Final Fantasy Versus XIII Has Had "Many Difficulties"

[Flamezdudes]

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Oh dear. XD That's atrocious. I knew about FF12 getting two directors, I had a good inkling that their current CEO was a stupid, but I had no idea it was that bad in the corporate climate. I heard a rumor that Nomura was incredibly pissed over FFXIII going cross-platform midstream and would leave the company if the execs forced Versus to do the same, but I wasn't sure that was true until now. Yeesh, no wonder every game they make these days is such a bloody mess.

I don't understand why he would be pissed?? By going multiplayform you get more profits and gain more fans, i'm sick of platform exclutivity. Really, i don't want to go and buy a PS3 to play FFV13, i just wanna play it on my 360 for gods sakes!

 

[ww666]

Does Freeza hold the majority shares on both Square and Valve now?

 

[NickCaligo42]

I don't understand why he would be pissed?? By going multiplayform you get more profits and gain more fans, i'm sick of platform exclutivity. Really, i don't want to go and buy a PS3 to play FFV13, i just wanna play it on my 360 for gods sakes!

Two reasons.

First, multiplatforming does have the advantage of reaching a greater audience, yes, but it also comes with a ton of production challenges all its own, especially with this console generation. It isn't as simple as printing one copy of the game on a PS3 disc and one copy on a 360 disc. You basically have to code completely differently for either the 360 or the PS3 due to their dramatically different processor structure (more specifically the PS3's idiotic cell processor and its one CPU and many SPUs), and if you're trying to multiplatform across either of them you almost have to re-write the entire game's base code from the ground up.

It's not that big of a deal if you have the tools for it or if you're making the game with multiplatforming in mind from the very start... but doing it mid-stream? That's basically like taking an entire library of books--a really disorganized spider web of a library--translating it into a different language, and hoping that you don't miss a book while you navigate all the hidden passages and obscure shelving areas. GOD HELP YOU if you miss one, because the glitch fairy will come and fuck up your shit. Okay, maybe not the greatest analogy in the world, but you get the idea. In that situation it's a huge drain on the production that demands a ton of resources that could go to just working on making a better game.

Second, the 360 isn't well-loved in Japan... which is the understatement of a lifetime as Microsoft is -HATED- there, by orders of magnitude more than people claim to hate it in the west... and Square, until fairly late into this generation, was really arm-in-arm with Sony. It's as simple as Japanese xenophobia. He could very well see putting his game on Microsoft's console as a betrayal.

 

[SpaceMedarotterX]

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Oh dear. XD That's atrocious. I knew about FF12 getting two directors, I had a good inkling that their current CEO was a stupid, but I had no idea it was that bad in the corporate climate. I heard a rumor that Nomura was incredibly pissed over FFXIII going cross-platform midstream and would leave the company if the execs forced Versus to do the same, but I wasn't sure that was true until now. Yeesh, no wonder every game they make these days is such a bloody mess.

I don't understand why he would be pissed?? By going multiplayform you get more profits and gain more fans, i'm sick of platform exclutivity. Really, i don't want to go and buy a PS3 to play FFV13, i just wanna play it on my 360 for gods sakes!

There are two non-contradicting generally accepted viewpoints.

The first is Nomura feels gratitude to Sony because HIS games got there start on the Playstation and was one of the reasons it sells. In short he's a fanboy.

The second makes more sense, it's EASIER to do an exclusive release than a Multi-platform release. Way back when you could put your all into exploring the possibilities of the system, you can experiment more, you can push limits. If your making for multiple consoles in the end you have to bow to the lowest common denominator to save money.

I have multiple consoles so it doesn't bug me, but look at XIII. The one Multi-console one, the 360 port only made up 1/4th of the sales and it was TERRIBLE. I'm sorry if you like it but the game is terrible! And even if you don't think it's terrible if you think THAT was worth the ammount of money sunk into it then you are nuts.

It's the common Art vs Profits mindset, unsurprisingly Nomura is an artist first considering thats how he got his start in the business. Nomura is more in it to see how many limits he can push on any one system how much of a complete story he could tell. Remember before Wada became the chairman Nomura always went on record saying "I don't ever intend to do a sequel of any sort to FF7, I told my story" he said that for years and then he's all "Yeah I wanna tell a sequel" and even then his idea for a sequel was simply letters being passed between orphans telling a story. No magical disease, no Sephiroth clone, just a story.

I mean of COURSE he wants to earn a profit I don't think anyone is disillusioned to believe that he's some sort of starving artist who only wants to paint a beautiful picture, But on the sliding scale, Crafting a Story means more than "Earning billions instead of millions"

Meanwhile Wada is... Well Wada was the head of Enix, the company famous for releasing LITERALLY the same god damn fucking game 7 time, I mean more so than other "Same fucking game" franchises. That of course is Dragon Quest which only saw innovation because they went "Why don't we outsource to Level-5, known for being innovative with there games" for Dragon Quest 8 and beyond. That says enough about the man, he isn't in this business because he wants to make games or craft a good story or make something intresting. He's in this for the money. He is the Japanese version of Bobby Kotick.

So when you got two guys who have two different view points (No sequels to your stories vs Sequels and spinoffs out the anus) and they have to work together, the later is getting in the way you usually work... yeah.

Oh and please be aware i'm comparing FF before the Enix merger to DQ before the Enix Merger. Besides Tactis and Mystic Quest (which was actually SaGa) there really were no spin offs. Oh there was Chocobo Racing but that was fucking CHOCOBO RACING.

So yeah in short

Reason 1: Fanboy
Reason 2: Artistic desires outweigh Profit desires.

Note: Keep in mind I am not saying all Multi-Platform games are bad or going to be buggy or anything like that, But the fact is when working with hardware you have to appease the lowest tech level or your essentially building a new game (think of the Wii/PS2 copies of PS360 games)

And this is especially true if you want your game to run smoothly.

EDIT: Well I guess 4 reasons counting the ones above me. Oh and IIRC the coding for FFversusXIII right now is apparently done in OpenGL and not DirectX which makes it difficult to transfer.

 

[WilliamRLBaker]

Squares problems:working on too many games at once,giving game development to untalented individuals like Nomura, Making sequels and remakes and prequels instead new games, Not being up on the recent trends and listening to the advice of other developers whom have worked on the systems before.

 

[SpaceMedarotterX]

Squares problems:working on too many games at once,giving game development to untalented individuals like Nomura, Making sequels and remakes and prequels instead new games, Not being up on the recent trends and listening to the advice of other developers whom have worked on the systems before.

Hoo boy where do I begin

1. A lot of the 'square enix games' being made are subsidarys making games not square itself.
2. Yes he's so untalented he gave us Kingdom Hearts. Oh please I know the man has terrible fashion sense but the only game he's even been behind I could call 'Bad' would be FF8.
3. Well okay can't argue with this
4. ... What? No I mean are these two points or one? first of all 'Not being up on recent trends' because... why? and no I'm not insulting or attacking you I'm asking for actual examples. As for not listening to other developers I'm sorry we don't have the same spy bot inside the work place to know the inner workings beyond whats been reported. Seriously do you have any basis for that claim besides "There Japanese and Xenophobic"?

I'm not even defending the quality of there games now but there are plenty of LEGITIMATE problems you can point out.

 

[WilliamRLBaker]

Hoo boy where do I begin

1. A lot of the 'square enix games' being made are subsidarys making games not square itself.
2. Yes he's so untalented he gave us Kingdom Hearts. Oh please I know the man has terrible fashion sense but the only game he's even been behind I could call 'Bad' would be FF8.
3. Well okay can't argue with this
4. ... What? No I mean are these two points or one? first of all 'Not being up on recent trends' because... why? and no I'm not insulting or attacking you I'm asking for actual examples. As for not listening to other developers I'm sorry we don't have the same spy bot inside the work place to know the inner workings beyond whats been reported. Seriously do you have any basis for that claim besides "There Japanese and Xenophobic"?

I'm not even defending the quality of there games now but there are plenty of LEGITIMATE problems you can point out.

final fantasy vs 13, Final Fantasy 13 agiato, 3rd birthay, recoded, KH3, kingdom hearts birth by sleep, front mission evolved, final fantasy the 4 heros of light...ect
those are just the games I can think of off the top of my head we got being made by square teams them selves not by subsidiaries or enix members but square personnel.

Kingdom hearts=bad in my opinion, plot hole filled, filled with story inconsistancies...and is currently being filled with loads of useless spin offs, prequels, and possibly sequels that so far have yet to close a plot hole from past games, and often create their own. *just finished 358/2*

As for not keeping up with trends in programming...ect they took how long to get ff13 out? they created a brand new game engine for this gens systems and the first game to use it did not preform very well in frame rates or other areas even on ps3 it had bad frame rate problems.
they are taking longer and longer with their development time on games because of spreading their teams so thin, and not getting the help of others.

the last remnant which used UE3 engine preformed inanely badly on pc and 360... because they don't keep up with trends, and they don't get the help they should search for from other developers. Including epic the creator of UE3.

 

[Syntax Error]

FFFFFF.

I want to play this so badly and for it to be on the Xbox 360. I really don't want to go and buy a PS3. So far it looks awesome, especially since its a lot more open than FF13 but don't get me wrong i loved it but it was the linear game i'm guessing for the FF13 compilation. I'm a bit confused as to what he meant by "navigating Versus's world is like the 2D [Final Fantasy] games in HD".

And how come unannounced games are going to be released before announced games? That must mean that Versus is either being a pain to make, is really big/long or both.

On the one hand, releasing a game "when it's ready" means that more or less the game is going to be polished until you can see your reflection. On the other, if the game sucks, they have no excuses.