Topic: Square-Enix and Nintendo NX: An unprecedented partnership upon us or just a publisher's small talk?

Square seems to be actively discussing it's interest in Nintendo's next console, even doing so prior to the official unveiling of the machine itself. Dragon Quest X & XI first, now possibly Final Fantasy XIV?

We could be delightfully daydreaming and feeling pie in the sky about it, but haven't we seen this film before? Even the Wii U got loads of praise from 3rd parties before launch. We all know what happened afterwards. What do you think, does Square really mean it, this time? Could we actually be back to the days of the SNES, when Nintendo and SquareSoft had a close relationship?

It just suggests to me that the NX is thankfully much closer to other consoles and therefore easier to port to. If they'd done this with the Wii U they'd have got third party multi platform games for much longer.

Ultimately it comes up to weighing up the cost of the port against the likely sales. If it's costly to port (as it was on Wii U) it needs higher sales figures to be a success. So that's why the support ended so fast on Wii U. If NX games sell so poorly third parties still can't make a profit, then it will end again, but at least by making it easy to port, they make it cheap to port, so the sales target can be lower.

Honestly, it's to be expected that Squenix is misjudging the NX just as much as 3rd parties did back when the WiiU was first announced. They probably just try to jump on the bandwagon, but don't see the amount of work at all - wouldn't be new to see Squenix miss the mark, anyway.

I'm not sure just how advanced DQ11 is and if it honestly needs the all the power of the PS4 to run, but FF14 was on the PS3 and could easily run on the Wii U if they wanted it to, so I wouldn't really take that as a benchmark of the NX's potential power. That being said, Square, at least in Japan, has been very supportive of Nintendo this generation. It doesn't surprise me that they would be the same for the next generation. The question is will the west ever see that support? We never even got any of their VC games as far as I know, and yet Japan has been swimming in old Final Fantasies and what not.

As for the topic overall, I think this is just typical pre-launch "oh wow this will change everything" excitement. If the Wii U taught us one thing, it's that we really shouldn't take pre launch hype from 3rd parties as indicative that the console will be getting decent support.

@DarthNocturnal Thing is, if it was about power, the WiiU could easily run FFXIV, for example. I mean, the game was released on PS3, and WiiU trumps that. But that game was never released on it. Probably because Nintendo never intended cross-platform with PC on the WiiU, and I would understand that, but it was never even considered. But now, the NX is supposedly all that different? They either have information they're not yet allowed to disclose, or it's one of the usual PR bombs they like to drop for a bit of cheap applause.
If there's one thing I learned, it's that Squenix loves being a company-sized drama queen - they're very good at exaggerating, and they love to be the center of the stage. And they do almost anything for that. Until I see cold hard proof, I find it more reliable to expect the worst from them.

@Operative: True, but it does help to rule out the NX as being some kind of low-powered Ouya device, which for someone like me, relieves A LOT of worries.

I could easily see it coming out Nintendo buying the stock in Square that Sony had to sell.

@Smash_kirby: It would be in nintendo best interest to buy Square stock so they can have some leverage

It's probably PR talk. Until there are games, their words mean nothing. I should point out that Nintendo never had an "unprecedented partnership" for Wii U when it came to games. Nintendo's "unprecedented partnership" with EA was over Nintendo Network, not games.

@Kaze_Memaryu: What's interesting is that Squenix never acted this way for Wii U as far as I can remember. They had a far more passive attitude.

@Sleepingmudkip: leverage on what? corporate power lies with its directors, not the stockholders. nintendo ownign stock doesnt mean they have an ounce of leverage unless they buy a sufficient number to appoint a director. the problem with that is that decisions of the board will still be with the majority stock holder controlling his appointed director. so unless nintendo manages to acquire a controlling share, they have no leverage on anything square does.

Hopefully Nintendo has learned from their mistakes with the Wii U and the NX will meet its sales targets and therefore be a financially attractive console for third parties to bring their games to.

Nintendo could also "buy" third party support early on to try and attract more gamers to the NX and therefore more third party interest later on.

@Smash_kirby: I would be ecstatic to see Nintendo in Sony's place for Square Enix. I would love a return of numbered Final Fantasy games to Nintendo handhelds.

Totally. I can't see how Square and Nintendo couldn't partner up and make a decent RPG for the 3DS. Maybe the resources aren't there or maybe Nintendo feels Fire Emblem series covers the JRPG market.

For whatever reason, I bet if it hasn't happened now, we won't see it in this generation of hardware.

The games that they announced are also coming on PS4 and I think XONE, which doesn't make them exclusive to the NX. What the NX needs, is some exclusive titles made for it, by 3rd party developers that are well known...something to make it another choice for a console instead of just a repeat console. Nintendo will have to release some good games at launch that will sell heavy, while also showing their future games, but not show ones that will come out 1-2 years into the consoles life cycle. The NX needs some really good games, and the ones being delivered by Square Enix are ones coming on other consoles too. If the NX is going to be a hit, nintendo needs to start paying 3rd parties to make exclusives for their console, and not just cheap little party games.

@Tubalcain: Actually Sony had a lot of stock in Square and thanks to that and the N64's size limitations for games, Sony was able to swoop in and take Nintendo's spot as Square's preferred platform for game releases.

@Smash_kirby: but how? I was once a CorSec of a small corporation, from what i understand stockholders only have 2 powers which are right to dividends(earnings) and removal/appointment of the board. The board controls everything so most of the time the one holding majority share appoints majority of the board. So how can Nintendo leverage S uare by merely owning stock? Unless they buy sufficient stocks to be able to appoint a board member they only have the right to the dividends declared by square. The one holding majority share who appointed majority of the board cannot be leveraged to do anything since he controls all.

If the NX is a handheld, Square should TOTALLY take the opportunity to port over the original Crystal Chronicles with online support.

~sigh~ Such an underrated game.

They're gearing up to support Nintendo more because they actually wanna improve their relationship. They probably even want more Nintendo love like Amiibos and Smash support. Nintendo fans are very loyal when you treat them right. Just ask Sakurai.

all I want are Squares JRPGS on the systems...I couldnt care any less about their other IPs so if square puts 3 JRPGs on the NX as launch titles.....Im getting it first day.

I think what we need to pay attention to is what the games they say they want to put on NX are. Are they mostly porting games that have already released, as FFXIV would suggest, or are they making full plans to develop new games for it, as DQXI suggests?

The Wii U had plenty of the former, but a lack of the latter is what killed it