You see that report Asher put up (or was it Chick)? Thats why game companies should stick to games! Sad thing is, Final Fantasy was actually one of the better movies i saw this summer, and it did poorly... as was AI... i liked AI. anyway, what are your thoughts on this? do you think Squaresoft made a big mistake? was it a worthy risk? do games make good movies? or maybe live action game movies are better than animated? just babbling.

etc

In hindsight, yes, it was a big mistake. It went way over budget, too, didn't it?

Unfortunately, this may put a chill on Blizzard's hopes of making feature films someday.

I enjoyed the movie, though a large part of it was just seeing the animation, seeing guys in powered suits blasting aliens, etc. The story was goofy.

They did learn a lot about making really pretty CGI animation and that knowledge can be applied in their game development business. That's pretty much all they got for their couple hundred million.

Yeah, this'll definitely make Blizzard think twice. Although I don't think they'd be self-financing, so if whatever they make bombs, they are losing someone else's money. I do think Blizzard might be more successful. I mean Square's CG sequences up through Final Fantasy IX never even had talking. Blizzard's stuff had dialogue that was even funny. And I think they'd be able to pull it off a lot cheaper. They don't need a brand new facility in Hawaii.

Brad Grenz

Plus, Blizzard has one thing going for them that Sqaure didn't: A cohesive story. They've been talking about making a Diablo movie forever, and the story's already there. The Final Fanstasy games aren't one huge story, they're several mini (rather weak) stories.

Graphically speaking, in a lot of ways, Blizzard's games are more adaptable to movies, too. I mean, Sqaure's games graphically resemble Anime, and no one's ever tried to make Anime anything but Anime. Blizzard games look like they could be made into live-action film a little easier.

And, really, I think live-action movies would do better. Square's animation was great, but people associate animated with "light-hearted kid flick," and Final Fantasy was clearly not that. No adults that aren't gamers were going to see that movie, but it wasn't kid-friendly, either. I think it was doomed from the start.

I suspect Square will recoup a lot of that cash on the DVD release (depending on how good their deal is). That's a DVD that should sell itself, to the sci-fi, visual, audio, nutcases out there.

-Andrew

You know whats weird? I've read that some movies do VERY well on DVD but terrible in theatres. One movie i remember reading about doing really well on DVD was The Family Man... i actually rented it, its an okay movie. But yeah, i think FF can make some good cash on its DVD.

etc

That's not so weird actually. But I see why you'd think so. People have less of a taste threshold with cheap video rentals over making a trip to the theater. Particularly families with kids, like those who rented The Family Man (like me and my wife, -- we hated it).

Some famous films had terrible theatrical runs and "made it" in rental. Highlander, Buffy The Vampire Slayer (the movie), Segal's Above the Law, The Crow, The Fifth Element, etc.,

Ah, but then cult/sci-fi/horror films always tend to take off in rental. Stupid comedies too. People just want something different from a video store than a theater.

Final Fantasy will do well as a purchase though. It's one of those "test your system" DVD attractants.

-Andrew

Yeah, the Final Fantasy Movie DVD is reportedly reference quality.

The most notable movie I can think of that didn't do well in theatres but hit it big on video was Austin Powers. Enough so that they made a sequel. (I, for one, saw it in the theatre). And the DVD was a benchmark in quality at its release (which was way before VHS was available). I actually bought it before I had a DVD player. At the time I did buy a player I already had 5 DVDs...

Brad Grenz

"The Final Fanstasy games aren't one huge story, they're several mini (rather weak) stories."

Uh, I think most people who played any of the early Final Fantasy games would take issue with that statement. Even VII had a better story than most PC games.

-Ron

Yeah I was a big fan of the series I think along with chrono trigger (that game had something like 24 different endings non linear anough?) ff3 is probably my favariot console rpg ever. Its just all of there storylines are badly recycled from previous games, predictable and the dialogue in the last three sounds like it was from a writer on Dawsons creek.

I wonder how much the technology and tools they developed for the film are worth? A whole lot of the modeling and animation tools they built cutom as Maya plug-ins are going to be directly applicable to games over the next few years, so it's not like the film's budget was a total loss.

Doug - all hail the might FF3 (FF 6 actually, but the numbers got all screwy in this country). It probably edges out Skies of Arcadia and ties with Phantasy Star as my top console RPG of all time.

Brad - umm... Austin Powers made almost $54 million in box office in the US, on a budget of $17 million. I think they were pretty happy with that. =) That's a better percentage than the sequel, which had a $33 million budget and raked in $70 mil.

"That's a better percentage than the sequel, which had a $33 million budget and raked in $70 mil."

Those numbers are way off. The second one had an opening weekend of $50+ mil and ended up with over $200 mil at the box office.

Skies of Arcadia is a really cool game, but the battle system sucks big-time. I'd put several Square games above it in my list. And Final Fantasy VI comes up number one for me too. That was just such a brilliant game. Favorite moment: getting the Gengi (I think that's what they were called) gloves and equiping them on someone who could weild 2 weapons at once. 4 hits per attack!

Sakaguchi speaks very highly of the custom Maya stuff they came up with. I bet we're going to see really good hair in a bunch of future games.

Brad Grenz

I kept reading how good the combat is in Grandia II for Dreamcast. It's down to $19.99 now so I picked it up last night. We'll see if it lives up to the hype.

Anyone with a DC should start scouting for those games they wanted but never bought at full price. There are a lot of good deals around now. I also got Bangai-O for $19.96. That "96" should give away where I bought Grandia II and Bangai-O (Begins with a W has a dash in the middle and ends in MART.) Target is another hotbed of reduced price Dreamcast games and EB has been getting a good selection of Pre-Owned games in addition to some good discounts on new games.

WRT the topic...Square's problem is just one of making only one movie and not more. Rather than dump all that they gained from the film's production, I think they should have gone ahead and built a new property with the existing technology. They will be able to use what they learned for some more games, but it would also pay to create some more CG films. Unless distribution is a problem with the low take on FF:TSW.

Oh, there's a new spin on this one too. Sony bought 19% of Square yesterday. That's one percent from a controlling interest. All that talk about Square on Nintendo and Microsoft systems is now just that...talk. Never going to happen. Gameboy Advance releases of the FF games? Maybe...unless Sony is finally going to enter the handheld market. You know...the "Walkstation".

--Dave

Jason - Yeah I liked the entire phantasy star series its been so long its all sort of a blur. Though I think the 2nd one was best the game spanned three generations it ended up being several different paths you could take and one was completly different from the other up untill the end.

Brad- Best moment? Beating that god damn overgrown squid who attacked the raft. Had to be the hardest battle in the game.

I've still got a bet out with Jim Preston that Square won't be making games for the Xbox. And the guys at Xbox.IGN for some twisted reason think the three new games Square will be announcing at the Fall TGS will all be for the Xbox. Right, sure. The 3 unannounced games out of all the projects they have going are ALL going to be Xbox games? I ain't buyin'. With Sony almost having a controlling investment in Square, and considering Columbia distibuted and paid for all the promotion for the FF movie, I think it's safe to say Square won't be alienating Sony any time soon.

Brad Grenz

Speaking of overgrown squids attacking rafts...I want another sequel to Pocky and Rocky, one of the greatest SNES games of all time. A 3D sequel to that one would be sheer bliss.

--Dave

snipped from a news story about the Sony purchase of Square stock:
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"We are not necessarily obligated to Sony, because of this deal," said Hisashi Suzuki, Square's president. "But we can gauge the situation in the future and offer software to the best selling hardware maker, and at this time there is no doubt that Sony is the best."
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Translation: we don't have any Xbox of Gamecube games in development and now we probably never will.

Brad Grenz