As you may recall today, 1up.com posted an article that had a snippet of an interview they did with Hiromichi Tanaka, producer of Square Enix’s MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI. Tanaka said that “Initially we were in talks with a representative from Sony [to achieve this], but it appears that that person quit.” Basically, they wanted to port the game on a Blu-Ray, but since whoever they were talking to quit, someone didn’t put up some effort into continuing talks about this issue, and thus, right at the moment, the port’s progress has stalled. No word yet on why further talks with someone else couldn’t happen (or if anyone would still be interested). However, there is something else that is to be had here. Something very interesting. That is that 1up could’ve opened the can of worms, or more appropriately, Pandora’s Box, on more than FFXI, but with the entire issue of why SE says they wanted to go multiplatform but has yet to release a single PS3 game yet.

First, let’s start by saying this: There isn’t (yet) any indication of any kind of date as to when this was attempted. It could’ve happened this year, last year, or before the PS3 launched. Also, in 2007, it was rather hard for Sony to court ANY third party developers. In addition to Microsoft’s deep pockets, Sony’s console was just lacking in attractiveness. The price tag, lack of games at the time, and the battle over Blu-Ray vs. HD DVD made it hard for anyone to commit to the PS3 as a viable platform. Thus, it’s important to know the time frame this attempt happened, because it might say a lot about what one of the reasons could’ve been for SE’s lack of PS3 support, even at this stage.

However, just ONE Sony rep? And because he quit, nothing else is ever talked about? What the hell? If this is the reason, then we need to know who in the hell is at fault for not attempting to reignite talks with the other party, because it will also say a lot. If it was Sony’s fault, then SE could’ve just said that since Sony had no interest in continuing talks about FFXI, then they don’t care about getting any of their other games, which might explain the lack of support now, even though that mutiplatform claim is still looming over SE’s head.

However, if this was SE’s fault to not want to talk to anyone else, then there will be a major scandal in the works here. Okay, maybe not a scandal, but I’m very open to use the word for something in the gaming industry, and this might seem like the appropriate time to use it. SE would have no other excuse than that some third party’s hand was at stake here. Maybe Microsoft wanting their support, or maybe it was them wanting to support other consoles, or maybe it was something about Sony that SE had issues with prior to the FFXI talks that the resignation of the representative could’ve been a good enough excuse to try to get away from Sony while making one of the sorriest covers of “we want to go multiplatform” we’ve ever seen. If Square Enix didn’t even TRY to continue talks with Sony, then some further investigation as to why that is is necessary. Oh, and before I go any further, let’s remind everyone where the 360 “support” began: With the release of Final Fantasy XI for the console. Might be telling of what happened as a result, as well as other things (there’s only marginal support from SE towards Nintendo and most of their games made for Nintendo’s consoles are ports of old games or WiiWare games, so I won’t consider Nintendo in this discussion).

However, you should now see why the 1UP article about a game that has gotten mixed reviews (even though I certainly enjoy it) might’ve done more than just tell the tale about a game that people wanted to get ported but couldn’t, and it should be treated as such. Furthermore, I sincerely hope this DOES open up that box. We need answers as to why SE isn’t supporting the PS3 console yet with ANYTHING (even though FF13 is coming, where’s everything else) even though they claimed to go multiplatform, and this is the best chance we have in order to get those answers. SE fans who own a PS3 are beginning to get fed-up with this two-faced deal coming from Square-Enix. They are not stupid. They are frustrated, annoyed, and angry, and they won’t go down without a fight.

360 owners should want answer’s too, since the games they have gotten from SE haven’t been exactly burning up the charts, especially when the other, better RPGs on the system such as Mass Effect and Fable II, not to mention that FFXI IS on the 360, could sway RPG fans of both sides of the Pacific to buy the console. In other words, in the Western market, SE’s games SHOULD be doing well on the 360 and be of better quality, yet they are not, and this is even coming on the heels of SE saying they want to “help the 360 in Japan” when there is one game left for SE to try to do that with in Japan: Star Ocean The Last Hope, one that has the 3-DVD9 issue again, and it’s interesting to note that SE has yet to make a multi-disc 360 game that they didn’t express or had plans on releasing a PS3 version for, which is an interesting statistic. So although this article may mainly be aimed at the PS3 side of things, don’t thing SE is treating you any better, 360 fanboys.

However, if you are a PS3 owner and you are getting fed up with this SE deal, this might be a starting point. Regardless of your feelings towards the game, there could be good in expressing interest in trying out the world of Vand’el  if it does hit the PS3. I always say that you cannot bitch if you don’t even try to make something happen, and boycotting SE’s games obviously won’t help because Microsoft’s probably got more than enough to help them recoup any losses that they may lose from any boycott, if you want to take accusations of such things happening to heart. Don’t say that they can keep it, because right now, this could be the turning point. This article did more than it was intending, and I do hope that something is realized on both sides. Sometimes, it’s just the reveal that makes something happen. Although Square has ignored bad press in the past (don’t know how, though, seeing how it’s all over the damn place), this might be too big to ignore. I implore SE and Sony to get back to the bargaining table with Final Fantasy XI. After all, if FFXI’s release on the 360 kicked off an entire array of 360 games from SE, imagine what could happen if Sony realized this. FFXI could lead to Star Ocean 4 definitely going multiplatform, and SE actually keeping their word.

Don’t doubt the power of the article, and maybe we shouldn’t doubt the power of Final Fantasy XI’s effect on which console SE supports…no, on second thought, cancel that maybe.