Nintendo Co.'s loss of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, two popular home video game series, will not affect sales of its 64-bit video game machine, Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi said Feb. 3 in Tokyo.
In a surprise move last February, software company Square, which developed the Final Fantasy series for Nintendo's machines, selected Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s 32-bit PlayStation as the platform for the new version. Likewise, Enix Corp., which developed megatitle Dragon Quest for Nintendo's machines, recently announced that the next version of the series will be developed for PlayStation, not for Nintendo's hardware Nintendo 64.
The shift of the two software companies to SCE is expected to encourage sales of PlayStation. SCE's PlayStation is currently capturing a growing share of the home video game market. Sega Enterprises Ltd. and Nintendo, forerunner of home video machines, have been struggling to compete with SCE. "After such a big hit with the past Dragon Quest series, it is difficult to come up with fresh ideas," Yamauchi told a news conference.