The Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises played an important role in the fate of the original PlayStation and helped it gain great popularity. In the case of Dragon Quest, this applies primarily to Japan, Final Fantasy – the whole world.
Such thoughts were shared by the former head of SIE Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida.
“These are the two biggest Japanese RPG series. Back then [during the launch of the original PlayStation] there was a lot of talk behind closed doors that I can’t talk about, but as a result, both companies [Squaresoft and Enix] decided to release their latest games on the PlayStation. It’s completely changed our situation, on the PlayStation there were projects necessary for the successful life of the console,” Shuhei Yoshida admitted.
According to the Sony veteran, in the early days of the PlayStation, the “large” gaming companies were in no hurry to support the new console – the market was then controlled by SEGA and Nintendo, and Sony Interactive Entertainment did not have its own systems sellers, as it was a newcomer.
Early announcements of new numbered Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest helped secure the young brand’s position in key markets and paved the way for a wide release of big hits on the PlayStation from developers around the world.
