Will PS2 gamers be taking on GameCube owners in FFXI's online world?

 March 8th, 2002 - Could it be true? Would Square ever produce games for Nintendo systems again, having deserted them for Sony with Final Fantasy VII six years ago? Would Nintendo ever let them do such a thing? After all, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi has been very vocal in the past few years about his grudge against Square, having said they would never be allowed to develop for his company's systems again. Well, according to Nihon Keizai Shimbun, that which had seemed so unlikely just a few months ago, may now be a reality.

For those of you who are perhaps unaware of the history of Final Fantasy, the series started way back on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1987. When technology jumped from 8-bit to 16-bit, the Final Fantasy series stayed with Nintendo, and parts IV through to VI were created for the Super NES. However, FFVI turned out to be the last in the saga to be released on a Nintendo console, as Square unexpectedly ditched the N64 in favour of the Sony PlayStation, citing the advantages the PlayStation's CD format would bring to the series over the N64's cartridges as the main reason for the shift in allegiance. So, Final Fantasy VII was indeed released for Sony's console back in 1997, and Square has released innumerable games for both the PlayStation and the PlayStation2 in the last few years, including the recent Final Fantasy X, the first to appear on PS2.

Despite this, it has been reported that both Square and Nintendo have come to an agreement that will see the former develop Final Fantasy games for both Nintendo's GameCube and GameBoy Advance systems. What makes this even more surprising is that Hiroshi Yamauchi is contributing money from a fund he set up to encourage game development so that Square may set up a new development team to specialise in games for Nintendo systems. There were rumours that the Nintendo president's imminent retirement may have paved the way for such a deal to be struck. However, it seems that it was not necessary after all. Maybe the GameCube's DVD-based storage format has won Square over? Another factor which makes this news a shock is that Sony have since invested heavily in Square, and are now the second largest shareholder in the company.

Square are likely to produce for the GameBoy Advance what they've been doing a lot of recently - remakes...	... but will the big one, Final Fantasy XI, be gracing GameCubes worldwide? It's now a distinct possibility.

So what does this mean if it does indeed turn out to be true? Well, the most obvious candidates for release would be remakes of the classic SNES Final Fantasy games for the GameBoy Advance. Square has done much the same thing with the earlier games in the series for Bandai's handheld WonderSwan Color console, but the added power of the GBA would make a FFVI conversion effortless. And of course, there's the small matter of Final Fantasy XI. The first online Final Fantasy was claimed to be being developed for multiple systems when first announced, although recently it seems as though the PlayStation2 will be the only platform it will appear on. Will GameCube players be joining PlayStation2 ones together online in a world of Fantasy? We'll have to wait and see, but it shouldn't be long before we know - Final Fantasy games are expected to reappear on Nintendo systems before 2002 draws to a close.