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GRIN founders say Square Enix turned their smiles upside down

Christopher Grant — Sun, 29 May 2011 16:32:00 EST

Despite shipping three poorly received titles back-to-back - those would be Wanted: Weapons of Fate, Terminator: Salvation, and Capcom's reboot of Bionic Commando - it was still quite a surprise when developer GRIN suddenly closed its doors in August of 2009. Shortly after the shuttering, we learned that the Swedish developer had been working on a new Final Fantasy game titled 'Fortress' for Square Enix and now, nearly two years later, co-founders Ulf and Bo Andersson are finally pointing fingers. And they're both pointing right at Square Enix.

"We wanted to come in and revolutionize Final Fantasy, which is exactly what they need," the brothers told Sweden's Aftonbladet in a far-reaching article on the demise of the once-mighty studio. "The latest version sucks of course." After working on Fortress for Square Enix for six months without receiving any payment, the studio simply couldn't afford to stay open.

Square Enix, for its part, introduced seemingly impossible restrictions on the delivery of milestones. At one point, GRIN was directed to deliver its code to Japan via fax. Bo Andersson told Aftonbladet, "It is as silly as it sounds. It is an impossible requirement, you can not send ascii or binary codes on the fax. It is backward. Really retarded. It was almost a criminal activity." To make matters worse, Andersson claims that Square Enix then said the milestones were not being sent to the right person and instead should have been sent to the legal department.

The Andersson brothers suggest that Square Enix had already made up its mind that Fortress wasn't a project it wanted anymore. "Nothing seemed good enough. Square did not believe anymore that the Nordic style suited Final Fantasy," the Anderssons said. To test their hypothesis, they sent over concept art from Square Enix's own Final Fantasy XII, to which Japan responded, "It does not look like Final Fantasy."

While many former GRIN staffers landed at studios like Fatshark, others formed their own outfits, like Might&Delight, Outbreak Studios, and Whiteout. The Anderssons, however, have been hard at work on a new studio, one with a notable change: It won't be dependent on big publishers. They'll be at E3 next week showing off their new project, so expect to learn more about it - and more about the demise of GRIN - then.

GRIN founders say Square Enix turned their smiles upside down originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 29 May 2011 16:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumor: Former GRIN/Square Enix title 'Fortress' tech demo leaked

Griffin McElroy — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST

It's been awhile since we've heard anything about GRIN's "unreleased masterpiece" -- a collaboration with Square Enix (and assumed Final Fantasy off-shoot) titled Fortress. An anonymous report released last September claimed the title was currently in the hands of another, unnamed developer. Yesterday, some tech demo footage purportedly displaying the fruits of said studio's labor landed on YouTube. We've posted said video after the jump.

Without any inclination of who is responsible for developing Fortress -- if anyone is developing Fortress -- it's impossible for us to test the credibility of this video. The original poster, YouTube user DiipuSurotu, doesn't mention where the video came from, only stating that it's a tech demo for an "official, but currently unannounced sequel to Final Fantasy XII." We've contacted Square Enix to see what they think of the footage.

It doesn't really look like your traditional Squeenix fare, but the character models certainly resemble those featured in the leaked concept art that surfaced last year. Oh, also? There's totally a Chocobo at the 1:15 mark. That's Final Fantasy-y enough for us.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Continue reading Rumor: Former GRIN/Square Enix title 'Fortress' tech demo leaked

Rumor: Former GRIN/Square Enix title 'Fortress' tech demo leaked originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 17 Jan 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rumor: GRIN Final Fantasy game in hands of new studio

JC Fletcher — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:58:00 EST

While the closure of GRIN was sad for many reasons, some of you may have been disappointed never to have seen the company's Final Fantasy project, which we believe is the Fortress game seen in this concept art. Based on word from "sources close to both [GRIN and Square Enix]," GamesIndustry.biz reports that the game is actually still in development -- though obviously no longer by GRIN. So, assuming this new developer finishes the game, you'll get to see GRIN's "unreleased masterpiece" after all. Kind of.

In fact, according to the report, GRIN was removed from Fortress after six months due to "quality issues," which means that the game was in someone else's hands before the studio shut down. The loss of the Fortress job may then have contributed to GRIN's financial troubles.

Rumor: GRIN Final Fantasy game in hands of new studio originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Art from GRIN's canceled projects revealed

Griffin McElroy — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:30:00 EST

We knew that GRIN was working on a project in conjunction with Square-Enix titled Fortress at the time of its closure -- however, the portfolio of Bionic Commando lead character designer Björn Albihn offers a look at a few more of the studio's games which might have been. In addition to concepts from Fortress, the art collection includes a look at a spaghetti-western shooter called The Cult, a PSP game called Switch and a number of character models from an untitled project.

All the models look amazing -- particularly the designs for The Cult. Though the smiling developer has closed its doors, we certainly hope these projects will see the light of day in some form or another.

[Via Superannuation]

Art from GRIN's canceled projects revealed originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GRIN's 'unreleased masterpiece' was a Final Fantasy game codenamed 'Fortress'

David Hinkle — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:59:00 EST

GRIN closed its doors last week, causing a flood of ex-staffers to put their work online in the hopes of scoring a job. Tomislav Spajic is one of those former employees and has confirmed on his LinkedIn profile that GRIN's "unreleased masterpiece" was actually a Final Fantasy game for Square Enix. Yeah, we can hardly believe it, too.

In fact, Spajic's personal site has a whole bunch of concept art and one of the games listed (called "Fortress") is likely the Final Fantasy game for Square Enix. We've seen it on other ex-GRINners' LinkedIn pages, like Erik Lindqvist's here, where Lindqvist flat-out says, "During 2009 I've been working on the preproduction for an unannounced, and now canceled project with the production name 'Fortress' for Square Enix."

[Via superannuation]

GRIN's 'unreleased masterpiece' was a Final Fantasy game codenamed 'Fortress' originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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