Sony, Nintendo and Square.. Join Forces?

What IS the situation is between Sony, Nintendo and Square?

In the weekly Toyo Financial Magazine\'s March 16th Special Edition (released March 11th in Japan), a full page article covering the background details to the recent movement of Square and Nintendo has been reported. The article also depicts a short graph of the relationship involving the companies.

A clip of the article can be found in Japanese site "Epistle", and is also available in text form in gaming news site GC-inside (special thanks to Dorikyasu for this news).


In the article, the following points have been made.


1- Conditions given to Square by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) as the second major stockholder was that, Square\'s contract to Nintendo will not effect Square\'s development for the Playstation2.

2- By creating a new company, Square will be able to clearly distinguish between where Yamauchi\'s funds are going, and also send a message that Square will still keep their main focus on the PS2.

3- However, the new company is a paper company, as Square executive Akiyoshi Kawazu and approximately 10 developers from Square\'s Production 2 team will actually be involved in the development. Realistically, the new company is a part of Square, and is only portrayed as a separate company by its structure.

4- Reconciliation with Nintendo has been one of the top priorities for new Square CEO Souichi Wada, as a mean to stabilize Square\'s income. Wada is speculated to have also hurried in rebuilding their relationship in order to stop the flow of important staffs to leak outside of the company. There have been cases of staff leaking by groups in the past, as employees of Square specializing in 2D have been eager to work on Software for Nintendo.

5- While Sony and Nintendo were each other\'s strongest enemy, this distance has shrunk since the change of rivalry structure with the appearance of Microsoft and its Xbox.

6- As Bandai\'s Wonderswan was struggling in sales, Square\'s development for the handheld console supported to popularize the machine. However, with this new situation, Bandai will be left in an even difficult standpoint than before.

7- Thus, Square has found an effective way to utilize their assets from their past, while Nintendo has now gained a strong boost for their Game Boy Advance which is lacking in vitality.

Sources:
http://www.toyokeizai.co.jp/mag/toyo/
http://www.planetps2.com/mmcafe/


It really was an offer square could not refuse.. and sony could not refuse either!
Nintendo pays for the development of the NGC games, while square gets to release GBA games and make millions and make millions off from a FREE game on the NGC.. the NGC sells more and the xbox looks less appealing.

Sony wins also, beacuse they own ALOT of square stock.. and they keep all the big titles..

Surprising this all ends up being a tactic from sony to hurt the xbox even further.. practically screwing them in japan

Also, juging from the article it appears sony has very strong control over square, and sony is working to keep square happy.

the big loser.. Microsoft.. Who will probably never get any square games beacuse sony will not allow them too. And they are now up against Sony and Nintendo who have basically joined forces to make it REALLY hard for them to suceed.

Sony asks square to use nintendo to make cash and screw the xbox...
while benfifting all 3 parties.. sony nintendo and square
well.. i\'ve now basically seen everything

I then later see this on gamespot

From today\'s Gamespot Q&A:

Question: "What are your thoughts on a possible unholy union between Microsoft and Square?"


Answer: "If you had asked me this on Friday, I would have said that the chances are pretty good--especially for Final Fantasy XI. But over the weekend, some new reports trickled out and made me think otherwise. First of all, you have to realize that anything Nintendo has done for Square, Microsoft could have done. Yamauchi\'s funding is nothing compared with what Bill Gates could do. Well, maybe it\'s something. But besides that, reports over the weekend suggested that Sony and Nintendo have banded together to try to make sure the Xbox does not take off in Japan. Shrewd? Hell yes. But it\'s nothing Microsoft isn\'t familiar with."

I\'m not nuts after all :eek:

If this is a Japn ganging up to stop MS from competing in the Japan market then I\'m extremly dissapointed in the Japanese

its a bull**** tactic, even though MS deserves it in alot of ways


I think the console market will be alot better off in the future with MS and SOny going head to head

without MS prescense Sony can be a little slower and a little less determined.


and what\'s with the BS of Japanese stores pulling Xbox\'s when the PS2 had as many problems launching here

I wish American stores would have pulled PS2\'s and demanded SOny fix those disk read errors way back

I guess though in typical American way its about the sales, and pulling machines would not have made anyone any money

very sad

I seriously, seriously doubt that Nintendo and Sony are ganging up against Microsoft.

If Sony didn\'t invest into Square, they still would\'ve moved from PS2 development to PS2/GCN/GBA and possibly Xbox development. Nintendo isn\'t giving a damned cent to Sony, outside of the stuff Sony gets from owning 19% of Square.

We also don\'t know about "Sony keeping all of the big titles". Once Square finishes up on their last scheduled PS2 game, they can start new games (sequel or brand-new) on any system they choose. Sony\'s agreement with SquareSoft only makes sure that they don\'t cancel any PS2 titles (like Kingdom Hearts) and move them exclusively to GameCube. At least, from what I can see.

>"We also don\'t know about "Sony keeping all of the big titles". Once Square finishes up on their last scheduled PS2 game, they can start new games (sequel or brand-new) on any system they choose."

You must be assuming that Sony sells its stock at that point?

How do you know this?

I seriously, seriously doubt that Nintendo and Sony are ganging up against Microsoft.

Well it sure doesnt sound like thier being enemys either.

I think some of you are over estimating just how much control Sony has over Square.  Square is still 3rd party last I checked and 20% of a companies stock doesn\'t mean you own it...you might have influence over what goes on.

Chrono: Err.. how would I or you or anybody outside of Sony, Square, or Nintendo know what\'s going on?

From what I can see, that quote is correct.

Square can develop for Nintendo and Microsoft if they like.. but Sony makes it so that PS2 development cannot be shafted solely to be ported over. Like Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy XI.. those games are definitely coming to PS2.. and might be ported. Square wants FFXI on as many platforms as possible, so who knows?

Anyways.. from what I can see, Sony demands that while Square can make games for every system.. they have to make sure that PS2 doesn\'t slip out of Square\'s plans. This might be false, but it sounds like what\'s going on here.

Heh, maybe in return we\'ll have Super Mario PS2  or PokeMon Fantasy(urrrgggghhh!!!!) for SONY in order for SONY to allow Square to give a better deal to Nintendo....


==============================
I really don\'t want POKEMON FANTASY.....

1- Conditions given to Square by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) as the second major stockholder was that, Square\'s contract to Nintendo will not effect Square\'s development for the Playstation2.

Blade and Ginko.. then what does that quote mean?

Nintendo and Sony combining would kick ass. Last time they did that, the PSX was created, need I say more?

Chrono: That quote is what I\'ve been saying for the past 2 or 3 posts..

It won\'t affect PS2 development.. but you can do plenty without affecting PS2 development.

Square is a fairly big company.. while they\'re working on Final Fantasy XII and Chrono Break for the PS2, they could also be supplying the GCN with Unlimited SaGa and Vagrant Story II (for example) ..unless of course those games were already heading to PS2.

no blade.. i\'m talking about THIS part

Conditions given to Square by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE)

This says sony is telling square what they can and can\'t do..

Hehe.. true.

Well, we all know that Sony has the second biggest stake in Square.

What they can truly restrict Square from doing, we will see in coming months.