NOMURA SPENT 3 MONTHS CONVINCING SQUARE ENIX NOT TO MOVE FFXV TO SMARTPHONES

[Sora96 17,256]

While Final Fantasy XV was still known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII, director Tetsuya Nomura says it took three months to convince Square Enix to move the project to the next-gen consoles rather than moving it to smartphones.

 

 

Many gamers are excited to see what Final Fantasy XV will bring to the table after the disappointment that Final Fantasy XIII brought. Nomura said in an interview with Dengeki about how difficult it was to convince Square Enix not to move the project to the iOS and Android platforms.

 

“The project came to a standstill in 2011 when I decided to become more ambitious,” explained Nomura, “I wanted more from Final Fantasy and I knew that I would have to make a strong pitch to executives in order to move the game into the next generation. Unfortunately, they had a different definition of next generation that I did not anticipate.”

“One executive told me that this game would work much better on his iPhone,” continued Nomura, “He said in addition to reaching a larger audience, it would be easier to make on the iPhone because people do not expect much from it. I fought back saying that gamers deserve a good game and not some throwaway title that people will forget in a week. I was hit back with charts explaining how much more profitable that throwaway title would be.”

 

After about a month and a half of fighting with Square Enix executives, it looked like there was no chance for Nomura to win.

 

“It was very disheartening when some of my staff members started working on microtransactions for Final Fantasy XV,” said Nomura, “I told them that I was not giving up the fight, but they thought I had already lost. After all, I could not convince the executives that the quality of a video game is important. After two months, some of executives started to not care about our meetings. One of them even said that we could have finished Final Fantasy XV on smartphones in those two months and have started work on Final Fantasy XVI.”

 

Finally, after about three months, Nomura decided to make a final move designed to appeal directly to the executives. He knew there was a way to save Final Fantasy XV without damaging the potential of the game.

 

“Around the time of our meetings, I learned about a project called Lightning Returns,” recalled Nomura, “I said to the executives that I had a brilliant idea for that game as long as they let me have my Final Fantasy XV. In short, I became a character designer for Lightning Returns and told them that I will make any DLC costumes they want in order to make the game very profitable. I dressed her in some of the most tawdry costumes, but I did not care since it was not my game. Toriyama definitely did not have a problem with it. This is how I secured Final Fantasy XV for the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One.”

 

The interviewer then asked Nomura what he learned from this experience to which he replied, “Every time I hear the Angry Birds music, I just want to take that person’s phone away and throw it as hard as I can to the ground.”

 

Thanks to Play4Real.

[Skhyatze 165]

THANK GOD HE DID THAT

[Nero Kunivas 3,046]

An interesting story Sora96. I agree with Nomura on this one. (Not like I've ever really disagreed with him before. )

[Saber Lily 1,543]

Nomura.

 

You are a genius.

[Moochieh32 676]

Nomura saved the gaming world. He deserves a reward NOW.

[zeeshank22 21]

Happy that Nomura never gave up

[Deadpool 1,200]

Guys...

 

Play4Real is a satire site. It's basically the gaming equivalent of The Onion.

[Oishii 3,987]

Guys...

 

Play4Real is a satire site. It's basically the gaming equivalent of The Onion.

Psssst.... Random section

[Jim 2,990]

Guys...

 

Play4Real is a satire site. It's basically the gaming equivalent of The Onion.

Not to mention that this topic's in the random section.

[Caity 3,946]

You can understand why they wanted it on smartphones.  In the gaming industry the people who are really in charge tend to be going for the best way to increase potential sales (and pretty much everyone has a smartphone) where the creative directors are told what they can do.  "the business end (of Games Design) that non-gamer CEOs are in charge off includes deciding how many hours of content are in the game, whether you have linear progression with lots of levels, how the DLC is going to work, whether powerful items get sold in the cash shop, whether the game is a first-person gritty realistic shooter with RPG elements or an action RPG with gritty realism and lots of guns ... basically, everything that matters." 

 

You can trust anything from Cracked.  Srs guys.

 

Either way I would never play (or pay for) any game on a smartphone when I have all these consoles just hanging about.

[Kaneki Ken 1,516]

So that's why we haven't heard about FFXV for a few years. F'ing Square Enix. They would've ruined everything Final Fantasy XV has. But Nomura saved the day, thank goodness.

[Tails 6,692]

Very glad he saved FF XV from becoming another crappy Final fantasy game. If FF XV went on the iphone and didn't make much profit. Square-Enix would have been in a lot of financial trouble.

[Javelin434 3,164]

So he saved FFXV by dressing Lightning is fansevice outfits?

Genius... Just... Genius

[Robin 206]

once again the world is saved by women wearing little clothing

[xBerserkerSaix07x 125]

Wow...who knew?

[Deadpool 1,200]

Not to mention that this topic's in the random section.

 

Psssst.... Random section

 

I didn't notice. I just got here from the new topic thingy on the front page.

[juma086 263]

lol these articles are pretty funny. Until someone starts to take them super seriously, not realizing that this is a joke site. Some people don't want to read articles beyond the title. It's absurd.

 

(Not talking about anyone here)

Edited December 21, 2013 by juma086

[Hero of Winds 2,576]

Comedy is really good when you can fool someone into thinking a game such as FFXV would be anywhere near possible on smartphone devices. 

I didn't notice. I just got here from the new topic thingy on the front page.

Like most others on here.

Edited December 21, 2013 by Vexoria

[Skai 3,961]

I like pancakes.

 

Oh, were you expecting an on topic reply?  Well then, everything's been said already.  I came late.  I'm a failure. *cries*

Edited December 21, 2013 by Jaune Arc

[Danex Darkfire + 1,712]

ya did good nomura, ya did good

[DJ369 183]

This is why Nomura is my favorite videogame director and creator.

[Imoore4 687]

OMG NOMURA I LOVE YOU SO MUCH MORE NOW!!!!

[Nathan Hatton 274]

So Nomura is the reason for all the crazy outfits for Lightning in Lightning Returns.... Why doesn't that surprise me. Thank goodness he did that though.

[Sora96 17,256]

So Nomura is the reason for all the crazy outfits for Lightning in Lightning Returns.... Why doesn't that surprise me. Thank goodness he did that though.

 

Well he is the character designer.

[MasterXemnas 2,285]

Fool. Nomura. He didn't save himself. He didn't save his company. He saved the world...