will Square-Enix ever take the iPhone platform seriously?

[spidey146]

Originally Posted by nightbeaver

i can hinestly say that i woulkd pay 15 to 20 dollars for a port of ff9 or any of the ps 2 ff titles. im pretty sure the 3gs is capable of handling those games and i would think the older model idevices are to but i dunno. i would hesitate to pay so much for a port ff7 or any others before that. those seemed like they been done to death on the gba and the ds and ff8 was crap. i think ill check to see if that ff7 movie is on i tunes. if they did that at least that would be cool i guess

why does everyone keep wanting final fantasy, its a good game but dont leave the world ends with you out of this conversation, there as musch a great square enix game as ff is

[coffinfeeder]

Oh- and another point: who at square-enix thought it was acceptable to price handheld games at $40 USD?

I can buy many great 360 games for 30-40 dollars (gears of war 2, fallout 3.. to name a few), so why would I buy a DS game for the same price? I know this is a little nit-picky and square will always have their following, I just don't see 40 dollars to be a realistic price point for any handheld game (I've bought all my square DS games used).

That being said, I would probably still shell out 10-15 USD for a great RPG made by square, if it wasn't just a simple port.

[CaseyLay]

I never liked FF too much. I love Kingdom Hearts though. It would be nice to see something big like that for out platform from them, but I doubt they will.

But if there's one thing I know, it's that people love well known brand name game companies. I think Squeenix could quite easily sell a game at $15-20 here.

[NolbertoS]

I hope someday, SE take the Iphone seriously. I'd want FF and DQ games on it. I don't knoq what the pricing structure is in Japan, as I know they have FF 1, 2 and 3 I believe on mobile phones and DQ 1 - 3 on sale in the mobile phone game market. I'd gladly pay the "SE" tax as they call the game's high retail price,as long as the quality is the same as the DS and PSP graphics or close enough.

[ShadowsFall]

Wish Final Fantasy was on the iPhone...

[skyye06]

Originally Posted by ShadowsFall

Wish Final Fantasy was on the iPhone...

Yes but with 5 new games coming from square enix looks like they are getting a bit more serious...previous game was terrible though

[cmfnyc]

To be completely honest, I wouldn't buy a game for $15-$20. That's why I haven't owned a console since the SuperNES. Does that mean that I'm cheap? Perhaps. Though I just think my priorities have been different. It's not that I don't appreciate the efforts of game developers. I want them to earn a living for things I enjoy, but I have a limit on how much I'm willing to pay to play (games, music, etc). For me, the whole brilliance of the App Store is that it has brought me back to gaming. I've spent over $100 this past year on games. Why? Because the barriers to buying are lower: price, convenience. I've bought Gameloft, EA, and ngmoco, Chillingo games and other indie devs at full price and on sale. Without the App Store, the truth is that I would have spent $0 for games because I'm not going to buy a dedicated game device and spend $15 per title. The question is how many others are like me? I suspect a lot. Probably the same market that bristled at paying $15 for an album with only two quality songs on it. Like with the Wii, this new market is injecting some new money into the game community. The open question is whether it is enough for developers. Looking at Gameloft's success so far, I lean toward thinking it is.

[NolbertoS]

Originally Posted by cmfnyc

To be completely honest, I wouldn't buy a game for $15-$20. That's why I haven't owned a console since the SuperNES. Does that mean that I'm cheap? Perhaps. Though I just think my priorities have been different. It's not that I don't appreciate the efforts of game developers. I want them to earn a living for things I enjoy, but I have a limit on how much I'm willing to pay to play (games, music, etc). For me, the whole brilliance of the App Store is that it has brought me back to gaming. I've spent over $100 this past year on games. Why? Because the barriers to buying are lower: price, convenience. I've bought Gameloft, EA, and ngmoco, Chillingo games and other indie devs at full price and on sale. Without the App Store, the truth is that I would have spent $0 for games because I'm not going to buy a dedicated game device and spend $15 per title. The question is how many others are like me? I suspect a lot. Probably the same market that bristled at paying $15 for an album with only two quality songs on it. Like with the Wii, this new market is injecting some new money into the game community. The open question is whether it is enough for developers. Looking at Gameloft's success so far, I lean toward thinking it is.

I could argue though that look at Nintendo's Dominance in mobile gaming...If the big developers are going to release better graphical, longer storyline and franchise games, there's alot of people out there that will buy it, out of brand loyalty at whatever price. Right now, the only developers willing to try on Apple are the small to medium developers out there that are not hoping for big returns but just a foot in the market, while the Big Developers, see the iphone market as not worth investing quality time, until the returns equal the expenses they put into it, and that won't happen unless they bump up the price to the $15 - 20 range. Who knows, once the Iphone has the graphical capabilities as well as the Ram Capabilities to churn out PSP or high quality DS games, than it'll be more than just a smartphone and become a gaming toy, that Apple was craving into stealing Nintendo and Sony's marketshare.

[CaseyLay]

Originally Posted by NolbertoS

I could argue though that look at Nintendo's Dominance in mobile gaming...If the big developers are going to release better graphical, longer storyline and franchise games, there's alot of people out there that will buy it, out of brand loyalty at whatever price. Right now, the only developers willing to try on Apple are the small to medium developers out there that are not hoping for big returns but just a foot in the market, while the Big Developers, see the iphone market as not worth investing quality time, until the returns equal the expenses they put into it, and that won't happen unless they bump up the price to the $15 - 20 range. Who knows, once the Iphone has the graphical capabilities as well as the Ram Capabilities to churn out PSP or high quality DS games, than it'll be more than just a smartphone and become a gaming toy, that Apple was craving into stealing Nintendo and Sony's marketshare.

The iPod Touch/iPhone already has the capabilities for being able to churn out much better looking high quality games than the DS. We just need the devs who can afford it. the iDevice has better graphical power and more RAM than the PSP already, but the problem is that the iDevice's software is always using 50-65% of its power for different processes, while the PSP focuses mainly on the game.

I don't know about $20, since people here always like it some what cheap. $10-$15 may seem like a low price to sell a great game at, but would probably make more sales than $20 (even though the grossing might be around the same).

It's going to be a big winter for iDevice gaming, seeing that not only Squenix is taking the iPhone more seriously, but one of the greatest companies in the world, Rockstar, is going to give us GTA Chinatown Wars. I really hope that a lot of iUsers buy the upcoming games from Rockstar, Square Enix, Ubisoft and other big companies, to convince them that the iDevices are worth their ports and hopefully someday, exclusives.