FF13 Exclusivity still being discussed?

[TheChefO]

If FF13 goes multiplatform, I expect it goes to Wii also. It'll be hard for SE to ignore Wii success all over the world and especially in Japan. I won't be suprise if they start porting or remaking the Playstation FF for Wii, starting with FF7. That would be a kick in the nuts to the Playstation fans.

FF13 exclusive to PS3 is probably a no go, not they way PS3 been seliing anyway and it'll continue that way, until Sony drops that price.

Agreed - good post.

 

[Inane_Dork]

I have to agree that FF will make it to the Wii rather soon if Wii sales continue on their very healthy pace.

 

[AlNom]

Are you all not counting the sequel to Crystal Chronicles (Crystal Bearers)?

http://www.nintendolife.com/articles/2006/05/09/square_enix_announce_final_fantasy_for_wii_and_ds
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy_Crystal_Chronicles:_The_Crystal_Bearers

 

[crystalcube]

A "forumer" in your position shouldn't be concerned with this mishmash ! Yes, fans (on both sides) will always claim the game has lost its appeal once it's crossed the border, but those are...well...emotionnaly-driven fans !

his position doesn't excluded him from being a fan of a particular system. Everyone is biased only difference is degree of bias

I dont' know about the impact that DMC4 will have on the battle, but as far as I know, DMC sales have been declining over the years

Any game going from Exclusive to multiplatform or other way round can have a huge impact on public perception. DMC4 may have declining sales but its move to being multiplatform has a huge impact on perception both platform are seen.

As for FFXIII, well Square Enix did move DQIX to Nintendo DS and as an exclusive. So FFXIII wont be that shocking.

 

[crazygambit]

I have to agree that aFF will make it to the Wii rather soon if Wii sales continue on their very healthy pace.

I don't think a numbered FF will ever go to the Wii. Some side stuff a la Chronicles, most definetely. And after reading the DMC thread something ocurred to me: Blu-Ray. FF games are all about high production values and pretty movies, and I like my pretty movies. In fact it was one of the reasons I bought a PS1 over a N64 were the pretty movies, and one of the reasons FF7 appeared excllusively on PS1. It just couldn't be done on cartridge.

There's been a lot of talk on these very forums about how on developers are ever gonna bother creating 50 gigs of unique content other than Hi def video. Well guess what? That's what FF is all about. I can't imagine a FF game without excellent CG. And I'm well aware of the tendency to go with in-engine cut scenes lately to keep a consistent look. Well, guess what? I hate them. I think DM3 for example would have been a much better game with CG instead (and those were the most amazing cut scenes in a game, ever).

I know they could just make it multiple DVDs, but if they have say 10 gigs of video (number pull out of my behind) and say they were able to split the game logic into 4GB parts (pull out of my ass too) since you have to consider better textures, while having access to most of the world at any one time (I'm betting there's a lot of redundant data in multi DVD games like Blue Dragon). Now you would need to split this in at least 3 DVDs, which doesn't sound that bad. But then again having the space there (and since it's very likely they started production thinking it was gonna be exclusive) there could be a lot more video in there. So it's not exactly trivial to release multiple DVDs either. Then there's also the option of a downgrade in movie quality, but I'd rather play FFXIII in all its glory thank you very much.

So in short after all this rambling I'd say it's still a very good posibility that this game is indeed still exclusive, I would hate to think otherwise.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yet every single website and forum was cheering aloud for DMC4 when it's been announced as a PS3 exclusive game.

And for those vocal people, that tiny minority who scream and shout on gaming forums, it is a big thing.

Come on now, don't play this game...

Huh? You're saying looking at real stats to determine the importance of a game to an entire system is just messing around, and the real way to judge the importance of a title is from how much noise the vocal fans make?

That's...um...strange reasoning. I guess the world should ban animal testing because the few people who stand around making any noise about it all shout it down - ergo that tiny vocal minority represents the opinions of everyone else.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I don't remember you posting DMC sales statistics while it was a PS3 exclusive, that's the point...

 

[Platon]

but I'd rather play FFXIII in all its glory thank you very much.

You mean watch

One has to consider though that it is generaly very expensive to make games these days and as you said FF is all about their CG movies and high production values and hence FF games are most likely some of the most expensive ones to make. Therefore they will need to have a market big enough to sell their product and then one has to concider that not everyone that gets a PS3 will get the game and breaking even is far from enough as well and most likely they need to make far more money than many other developers/publishes to fund their next project. After all all it is just bussines. That being said though, I am also on the very sceptical camp about FFXIII ever making it to the 360...

 

[DuckThor Evil]

You mean watch

One has to consider though that it is generaly very expensive to make games these days and as you said FF is all about their CG movies and high production values and hence FF games are most likely some of the most expensive ones to make. Therefore they will need to have a market big enough to sell their product and then one has to concider that not everyone that gets a PS3 will get the game and breaking even is far from enough as well and most likely they need to make far more money than many other developers/publishes to fund their next project. After all all it is just bussines. That being said though, I am also on the very sceptical camp about FFXIII ever making it to the 360...

I agree with the overal message, but this bit is unfair

"You mean watch

One has to consider though that it is generaly very expensive to make games these days and as you said FF is all about their CG movies"

typical FF game lasts about 40-60 hours or more depending how much one want's to explore. Out of those hours we are looking at 1-2 hours max of CG movies.

 

[archangelmorph]

If the White Engine is cross-platform, the time to create a port should be no more than creating the original game. They develop the engine concurrently on both platforms, and crete the content to run on the engine. It should add no delay.

Thats a big IF Shifty..

Considering we haven't heard anything at all to suggest this makes me believe that this is definitely not the case..

Also considering the fact that so far SE has developed two Xbox 360 titles (FFXI & Sylpheed) with non giving mention to using a cross-platorm White engine, i'd imagine that the engine is as it was described by some of the guys who worked on it "a PS3 specific engine developed from the work they did on the early FFVII demo they showcased in E3 2005.."

Also considering the fact that SE have licensed Unreal tech also provides even less of a reason to believe that this is the case..

 

[Platon]

I agree with the overal message, but this bit is unfair

"You mean watch

One has to consider though that it is generaly very expensive to make games these days and as you said FF is all about their CG movies"

typical FF game lasts about 40-60 hours or more depending how much one want's to explore. Out of those hours we are looking at 1-2 hours max of CG movies.

That was of course a tongue in cheek comment. Sure, it is not ALL about the CG but nevertheless they are one of the trademarks of the FF series...

 

[Archgamer]

Square-Enix said that they don't want the PS3 to be the overwhelming winner. But at the same time they don't want them to be the overwhelming loser. This was said in a GameSpot article not to long ago.

The simple solution is, make it PS3 exclusive since right now the PS3 is sitting dead last. Don't you think that will balance out the market more even, Mr Square-Enix?

 

[Fu3lFr3nzy]

Also considering the fact that so far SE has developed two Xbox 360 titles (FFXI & Sylpheed) with non giving mention to using a cross-platorm White engine, i'd imagine that the engine is as it was described by some of the guys who worked on it "a PS3 specific engine developed from the work they did on the early FFVII demo they showcased in E3 2005.."

I dont know if you can technically call FFXI a game "developed" for X360, because it was rather a straight port of a now aging game, so it didnt have the next gen bells and whistles(it was still using whatever engine FFXI ran on, which isnt White Engine).

I could see Wii getting their own FF spinoff like GCN did, same goes for X360, though I believe the main FF series will still stay on the PS3 platform.

Its also possible that the main FF franchise stays with Sony, and other SE RPG's could go multiplatform...

I dont rule out the possibility of future FF games to go multiplatform if all else fails, but should PS3 pick up pace in hardware sales, my theory stands

 

[NERO]

Other than FFXI which IMO shouldn't be included in the main FF line, FF games have always been single platform. Why SE decided to do this is beyond me. Maybe it has something to do with optimization or the Japanese market but this has always been the case. If FFXIII is made mp than it is a historical shift for Square.

 

[TheChefO]

You mean watch

One has to consider though that it is generaly very expensive to make games these days and as you said FF is all about their CG movies and high production values and hence FF games are most likely some of the most expensive ones to make. Therefore they will need to have a market big enough to sell their product and then one has to concider that not everyone that gets a PS3 will get the game and breaking even is far from enough as well and most likely they need to make far more money than many other developers/publishes to fund their next project. After all all it is just bussines. That being said though, I am also on the very sceptical camp about FFXIII ever making it to the 360...

Good post ... however I'd like to add to the response that Multiple Disc FF games are nothing new ... the same could be applied for the 360 version if they decide to port it and it would lose none of the production value. In comparison to last gen games cgi space, consider h.264/vc-1 compression

FYI

 

[NERO]

If the decision to go mp is made it will be all business and have nothing to do with any technical issues. I just find it odd that SE has never went mp. I think it's a machismo sort of thing that might run into trouble.

P.S. I think in this thread someone mentioned Sony having an 8% (non-voting) stake in SE. That blew my mind, for I hadn't the slightest idea.

 

[archangelmorph]

I dont know if you can technically call FFXI a game "developed" for X360, because it was rather a straight port of a now aging game, so it didnt have the next gen bells and whistles(it was still using whatever engine FFXI ran on, which isnt White Engine).

Thanks for the clarification although I already knew that, I just didn't mention it becasue it was kinda irrelevant to my point..

I agree with everything else you said too..

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't remember you posting DMC sales statistics while it was a PS3 exclusive, that's the point...

I had no interest in DMC as an exclusive, and I wasn't saying it was a major victory or anything for Sony. But I have posted again and again how 'major titles' that people consider important only appeal to a small subset of the total userbase. Most major titles are sold to less than 10% of a platform. Normally much less than 10%. Thus the loss of any exclusive franchise can only account for a loss of a few % of sales. That goes for any title on any platform. Even FF! It's loss as exclusive would be a huge coup for the forumites that care, but only 5 million PS2 owners bought FFX. If FFXII sells 10 million, that's 10% of PS2s. If all those PS2 owners bought a PS2 just to play FF, it's loss as an exclusive would account for 10% lower hardware sales - if 100% of those bought a rival machine instead. If FF is still available in PS2 as a cross-platform titles, obviously the number of 'defectors' will be less, by an immeasurable margin based on other appeals of the machine.

Of course there's a couple of exceptions. For XB to lose Halo exclusivity, that'd open up a large market elsewhere. Even then, it'd make little odds to the platform I think. People aren't going to buy a PS3 just to play Halo when the XB360 is cheaper, and Wii isn't going to give the same experience. So Halo going cross-platform, which would cause a huge furore across the whole intarweb, would probably account for little sales difference of the XB360 platform.

The real difference is in number of exclusives, and not key titles. If 100 games are exclusive to one platform, it has extra appeal. If every game out there is cross-platform, it has no game advantage. If PS3 were to have the same level of exclusive support as older PS's, it'd be a big plus-point. Most sane people weren't expecting this though, and to see titles become cross-platform is neither shocking nor a huge blow to Sony. At least, it shouldn't be a blow because they shouldn't have been expecting it. I haven't bought a lottery ticket, so it won't be a huge blow to me when I don't win millions on the lottery tomorrow!

As a final repeat of my key point, whatever title people think 'huge' on a platform, they have to remember that in most cases 90% or more owners of that platform couldn't care less about that game. 90% of PS2 owners couldn't care less if MGS didn't come out for it. 90% have no interest in whether FF is released on PS2 or not. 90% won't cry over the absence of Ratchet and Clank. Every million-unit best-seller is still statistically niche.

 

[scooby_dooby]

90% have no interest in whether FF is released on PS2 or not. 90% won't cry over the absence of Ratchet and Clank. Every million-unit best-seller is still statistically niche.

Meh, you base this on stats from the end of the PS2's lifecycle, but if you take a time period closer to launch, with a smaller install base it's a much different story. This is the time when console are trying to build a critical mass, and this is the time when notable exclusives are the difference maker.

i.e. GOW sold 3.5mil+ copies, that's between 35-45% of the userbase right there. Signifigant!

If a PS3 game sells millions of copies in 2007, you're looking at an equally high attach rate. There is more signifigance to these titles then an attach rate calulated at the end of a lifecycle would tell you.

Another example: July 2001, GT3 launches and sells 1million copies in it's first shipment, current install base in US at the time 3.4million. 30+% of owners bought GT3 within the first couple weeks.

It went on to sell 3.66millin copies in the US, which probably put it around the 55% mark for attach rate at the time. I believe US install base for PS2 was 6.9million by the end of 2001.

source: http://www.vgcharts.com/page4.html

 

[TheChefO]

I had no interest in DMC as an exclusive, and I wasn't saying it was a major victory or anything for Sony. But I have posted again and again how 'major titles' that people consider important only appeal to a small subset of the total userbase. Most major titles are sold to less than 10% of a platform. Normally much less than 10%. Thus the loss of any exclusive franchise can only account for a loss of a few % of sales. That goes for any title on any platform. Even FF! It's loss as exclusive would be a huge coup for the forumites that care, but only 5 million PS2 owners bought FFX. If FFXII sells 10 million, that's 10% of PS2s. If all those PS2 owners bought a PS2 just to play FF, it's loss as an exclusive would account for 10% lower hardware sales - if 100% of those bought a rival machine instead. If FF is still available in PS2 as a cross-platform titles, obviously the number of 'defectors' will be less, by an immeasurable margin based on other appeals of the machine.

Of course there's a couple of exceptions. For XB to lose Halo exclusivity, that'd open up a large market elsewhere. Even then, it'd make little odds to the platform I think. People aren't going to buy a PS3 just to play Halo when the XB360 is cheaper, and Wii isn't going to give the same experience. So Halo going cross-platform, which would cause a huge furore across the whole intarweb, would probably account for little sales difference of the XB360 platform.

The real difference is in number of exclusives, and not key titles. If 100 games are exclusive to one platform, it has extra appeal. If every game out there is cross-platform, it has no game advantage. If PS3 were to have the same level of exclusive support as older PS's, it'd be a big plus-point. Most sane people weren't expecting this though, and to see titles become cross-platform is neither shocking nor a huge blow to Sony. At least, it shouldn't be a blow because they shouldn't have been expecting it. I haven't bought a lottery ticket, so it won't be a huge blow to me when I don't win millions on the lottery tomorrow!

As a final repeat of my key point, whatever title people think 'huge' on a platform, they have to remember that in most cases 90% or more owners of that platform couldn't care less about that game. 90% of PS2 owners couldn't care less if MGS didn't come out for it. 90% have no interest in whether FF is released on PS2 or not. 90% won't cry over the absence of Ratchet and Clank. Every million-unit best-seller is still statistically niche.

Agreed great post.

To quote Phil Harison shock: ) ~'A platform is made on libraries, not single hits'~ Roughly quoted anyway.

However I am still of the opinion that a small handful of titles get individuals to pony up the intial investment and they purchase other games that tickle their fancy along the way. The fewer games that intice gamers exclusively to a platform the more that platform must rely on price and misc ability.