[29/05] GRIN Founders Blame SE for Studio Closure

[Raiiyokuu]

GRIN, a Stockholm-based game developer formed in 1997, closed its doors to bankruptcy in 2009. A Aftonbladet interview with founders Bo and Ulf Andersson blames Square Enix as the reason for the studio’s demise.
GRIN was developing a Final Fantasy spin-off codenamed Fortress before the studio shut shop. According to the Andersson brothers, Square Enix made ridiculous demands for the project, including that GRIN fax its code and music files.

“It is as silly as it sounds,” said Bo Andersson. “It is an impossible requirement, you can not send ASCII or binary codes on the fax. It is backward. Really retarded. It was almost a criminal activity.”

Square also claimed the developer was sending its work to the wrong department, and claimed it didn’t like its Nordic style that they had specifically requested from the start.

The brothers knew something was up, so to test whether or not Square was paying attention, they sent their next status update in the form of artwork taken directly from Final Fantasy XII.

“It does not look like Final Fantasy,” the brothers were told.

“Then we realized that whatever we do … they have decided,” Bo Andersson said. “We wanted to come in and revolutionize Final Fantasy, which is exactly what they need. The latest version sucks of course.”

Thanks, VG247.​

 

[Contra Fates]

Wow, if there's truth to that, I'm a bit flabbergasted. I haven't had much hope for Square Enix lately, but that is just ridiculous. Square Enix really does need to revolutionize themselves if they want to stay afloat in this age of gaming. I know they plan to release a lot of their classics on PSN to try and gain some new income, but I know they're not doing well at all when it comes to finances.

 

[King of Baron]

This isn't news.
It sounds like bitter jealous men complaining about a company, who didn't think their work was good enough. Grow up GRIN and be classy.

 

[Fusionist]

The people that hated FFXIII and now S-E hated it because it was so different from the past FF games, but still complain the company needs to change itself..? The hell?

See, this is why I get so confused by people complaining

EDIT: Honestly speaking, I personally didn't care for how "Fortress" was looking early on and had no real interest in it. I'm sorry for the people who are losing their jobs and the fans wanting it though :/

 

[Contra Fates]

The people that hated FFXIII and now S-E hated it because it was so different from the past FF games, but still complain the company needs to change itself..? The hell?

See, this is why I get so confused by people complaining

EDIT: Honestly speaking, I personally didn't care for how "Fortress" was looking early on and had no real interest in it. I'm sorry for the people who are losing their jobs and the fans wanting it though :/

I wasn't too into Fortress from what I saw, either, but it's highly unprofessional of Square Enix to let a project drag on for 6 months if they had decided much earlier on that they didn't want it anymore. I feel that if they didn't spread themselves so thin that they'd be a lot more successful as a company, and not make fans wait so many years for their games. Western Games typically only take 1-2 years to produce, while Square's main Final Fantasy games take double, if not triple that time. I'm not sure if that's because Square is much smaller than other game developers, or if they just have so much going on at once.

tl;dr version: Can I have Versus XIII Already? Please, Square? D=

 

[Shaissa]

Theres two sides to every story, and Square-Enix is a company... if you can't meet demands for their product they are paying you for...then sorry but your gone...

Now I'm not saying there isn't truth to this story, there very will could be... but I'm just saying that if I complained about a company that "fired" me, you would have to think that there is a reason for it...

 

[Hatifnatten]

Thank goodness. If I were ever to witness a western developed Final fantasy, I would go on a killing spree.
I've seen their development for Fortress and it was a fucking tasteless garbage. *shock*
Rocks have higher chance starting to fly, then those trashbags "revolutionizing" something their brains cannot comprehend.

 

[Noize]

Sounds like S-E was just trying to tip-toe around telling the makers of "Fortress" that they don't wanna help make their shitty game. S-E doesn't need to "revolutionize", They just need to take a step back and look at their previous game releases. They just forget that the storyline and the battles make up the game, not the graphics.

 

[Rydrum2112]

Hilarious and true. Its a great line:

“We wanted to come in and revolutionize Final Fantasy, which is exactly what they need. The latest version sucks of course.”

I agree with his sentiment- maybe a nordic approach would help.

 

[JWick]

I somehow doubt this is anything near the full story. Firstly, I find it hard to believe SE would ask them to make a Nordic style game. Not only is that a stupid idea for FF, it wouldn't make sense in relation to other progression they've made in the series. Sadly, there is no evidence suggesting that a) SE asked for this in the first place, or b) that they did ask for it and then suddenly decided they didn't want that. VG247 highlights the words 'didn't like the Nordic setting' as though they're trying to reference something, but the link doesn't confirm that at all. There could be a million reasons as to why SE didn't like the work they saw over that period. Hell, I can't even see any evidence that they did ask for a Nordic setting game, especially since it was always intended to be set in Ivalice. As far as my understanding goes, the game's initial concept art included FFXII characters, and so this whole 'we sent them FFXII concept art which they automatically turned down' story sounds somewhat fabricated. If they're referencing to this, which is concept art of Ashe, this was actually drawn by a Swedish artist who was doing the art for Fortress (same picture is in his portfolio), so is hardly 'straight from Final Fantasy XII'. To me this looks like they're trying to make up some convenient story as an excuse for doing sub par work, and perhaps trying to be too innovative with the whole Nordic setting. Sorry, I just don't buy their account of what happened.

Also, this Andersson guy's comments are pretty rich. He claims FFXIII sucks, and common criticisms for this game are that it deviated too much from traditional FF formula. So how does he justify his claim that the series needs to be revolutionised? So he's admitting in one part of the interview that he made concious attempts to revolutionise the series, yet in others he's suggesting he only did the Nordic setting that SE dictated to him? Furthermore, despite splitting opinion more than any other main series FF game to date, FFXIII was more of a commercial and (for the most part) critical success than anything GRIN have ever developed, so the 'latest version sucks of course' sounds like a comment from some embarrassed school kid.

Honestly, whilst I do find it strange why SE would enter into a contract with western developers, let alone these developers who are effectively amateurs by SE standards, I can't really bring myself to hold it against them if they want to back out after 6 months due to being shown only sub-standard work. I'm sorry to hear their company's gone down the drain, but looks to me as though they tried to punch above their weight.