Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has said that Sony scoring Final Fantasy 7 instead of Nintendo was “probably the biggest sea change move” for the company’s gaming division. After the series made its mark on Nintendo, the original FF7 released in 1997 on the PlayStation 1 to resounding success.
It was Sony Music that convinced Square to release Final Fantasy 7 on PS1
In an interview with Games Industry, Layden warned against non-gaming companies like Amazon and Netflix attempting to disrupt the industry, in response to which he was asked how Sony’s case was different considering it was also non-endemic to the games industry at one point in time.
Layden argued that Sony understood that entertainment “was its own beast,” and its electronics division sought help from the music division to go after games. It was, in fact, Sony Music that convinced Square Enix (then Square) to release FFVII on PS1 instead of Nintendo.
“PlayStation knew that we couldn’t do what Sega and Nintendo did and [provide the bulk of the software], we didn’t know enough how to make it,” Layden recalled. “We had to be the third-party platform, so we had to get Namco, Square, EA, Activision. Those Sony Music guys are the ones that got Square to move Final Fantasy 7 off of Nintendo and onto PlayStation, probably the biggest sea change move.”
Layden concluded that despite Sony not being endemic to the games industry at the time, it knew how to bring entertainment into the mix.
