Final Fantasy IX is notorious for having one of the worst official strategy guides made for a video game at the time of its release. The reason why was because Squaresoft decided to host essential tips and secrets that players would want to seek out on its PlayOnline website in an effort to promote that, and forced Brady Games to accommodate for the change in the printed guide by directing readers to the website. Brady Games were against the idea because they knew their consumer base would not like it and understood that buying a strategy guide was worthless when the information they needed was online for free. However, they complied because they did not want to lose the exclusivity rights to making a strategy guide for Final Fantasy X. In the end, Squaresoft abandoned this cross-platform strategy guide format following the negative reception from Final Fantasy IX's guide and stuck with printing physical strategy guides for future games.