Square president doesn't expect 'big impact' from PS3 price cut until 2010

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Aug 26th 2009 3:46PM

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada offered a reserved but hopeful response to Sony's recent PlayStation 3 redesign and accompanying price drop. "In terms of the impact (the PS3 cut) will have on this financial year's earnings, I don't think there will be a major difference," he told Reuters. "But I expect there to be a big impact from next year."

If that seems like oddly hesitant approval, it's because Square Enix has been oddly hesitant in producing PlayStation 3 content up until now, instead placing its eggs in other, distinctly portable baskets. The company's first big hit on Sony's console looks to be derived from its purchase of Eidos, which netted the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Final Fantasy XIII isn't due to arrive in Japan until the end of the year. While Square Enix has forecast a doubling in operating profit within the current fiscal year -- ending next March -- it seems prudent of Wada to hold off on financial celebration until the effects of a cheaper PlayStation become apparent and Final Fantasy XIII's reach extends beyond Japan.

[Via Edge Online]

Source

Tags: eidos, final-fantasy-xiii, ps3-slim, square-enix, yoichi-wada

Reader Comments (50)

fuck SE, even if that turns out to be true.

He is right though, and he is talking about SE $$$, not Sony's $$$

SE has really sucked these last few years... makes me wonder where all the good talent they had went.

After Hironobu Sakaguchi left Square in 2004 the company has been (in my opinion) in decline. Final Fantasy Tactics creator Yasumi Matsuno left after a nervous breakdown and did not finish FFXII, leaving it to the SaGa Frontier series director to finish it. I don't know what has been done to these people, but Square has suffered as a result.
It could have begun with the EA merger eleven years ago, and now Enix is putting on the finishing blow to remove a major rival. Enix used to be decent, but now they have to rely on Level 5 to program a large number of their games.
The president of Quintet is Tomoyoshi Miyazaki (who worked on Y's and Actraiser) needs to be hired by Enix to make a modern version of the original Actraiser. Heck, I'd be happy with a 2D version for PSP.
That is all.

Maybe they are right, either way I can't wait to get a PS3 Slim, 120gigs for $299, WiFi, Blu-ray, free online gaming, etc. FF-XIII, Gran Turismo 5, and probably Uncharted 2 will be a day1 purchases for me.

The FF13 demo alone pushed the PS3 to #1 for about 2 weeks or so. I'm not surprised he doesn't know what he's talking about. In an IGN interview, they didn't even knew or were sure that Westerners prefer OVA over subs. They brought The Last Remant on 360 and then on PC. Now they don't want to release it on PS3 because it was a flop. How can he not think that with the PS3 price drop it would even boost the FF13 sales forecast further than if the PS3 didn't had a price drop?

With a bundle war gearing up I don't expect $ony to gain a boost really, MS has better bundles and will most likely continue to do so for at least the foreseeable future. Also Halo reach is due out in spring and ODST drops in less then a month, I think MS has enough momentum going into the holidays to hold the status quo. The spring battle ground will be a meaner fight though.

I find it ironic that you put the $ on Sony instead of MS when you are saying that you dont expect Sony to gain a boost

I have yet to see a bundle from MS that competes with what the PS3 has to offer for its price. The only viable bundle so far has been the Halo 3 bundle w/ Wi-Fi, but that's Canadian only so far. I don't think that dropping the Elite to $299 with no additions to the package will cut it.

Better bundles in terms of what? And for the forseeable future? What are you? A psychic?

I think Sony could potentially release a bundle with an exclusive, maybe a movie, perhaps a PSN voucher. Possibilities are endless.

I'm not saying doing so would create a big impact. But I wouldn't throw your opinion out there as a fact either. What might be a better bundle to YOU could be worthless shit to ME.

SpyderTaco, I guess we think alike ;)

ODST is not going to sell 360s, and i somewhat doubt that Reach will, either. Any significant numbers of Halo gamers out there already bought one, and further entries (at least before a proper, numbered Halo) aren't going to be big game-changers.

Neither will Microsoft lowering the Elite's price to $300. The only price-cut they can make to entice new users is by pushing the Arcade further down, something i suspect they are reluctant to do.

Sony is a Japanese company.

Aside from the fact that we are all cynically aware that all companies are in it for the money and don't need the $ in place of the 'S' in company names to be reminded of that.

You should at least use the native currency.

ie SON¥.

X-bot4life aka Douche4life strikes yet again.

SE are the ones who have screwed themselves this generation by releasing their next gen titles on the 360 instead of the PS3. The same could be said for Namco-Bandai and their stable of JRPGs.

Why Japanese comapnies would sell their highly Japanese centric games ( Infinite Undiscovery, Last remnant, Tales Of Vesperia, Eternal Sonata, Star Ocean etc) exclusively on the least preffered (360) console amongst said Japanese gamers makes no sense what-so-ever. One would think the games would be moved to the Playstation or at the very least sold on the Playstation in addition to the 360. Worst case scenario is they should have been moved to the Wii like Monster Hunter was instead of being offered exclusively on the 360.

It makes me wonder if it was a joint effort spearheaded by MS to gain traction in Japan or if it was a completely seperate issue all together. It just doesn't make much sense.

Seriously, how can he not see:

29,980 Yen PS3 + FF13 = EPIC sales in Japan

How can he be so blind-minded?

[Banned!]

Trolls are getting so lazy. Why back in my day they would come up with catchy slogans like "Sega does what nintendon't"

that whole you're/your thing can be pretty tricky.

@SpyderTaco and David

Sorry if I'm not getting the sarcasm but..."you're" would the correct thing to use there. As in you are. Not possessive your. Unless "his gay" is something. In which case you would need your gay is. Unless that was sarcasm. Which it could have been...

I'M SO CONFUSED!! *head pops*

Uhh...what? You're is the right "your".

but but you used the correct "you're"

I'm confused.

Huh? "You're" is correct. It's a conjunction of 'you' and 'are'...

Oh, I get it. You were making fun of the trolls, excuse my ignorance... Carry on.

(Actually, you should have used "ur")

[Banned!]

Come on guys, haven't learned it yet?

Anonymous is not gay, he's 'a jock who can complete a pass but not a sentence'!

Is it possible that such a defective troll could escape the factory standards?

*looks at previous comments*

Oh my god... This is... Can't be...

Haha wow, I wasn't saying that SpyderTaco got the "you're" thing wrong (I'm well aware that he got it right)....I was sarcastically praising his sarcastic comment about practicing for so hard It's called playing along with a joke, you all might have heard about it.

Geez people, get a sense of humor. I wrote the damn comment in sarcastic font, DUH.

Ashitaka's comment should be as blue as the day is long... unlike something else that is as something as the day is long.

Also, I have no friends and a wall of games.

your gaydar told you so?

I dunno, on Amazon it has been in first place for the past week. It will probably slow down but I don't think it will substantially.

Really? I think the bulk of the Slim's impact will come now, this holiday season. Not saying it won't have any long-term effects, but the big swing for Sony is this holiday season.

He isn't talking about Sony's financials he is talking about Square's, the PS3 could be free, it wont net them any more money until they get a game out.

This.

SE needs to stop being cocks and release a game on the PS3 already. They've already got 2 SE developed games on the 360, don't they?

I think they have 4 already.

FFXI
Last Remnant
Infinite Undiscovery
Star Ocean 4

@Shaun: From what wicko was saying, they do only have 2 big SE developed games on 360. Last Remnant and FFXI. Infinite Undiscovery and Star Ocean 4 are just published by SE. They were developed by tri-Ace.

Ouch, sometimes the truth hurts. SE was just being generous with the 2010 date too. Noone really knows if the PS3 price cut will have any lasting impact at all.

Of course it will, it's common sense.

He was talking about SE not Sony Computer Entertainment. Duh. How will Square make money off a PS3 price cut when they still haven't released a game on it?

Like Ashitaka said ... It's common sense. Go pick some up in the store.

of course he doesnt....His 2 games don't release Stateside until then.....at the same time I'm sure it will easily break a million in Japan thanks the FF13...

SE has offered us utter shit this console generation. Without mentioning handhelds, what they've offered us simply hasn't cut it. And I think Wada knows this, hence the purchase of Eidos to help balance them out a bit. He expects ff 13 to bring up sales. Which it will likely do. Especially in japan. The question is. Will SE continue to make people wait so long they've lost interest in whatever the company has to offer ( like myself) or will they suddenly be able to offer us something interesting every year

I couldn't agree more with you. SE made tons of great games on ps1 and 2. I used to play them religiously until it started taking 3 or so years per game.

The dude looks stoned

I have absolutely no respect for Wada or S-E anymore. Money grubbing bastards. All the things that they do don't make any sense. Infinite Undiscovery and SO4 on 360 but not the capable PS3 for some stupid reason. FFXIII demo in Japan only (due to them turning on Sony) Dragon Quest 9 on the DS instead of the main consoles.

So what..the..fuck has Square Enix done for us on the Playstation? Absolutely nothing! So of course sales are not going to effect them, there's nothing to sell! I'm very tired of the Japanese mindset where they are ignorant (even when they aren't trying to be) of everybody else. They are successful in part due to our market making lots of money for them and that our market is bigger yet they do not pay their dues. They are still keen on pleasing Japanese gamers who have given up on next-gen gaming.

First, release a game for the console then we can disscus profitability.

Aww I forgot Squeenix bought Eidos, I accidentally supported Squeenix by buying Batman new.

Goddammit :(

oh FUCK! i forgot, too! shit!

Okay let me rephrase what he said for truth:

"We don't make any games on PS3, so we're not gonna benefit from this price drop because we're dumb sh*ts and have been making terrible games this whole generation on consoles. But next year, when we finally have a good game that we didn't straight up buy through a developer purchase, we might make some money."

what the fuck, does this have to do with FF13, FFv13, and FF14? get the fuck back to work!!

That guy looks like Keanu Reeves.

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Square president doesn't expect 'big impact' from PS3 price cut until 2010

Reader Comments (50)

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