Square Enix’s Yoichi Wada talks about platforms and formats

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has been interviewed a lot lately, mostly about the studio expanding its horizons. Makes one think Square might be up to something. In this recent interview, Yoichi talks about platforms and the advantage of diversification, and then about formats and the advantage of standardization. Read about the interview in the full article.

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada‘s current barrage of interviews lately leads one to think Square Enix is up to something. At any rate, Yoichi is in another interview yet again. This time he talks about platforms and formats.

Square Enix titles been all over the place, appearing on all of the major platforms. Although the studio isn’t as prolific when it comes to the Xbox 360, their MMO on the platform, Final Fantasy 11, maintains a huge following. So what’s Yoichi’s stand on such a diverse selection of platforms?

I regard it as positive. It was going to happen anyway, it wasn’t accidental. Videogames became popular in the 80s, and for about fifteen years, until the year 2000, the main focus was just on ensuring that everybody had a console.

Now we have moved to a new era where we have more types of gamers and console users, and what is important for both hardware and software makers is how to deal with diversified demands from diversified users.

So the console war isn’t all bad. At the least, it makes for now it’s conducive for a healthier market for video games because it reaches out to a more diverse set of gamers. The diverse hardware selection is probably why the video game industry is currently booming.

Speaking on the format war however (or at least, speaking on having a  diverse selection of formats), Yoichi has another stand. A standard format would be more convenient for developers:

Speaking as a software manufacturer it would be convenient for us, obviously, if everybody was to standardize. But that kind of standardization would be impossible, in my opinion. I would like it to happen, but there’s not much chance.

Via GamesIndustry.biz