Don't Blame Square Enix Because Sony Can't Afford Exclusives

Greg Joachim writes: "The internet is full of sites, blogs, and news services where Square Enix is being called all kinds of names simply because they’re not content to publish their titles on one single platform. In particular, it’s the Sony breed of fanboy that appears to be the most emotionally distraught over Square Enix and their recent releases."

[NYC_Gamer]

well sony buys studios instead of 3rd party exclusives..which is more smarter in the long run

[moho-foe]

And then Sonys studios share technology among them all. Smart!

[booni3]

Wow.

[masterofpwnage]

i think the only reason some people are is beause alot of people bought the ps3 for ff13 and ffv13. Now they are going multi, i bet you some people feel cheated, especially back then with the high ps3 price.

[darksied]

Yeah, a lot of people are mad that FF13 isn't exclusive. You know what, that's just an excuse and misplaced anger; those people shouldn't be that mad that it isn't exclusive, they should be that mad cause the game sucked. The most lifeless FF13, and lo and behold, BOTH consoles get to bask in it's crappiness.

Hmm, maybe the PS3 guys wanted to be the ONLY ones to bask in it's crappiness.

[PeaceWalker15]

It's not that they can't afford it. There just not stupid enough to. They won't make nearly enough for what they would pay to keep something exclusive.

[Blaze929]

but...Agent?

[Hellsvacancy]

I dont think Sony paid for Agent, R* probably begged Sony to take it in way of apology over GTAIV

[PirateThom]

Agent is Sony getting their money back from LA Noire, considering they paid for its development and still don't have a game.

[kratos17]

agent is in exchange for timed gta exclusivity

[jetlian]

Why would R* beg sony for anything? If anything sony should beg R* Sonys ps2 was more successful due to R* not sony's own doing. the notion that a 3rd party would beg is hilarious

[FarEastOrient]

It isn't about them not being able to afford it, they just don't want to because there is a sugar daddy around the corner. Companies smaller than Square Enix is still making exclusives like Level 5, XSeed, Atlus, and even companies bigger than them like Sega, Bioware, and Ubisoft.

[Applegate]

Paying a 3rd party dev to develop a game exclusively for a platform is actually is the same thing as paying for exclusivity.

Sony paid for Agent exclusivity by paying for LA Noire exclusivity.

[PirateThom]

Funny thing about LA Noire. It was funded by Sony, made by a former Sony developer who set up a new studio (Team Bondi) with a publishing agreement with Rockstar. Not so much "paid for exclusivity", which implies they paid to keep it off another system, more like "paid the development" so exclusivity was assured.

Really, it should have been SCE published... like Heavy Rain or LittleBigPlanet, but they opted to let Rockstar publish and the game ended up as nothing. Rockstar bought out the IP rights and had to give Sony "Agent" to pay it off.

[Blaze929]

Got links for all your facts?

[PirateThom]

Links for what? News from 2005?

Team Bondi being founded by the Brendan McNamara? The money Sony sunk into it? Rockstar picking up publishing?

Look, in terms of this game it's never open and shut and mostly rumour, but there's a lot of really basic information people don't seem to get with it.

Phil Harrison and Brendan McNamara did not get along, McNamara left Sony because of this, but was happy to make the game as long as SCEE weren't involved in any capacity. It's no secret. In 2004, in an interview, McNamara said "the project is wholly funded by Sony Computer Entertainment America. We have a long-term exclusive arrangement with SCEA." This was before the game was revealed, as a Rockstar published game, in 2005.... hey, the year Phil Harrison became president of Sony's newly formed "Worldwide Studios", the guy who rubber stamps game development and where funds go. Any decision to drop the game fell to a guy who did not see eye to eye with the guy developing said game. Of course it was dropped after wholly covering development costs and seeing no return. Rockstar picked it up from Sony, the first time Rockstar were mentioned was 2005 at E3.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

Wow why would Sony buy Square games when they owns some of Square Enix stock?

[Alcon]

I don't know why some people disagreed with you but it IS true.
Sony owns 8.25% of Square Enix ( http://www.square-enix.com/... )

[Infernostew]

Yup. Sony pretty much bailed Square out when they were on the verge of bankruptcy from that horrid movie know as The Spirits Within. It's funny how SE has literally bitten the hand that used to feed them.

[silvacrest]

well, they are paying for it now

aren't they?

[NastyLeftHook]

what a poor article. i agree with you, in my opinion if i owned a company i would never want to dig deep in my pokets to get a game on my consol. think about it, if microsoft has to "PAY" developers to put it on their console, its really sad.

[Tony-A]

Can't afford exclusives

VS

Just bought Media Molecule

Hmm....

PS: Would they really have to buy SE when their latest game sold 4 million on their console? Not to forget, it was already an exclusive in Japan, which was able to sell Limited Edition Slims, as well. They made money off of that semi-multiplatform game without doing much at all! Talk about financial trickery!

[UnwanteDreamz]

Square is being called names because their last game was sh*t. Greg Joachim is a hack. I know die hard FF fans who couldn't get through the first 20 hrs. Greg Joachim is a hack.

[Myze]

The game wasn't great but it's nowhere near as bad as some people try and make it out, but sadly, it's one of the best games they have released this generation that wasn't on a handheld. Just shows how much Squaresoft/Enix have fallen in the last 5 or so years.

[Death2494]

Single, most effective response to this article. Kudos NYC gamer, kudos.

[lordcrackpot]

"more smarter"....looooool

[Raf1k1]

To say Sony can't afford to buy exclusives is just stupid. Does this guy have any idea how much Sony spends in developing first party games?

[Army_of_Darkness]

watch, by the time this console generation ends, Sony probably won't even need that much 3rd party support anymore considering the fact that they're army of first party developers keep on accumulating.

just think about how much excellent first party games that are gonna be released for the pS4 launch 7-8 years from now!

[solidjun5]

The article...is fanboyish. Hmmm

[sikbeta]

Flamebait article made by a FANBOY from the Ironical site goFanboy.com

Sony don't pay For Exclusives any more, cos they Have Their Own First Party studios and that's the most smartest thing ever...

Why Pay to others for Multiplatform games that can be gimped and such cos eventually those games go multiplat and Devs already take other Architectures in mind, before the Deal is Done

Sony make with that money Awesome Exclusives and that's the Best Thing for Gamers

[HolyOrangeCows]

It's just a disgusting site that gets its hits by poking at fanboy hot spots.
It's about time that we ban Gofanboy, hiphopgamershow, planetxbox360, etc. from N4G.

Yep, Sony is REEEEEEAL poor. That's why they buy so many studios.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

''Don't Blame Square Enix Because Sony Can't Afford Exclusives''

''well sony buys studios instead of 3rd party exclusives..which is more smarter in the long run''

Lol! and with Factual Evidence! good one Nyc_Gamer and 1 Bubble. No one can beat that phrase.

[cjflora]

More smarter. I love irony.

[GunShotEddy]

They all pay for exclusives. Sony is just hurting right now because of the economy. Once business picks up, you'll see FF securely exclusive on Playstation again and BETTER FOR IT!

[Death2494]

sales are down across the board for all the big 3, not just Sony. Check out April's NPD. Xbox 360 outsold ps3 in AMERICA by on 4k, which makes it irrelevant because of japan. Sony doesn't need to buy exclusives because it makes them. Microsoft internal studio is almost none existent with the exception on RARE. They need to buy exclusives and even then it's only timed exclusives. They paid Rockstar 75.million just to bring the gta series to xbox360 and the dlc. Liberty City stories still ended up on the ps3 and you didn't need to have GTA to play it.

[sikbeta]

Is not For the Economy, it was clear for the Beginning, No more Third Party Exclusivity Deals for all, Of course Sony will Secure some Games, but those deals can only be Applied with Big Titles, like GTA series or such

The Thing is, Build Your Own Games and handle the Situation by your Own, not relying on Third Party Companies, this is the Best Way to Do it cos:

1·Sony Exclusives are Only on Playstation Gaming Devices
2·Growing Line-up of Exclusives can Bring more Consumers
3·The money Spent on their own Games will bring them Real Money and Not just Royalties

[mrv321]

Sony can't afford exclusives AND yet they have 16 first party studios, Countless exclusives and quality testing of the highest standard.

[BeaRye]

Their first party titles are great! But the 3rd-party support for exclusive has dried up.

[wazzim]

That's only because the PS3 is no PS2 with 100million+ sold. It's all about sales.

[BeaRye]

"That's only because the PS3 is no PS2 with 100million+ sold. It's all about sales. "

And the PS3 isn't providing those numbers.

[mrv321]

Or because it now cost $25 million to make a game, releasing on as many platforms make sense without money from companies.

I'd rather have a Sony first party game on average over a 360 third party game on average.

I know gears is great but there's quite a bit of shovelware on disk on the 360.

[cyborg6971]

@ wazzim When these games came out the ps2 had not sold 100 million consoles.

[wazzim]

No but you get my point, no? The sales were MUCH better than gamecube and Xbox combined, even with the weakest hardware of three.

Developers didn't go for graphics but for sales, same was with the N64 vs PS1 era.

[kratos17]

no sony chose to put money into first party, they could have easily threw money at third party but they feel timed exclusivity is pointless

[KingME]

Then since you know that perhaps you can new be quiet about Square Enix.

[mookins]

3rd party support has dried up? Really? I could have sworn Yakuza 3 and 4 was third party...

[ZombieNinjaPanda]

Refer to comment 3.

[yoghurt]

This gen Sony have just been alot smarter - yes they have let some 3rd party exclusives go but they have a strong 2nd party base and an even stronger bunch of 1st party studios, producing arguably the best games we have seen this gen across all platforms

when sony loses a 3rd party exclusive, its not losing it completely, it just means its coming out multiplat so sony doesn't really lose, so long as it keeps its strong 1st party base they know they will be fine

[Bordel_1900]

SE are really struggling this gen, and pissing off the PS3 fanbase won't make it any better for them.

[The Wood]

is square enix really making such great games where dudes have to write such crappy articles. How much is the upkeep of so many studios and games anyway.....im sure it bests buying timed exclusivity any day of the week. Worst thing is sony's methods may not be perfect but ps gamers have had games on games on games each year of a higher quality and variety without going through years like 09 for u know what. Its clear the majority prefer more true exclusives over a few timed ones.

@ BeaRye

3rd party exclusives have all but dried up in the industry. This was predicted years ago. Sony knew this so the continued to push their own studios.....Its worked a treat....true story

[Elimin8]

But... Think about it sony can match or surpass 3rd party Devs with their exclusives so why should they care.. Only reason I can see are for the fans of said 3rd party titles... So that SONY an cater to them other than that SONY don't need them....

My 2Cents.....

[RatFuker]

anyone remember the gta debate? whose shoes would you rather be in? sony who dosent pay for nothing, or microsoft who pays for everything and gets nothing in return. only timed exclusives.

[JD_Shadow]

Oh my God, THIS site again, talking about how they made up their own reasons behind the "SE/Sony fanboy" rage and made an article based upon hysteria? C'mon, Go Fanboy! THINK about what you're basing this on: a completely untrue reason behind why people were squeamish about a possible FFV13 360 port. Do some actual READING and LISTENING to why these people were scared of it and what they were scared of.

[BeaRye]

you may want to learn to read yourself; you might learn something.

[mookins]

...I wonder if Sony fanboys raped and killed the family members of these people whining so much about them...

Because you know...360 fanboys are any better?

Nobody's whining about Sony losing an 'exclusive'. Most people feel it should stay exclusive because it shows the capabilities OF THE SYSTEM. If it goes multiplatform, then we can't see how 3rd party developers handle the system.

Just wow.

Lol @ budgetgamer. :D

[thebudgetgamer]

360 fanboys are clearly pillars of the gaming community spreading positive vibes throughout gaming.

[Karlnag3]

that was priceless man xD fanboys are all as bad as each other... all of them argue about insignificant things and they do it endlessly. Ya' hear that, fanboys? What you are doing is pointless and has no end in sight, at least in the form of somebody "winning" so just stop.

[n4gn4gn4gn4g]

f'ing chocolate milk!

[Tony-A]

I love how this arguement still goes on when PS3 fanboys have already had their fill of "360 version sucks!" "3 discs, lmao!11!!".

The game went multiplat 2 years ago! Fanboys stopped making fun of the 360 version when it came out!

Milk that cow!

PS: That makes six..... SIX articles I've come across taking hits at fanboys.

[Kain81]

Instead Sony should buy some more stocks from S-E, they have already 8,25% of the stock...

Nintendo has more than 80% from Monolith the makers of Xenoblade, and Baiton Kaitos
namco-bandai has the rest...

[Gandalf]

Blame Square Enix they can't make a good game anymore.

[Cernunnos]

It's not Sony's fault that Sqeenix sacrifises quality for sales numbers, that is their own decision, and if that's what they want to do, then so be it. They wont be getting my money.

[Parapraxis]

Think about this alternative reality theory:
S-E kept FFXIII PS3 exclusive and did not cut out ANY content, the scores for the game averaged 93% on metacritic and instead of selling 4.1 million on PS3 and 1.4 million on 360 , it sold 6.5 million on PS3 alone.

If they kept the game exclusive there's a very good chance it would have garnered the same sales (possibly more)

[sam2236]

Microsoft can't afford Blu-ray and have to get money from idiots who have a Gold LIVE account. Your point?

EDIT: Oh and I forgot about built-in wireless 'net. M$ makes you pay €80 for a wireless adaptor that can't go ten minutes without a connection error.

[koehler83]

I blame Square Enix because they said one thing and did another. And as a result of what they said, I spent a lot of money on a machine to continue to enjoy their products. A machine that has been pretty heavily snubbed by Square Enix in the subsequent 3 years.

I don't give a damn what Sony can afford. It's personal when it's about what I can afford.

[Sigh]

aww poor site, what a crybaby wanting some hits. AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[thehitman]

come and past only Square is to blame they wanted to reach more of the western market and thought M$ was the fast track to success and was really epic failure on their part. I think their last chance is FF13versus even though I always thought that would be the better of the two games before 13 announced mutliplatform im a bit skeptical now as to how the game will be. It will be exclusive so all excuses will be left out the door on that games success.

[WMW]

sony not being able to afford to pay for exclusives lol the stupidity of a certain group of people is amazing.

[BABY-JEDI]

That's right, that multi-million or is that billion Corp Sony can't afford exclusives LoL. Calling planet earth 'get real' Square used to stand for something a lot more than money, it was an unprecedented desire for quality. That is no more. You don't get that quality from multi-plats. Instead you get greedy buisness men ruining quality for quantity=money. I am soooo p.ssed at these articles especially the intention to miss the point

[tunaks1]

technically,
Crisis Core is a sony exclusive,
disidia
and BBS
so...

[thief]

I think the reason FF fans (not Sony fans, but FF fans, who mostly happen to be PS3 owners) are pissed off with SE not because they went multiplat but because they feel they compromised on the quality of FF13 to fit it into the inferior 360 specs
IMHO they are wrong - FF13 was poor because SE have lost their touch and not because of the 360 architecture. Every JRPG they have made this generation sucks.

[Anon7349]

Lost Odyssey
Valkyria Chronicles
Tales Of Vesperia
White Knight Chronicles
Demon's Souls
Resonance of Fate
Monster Hunter
50+ Great DS JRPGs
50+ Great PSP JRPGs

Yeah, Yeah, JRPGs are awful this gen..

[masterofpwnage]

he didnt say every jrpg sucks. he said so far square enix jrpg suck this gen

[Noah]

this is coming from a site call gofanboy, nuf side.

[Raoh]

dont blame microsoft cause they cant afford to buy studios or cant rely on their hardware and throw money at marketing instead of innovation

[ExgamerLegends2]

Sony fans seem to be more angry about SE not supprting their fanbase. Look at SE how many ps3 releases they've done this gen. Not only that but it can be argued that the ps3 version of ff13 was gimped for the 360 version.

[ArcFatalix]

you lost all credibility when you called versus a spinoff, there are 3 games based on a crystal theme in the saga, ffxiii versus and agito.

do your research first before you search for hits in N4G. god of war 3 cost 40 million, heavy rain cost 40 million, GT5 costs 80 million, they have 21 studios compared to almost nothing from microsoft.

its a ps3 franchise you saw how it sold day 1 in japan, FF IS A PS FRANCHSE.

[Gamester101]

While some people are upset for the loss of exclusivity, I think most are angered by the downturn in quality with their titles more than anything.

[mookins]

But you know...people seem to forget that. It's not the fact it went multiplatform. It's the downgrade of quality that pissed people off. FFXIII looked ten times better than the final product before it went multiplatform.

[Godmars290]

For not being able to wait a few months to include HD-DVD or even lacking the common sense to tell that a disc format with 25GB is better than one with 15GB?

While Square was well in their right to turn the franchise multiplatform, how they went about it much less the result will never stop some fans of the series from questioning why exactly it turned out - as the disappointment - as FFXIII did.

[Tony-A]

Had the 360 launched in 2006, this generation would have turned out to be entirely different.

Although it is predicted that the PS3 would have been ahead from the start, the Blu-Ray VS HD DVD Format War might have ended much differently. The RROD epidemic and extremely high failure rate might never have happened. Perhaps just as important, the quality of games may have been much different. Hey, maybe Microsoft would have been smart and bought studios instead of single games every once in a while.

Who knows? Maybe the community would have been less hostile...

[Demons Souls]

I thought this was a HHG article.

[DarkSpawnClone]

nope gofanboy. there worse then HHG imo.

[kratos17]

sony fans are pissed because they were promised 2 exclusive games ff13 and ffv13 but now square want to change their minds, if the 2 games werent gonna be exclusive then square should have announced them as multiplats

[Sigh]

exactly

[Shendow]

They just get more lame each day.

[redDevil87]

How the hell did this get approved?! I think i'm gonna take the test so i can disapprove articles like this from coming on the site.

[ChickeyCantor]

Really?
Such title got approved?

Now i demand my bubble back >=(

[Dawn_Of_Ashes]

how can you have credibility with an article with a title like that. The title give the impression that the writer is an xbox 360 which in my oppinion when you wrote something like that you should be unbiased

[GrilledCheeseBook]

i'm pretty sure they could
they're in the top ten sales leaders for semiconductors
Sony is a pretty huge company and a powerhouse in media entertainment but they probably don't throw money around for exclusives because they have a strong 1st party

[GeoramA]

Sony's doing the right thing by funding their own games instead of wildly spending on 3rd-party timed exclusives.

[Vicophine]

Articles and articles like this, are beyond idiotic and are missing the point completely.

[pinkyxyz]

Sony computer entertainment owns and has owed the 4th largest stock in SQUARE since its merger with ENIX. In other words they make a profit off of every single SQUAREENIX game sold and on every platform sold to the public.

http://www.square-enix.com/...

Now i wonder why no one else ever bothered to look this up before?

[MexicanAppleThief]

If this isnt' flamebait I don't know what is.

[jaosobno]

"Sony" and "no money" don't go in the same sentence if you ask me.

[Da One]

out of the exclusive contract they already had with Sony....this was stated in Famitsu a while back. Also how did Sony get Agent again

So it's not that Sony can't afford 3rd Party Exclusives. Someone isn't too bright

Sony no longer cares about 3rd Party Exclusives, Sony's 1st Party demolishes everything anyway. Plus didn't they just buy Media Molecule..........

Like it's been state by many users before Sony no longer cares for 3rd party exclusives. They have the money for them, but why give money to someone else.

[ALFAxD_CENTAURO]

''well sony buys studios instead of 3rd party exclusives..which is more smarter in the long run''

Nyc_Gamer just Owned with pure factual evidence this article.

[wissam]

And their recent releases sucked hard. maybe the ones saying FFXIII is a very good game start gaming with x360. lol.

[boopis]

People keep putting down SE for no reason. How are they at fault? They intended to make Final Fantasy exclusively for the PS3, and didn't get any support from Sony. The console wasn't selling like it is now. It made sense to release is on the 360 too. Why would anyone sell the game for only one console without something in return? Don't blame Sony because they want to spend their money elsewhere, don't blame SE because they want more sales.

[Tdmd]

"The internet is full of sites, blogs, and news services where Square Enix is being called all kinds of names simply because they’re not content to publish their titles on one single platform."

Err... wroooong! SE is being called all kinds of names simply because A) it's games aren't living up to it's expectations, B) the company is more concerned about immediate profit than with the unpaired high standards its games (and its brand) once had, and C) the constant lack of respect (and even loyalty) with the Playstation users - which are, ironically, to this day, it's biggest supporter.

[Punkrockrltj]

I'm sick of feeling like these articles are attacking me just because I'd prefer final fantasy to stay on the playstation. Look at it like this: I'm here for Final Fantasy, and quite simply the PS3 is more powerful ( For PS3 to 360 'port' quality references, see: FF13 )

[3sq]

The problem here is not about exclusivity or not but it's about what they lied to us.

They said it was an exclusive to a certain console but it's not.

If they announced it as multi-platform from the beginning, it wouldn't be any problem.

Therefore I'm not buying their games. I just don't like being lied to so I won't support their works.

Atlus all the way woohoo.

[silvacrest]

SE problem is this, they make RPGs yet, the 360 audience is mainly a shooter crowd

.....who thought it was a good idea to make timed exclusive JRPGs for this console?

i no this is off topic but...its relevant as a whole

[Misterhbk]

You know whats annoying about reading through waves of comments? No it's not the fanboy comments that annoy me, but it's the people who complain about the fanboyish comments. Why do you even waste your time reading the comments in an article like this one? You can plainly tell from the title its flame bait, and is going to get a fanboy fight going. Yet, in the end you show up, read through the comments and complain about the fanboys! Just doesn't make sense to me, but eh, to each his own I suppose.

Anyways, Sony is smart to not be so worried about 3rd party devs when they have the best 1st part devs hands down. I'm a HUGE FF fan myself, and loved XIII, unlike many of you, but if Sony doesn't want to pay for exclusivity then so be it. In the end it just makes them look better anyways. When a PS3 copy sells more than twice the amount of its 360 brethren, I think it's making a statement. In the end the 360 will get a lame port while the PS3 will have one of the most beautiful games of all time(referring to XIII of course). This is coming from someone who owns all 3 consoles from this gen. I love all 3 of my systems but the fact is the PS3 is simply more powerful. Devs have learned this and the quality of games lately has made it very obvious. No reason for anyone to be bitching about XIII or vs XIII. In the end the PS3 will have the better version, and it wont span 3-4 disc.

[duplissi]

he has a point, but i take issue with the vision and direction of a game being compromised to maximize profit (which in a perfect world wouldnt happen but sadly people want money and this is not a perfect world).

and just to correct a point of his: i believe that final fantasys 7 to 9 were exclusive because developing on the playstation was much cheaper than developing on the n64, not because sony paid for it. dont quote me on it though im not 100% sure.

[Argento-Nox]

Sony would rather spend money on 1st party game developments then spend it on timed 3rd party exclusives. It's a better investment that's reaping rewards when you consider games like LBP, Motorstorm, GOWIII, Heavy Rain, KZ2 etc. I have yet to see a 3rd party game compete with Sony's 1st party games, at least in the visual sense. Being multi-platform didn't stop the PS3 from outselling the 360 version, even though MS rep's would have us believe otherwise (-__-);;.

[PSK22]

No it should be, don't blame Sony because Square Enix games just sucks now. It's sad to say this but I really miss Square Soft. Xenogears and Final Fantasy 7,8,9 where the best IMO so explain that to me. Why in those days it wasn't an issue.

You claim in this so call article that Sony fan boys use to like Square Enix when Final Fantasy XIII was PS3 exclusive then when it went multi-platform, Square Enix was hated. Well look what they brought out, nothing but crappy titles and while I did like Final Fantasy XIII a lot, it was probably the one decent but not perfect final fantasy game they brought out period in this generation comparing to back in the days. Don't forget the fact that they was neglecting the PS3 until now so that of course was maybe one the reasons fan boys are angry with them as well.

So I disagree with this article and Sony do not need to pay Square Enix anything especially for these mediocre games while Sony have wonderful 1st party studios.