Square Enix and Sony have been best buddies since the very beginning, but Square Enix president Yoichi Wada now says that their old friend needs to straighten up, and that they might be hindering their own success.
Wada is referring to the lack of consistency in Sony’s marketing of the PS3. His feeling is that the marketing of the system as a home entertainment hub, and then the shift to pushing it as a games console confused potential buyers. In a Reuters article, Wada said that Sony’s future “would be tough if its marketing strategy is not straightened up”.
“Sony first unveiled the PS3 as a mighty home electronics product,” said Wada. “Then, after some badgering from game companies, it shifted the position of the console closer to a game machine.”
Hopefully this doesn’t mean bad things for the magical marriage of all things PlayStation and Final Fantasy, but we know that Square has a history of suddenly “ditching and hitching”. With the way things are going now (Final Fantasy re-releases, Dragon Quest exclusives), it almost seems like Square Enix is going full circle, moving back to their original best buddy, Nintendo.
This makes Square Enix sound like a fair-weather friend, doesn’t it?
[Update: in an almost perfectly timed response, our favorite hair palace posts the definitive declaration from Sony Computer Entertainment boss Kaz Hirai himself: “I’d like to clearly say, ‘The PS3 is a game machine.’ It’s nothing more than that.” There you have it, folks. Hear that, Nintendo?]
[thanks, JV]
