Q: What are your strategies for the packaged and online software market in Asia?
A: (Hiramatsu) The PlayStation software market in Asia is concentrated on pirate software, and we've been fighting a tough battle against piracy along with Sony Computer Entertainment. We have been releasing software through SCE, but the sales levels have been rather small. The PlayStation 2 has not gone on sale outside of Japan yet, either.
We have also released Final Fantasy VII and VIII for the PC, each of which has sold in the tens of thousands in Taiwan and Korea. That is a much stronger market to participate in, so we are still cautiously proceeding with packaged software.
(executive director Hideaki Morishita) "Online games are far more impervious to piracy, since server access fees can be collected even if the client software is copied... As we discussed during the three-company agreement, we are looking at the Asian and American online market as a whole, so we would like to actively explore the Asian market in the future."
I don't know what it really means....but I think it means that PC versions are going to be a high option for Square.
http://www.video-senki.com/feat/ska/ska1.html
And I really don't think that 'Kindom Hearts' is going to cut it in the States.....Donald Duck meets FF? I doubt many people will buy it.
[This message has been edited by MMiller8 (edited August 03, 2001).]
We have also released Final Fantasy VII and VIII for the PC, each of which has sold in the tens of thousands in Taiwan and Korea. That is a much stronger market to participate in, so we are still cautiously proceeding with packaged software.
The main reason I posted the whole Q&A was because I didn't want to get hopes up....they mention the PS2 in the beginning of their answer....I really don't know what Package Software is. It's just that those two sentences kinda stuck out, to me. Kinda like wishful thinking on my part. That link has the whole interview if you guys want to read it. They talk about the FF movie, too.