like this. I don't recall something like this happening since the SNES days with a title of this magnitude.

If this is Versus, then thats great it's finally getting to see the light of day after what will be nearly a decade of development by release. But this still does little in my mind to decide to shell out 500+ bucks to shelve my PS3 for a prettier picture.

[Spira]

there have been more leaks and rumors about VS13 than real info in the past 3 years.. and all of them have proven to be false.

i'll wait for an official announcement.

[Tidane]

It isn't unreasonable that Sony would want the game exclusive to their system (I'm sure they see Xbox360 sales of FFXIII as a loss), but I'm tired of hearing rumors about Versus XIII. Each one seems like it is trying to top the last one. True or not, this could've been avoided by SquareEnix simply communicating what the hell was going on instead of their cryptic bullshit for...how many years? Good job being premature with that announcement.

Maybe we'll hear something at PAX, no, GDC (when the hell did PAX get so damn big), wait...E3, sorry, Gamescom...TGS. Yeah, that one.

[Kirin]

It isn't unreasonable that Sony would want the game exclusive to their system (I'm sure they see Xbox360 sales of FFXIII as a loss), but I'm tired of hearing rumors about Versus XIII. Each one seems like it is trying to top the last one. True or not, this could've been avoided by SquareEnix simply communicating what the hell was going on instead of their cryptic bullshit for...how many years? Good job being premature with that announcement.

Maybe we'll hear something at PAX, no, GDC (when the hell did PAX get so damn big), wait...E3, sorry, Gamescom...TGS. Yeah, that one.

I don't mind console exclusivity, and I wish more companies would take the financial risk to do it nowadays a-la the SNES/PSX eras, because i think it would go a long ways toward making companies innovate beyond shooters, generic RPG's, and action titles. I do have issue with a 1st party company supplying money (And obviously some form of creative control or development decision by means of funding) for a 3rd party effort. It might not mean anything now, but somewhere a big title is going to suffer dramatically because a console maker demanded "X and Y be in the game" at the detriment of the overall game just so they have an advertising point.

[Exoduso]

I actually think FF13 would have done better if it stayed a PS3 exclusive. I understand Square wanting to maximize profits on their end, but they ended up making a game that would have to be able to run on both consoles, and the potential of a higher quality/polished game on PS3 as an exclusive was greater.
Hopefully they go back to the PSX/PS2 era where the series is exclusive to PS4.

[Fievel]

Didn't ff13 sell extremely well? Over a million sold in just a few days?

[Gwynplaine]

Meh don't care. My state of mind when it comes to FF games now is as follows:

If it is J-Pop fluff like 10 I'm not touching it.
If it is influenced by the same person as the FF12/Ivalice universe stuff I'm definitely getting it.

[Alkar]

I don't mind console exclusivity, and I wish more companies would take the financial risk to do it nowadays a-la the SNES/PSX eras, because i think it would go a long ways toward making companies innovate beyond shooters, generic RPG's, and action titles. I do have issue with a 1st party company supplying money (And obviously some form of creative control or development decision by means of funding) for a 3rd party effort. It might not mean anything now, but somewhere a big title is going to suffer dramatically because a console maker demanded "X and Y be in the game" at the detriment of the overall game just so they have an advertising point.

Sony doesn't do that with their first party developers, why would they force something on SE?

[Kirin]

Sony doesn't do that with their first party developers, why would they force something on SE?

Assuming this rumor is true, Sony is investing capital into a title that could possibly go a long way towards their new consoles initial success in terms of install base and publicity. Why wouldn't they as a company demand some form of creative control over such a project?

[Xno Kappa]

Do you have any example of this ever happening whatsoever in a negative fashion pertaining to Sony? Not trying to call you but you sound like you're literally talking out your ass.

[miokomioko]

I can't imagine them commandeering any creative control over the project, especially a main Final Fantasy installation. I am assuming (if it's true) that Sony would just be throwing resources their way (localization, money, art/code grunts, etc.).

[Tidane]

Assuming this rumor is true, Sony is investing capital into a title that could possibly go a long way towards their new consoles initial success in terms of install base and publicity. Why wouldn't they as a company demand some form of creative control over such a project?

Sony works with a huge number of companies to get games developed for their platform. They supply a lot of money and talent to other companies to help make their exclusive titles stand above the multi-platform and exclusives for other platforms. The way this works is that someone at Sony sees or hears of a game that sounds interesting. Someone from Sony will evaluate it and, if they see potential, they'll offer their services in exchange for exclusivity. (This isn't something that's exclusive to Sony as a platform owner or developer, but the nature of the cell processor made it much more prominent during the last generation).

Given than SquareEnix isn't an indie development studio and Final Fantasy isn't a new IP, my guess is that SE reached out to Sony during the development of Versus and let them know they were having technical issues with the PS3. If the rumors are to be believed, Sony's response may have been "we're working on a new platform, maybe you should put it on that". If SE came back and said they couldn't afford to move their development from the PS3 to the PS4 and Sony saw value in having Final Fantasy (Versus) as an exclusive game to their platform, they would've provided money and resources (technical resources to help SE develop on the PS4).

[xopher]

there have been more leaks and rumors about VS13 than real info in the past 3 years.. and all of them have proven to be false.

i'll wait for an official announcement.

That's not true.

[Kirin]

Sony works with a huge number of companies to get games developed for their platform. They supply a lot of money and talent to other companies to help make their exclusive titles stand above the multi-platform and exclusives for other platforms. The way this works is that someone at Sony sees or hears of a game that sounds interesting. Someone from Sony will evaluate it and, if they see potential, they'll offer their services in exchange for exclusivity. (This isn't something that's exclusive to Sony as a platform owner or developer, but the nature of the cell processor made it much more prominent during the last generation).

Given than SquareEnix isn't an indie development studio and Final Fantasy isn't a new IP, my guess is that SE reached out to Sony during the development of Versus and let them know they were having technical issues with the PS3. If the rumors are to be believed, Sony's response may have been "we're working on a new platform, maybe you should put it on that". If SE came back and said they couldn't afford to move their development from the PS3 to the PS4 and Sony saw value in having Final Fantasy (Versus) as an exclusive game to their platform, they would've provided money and resources (technical resources to help SE develop on the PS4).

If that turns out to be the case, then I would be fine with it. That instance to me is a lot better than Sony going to Square and being like "Hey, we'll bankroll some of the dev costs for X title." and then come back 6 months into development and be like "Hey, know how we bankrolled X title? Yeah, well it can't have any of this because it doesn't focus group well right now".

Do you have any example of this ever happening whatsoever in a negative fashion pertaining to Sony? Not trying to call you but you sound like you're literally talking out your ass.

No example of it happening specifically, but I really don't want the console and developer relationship to return to the amount of friction it seemed to have between Sega, Nintendo, and 3rd parties back in the day. Call it talking out of my ass or whatever you want, but that to an extent makes Square nothing but a 2nd party to Sony in my "bad" scenario and I don't want that to become the norm.

To me, especially with Square as the example here, Sony exclusivity means ONLY Final Fantasy titles from here until forever. I want to hold out some hope somewhere that we'll see a Chrono or Mana title again.

[Rokku]

No example of it happening specifically, but I really don't want the console and developer relationship to return to the amount of friction it seemed to have between Sega, Nintendo, and 3rd parties back in the day. Call it talking out of my ass or whatever you want, but that to an extent makes Square nothing but a 2nd party to Sony in my "bad" scenario and I don't want that to become the norm.

To me, especially with Square as the example here, Sony exclusivity means ONLY Final Fantasy titles from here until forever. I want to hold out some hope somewhere that we'll see a Chrono or Mana title again.

It is talking out your ass, people are just calling it what it is.

Also, how the hell do you reach that last conclusion? SE produced almost (if not entirely) exclusively for the PS2 last gen, and they still brought out Mana, DQ, and a plethora of games in other and new franchises. This notion of OMGZ SONY EXCLUSIVITY MEANS ONLY FF GAMES is just beyond words. Thank god there's no precedent for that not happening.

[Kirin]

It is talking out your ass, people are just calling it what it is.

Also, how the hell do you reach that last conclusion? SE produced almost (if not entirely) exclusively for the PS2 last gen, and they still brought out Mana, DQ, and a plethora of games in other and new franchises. This notion of OMGZ SONY EXCLUSIVITY MEANS ONLY FF GAMES is just beyond words. Thank god there's no precedent for that not happening.

If you honestly consider the Mana titles after Legends as good contributions to the series, then more power to you. To me they are drivel and pale in comparison to Legends, which is already an average entry in the series.

Any further and we're getting well beyond off track than what we already are. Square is publishing a lot of different things nowadays, but developing almost nothing. Sony knows the FF brand is a big deal, and I still don't see them as a company with a vested financial hand into Squares development money letting them venture too far away from what can make them both more money. Square has a hard enough time doing that now as it is.

[Rokku]

If you honestly consider the Mana titles after Legends as good contributions to the series, then more power to you. To me they are drivel and pale in comparison to Legends, which is already an average entry in the series.

Totally different point, dead IP, etc. Dawn, Children and Heroes were the final nails in the coffin for the Mana franchise.

Any further and we're getting well beyond off track than what we already are. Square is publishing a lot of different things nowadays, but developing almost nothing. Sony knows the FF brand is a big deal, and I still don't see them as a company with a vested financial hand into Squares development money letting them venture too far away from what can make them both more money. Square has a hard enough time doing that now as it is.

Square isn't developing much of anything because they're bleeding money thanks to the colossal flop that was XIV, I figured that was kind of common knowledge by this point in time.

You're still throwing around baseless crazy talk regarding an exclusivity to the console though, the fact remains that Square/SquareEnix were not only exclusive to, but received finances and resources on a number of titles from Sony throughout two entire console generations. Add into that the number of other titles they've supported and done absolutely nothing to hamper or destroy them, and the numerous stories out there about how good they are about projects they help fund/give resources to, and you're off in crazy territory.

Going back to exclusivity with Sony would actually be a decent move on SE's part, the 360 ports of XIII and it's sequel sold only a fraction of what the PS3 copies did, and people loyal to the franchise would buy into the hardware for it. And no one (except maybe MS loyals unwilling to switch) would be any worse off for it.

[Alkar]

Sony isn't going back to being exclusive on Playstation consoles, it's probably just one game. From what I've heard Nintendo is doing the same with another FF title on WiiU (but I'm not sure if the source can be trusted, if it's true it's gonna be a huge bomb).

[Spira]

That's not true.

ok maybe not all. but many of them.

but the point really was that devs have been so silent that there are more rumors than official words, which is pretty dismaying

[Bregor]

Sony isn't going back to being exclusive on Playstation consoles, it's probably just one game. From what I've heard Nintendo is doing the same with another FF title on WiiU (but I'm not sure if the source can be trusted, if it's true it's gonna be a huge bomb).

More Crystal Chronicles? I never bothered with them, haven't heard any good things really.