Wada: We're neutral when it comes to platform partners

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada has told GamesIndustry.biz that the RPG specialist is neutral when it comes to dealing with publishing and platform partners.

The company shocked Final Fantasy fans at E3 when it announced that the latest title in the series – Final Fantasy XIII – would appear on the Xbox 360, sparking intense debate amongst followers of the evergreen RPG franchise previously associated with Sony and the PlayStation brand.

"We always consider the territory and hardware for titles, and I just want to make sure that we're neutral about dealing with companies," said Wada speaking in an exclusive interview published today.

"In Japan we know that the Xbox 360 isn't really that strong yet, but for me I feel very calm about dealing with any company, and we're not partnering exclusively with any particular company."

Wada said that the company will continue to support multiple formats in its efforts to reach beyond a core audience, and the Xbox 360 offers strong opportunities to expand into the US market.

"In North America Microsoft is doing very well with its hardware, and for that reason it's a very important partner for us," he said.

"We're now in the age of the multi-platform, but depending on age and territory, users have different tastes.

"Therefore it's very difficult to just deal with one company or one hardware platform - in order to offer our product to the vast majority of gamers we need to deal with multiple companies and platforms," added Wada.

The full interview with Yoichi Wada can be read here.