Before Sony bought 19% of Square, there were numerous Nintendo/Square rumors, supported several promising developments over the past few months, all overshadowed by statements made by NCL’s president Hiroshi Yamauchi earlier this year. After Square first publicly expressed interest in the GBA, Mr. Yamauchi countered by saying Nintendo had no agreement with Square and there would not likely be one any time soon. This didn’t prevent Square from making more hopeful statements over the following months (see Square’s profile for many of them). However, Yamauchi wasn’t kidding around and no Nintendo / Square deals have been made. Now details come to light helping clarify why.

In an interview on the 18th with the Nikkei Business newspaper, Square’s president Nao Suzuki reveals that Yamauchi’s grudge was anything but unjustified. Once again, Video-Senki comes to the rescue with a translation:

Our true enemy," he admitted, "was our pride" -- pride that resulted from the heady years of the original PlayStation. When Square originally announced back in 1997 that the Final Fantasy series would be PS exclusive from now on, Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi treated the affront lightly, saying that the console selection "couldn't be helped". Suzuki responded by publically bashing the N64 and convincing Enix to join the PS camp along with them, which, looking back at it now, he realizes wasn't an incredibly smart move. The little grudge match between them that resulted was the main reason Square failed in their bid for a Nintendo license earlier this year. Without Square, though, the PlayStation platform wouldn't be half as interesting to a whole slew of gamers, and so the well-publicized buyout of last week occurred.

In the interview, Suzuki also brought up the idea of spinning development teams off into separate companies, Sega-style, as a possibility for the future.