Tetsuya Nomura Spent 3 Months Convincing Square Enix Not to Move Final Fantasy XV to Smartphones
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.”
But if they put it on smartphones they can charge like $16 for it. That’s a lot.
Nomura was the good guy all along! It’s just like a final fantasy plot! He must’ve been trying to tell us about this for years!
Should have been paying attention to those stories.
Wof
But we will still be able to buy items with real money right?
I hate it when this site goes on about Japanese games. They suck!
Now, now, all games are equal, no matter where they come from.
Woman detected.
Pics or it didn’t happen.
what is this, some kind of not-funny reddit?
Sorry your pitiful masculinity shrivels up in the pseudo presence of what might be a female.
ANYWAY, while I think smartphone games are an ok little diversion, trying to put a game like a new final fantasy on it is completely inane, and it would probably eat up the battery. I think it’s kind of funny that Nomura had to use Lightning like that, buuut I’m not a FFXIII fan, so I don’t really care either way.
Sure, all games are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Animal Farm for the Win
I highly recommend you try playing a Final Fantasy title before you knock them all. You claim they all suck, but does your game preference focus on FPS games like CoD? If so, that could be why you dislike FF games. It is a different genre, and while it may seem to you like the games are unappealing, there are entire fanbases out there for each of the releases of the FF and many other JRPG series’ that are out there.
TL;DR, read the comment. I can’t summarise well.
enjoy your shitty brown shooters
Yeah, I suppose some people were disappointed because they were making highly-successful games that THEY didn’t want.
God, anyone who thinks that the FFXIII series in terms of popularity was “disappointing” should all go fucking die.
Even if the Final fantasm game was popular, perhaps it would be even more popular on phones. If you can achieve greater success it is your duty as an American to do anything in your power to get to that point.
You’re a moron. Duty as an American? Not to mention Japan abd it’s companies aren’t American, fuck head
Being American is not just a nationality, it’s a state of mind.
What’s that? Oh yeah!! Its my Faith in Humanity dying.
Lightning Returns only sold 300 thousand copies in its first week, compared to 1.5 million for XIII and 500 thousand for XIII-2.
Even Japan is sick of that sub-series.
If it was on the smart phone, however, they could open up to a massive pool of new consumers who likely haven’t played an FFXIII game yet, like grandmothers and hipsters. The micro-transactions alone would’ve made them more money than LR ever did.
Until these Japanese companies figure out how to enter the iPod generation, they’re just going to keep bleeding money.
Where do you get those numbers for XIII? According to Wikipedia “sales numbers were lower than expected”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X.....te_note-40
YOUR MUM gave them to me. Using her vagina.
First, you are a very abrasive person. Second, this seems doubtful, seeing as my mother is particularly fond of Albert Einstein.
My uncle works at Nintendo.
1.5 million is low in today’s market. Any game that sells less than 5 million is effectively a failure.
Dat Activision mindset.
Yeah, but he talked about making as many costumes for Lightning Returns in order for the execs to let him keep FFXV on consoles, doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with Lightning Returns’s retail sales.
YO
I am a Japanese.
report is not in dengeki.
this is a satire
I’m sorry if I make anybody mad, but Nomura is half wrong as are the executives. They should sell Final Fantasy XV on both smartphones and ps4 and xbox one give the game more availability to people. Also what about pc gamers we haven’t had a Final Fantasy game in years. I say equality for all gamers.
IPhones aren’t NEARLY as high-tech as new game consoles, just fyi, which would mean a bunch of downgrading, and how would the controls even work? But the while things a satire so w/e.
They prob were too scared about money and profits.. they have a Realm Reborn now.. they’re money maker is back and hopefully good quality games return…
No way this is real
This article proves once again that Testsuya Nomura is the ONLY competent person at SE. Just to think SE were already preparing to move FF15 to smartphones after teasing us the game in 2006!!
Despite being satirical, this article is scarily believable.
UTMOST respect for Nomura after reading this. Too bad he’s off the project now, but WOW did he come through in the clutch by keeping this game off those puny smartphones.
Thank you Tetsuya Nomura