D-realJos
03-09-2002, 08:22 PM
Square and Nintendo? Great... but what does Sony have to do with this?
This is bad for Sony right? uh..is it good?
Puppet Master?...huh? Is Sony the bad one here?
Numerous questions can a strange title bring. ;)
Now with the recent Square/Nintendo news, I'm glad that I seen it coming(although shocked that it happen this soon), and I want you all to know that Sony also saw this one coming, and is neither shocked, surprised, angry or worried. Yes, that's what I said...they are not worried(at least, not to an extensive degree).
As you read on, you'll see why I seem pretty confident making such a--seemingly silly--comment like that, and you'll also see why the first and obvious conclusion we sometimes arrive at, is not always the right one. I'll need to refresh your memory a little... more than 6 months back where Sony bought shares in SquareSoft.
When Sony had announced that it became the second largest shareholder in Square(owning 19%), gaming sites all over the Internet drew the conclusion that things were looking ever worst for GameCube(and Xbox), as far as seeing support from Square goes. I too had seen and respected that point as it's the most straightforward and in-your-face "conclusion."
[That's what I meant when I spoke earlier about jumping on the first "obvious" conclusion.]
Normally, I'm always looking for other, more obscure ways to view or interpret thing(even if I may be wrong in the end). I thought there was a little more to Sony's announcement than we allowed ourselves to see, and I was right. Sometime after that announcement, I spoke with CamFu, who at the time, didn't quite see the situation from my perspective. After our discussion, we both agreed that Sony was intentionally making preparations for the near future...or rather, precautions!
It was so simple to grasp, that there became no other way of viewing it, and CamFu and I wondered why we didn't see it this way initially.
The outlook on Sony's announcement and what it truly suggested is below...
_____________________________
Ok, Square has been very close to Sony for a long time, and though much talk had came up about Sony buying SquareSoft in the past, it just never happened. I'm sure Sony has enough money to buy then 10 times over and then some, so there's no doubt in my mind that if Sony *could* have bought them, they would have already. It's likely that Square didn't want/was unable to be fully bought(for numerous possible reasons...such as reluctance of other SquareSoft share holders to sell stock to Sony).
With the videogame war growing more intense, where Nintendo is back for round 2, and Microsoft in for the first time with it's very impressive first attempt(you have to admit, for a first attempt, Xbox IS pretty darn impressive), it has become pretty obvious that there will be tons more potential profit out there, for any 3rd-party developer that can release quality titles on [i]all major consoles. Nintendo knows it, Microsoft knows it, Square knows it, and most important of all... Sony knows it.
What we have so far is; Sony unable to acquire Square(for whatever reasons), while the videogames industry is expanding and looking extremely attractive, especially for large developers who can release quality games on multiple consoles. Not only that, but from a development standpoint, both competing consoles are unquestionably more appealing than PS2. Faced with that pressure, and a potentially aggressive courtship from the competing hardware manufactures, it's no surprise that Sony set out to own a large percentage of shares in Square(I bet 19% was the largest it could get at the time, if not they would have gotten more...but that's just my opinion ).
This announcement had more significance than many assume. It was not a blatant attempt to limit/preven SquareSoft's support on competing consoles. But rather, it ensured that regardless of what Square decides to do(stay with PS2, go all consoles, or even drop PS2 for that matter), Sony will NEVER get the short end of the stick, and will reap the benefits no matter what.
That's business skills at best!
Sony is so in control of the situation... hence; The Puppet Master!
----------------------------------------------
Here's one last thing to think about..it's a quote from the president of Sony, Ken Kutaragi.
"We're not asking Square to make games only for PlayStation and PlayStation 2; we're simply asking them to make fun games that everyone can get into. If a machine with more creative power than PlayStation 2 comes out in the future, then maybe we'll cooperate with that company too." (laughs) link (http://www.video-senki.com/feat/sq.html)
Was that merely a silly joke? Or they implying that they support Square working on other consoles, because they'll benefit from it?(especially owning such large share).
In any event, the next quote confirms Sony's fear..or realization rather.
Besides, once networks are ubiquitous the dividing lines between consoles will become even more blurry than before.
The realization here was that; sooner or later, with the industry's expansion(such as network gaming), Square cannot stick 100% with Sony, will naturally expand with the industry, and the prospect of multiplatform is inevitable. Knowing that it can't prevent that, Sony's best move was to somehow use that as an advantage, or at least, in a way that could soften the blow. They did!
Note: I'm not at all saying that SquareSoft + Nintendo isn't a good thing. It's spectacular! What I wanted to make clear, is the fact that Sony already took the necessary precautions should such a thing occur, and this shouldn't have a tremendous effect on them(as it would, had they had not "prepared"). This topic also shows how Sony managed to pull this off without being too obvious. Almost the entire gaming community thought that by owning large shares in Square, Sony were making an attempt to put a tighter grasp on them. That was a misguided outlook on the implication of that particular announcement. That was far from the truth, but now, we should be able to see things in a brighter light.
This is bad for Sony right? uh..is it good?
Puppet Master?...huh? Is Sony the bad one here?
Numerous questions can a strange title bring. ;)
Now with the recent Square/Nintendo news, I'm glad that I seen it coming(although shocked that it happen this soon), and I want you all to know that Sony also saw this one coming, and is neither shocked, surprised, angry or worried. Yes, that's what I said...they are not worried(at least, not to an extensive degree).
As you read on, you'll see why I seem pretty confident making such a--seemingly silly--comment like that, and you'll also see why the first and obvious conclusion we sometimes arrive at, is not always the right one. I'll need to refresh your memory a little... more than 6 months back where Sony bought shares in SquareSoft.
When Sony had announced that it became the second largest shareholder in Square(owning 19%), gaming sites all over the Internet drew the conclusion that things were looking ever worst for GameCube(and Xbox), as far as seeing support from Square goes. I too had seen and respected that point as it's the most straightforward and in-your-face "conclusion."
[That's what I meant when I spoke earlier about jumping on the first "obvious" conclusion.]
Normally, I'm always looking for other, more obscure ways to view or interpret thing(even if I may be wrong in the end). I thought there was a little more to Sony's announcement than we allowed ourselves to see, and I was right. Sometime after that announcement, I spoke with CamFu, who at the time, didn't quite see the situation from my perspective. After our discussion, we both agreed that Sony was intentionally making preparations for the near future...or rather, precautions!
It was so simple to grasp, that there became no other way of viewing it, and CamFu and I wondered why we didn't see it this way initially.
The outlook on Sony's announcement and what it truly suggested is below...
_____________________________
Ok, Square has been very close to Sony for a long time, and though much talk had came up about Sony buying SquareSoft in the past, it just never happened. I'm sure Sony has enough money to buy then 10 times over and then some, so there's no doubt in my mind that if Sony *could* have bought them, they would have already. It's likely that Square didn't want/was unable to be fully bought(for numerous possible reasons...such as reluctance of other SquareSoft share holders to sell stock to Sony).
With the videogame war growing more intense, where Nintendo is back for round 2, and Microsoft in for the first time with it's very impressive first attempt(you have to admit, for a first attempt, Xbox IS pretty darn impressive), it has become pretty obvious that there will be tons more potential profit out there, for any 3rd-party developer that can release quality titles on [i]all major consoles. Nintendo knows it, Microsoft knows it, Square knows it, and most important of all... Sony knows it.
What we have so far is; Sony unable to acquire Square(for whatever reasons), while the videogames industry is expanding and looking extremely attractive, especially for large developers who can release quality games on multiple consoles. Not only that, but from a development standpoint, both competing consoles are unquestionably more appealing than PS2. Faced with that pressure, and a potentially aggressive courtship from the competing hardware manufactures, it's no surprise that Sony set out to own a large percentage of shares in Square(I bet 19% was the largest it could get at the time, if not they would have gotten more...but that's just my opinion ).
This announcement had more significance than many assume. It was not a blatant attempt to limit/preven SquareSoft's support on competing consoles. But rather, it ensured that regardless of what Square decides to do(stay with PS2, go all consoles, or even drop PS2 for that matter), Sony will NEVER get the short end of the stick, and will reap the benefits no matter what.
That's business skills at best!
Sony is so in control of the situation... hence; The Puppet Master!
----------------------------------------------
Here's one last thing to think about..it's a quote from the president of Sony, Ken Kutaragi.
"We're not asking Square to make games only for PlayStation and PlayStation 2; we're simply asking them to make fun games that everyone can get into. If a machine with more creative power than PlayStation 2 comes out in the future, then maybe we'll cooperate with that company too." (laughs) link (http://www.video-senki.com/feat/sq.html)
Was that merely a silly joke? Or they implying that they support Square working on other consoles, because they'll benefit from it?(especially owning such large share).
In any event, the next quote confirms Sony's fear..or realization rather.
Besides, once networks are ubiquitous the dividing lines between consoles will become even more blurry than before.
The realization here was that; sooner or later, with the industry's expansion(such as network gaming), Square cannot stick 100% with Sony, will naturally expand with the industry, and the prospect of multiplatform is inevitable. Knowing that it can't prevent that, Sony's best move was to somehow use that as an advantage, or at least, in a way that could soften the blow. They did!
Note: I'm not at all saying that SquareSoft + Nintendo isn't a good thing. It's spectacular! What I wanted to make clear, is the fact that Sony already took the necessary precautions should such a thing occur, and this shouldn't have a tremendous effect on them(as it would, had they had not "prepared"). This topic also shows how Sony managed to pull this off without being too obvious. Almost the entire gaming community thought that by owning large shares in Square, Sony were making an attempt to put a tighter grasp on them. That was a misguided outlook on the implication of that particular announcement. That was far from the truth, but now, we should be able to see things in a brighter light.