Square Enix – We May Release Final Fantasy Game Every 1-2 Years

Square Enix has said that the developer may follow the popular industry practice of installments for franchises on a yearly or 2 year basis with their Final Fantasy series.

[john2]

Oh, Square Enix. When will you learn?

[Optical_Matrix]

What are you on about? That's what they used to do up until FFX

[fluffydelusions]

Yep but let's just hope this doesn't turn to utter crap yearly rehashes like certain other games. TBH, my faith in them delivering isn't very high anymore.

[crxss]

@optical_mattix Lol awesome reply. Here' a bubble.

It would be nice if SE could pull it off again. As long as they don't make game engines so often it could be done.

[tigertron]

Exactly, they didn't take decades i.e. Versus: been in development since 2005, its now 2011 nearly 2012 and still no release date.

[Blaine]

@Optical

Completely ignoring the fact that development cycles for all games were shorter back then.

It's the way the industry evolved: increased production values, more staff, longer dev cycles. You can't compare making a game in the 1990s to 2010s.

Squeenix's problem isn't their development cycle, it's mediocrity. Pumping out more games won't change the fact that what they're producing isn't as good as the Final Fantasies of yesteryears.

[Elyxir-pSx]

This is a good thing, they could try out all kinds of different things and maybe make a good FF game.

[Tanir]

@Tigertron

no offense buddy but ur wrong about Versus, much like everyone has been. Versus was Revealed (Far too early imo)

they didn't really start developing till ff13 was done, and now in full development now that type zero is done. just because they showed a cg trailer years ago didn't mean it was in 100% full on development.

Versus will come out when its ready and they are working on it full force now so it will come eventually.

besides its doing a full world map and crazy gameplay, its like Wine it gets better with time, unlike certain games that come out every year

[DragonKnight]

@Blaine: You're partially correct. I'd say that SE's problems are numerous. They have serious leadership problems, time management problems, looking for ideas in the wrong places (i.e. making their games westernized when people didn't buy them for that reason), too much secrecy (closed mega theatres), lying (Last Remnant, FFXIII exclusivity first to PS3 then to PS3 in Japan, FFXIV) and now they simply have given up on their own ideas and instead are just taking their cue from the devs of the CoD franchise.

They need a massive restructuring and to fire Wada.

[BlmThug]

Got Milk

[Army_of_Darkness]

Then do whatever the hell you want SE.

[Eamon]

What Square needs to do is get rid of Wada. He is incompetent and has proven this numerous times.

He cannot manage development at Square-Enix. Square-Enix should stick to their current development cycle times so they can keep their reputation of pushing boundaries at every iteration of the series. Doing a Call of Duty and deciding to sacrifice quality for cash will get you nowhere.

Although, I consider Versus to be an exception here. Versus SHOULD NOT be taking this long to develop. It's because Wada completely flopped here when he decided to go ahead with a Final Fantasy XIII-2 instead of allowing all the staff to focus on finishing Versus.

[princejb134]

1 to 2 years of development is not a good thing for a rpg games
don't want a rushed product

[Ddouble]

Some of you people complain about everything. I'll take 2 years than waiting 6 Years for Versus to arrive. What made it worse is we got one trailer per year and yet some of you are complaining when there now saying they want to cut it down.

In the PS1 days FFVII was released in 1997 then FFVIII in 1999, FFIX in 2000 and FFX in 2001. All that with other games like parasite eve, chrono cross, xenogears and vagrant story been released as well. I'll be a happy man if we can get back to how it was in those days.

We seriously lacked a good stream of JRPG's this gen. I know the PSP got loads but it was lacking on consoles.

[iamtehpwn]

For anyone complaining and then saying "OMFG Versus XIII is taking too long", stop be a hypocrit. Also, May I remind you:

FF7 - 1997
FF8 - 1999
FF9 - 2000
FF10 - 2001

If anything, releasing a Final Fantasy every 1-2 years is "going back to what Final Fantasy used to be". 5 year wait for 12, the 4 year for XIII and the going on 6 year wait for Versus XIII hasn't really produce very much quality.

[HardCover]

Wait, hypocrite? what?

What?

[thesummerofgeorge]

The thing is, they're missing the point. Why set an arbitrary amount of time for their development cycles? Fans just want a great FF game, and however long (within reason) it takes to make it right, is how long they should spend making it. Why does it either have to take 1 year or 6? Must they go to both extremes?

SE needs new leadership in a bad way; preferably someone with vision. I suppose I shouldn't complain, after all, it is progress that SE finally realizes they have a problem...

[RaidensRising]

Certainly not enough dev time for a series of this magnitude, but then again, it's the sign of the times.

[Troll-without-Bridge]

FFVII-FFVIII-FFIX-FFX all had that time of development and are possibly the best of the series.

[RaidensRising]

Maybe so, I don't have the details, but in this day and complexity of video game development, 2 years turnover means either a bigger team to get it done quicker or a lot of short cuts being made, and possibly a lesser game as a result.

[Eamon]

Alright let's talk in simple terms for the apparent layman gamers here.

It probably takes 10 minutes for a graphic designer to make a small sprite (consisting of like 30 pixels) of a single character back in the SNES era.

It probably takes an entire week for a graphic designer to finish a 3D model of a single character in this current era.

As you can see, the development times in this generation are longer due to complexity and scale of the design process.

Meaning for FFVI to have had only 2 years, if it was to be made today in HD etc it would probably take 5 years.

[Disccordia]

But in the SNES days, four people made a videogame. Now a team of 200 work on one

[JebusF]

Just remake Final Fantasy VII and we'll be cool Square-Enix.

[shodaime]

rename the franchise to Final Milktasy if they do that. Such a great series wasted.

[princejb134]

was a great series
it went downhill after ff11

[digitalivan]

Tell me that you just didn't say that FF12 was a downhill for the series.

[Game4life]

My only real complaint with FF12 was the story. It just wasn't the best story.

[princejb134]

ff12 was a downhill for the series

[Relientk77]

Or you could not, and actually work hard on ur games and go back to your roots. Thats wat ur fans want.

[Godmars290]

And when it was good, it tended to be very good.

Goodbye Square.

Edit:
They should be aiming for a 3-4 year production cycle. A game every other year is pushing it while one is just ridiculous when considering the creation of what's suppose to be an epic quest.

Besides, the real issue this gen is that they talked about the games too early. Technically wasted nearly two years Turning XIII from a PS2 to PS3/360 title.

[iamtehpwn]

GodMars, must you try to troll every Square Enix article, even if it's good news?
I mean, even if Final Fantasy XIII-2 gets 9/10 reviews and turns out to be a great game, you'll there like "WELL, DOOM EVERYBODY. IT STILL SUCKS SOMEHOW"

[Godmars290]

1) Wasn't aware that stating ones opinion now constituted trolling.

2) Given that we're talking about a game series with installments that ran 40 hours, I just don't see the stories being of any value on a 1-2 dev table. Assassin's Creed has begun to get shoved out yearly and what's the average run time for the story there?

[Ddouble]

FFVII to FFX has a timeline of just 5 years. Why should they aim for 4 years for one game when they've done 4 mainline FF games in five years with other great games on the side. The stories do not take long to create. It's building an engine from scratch that takes tiime.

An FF game every 2 years is just right. As long as they allocate their resources properly we will see a nice stream of games reminiscent to the PSX days. I don't know how that is bad news but somehow you've convinced yourself that it is.

[Troll-without-Bridge]

SE haters complain if they take too long, if they dont take long enough they complain as well. Seriously just look at yourselfs. Lol and im supposed to be the Troll here.

[kma2k]

Give me back cities & open world & take away the linerality of everything & i might love this. I lived & breathed JRPG's for YEARS! Ive fell in love with the western RPG's over this gen though, ill still play JRPG's but it wont be quiet as excitged about them.

[Neko608]

Fear not, Persona 5 is in development. Square who?

[Inception]

Yup. This gen devs like Atlus, NIS, Level 5, Falcom, and others are taking a lot of JRPG spotlight from SE. More and more gamers talked about SMT/Persona, Ni no Kuni, Legend of Heroes series, etc than FF.

I think Square golden age are already passed them ;)

[Son_Lee]

This is more like it. FF games have started to take 4-6 years to make. That's unacceptable. Every 1-2 years is good. That's how it USED to be. And I know it's harder to develop games nowadays, but don't give me that excuse. This has me beyond stoked!!

[Blasphemy]

Don't they do this already? Can anyone name a year that there was not a Final Fantasy title released?

[Lucreto]

I am for and against this. It is hard to decide.

Some games can take too long from concept to release. Look at Versus XIII and the gap between FF X and FF XII.

Saying that I would like a feature full game unlike FF XIII.

[Apotheosize]

ROFL how about you release Versus before you make that statement bro

[LondonMediaOS]

And now things go down hill from here... This should truly worry any fan; yeah you get a Final Fantasy title, but the quality shall probably be absent, so by 2015 we should be at Final Fantasy XXI..... Maybe they mean half shall be handheld (I can only dream.)
If they could get quality writers, and old school gaming mechanics that matched the glory days of what Square was able to produce back in the olden days when devs gave a damn, then this would be stellar news. But in the end it seems we shall be shafted.
~ You just witnessed a Nerd Rant ~

[CLOUD1983]

I can accept 2 to 3 years development time for a JRPG because I understand that it's not easy to come up with a good story and make a lively universe from scratch to go along with the story, but 3 years I believe must be the limit.

Consoles change every 6-7 years the technology move very fast so what that means for a game franchise? ND have very restricted development time with UC, 1 game every 2 years and that was the reason they succeed to release 3 games before we move on with the next generation of consoles, and that's the last UC game we will see imo at least in PS3.

For a JRPG developer 2-3 years for each game means 2 to 3 games in 1 life-cycle of a console if u need 5-6 years to finish 1 game then that's all u ever did before we move on to the next generation and I dont think that's very good for the company sales-wise & for the fans.

SE split the staff in so many projects that everything takes too much time in the end, not that I want to play anything from them they releasing failures for the past 10 years I just mention them as a bad example to what a company must never do.

They must start focusing on 1 or 2 projects at the time and 2 only if they have a 2nd team so they wont disrupt the work of the 1st else fck it they cant use the same people on 4-5 projects simultaneously, SE do exactly the opposite of what Squaresoft did, when Takahashi start working on Xenogears he start his own team and abandon FFVII development to focus himself 100% in this new project.

SE it's a circus that start 5 games at once and make 5+ years to finish each one Wada is a disgrace for the company and I am sure no1 can understand how this useless piece of sh1t r still there and lead.

[darfreeze]

This is great news for me. I still have faith in SE especially after type-0.

[DasTier]

And i'll continue my trend of never buying them

[PsERSONA]

After Versus, I'm interested to see what they'll do with FFXV. I hope they'll do a setting similar to that of FFXII and/or FFIX.

[MaideninBlack]

Final Fantasy XIII-3 confirmed!

[Poseidon13]

That’s not for sure nothing is 100% confirmed.
If they actually decide to make XIII-3 I think It would depend on the success of XIII-2.
I still don’t know what to think about it :/

[silkrevolver]

...As long as they don’t pull a Modern Warfare, I’m fine with it. The games are allowed to have similar battle systems. In fact, each NES game, each SNES game and each PS1 game all had the same basic battle system as one another (7-9 played exactly the same, it was simply progression and other cool stuff that changed). I’d be cool with that again, instead of them taking YEARS to make an entirely new battle system each time (10, 12 and 13 could not be more different in that regard.)

Keep those systems, tweak stuff around it, make good stories: and always keep it fresh... be final fantasy again.

[Shinuz]

Just let this series die already.

[Roper316]

the proverbial final nail in the coffin for the once mighty & great FF. reduced to nothing more then a RPG equivalent of COD and other such yearly games. After Vs XIII if it ever releases I don't think I will be buying anymore SE games, they can go on the no buy list with Capcom.

[GraveLord]

Every 2 years is enough for Final Fantasy.
You can switch between the Vita releases and the PS3 versions.

[Styxoric]

As long as they can keep the quality up, i'm all for.

Oh and for f*cks sake, stop "westernizing" the series.

[Inception]

Where...versus???
is that game still alive???
6 years in the making and we still don't have a release date -_-

I hope next year SE will throw a lot of info andddd a release date for versus

But, if they not throw some release date than it's confirm versus is a vaporware ;)

[iWishTifaWasReal]

but Call of Duty is a recycled game.
if Square Enix follow Activision's footsteps then we will get Recycled Final Fantasy games -,-

[Hyperbomb69]

I dont care as long as theyre PS3 exclusive. We dont need Xbox to cut gimp my final fantasy games like they did with 13.

[Killman]

If they could make quality like FFVII through FFX, then I don't care. The problem is that they probably will not do that.

[Hicken]

I certainly hope they decide against this. I love FF as much as the next fan, but all I REALLY want is a quality game. If there isn't one out for a few years, well, I still have IV-XIII I can play while I wait.