Sony Exec Notes Importance Of Final Fantasy VII For OG Console Success

Gaming history is filled with moments that “changed the game” forever. The birth of consoles, the arcade explosion, the rise of Nintendo in the US, etc. But another factor in gaming history is the arrival of “new players.” No, not as in the gamers that play the titles, but those that step into the industry to try and change it. At first, plenty of people tried to make their name in the gaming space. But many fell by the wayside. By the time the 90s came around, you had to have a lot to be successful. That was true for Sony when it launched its original PlayStation. Thankfully, they had some aces in the hole, including Final Fantasy VII.

Remember, at that point in gaming history, Nintendo and SEGA were the “big kids on the block.” They had just come off a major console war of the SNES vs. the Sega Genesis, and it seemed like no one could dethrone them. But then, Sony came in with their disc drive system, and things changed. But even with their revolutionary hardware, they needed video games players would want to try out.

Shuhei Yoshida, head of Sony’s indie development initiative, noted in an interview that if it weren’t for Sony going to Square Enix to get games like Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VII, things would’ve been much different:

“At that time SquareSoft and Enix were separate companies, and Square had the Final Fantasy franchise, and Enix had the Dragon Quest franchise, and these two RPGs are the biggest IPs in Japan.”

So, naturally, the Japan-born Sony needed those IPs on their system, and that’s what happened. Both sides of the eventually fused company brought them to the OG PlayStation:

“And that totally changed the fortune for us. And finally we had the games that we needed to make PlayStation successful.”

These, indeed, were just some of the titles to help make the PlayStation successful, but it was important to have known IPs on a new system to give people a reason to buy the console. Fast forward to now, and Sony is on the fifth iteration of their system, SEGA isn’t in the console-making business anymore, and Final Fantasy VII Remake was one of the biggest games of their last console, with its sequel on the way!

So by getting those IPs, they changed gaming history and are continuing to affect it today.

Source: GameReactor