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The story
Hiroshi Matsuyama, president of game development studio CyberConnect2 (CC2), sparked discussion on 5ch’s Hardware/Industry (Geha) board after remarking in a Famitsu interview that “in our 30-year history, there have been exactly two occasions where the same client canceled a project or reassigned development to another company.” Phrases in the remark such as “highly detailed artwork” and “a building that looked somewhat familiar” led many to speculate he was referring to the development shake-up around Square Enix’s FINAL FANTASY VII Remake. The thread split between posters criticizing Square Enix’s track record of harshly cutting contractors, and those defending it as simply par for the course in contract development.
To be clear, this is simply something that, looking back over CyberConnect2’s 30-year history, has happened exactly twice.
Our assistant staff drew an incredibly high-detail rendering of a building that might look somewhat familiar, so it may seem like the client in question was the company behind that building — but I’m sure that’s just your imagination (please, just don’t think about it too hard).
As for the “canceled project,” it was essentially an unannounced title, so that’s information only the parties involved could possibly know.
Source: famitsu.com / Original article here
What people said
Square Enix is the one who did this to Tose, so they're not really in a position to talk.
Square Enix farms the work out to contractors, then stiffs them every chance it gets, Tose-style — and that's how you rack up a ¥40 billion extraordinary loss.
Just imagine how much trouble they caused.
Project canceled = ???
Wonder what else Square Enix had commissioned from them.
Was the canceled one some FF7-related spin-off too?
Looking at the Tose situation, there's a decent chance Square Enix doesn't actually handle this stuff properly.
There's no shortage of horror stories between Square Enix and its developers.
Even so, when you look at what actually shipped… makes you wonder what their 'bar' even was.
You're hallucinating, you lunatic.
Wasn't the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: All Star Battle CG that Araki Hirohiko praised outsourced though?
According to the leaks, CC2 got cut because their quality was too low.
Between this and FromSoftware, game companies are brutal…
Is this really that scary a story?
Some companies go under over stuff like this.
No wonder Director Kojima was furious.
And then getting an acquisition offer from Sony on top of that is just awful.
No, it's not about stiffing anyone — the loss comes precisely because they did pay for development up to that point. The cancellation causes huge headaches because of the schedule gap it leaves behind.
Besides, if they were actually stiffing people, they'd go bankrupt.
And Square Enix actually did exactly that two years ago.
Why did they even have CC2 work on FF7 Remake in the first place?
They were only entrusted with partial support work.
Probably they thought, 'maybe they've learned their lesson by now?' But when they actually gave them the work, nothing had changed — their ego had just inflated even more — so they figured this wasn't going to work.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
CyberConnect2 is a major contract development studio known for work on the .hack series and the CG for the JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure games; this remark comes from a Famitsu interview. It’s worth noting that President Hiroshi Matsuyama never named a specific title himself — the theory that he was referring to FF7 Remake spread purely as speculation among 5ch posters. In contract development, it’s hardly unusual for a client to cancel a project or switch developers at its own discretion. The thread’s central divide was between those who argued Square Enix is especially harsh in how it cuts contractors, and those who countered that this is simply something that can happen to anyone who takes on contract work.
*This article was compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “CC2: ‘Twice now, the same company has canceled development or switched developers on us. Scary stuff, the game industry.’“
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