by Sal Basile, MTV Intern

Square Enix Apology: Could it have been prevented?

The latest big game update for "Final Fantasy XI" went into effect on April 9th, 2009. With this update came a plethora of new content and activities for new and old players alike. Players welcomed such changes as the "Augment system", which was described on the game's official site as a way for players to "customize certain pieces of equipment by adding two augments of their choice to supplement the item's base attributes".

After the update, however, many previously established game mechanics were changed or "broken," enraging some longtime "FFXI" adventurers. Job abilities weren't working right, magic spells weren't affecting monsters in the same ways, and the Augment system did not allow players to add "augments of their choice," but rather added two random attributes, sometimes even adding negative effects.

From April 9 to April 23, the game's publisher, Square-Enix, issued nearly 10 updates addressing certain issues. Sometimes these updates didn't state what they were fixing. Yet the most problematic issue kept going unmentioned: "Enfeebling magic" was not affecting enemies the way it had for the past nine years. It was the hot topic on many message boards. Many players contacted Square-Enix, but their questions remained unanswered. One administrator of a popular "FFXI" forum said of Square-Enix, "It's clear they don't care about us as much as they should."

On April 22, Square-Enix announced the "FFXI" player base had surpassed two million characters.

A day later, the wondering and guessing about the game's new problems came to an end. This time the changes being made were outlined in the game's update notes. And there was a surprise as well: the company didn't just state that it would fix the broken job abilities and the problematic enfeebling magic bug, Square-Enix also apologized. The company stated "regarding the elemental resistance issue, we would like to take a moment and apologize for the delay in both notifying players and correcting the issue".

Players are now split between thanking Square-Enix for listening to them and questioning why their words weren't heard earlier. Sincere words from Square-Enix, but this could have been avoided earlier by listening to the player base.

Square-Enix has presented an offer to buy Eidos, raising the prospect of the Japanese house of "Final Fantasy" and "Dragon Quest" absorbing the British publisher being Lara Croft's adventures and the "Hitman" series. Square-Enix pitched the stock offer to Eidos on January 7 and an official order, presented in rich detail in filings today, will now be presented to shareholders.

***

Every week, video game publishers are layoffs and restructuring plans for 2009, as the video games industry struggles with a difficult world economy.

Square Enix was scheduled to issue their earnings financial results today in Japan, but Bloomberg reports the publisher has pushed them back a week, until February 12.

The delay has had serious repercussions for the "Final Fantasy" company's stock price, falling 11% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, its lowest point in the past five years.

So far, there's no word on what caused the report's delay.

Got a comment you can’t bring yourself to share below this post? Drop me an e-mail.

Related Posts
Square Enix Releases ‘Final Fantasy XIII’ Trailer With Actual Gameplay
New ‘Final Fantasy’ On Wii, DS Gets Release Date
50-Month Gap Now Guaranteed Between Launch Of Current Generation And Next U.S. ‘Final Fantasy’

***

Wii and DS owners will be able to play "Final Fantasy" together when "Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time" arrives on March 24 for both machines, Square Enix announced today.

This version of "Final Fantasy" uniquely allows Wii and DS players to play side-by-side, even if they're playing on different machines. DS owners can play with Wii gamers and vice versa.

Additionally, "Echoes of Time" allows for drop-in, drop-out multiplayer. You don't need to sit around waiting for someone to join your game before starting the adventure; they can simply join your game when they're ready to go and the transition from single-player to multiplayer is handled seamlessly.

Which version of this "Final Fantasy" game will you be buying?

Got a comment you can’t bring yourself to share below this post? Drop me an e-mail.

Related Posts
50-Month Gap Now Guaranteed Between Launch Of Current Generation And Next U.S. ‘Final Fantasy’
Comic-Con Surprises: Square Enix Reveals ‘Final Fantasy XIII,’ ‘Last Remnant,’ ‘Star Ocean’ Figures
Sony: ‘Final Fantasy XIII’ Going To XBox 360 Creates ‘Jump Ball’
Square Enix Answers Questions About Xbox 360 Version Of ‘Final Fantasy XIII’

***

During the previous generation of game consoles, publisher Square-Enix released its first "Final Fantasy" game of the generation to America, "Final Fantasy X," just 14 months after the launch of the PlayStation 2.

Those were the good old days.

In an interview with news organization Reuters yesterday, Square-Enix president Yoichi Wada said that "Final Fantasy XIII" was on target for a 2009 release in Japan, but that American gamers would have to wait longer.

An excerpt from the story states the details cleanly:

Square Enix also plans to launch the next version of "Final Fantasy" in 2009 in Japan, further strengthening its product lineup.

Overseas launches of the latest "Final Fantasy" game will come in the business year from April 2010 or later, Wada said.

Square Enix will offer the latest version, "Final Fantasy XIII", for both Sony Corp 's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 in North America and Europe, and exclusively for the PS3 in Japan.

I know people on this blog said this would be the case, but I had guessed incorrectly in my Most-Anticipated-PS3-Games-of-2009 list that Square-Enix had improved its turnaround time on localizing games. I also didn't expect Square-Enix to take this long to get what its biggest global role-playing game series released to the U.S.

"Final Fantasy XIII," the first "FF" game of the current generation is indeed taking a while. The game already hasn't been out in Japan in the 26 months since the PlayStation 3's launch in that country.

If the game arrives in America at its soonest possible date as indicated by Wada -- April 2010 -- the amount of time elapsed between the launch of the PS3 in America and the release of "FF XIII" will be a gargantuan 41 months. The gap between the launch of the Xbox 360 and "FF XIII" in the U.S. will have been 53 months.

It's not just been Square-Enix that has been slow to get on board with this generation. Sony's in-house Japanese development studios have yet to release a major game for the PS3, though anticipation is high that the team behind "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus" will finally have a game to show this year. Konami, which finally released "Metal Gear Solid IV" last June has also shown signs that it is slow to backing games for this generation.

Were publishers just not ready? It's a question that bears asking and that we'll follow in the months to come.

Video games have a large presence than ever before at Comic Con 2008, but I didn't expect to learn more (if only a little) about Square Enix's largest in-development RPGs. Yet, the publisher unveiled to wandering fans figures for "Final Fantasy XIII," "Star Ocean," and "The Last Remnant" to be sold later this year and beyond.

More pics of Square Enix figures after the jump...

At E3 last week I talked to PlayStation marketing man Peter Dille about a range of topics, the first of which, naturally, had to be the announcement by Microsoft that the formerly PS3-exclusive "Final Fantasy XIII" was also going to debut on the Xbox 360.

Did the announcement hurt Sony? I asked, and he said...

Multiplayer: You guys talked about exclusives. And there's a lot of really cool exclusives coming out. But I wanted to talk to you about an exclusive that's no longer an exclusive, and that's "Final Fantasy XIII." Microsoft made a whole big deal about it. They showed it at the end of their press conference as their big surprise. You guys are saying exclusives are really important. So does not having "Final Fantasy XIII" anymore just for PS3 hurt you guys?

Peter Dille, Senior Vice President for Marketing and PSN, Sony Computer Entertainment of America :What you have with "Final Fantasy XIII" is a lot like what they've paid for with "GTA." It's not an exclusive on their platform. It's now a cross-platform game. Sand I think if you look at how "GTA" behaved in the marketplace and how it drove -- or didn't drive -- either console, that's what I'm talking about. Consumers responded to "GTA" on the PS3 just as they did on the 360. And it becomes a bit of a jump ball. But it didn't rise the tide for them. And I think if you fast forward to when "Final Fantasy XIII" comes out I think you're going to have millions of people who grew up playing "Final Fantasy" on the PlayStation playing it on a PlayStation 3. They spent a lot of money, I'm sure, to get "Final Fantasy" onto the 360 but at the end of the day it's on our platform as well. Which is why we focus on, "Let's look at what happens when you have "Metal Gear Solid" on your platform … when the NPD numbers come out ... I think you'll see the value of what a real exclusive title does and how it raised the bar for PS3 versus 360.

Multiplayer: Do you think it's going to be harder to have those exclusives, though, if they're not first party. You're basically going to have Microsoft or whoever else paying to get those exclusives as well. Do you think we're going to be seeing fewer exclusives?

Dille: Well obviously Microsoft seems to be opening the checkbook a fair amount. But I think the reality is games are very expensive to make, Developers know they have to amortize that investment over a global marketplace and the best place to do that is on a PlayStation format. Because if you look at the global footprint, PlayStation 3 dominates in Japan where the 360 is really irrelevant. In Europe, the PlayStation 3 is already past the 360. And in the United States you have a dogfight. You've got PlayStation 3 and 360 going at it and we've swung the momentum our way outselling the 360 during the first half of the year. So back to the third-party community, they're looking at what's going on, they're realigning their development resources to exploit PS3 and I think they understand that if they want to have a global return on their investment, PlayStation 3 is the only place they're going to get it.

[Multiplayer will have much more from our E3 interviews with the top gaming people at Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo as the week goes on.]

Immediately following the briefing, Square Enix held a press conference about the game, where "FFXIII" producer Yoshinori Kitase and Square Enix exec Shinji Hashimoto answered all the questions they could in 45 minutes.

Here's a round-up of the facts so far from the brief Q&A session:

Square Enix exec Shinji Hashimoto and "FFXIII" producer Yoshinori Kitase

* Why the move to Xbox 360 in addition to the PS3? Hashimoto explained via a translator: "We considered the hardware, and because of the situation and the spread of the hardware, we decided that way."

* Will there be any content differences between the PS3 and Xbox 360? Kitase: "The game will be the same, but we have to consider Blu-ray and the other format, so it might be different [in that regard]." Hashimoto later added: "For content and gameplay, we don't have the intention to make so much difference according to platform."

* What's the development update for the game? Kitase: "We are using new tools called Crystal Tools for development and developing the title on PC. From this year on, our pace is going a little bit faster. In the near future, we will probably be able to introduce further footage."

* What's the development process for the game? Hashimoto: "As we announced at the Microsoft presentation, as of today we are ready to start developing the title for Xbox 360. First, we will complete the PS3 in Japan. Then after that we will start localization of 'FFXIII' for PS3 for US and Europe. Then at the same time, we will start Xbox 360 the version development. That's our entire process of development."

How is the gameplay different from "Final Fantasy XII"? Kitase: "The entire atmosphere is different. There is more tempo and speed. On screen, it’s flashier and there's more excitement in 'FFXIII.'" … Every time we release a new game we try to make its own game design, so we don't have any intention to make it closer to the previous and we are trying to make a new and unique game design."

* What is the timing of the releases? Kitase: "As for the timing between US and Europe, we will try to make it as close as possible. Also, localization for US and Europe we will try to expedite as much as possible than the previous case."

* The briefing implied that there was no Xbox 360 release for "FFXIII" in Japan. Is that true? Hashimoto: "Considering the market situation in US and Europe, the spread of 360, really our main reason for the change, and as for Japanese market and business direction, we have not changed anything."

* At the Microsoft conference, it was announced that ""Last Remnant" would be released on Games for Windows. Any plans for "FFXIII"? After a long sigh, Kitase said: "For now, it's to be decided.”

* How many discs will the game ship on? Kitase: "It is still to be decided."

* Any plans for the Xbox 360 version to take advantage of Xbox Live? Kitase: "It's to be decided."

***

"Final Fantasy" fans, what do you think so far? What are your hopes and dreams for "FFXIII"?

*I got to the bottom of my new-game stack and reached into my old-games-I-need-to-mess-around-with pile. In there I found "Silent Hill 4," "Rogue Galaxy," and "Final Fantasy XII" all for the PS2.

I tried them each but don't plan on finishing any of them unless any reader of this diary can change my mind.

I've played "FF XII" for more than 20 hours and have already been advised to quit. I loaded up my save on Sunday and the game immediately failed by not catching me up on where I'd left off. It made it easy to re-quit.

I skipped "Silent Hill"s One and Three, rather enjoyed Two and was intrigued by the locked-in-a-room premise of the Fourth. Unfortunately, the reviews I scouted make the gameplay sound terrible. The portion of the combat I sampled on Sunday reinforced that impression. I can live without finishing this game, yes?

"Rogue Galaxy" is as pretty as any Level 5-developed game -- all of which are beauties, all of which are stuffed with gameplay and all of which have felt flat when I play them. Even rave reviews of this game claim it's monotonous. I didn't even get off the first planet. Is that okay?

*I also finished "Lego Indiana Jones," and decided to stop playing after discovering 75% of the game's content. There are some cool hidden bonuses in the game but it's also healthy to not be obsessive compulsive.

*Dabbled a little more with "Super Smash Bros. Brawl"'s Subspace Emissary (I'm now at 12%) and returned to an old misunderstood favorite "P.N. 03," which I'll write about more in a future diary.

*Tried "Haze," though it was competent but unexciting. It's too bad. I'm still waiting for the first great anti-war game.

*Oh, yeah, I also played the game I thought would dominate my weekend: "Ninja Gaiden II." I'm basically a newcomer to the series, having only spent much time with the DS' "Dragon Sword" edition. This Xbox 360 sequel features some of the bloodiest, most deftly controllable action I've ever choreographed with a game controller/ But it does not have the level design or enemy variety to compel me to battle past the game's second level. I respect the achievement of its combat but, like the flashier yet clunkier "Devil May Cry 4," the game feels imbalanced. It's far more fun during its hero's fights than in its hero's travels from corridor to corridor.

Next: I go on vacation. I'll be back Monday.