Squeenix chief Yoichi Wada: PS3 and Xbox 360 over-engineered

Square Enix chief Yoichi Wada recently sat down in an interview about the industry as we know it today, and had quite a few points to share – specifically, about the next-gen console war and the handhelds battle. We give you the juicy parts as we pick apart the brains of the Squeenix head honcho.

Having been with Square Enix for quite a long while, Mr. Wada’s seen quite a few changes in the gaming population as time went by, but nothing quite like what he sees today. He elaborates by saying that there’s a new breed of gamer in the market, and everyone in the industry will be busy making genre-specific games that cater to the multi-niche audience’s tastes, wants and needs.

This is part of the reason why the decision to make Dragon Quest IX on the Nintendo DS came into realization. Mr. Wada explains: “We chose the Nintendo DS because the widest array of people use it, including people who previously did not play games before.”

While Mr. Wada has kind words to offer today’s handheld gaming devices, he has not-so-kind words to offer two of today’s big players in the console war, specifically the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. He says that the consoles suffer from over-engineering – meaning that there’s too many specs involved, as well as certain luxuries on the consumer’s part (HD TV, broadband connection). This makes for a mismatch in today’s environment.

It’s not all bad news, however, as he does predict the PS3 and the Xbox 360 faring better in the future – which could mean it may be a while before we see business picking up for these two. In any case, let us know what you think about Yoichi Wada’s take on today’s game industry by your comments.

Square Enix chief Yoichi Wada recently sat down in an interview about the industry as we know it today, and had quite a few points to share – specifically, about the next-gen console war and the handhelds battle. We give you the juicy parts as we pick apart the brains of the Squeenix head honcho.

Having been with Square Enix for quite a long while, Mr. Wada’s seen quite a few changes in the gaming population as time went by, but nothing quite like what he sees today. He elaborates by saying that there’s a new breed of gamer in the market, and everyone in the industry will be busy making genre-specific games that cater to the multi-niche audience’s tastes, wants and needs.

This is part of the reason why the decision to make Dragon Quest IX on the Nintendo DS came into realization. Mr. Wada explains: “We chose the Nintendo DS because the widest array of people use it, including people who previously did not play games before.”

While Mr. Wada has kind words to offer today’s handheld gaming devices, he has not-so-kind words to offer two of today’s big players in the console war, specifically the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. He says that the consoles suffer from over-engineering – meaning that there’s too many specs involved, as well as certain luxuries on the consumer’s part (HD TV, broadband connection). This makes for a mismatch in today’s environment.

It’s not all bad news, however, as he does predict the PS3 and the Xbox 360 faring better in the future – which could mean it may be a while before we see business picking up for these two. In any case, let us know what you think about Yoichi Wada’s take on today’s game industry by your comments.