Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet revealed the details about how developer GRIN was left behind by Japanese giant Square Enix. It's an extensive text about the company's successes and failure. I thought it was such a good story that I wanted to translate bits of it to you, so even you can get a hold of this awesome scoop! I've translated the most vital parts of the text, so not everything might be covered. If you find something you find peculiar, please let me know and I'll answer you with the answers I can find in the article or confirm anything in the text. So, let's start.

It all begins...

Then, what happened?

Wow. Wow. Thanks for translating, that's disappointing.

This was an amazing read. This part pretty much sums up how messed up the whole situation was: 

One day, GRIN had enough. So they sent Square Enix a screenshot from their own game Final Fantasy XII to test them. The response they got was "that doesn't look like a game in Final Fantasy's style." That's when they knew that whatever they did, Square Enix wouldn't back them up on this.  

Yoichi Wada seems like the biggest joke in the industry.  Did they happen to have the screenshot of FF12 they tested them with?  That would be cool to see.

Thanks for posting. Very interesting read.

Pretty damn sad that it happened on the day after Bosse's wedding.

People still use fax machines?  

@Hampe: Great read, thanks for translating man. I'm a little in the dark here though, what is the new company they formed called?

Very interesting. Did the Swedish newspaper get all this info from ex GRIN employees?

Dude was on 17 million a year?  
 
"Games are too expensive to make wah wah" 
"Here, have 17 million, Mr. Guy"

Dude was on 17 million a year?   "Games are too expensive to make wah wah" "Here, have 17 million, Mr. Guy"

Dude. That's insane.
 
Given, I thought Terminator Salvation was a trainwreck, and I didn't very much care for Bionic Commando, but no company deserves to be treated that way. What the hell is wrong with SE anymore? :(

Yoichi Wada seems like the biggest joke in the industry.  Did they happen to have the screenshot of FF12 they tested them with?  That would be cool to see.  

Sad. Does anyone know the name of Bosse and Ulf's new studio?

@craigbo180: SuperSledge. They haven't really said anything about it yet.

Well that sucks, would have been interesting to see what they would've done with Final Fantasy, even if I'm not convinced that it would be good. 
 
Still, E3 huh? Interesting.

Not only can't they make good games for shit (so, so worried about them japanizing and ruining Deus Ex), they can't handle their business? To be honest I kind of dislike JRPGs a lot, or most japanese games in general, but I can tell even FF have been getting more and more shit. I had to review FFXIV, and that is the worst game I have ever played in my 18 years of gaming, so I guess SqueenixEidos is just getting worse and worse.
 
It also kinda sucks seeing a big studio from your country fail, even though I only really liked GRAW. Which I think they did.

Well that sucks, would have been interesting to see what they would've done with Final Fantasy, even if I'm not convinced that it would be good.  Still, E3 huh? Interesting.

@N7 They know that at any moment they can make the FFVII remake and they will be rolling in it. Hell I think they rake it in every time the rerelease a single digit Final Fantasy game.

I'm going to avoid spouting vitriol at Square Enix as we're only seeing the situation from one perspective, although it does seem rather underhanded what SE have done is this circumstance. It's never nice to see people lose there jobs, I think this was probably part of the reasons behind the closure but I think GRIN were a also victim of their own success. They then expanded quickly and took on too many projects too soon, quality dipped, and this left GRIN in trouble. 

@MisterChief said:

                    I hope Square go bankrupt. All they do is regurgitate the same shit every year anyway so I don't see what difference it would make.

                   

               

All the monetary figures in this article are in Krona, I assume?

When the bankruptcy papers came in they revealed that Square Enix was meant to pay GRIN 16,5 million dollors. 

Thank you for the translation. I've got a bunch of developer diaries from back when DICE was Digital Illusions out of 1993-1994 to translate the moment I stop being lazy..

The real question is who are the morons who buy anything with a FF on the cover?  

Man, that makes me think of Square Enix badly. Still not enough to make me hate them though.

While Square Enix certainly has their fair share of the blame this is a very one-sided account of the situation. GRIN did make a series of badgames, from a critical perspective, so it's not like they had no involvement in their own downfall.

They're showing their new game at E3?? Boy, I sure do hope so.

While Square Enix certainly has their fair share of the blame this is a very one-sided account of the situation. GRIN did make a series of badgames, from a critical perspective, so it's not like they had no involvement in their own downfall.

I heard wada, after this was all over, went over to the final days of the grin studio and kicked everybody in the shins while twirling a fake mustache he bought for just such an occasion.

While Square Enix certainly has their fair share of the blame this is a very one-sided account of the situation. GRIN did make a series of badgames, from a critical perspective, so it's not like they had no involvement in their own downfall.

@blueduck said:

@mracoon said:

While Square Enix certainly has their fair share of the blame this is a very one-sided account of the situation. GRIN did make a series of badgames, from a critical perspective, so it's not like they had no involvement in their own downfall.

Yeah but it has nothing to do with the critical perspective since where talking money here. Those games still could have sold enough to keep the company going.

I'm quite certain all those games sold poorly. If a company keeps making bad games it's not unreasonable to think that's going to effect their bottom line.

@Towers: I must however say that the part of Aftonbladet working with games nowadays (that is Aftonbladet Spela) is certainly one of the best publications in Sweden for gaming news. LEVEL and Laser isn't even close to being as good, which is unfortunate with thoughts going to how good they were once.

What a very one-sided article.

Wow, Square Enix are fucking cunts.

@blueduck said:

@mracoon said:

While Square Enix certainly has their fair share of the blame this is a very one-sided account of the situation. GRIN did make a series of badgames, from a critical perspective, so it's not like they had no involvement in their own downfall.

Yeah but it has nothing to do with the critical perspective since where talking money here. Those games still could have sold enough to keep the company going.

I'm quite certain all those games sold poorly. If a company keeps making bad games it's not unreasonable to think that's going to effect their bottom line.

Aftonbladet is kinda notorious for sensationalizing stories as well. They're sorta the Fox News of Sweden. 
 
http://www.thelocal.se/21710/20090827/  I'm not saying that this article is something completely made up but I take pretty much EVERYTHING Afonbladet says with a HUGE grain of salt. All my experience really comes from them and Sports (Hockey) where they really lie out their asses.

 There are plenty of jRPG fans that would just love for them to remake Final Fantasy VI every time. 

Do they often have a bi-monthly video games are bad for our society segment?

@mracoon said:

@blueduck said:

@mracoon said:

While Square Enix certainly has their fair share of the blame this is a very one-sided account of the situation. GRIN did make a series of badgames, from a critical perspective, so it's not like they had no involvement in their own downfall.

Yeah but it has nothing to do with the critical perspective since where talking money here. Those games still could have sold enough to keep the company going.

I'm quite certain all those games sold poorly. If a company keeps making bad games it's not unreasonable to think that's going to effect their bottom line.

Those games mentioned sold a total of 3.09 million copies, according to vgcharts (Hate to use that as a source but it's the best we've got). Sounds pretty dire for games that were developed and marketed as AAA titles.  Square had little part in the company going under.