Square Enix producer: Crashing iOS games "really shouldn't" release

Square Enix's Takehiro Ando has said if developers can't cope with the iPhone's memory leaks and task switching they should give up on the platform entirely.

"Almost all Square-Enix titles for iOS have an auto save function that allows the user to return to the game easily and without stress after taking a sudden phone call or receiving e-mail," Ando told RPGSite

"Final Fantasy Tactics is no exception in this regard. There are some technical difficulties in implementing this for some titles but I personally think that whatever the reason may be, unless you can overcome that hurdle then the game really shouldn’t be released on this platform in the first place."

Elsewhere in the interview, Ando commented that Square Enix is willing to bring more games to smartphones if there is demand, has already released one game on Android, and is investigating Windows Phone 7, as well.

"We had so many requests from our customers writing in to places like the App store," he said.

"We value the opinions and voices of our customers more than anything and as long as there is demand for further ports we will continue to try and plan for them.

"As long as there is a possibility that our customers could enjoy these various platforms we will always be looking into and discussing whether it would be meaningful to provide our products on them."

Ando didn't seem at all fazed by the difficulties of adapting to touch screen controls for mobile devices, even saying a strategy game like Final Fantasy Tactics works quite well.

"I think there is a very fresh appeal in being able to intuitively spin, expand and contract the map using touch controls and directly select where to go and which enemy to attack," he said.

Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions is out now for iDevice, and is also available on PSP. It's a remake of the critically acclaimed PSOne-era turn-based strategy title.