FFIII was never going to be on the PS2. The original plan was to develop a remake for the WonderSwan Color, but right around the release of the FFII remake, the GBA came out and quickly eliminated the WSC as a viable market. For the next few years, Bandai pleaded with Square to remake it for the WonderSwan Crystal while Nintendo asked them to produce it for the GBA, but Square had become too busy with other projects to appease either of them. By the time they freed up space in their schedule, the DS had become the next big market.