Square Enix's Shiraishi: WiiWare Size Limit No Prob

With Square Enix's Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As a King one of the flagship titles for the highly-anticipated WiiWare launch, it's interesting to hear co-creators Fumiaki Shiraishi and Toshihiro Tsuchida discuss the design-lite approach to WiiWare at an in-depth feature in Gamasutra.

You'd think it'd be hard for Square Enix, whose titles are known for their size and spectacle, to make such a comparatively teeny game. Was it? Says Shiraishi:

"It actually wasn't that difficult. I think we designed the game to fit in the memory space. It wasn't so much that we had a game and had to squeeze it down. If anything, I think the size restriction helped us. I don't think we would've had this game design idea if we didn't have the memory restriction to begin with."

Wait, Final Fantasy WiiWare Costs $15?

Square-Enix Rechristens White Engine, Plans To Bring It To Wii

Taku Murata, general manager of Square-Enix's research and development division, announced at today's GDC session that the company has dropped the White Engine name for its cross-platform game engine. Squenix is now pitching it as Crystal Tools, showing off a fancy new logo that extends the Final Fantasy brand even further.

While the internal, companywide development platform was originally understood to be built for PlayStation 3 development (specifically, Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy versus XIII), it is being designed with multiple platforms, including the Xbox 360 and PC, in mind. Murata also confirmed that a version is being readied for the Wii, which is still very early, but we don't expect it to kick out visuals on par with the PS3.

Square-Enix Creates Giant Headed Virtual World To Shill Stuff

The company responsible for billions of tons of Chocobo tchochkes is giving Square-Enix Members another opportunity to be inundated with more Final Fantasy stuff. Squeenix's Virtual World launches in Japan next week, with the publisher revealing details on the members only service today. Replete with avatar creation, customization, mini-games and Chocobos, Virtual World behaves kind of like a low-rent Second Life or Home. Instead of creepy furry sexual fantasies played out with terrible graphics, Virtual World inhabitants will have tea with giant yellow birds. Instead of looking at billboards for Sony games, Virtual World users will look at billboards for Square-Enix games.

It's strictly for Windows users at this point and will likely remain that way for a long time. Virtual World will go into a public alpha testing next week, incorporate existing Square-Enix Member avatars and feature prominent ads for Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon for the Wii.

Virtual World [Square-Enix via NeoGAF]

Square-Enix Still Keeping Final Fantasy XIII Behind Closed Doors

Discovering Infinite Undiscovery With tri-Ace

Final Fantasy XIII is a long way off. We're placing bets on a 2009 release in Japan.Those of us attending Tokyo Game Show this year won't see much of it, that is, unless we wait in painfully long lines to watch the game's trailers. Square-Enix announced today via its official TGS 2007 web site that it would be showing trailers for Dragon Quest IX, Last Remnant, Final Fantasy XI, Dissidia: Final Fantasy and Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII in two theaters. For fans of the Squenix brand of software, seeing the last two will require marathon style queues. They're only being shown in the company's Closed Mega Theater. So bring your copies of Crisis Core, kids. You're going to need something to keep you quietly occupied in line for a couple hours.

Square-Enix Tokyo Game Show Theaters [Square-Enix]

Ash got a brief look at tri-Ace's Xbox 360 title Infinite Undiscovery in motion at Microsoft's pre-TGS press conference, but now, you too can enjoy the beauty of this glorious RPG with these magical stills. The recently launched official web site for the Square-Enix and Microsoft Game Studios co-venture isn't exactly dripping with content, but it's worth mentioning. For now, enjoy these gorgeous screenshots of the Xbox 360's next attempt at capturing the imagination of JRPG fans.

No Cross Platform Online Games For Wii Says Square-Enix

Final Fantasy XI producer Hiromichi Tanaka said the company has no plans to bring its PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 MMO to the online-enabled Wii. He explained at the Austin Game Developers Conference that "Nintendo's currently not allowing different cross-platform titles, and [...] resolution differences make it harder for us to make cross-platform games. Currently we're not looking at Nintendo Wii as a platform." Not good news, but I doubt it will drive many of you to rooftop ledges clutching suicide notes penned on Chocobo stationery.

While Nintendo's clumsy and spartan online game offerings should ensure that this comes as a surprise to no one, Tanaka did reveal a slight surprise, according to Gamespot's report, in that he'll soon be able to reveal more of his next-gen online RPG. I've got five bucks on Final Fantasy XI-II.

Square Enix: Nintendo saying no to cross-platform MMOs [Gamespot]

Dragon Quest IV, V, VI Join IX On DS

Square-Enix's Comic Con store is open for business, ready to push attendee credit cards to their limit (break). Much of the wares for sale at Comic Con 07 were on display at the company's E3 booth, but now you can finally buy all this high quality fan service. Keyblades, statues, super deformed action figures, jewelry, $400 Sephiroths and even plush Cactuars are all on-hand, waiting to be carried home in an oversized PlayStation bag.

Sadly, there was not a single piece of Dragon Quest themed silverware at Comic Con, but a Square-Enix rep hinted that it could be coming to the U.S. in the fall. Comic Con is saved! Check out a photo gallery of all the gorgeous licensed junk below.

Square-Enix Dish On US Online Store

Dissidia: Final Fantasy Trailer

Square-Enix To Open US Merch Store