DS owners have been a bit put out with Square-Enix lately. Not because they aren't releasing good DS games, but the highly anticipated Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Dissidia are both exclusive to the stinking PSP. Why not the more popular DS?
Pocket Gamer, unlike most grousing forum dwellers, had the courage to take the DS question to Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core producers Hideki Imaizumi and Yoshinori Kitase. Their response is highly unexpected.
How much the product sells really depends on the game itself, who it's targeted to and all sorts of different factors. It's not really always about the hardware. Especially in terms of this game where the demographic was higher teens to young adults as opposed to small children. The PSP seemed closer to that demographic than DS in general. So we feel we really made the right choice.
We'll make a DS game called Brain Age: Final Fantasy for DS [laughs].
Er, wait, Square-Enix is still approaching the DS as a system for little kids and old ladies? How... 2006.
Hey, you clicked behind the cut even though I didn't beg you to? You're awesome. Here's a super bonus excerpt from the interview that's worth thinking about the next time you hear some toothless fanboy bitching about how Endless Ocean or Wii Fit or some other thing that makes them feel alone and sad isn't really a game.
On the subject of Brain Age, what do you think of the accusations that Nintendo are only making games for the casual market now?
Initially I understood this sentiment you are talking about. Especially from the point of view of working for a company that doesn't make these sorts of titles I thought it wasn't right. But now I've come to accept it because part of gaming is innovation to incorporate genres as you go along and say this is another way to enjoy - this is another form of entertainment. You can't just limit games to things we make or things Nintendo used to make. So right now I'm completely okay with it. When I first played Sim City I wouldn't have considered it a game but I played it and it was a lot of fun. So if it's fun and you play it, how can you say it's not a game in the end?
