Falcom explains why they supported PSP over DS years ago

Falcom recently released Ys VIII for Switch, but they really haven't had much history at all with Nintendo. That was especially true during the DS/PSP era, where Falcom went with PSP. Ever wonder why that is? Falcom president Toshihiro Kondo and founder Masayuki Kato recently explained the situation in an interview with DenFamiNicoGamer.

Toshihiro Kondo, Falcom President: At the time the Nintendo DS was extremely popular, so there was a flow of all the companies going with DS. After looking at the lineup of games that were selling on DS, we had a bit of a difficult time picturing our products fitting in there. Family-oriented games and games focusing on a younger audience were the ones becoming hits, after all.

In the end, the reason we decided to go with the PSP was because we determined that PSP users and Falcom fans simply overlapped. Although it was from there that people started saying “Falcom hates Nintendo.” [laughs]

Masayuki Kato, Falcom Founder: That’s right, always from a certain message board. [laughs]

Toshihiro Kondo: It’s not that we hate them, rather, we’ve always been wanting to become closer to them. [laughs] When the DS was booming, I went with former president Yamasaki (former Falcom president Shinji Yamasaki) to greet them in Kyoto. At the time we even had their approval for development.