When Square left Nintendo, why did they go to Sony?

[Jrecee]

Saturn is plenty powerful, but the difficulty in programming meant that by the time any of the 3rd parties got a grasp on it, the next wave of consoles would be on their way. I'm sure everyone here has seen the videos of shenmue running on saturn.

[Damm64]

Now a remember a "documentary" of playstation museum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryi1QBA6XyI
I don't know how legit this story is...

Saturn is plenty powerful, but the difficulty in programming meant that by the time any of the 3rd parties got a grasp on it, the next wave of consoles would be on their way. I'm sure everyone here has seen the videos of shenmue running on saturn.

Yeah i see those videos, they are amazing, when you got the right developer you can do amazing things... Ico on PS1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq9oCaYlBlE

[Yancakes]

Now a remember a "documentary" of playstation museum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryi1QBA6XyI
I don't know how legit this story is...

The documentary itself is poorly made (overly fantastical, etc) and I didn't learn all that much that was new, but it's still an interesting watch. It's cool to hear opinions of people that were involved in the actual launch.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Saturn is plenty powerful, but the difficulty in programming meant that by the time any of the 3rd parties got a grasp on it, the next wave of consoles would be on their way. I'm sure everyone here has seen the videos of shenmue running on saturn.

Yes it was more powerful than many people claimed, I still maintain that the PS1 was much more powerful when it came to 3D graphics. It was also much easier to get the power out of than the Saturn. 2D graphics on the other hard were much easier on the Saturn. Especially considering, you know, the PS1 actually had no built in 2D processing and all the 2D is actually 3D.

[Flake]

Did Square ever put out software for a Sega platform?

[GameMasterGuy]

yep. development of FF7 actually began around 1994 and the game was originally intended for release on the SNES! but was later moved to the N64. since N64's cartridges lacked the required storage capacity (this is before the extra 4MB expansion pak was released which could had probably helped the development), Square instead released the game for the PS1.

Are we sure that the SNES FF7 that was apparently in development even had anything remotely to do with the game we got on the Playstation? Because I imagine it was probably more akin to the NES Final Fantasy IV. A totally different game that was scrapped.

this was the "rumored" screen shot:



but who knows, during that time (1994) it was talked about in the media..but this is the media were talking about. a lot of rumors of other games being released didn't make it on that time frame.

Might just be me, but those names seem slightly misaligned with the health numbers. Looks like a mock-up if you ask me.

[isiolia]

This is an interesting theory, are there any sources on it aside from the above screen cap?

So far the most realistic theory does seem to be a purely financial reason, though- and with most things, in my opinion, the obvious/most simple theory is frequently the truth. Obviously we'll never know for sure though, haha.

I'm also curious about how much more difficult the Saturn was to develop for than the PS1. The PS1 was a notoriously easy console to program for, and I wish there was any way of knowing how much of an effect that had on Square's decision.

Nah, I have no source, that's why I said it was a guess

You do run into some interviews regarding the Saturn vs the PS1. I know the guy that coded Powerslave for it has some floating around (like here) that give some developer perspective.

[Yancakes]

Did Square ever put out software for a Sega platform?

No. Aside from Sony simply ponying up the money, this is one of my main suspicions for why it never happened. Ignoring the fact that Square may have had some initial contact with Sony during the Nintendo Play Station development cycle, I think it's entirely possible that when Square was looking at alternatives to the Nintendo 64, they simply never really even thought about working with Sega, and Sega never even considered pursuing Square.

[GameMasterGuy]

Yeah, favoring Nintendo for a decade was pretty much declaring war on Sega; that's all there was back then, besides not as popular options such as the TG16 and Neo Geo.

[benderx]

I'll try to find the facts/details about this.
http://www.unseen64.net/articles/square ... tendo-eng/

"Nintendo, until 1996, owned a certain percentage of Squaresoft shares and thus had some influence in Square’s marketing decisions. However, Nintendo sold those shares and they were bought by Sony. Square made an agreement with the new partner: all the expenses for the production and the initial release of Final Fantasy VII would be covered by Sony"

"Romancing Saga, a new RPG in development at Squaresoft that was supposed to debut on the Japanese market in the autumn of 1991, was delayed by more than two months due to numerous problems with the normal cartridges of the SNES. Squaresoft requested a permit to Nintendo to use carts bigger than 12 MB, in order to remove some bugs and limitations in the game. But the plans of the software house of Kyoto were quite different, and the request was denied. Yet Nintendo allowed the use of new 16 MB carts only a few months later on Chunsoft’s new RPG, Dragon Quest V. For Square, there was no other choice than to release the game without certain features."

"Autumn 1995: Square, due to productions problems, decided to release their next games with an initial print run of 700,000 instead of the usual 1,000,000. This choice of was not well greeted by Nintendo, who claimed this was a breach of contract."