We got an interesting report saying that Square has responded to Yamauchi's recent statement. Here's what Square's president had to say:

"We're not expecting to be accepted by Nintendo right away, but we're doing everything to get the relationship positive again. The most important thing about management is the ability of having several choices. It is hard to loose one of these. We have to try to convince Nintendo, by showing them our plans for GBA and GameCube that we will boost their hardware sales" said Mr. Suzuki, Square's president.

According to sources, Nintendo wants SquareSoft to commit to at least two GameCube games before they agree to allow SquareSoft to develop Game Boy Advance games. Looks like things may be more promising than Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi lead us to believe...

The source for this story is Nihon Kougyou Shinbun; frequent reader db kindly pointed this out and asked what the Planet had to say. Well, I've asked around and none of us can vouch for the validity of the piece. While it may have come from the Nihon Kougyou Shinbun, the piece has evidently already been translated a couple times. However, after such a strong "anti-Square" public statement from Yamauchi, Square certainly have reason to respond.

The latter part (about Nintendo wanting 2 NGC titles) should be considered a rumor, though many here at Planet (readers & staff) suggested that Yamauchi might be holding out for NGC support by blowing off Square initially. Remakes of FF4, FF5 & FF6 sure would be nice for GBA but this would pale in comparison to the Sony support announced during the next meeting, one Final Fantasy title after another. Yamauchi may be playing hard ball and he'd be wise to, Square support should be all or nothing.