Sony Eyes Square Relationship
Posted by Marcel Klum on 22 March 2002 - 11:05 · 4 comments & 761 views
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Full name: Marcel Klum
Forum name: Redmak
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Full name: Marcel Klum
Forum name: Redmak
Contact: via forum PM
Submissions: Normal · Headline
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#1 Posted by prell on 22 Mar 2002 - 13:37
- it still all feels like some wonderful dream "More intriguing, word out of Tokyo this morning suggests Sony was completely blind-sided by the deal." haha I love it.. Romeo Squaresoft and Juliet Nintendoco, whisking off in the night to show their true feelings for each other
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#2 Posted by Mystical112 on 22 Mar 2002 - 21:28
- [quote]Romeo Squaresoft and Juliet Nintendoco, whisking off in the night to show their true feelings for each other[/quote]
LOL!......thats jokes...
yaya oh well they can't stop square can they??.......
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#3 Posted by Ice Blue on 23 Mar 2002 - 01:23
- I'm very disappointed in you, Capcom. Bad bad boy!
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#4 Posted by Spike101M69 on 24 Mar 2002 - 05:35
- gba sucks...
Speaking with the Nikkei Shimbun, Sony's public relations director said "We welcome the fact that Square plans to expand profits by supporting the GameBoy Advance, but we questioned any plans to develop Final Fantasy titles for GameCube." When asked about Sony's reaction, Square president Yoichi Wada admitted "We took every precaution prior to the Nintendo announcement, but I don't think Sony was pleased." In fact, Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi was overseas when the announcement was made. The day he returned home, Square executives including Yoichi Wada and Hisashi Suzuki were summoned to Sony headquarters to explain the Nintendo deal in person.
Square's decision to support Nintendo's consoles comes on the heels of another major defection from Sony's camp by Capcom. According to a company spokesperson, Sony president Ken Kutaragi was "extremely disappointed" with Capcom's decision to exclusively support the GameCube with their Biohazard series.
Okamoto said Sony is working with IBM to apply Big Blue's research in "grid computing," a variation of distributed computing, to the next PlayStation. While he didn't share details, the plan presumably would involve networked game machines sharing software, processing power and data.
Okamoto added that the recently released kit that allows PlayStation 2 users to run Linux software on the console is the foundation for much of the research.
Looking further ahead, Okamoto saw even bigger changes for Sony's game business. "Maybe the PlayStation 6 or 7 will be based on biotechnology," he said.
While Sony focused on the future, Microsoft looked at the recent past. Pete Isensee, lead developer for Microsoft's Xbox Advanced Technology Group, used his GDC talk to deliver a mostly positive critique of the Xbox's journey to the market, lauding a product launch that happened on time and without major bugs, a departure from Microsoft history.
"Microsoft has this stigma about not getting it right until version three," he said. "We didn't have a choice with Xbox. If we didn't get it right with version one, Sony and Nintendo would eat us alive."
Xbox glitches Isensee touched on mainly centered on international issues. The game console's bulky controller repelled Japanese consumers, for instance, forcing Xbox to design a slimmed-down version that comes standard with the Japanese Xbox and as an add-on purchase for U.S. and European users with small mitts.
"There is a perception we didn't know what we were doing when it came to the controller," Isensee said. "What we failed to do is a usability test for a global market. You need to do that, because things that work in the U.S. don't always work in Japan or Europe."
That includes the Xbox start-up screen, which had to be redesigned for the Xbox's European launch because nobody realized that the German "einstellungen" wouldn't fit in the same text space as "settings."