Final Fantasy 16 PS5 Exclusivity Explained by Square Enix

Final Fantasy 16's PS5 exclusivity explained by Square Enix, as it involves optimization and promotional support offered by Sony.

[Obscure_Observer]

Square/Enix choses Playstation and that´s business as usual. Bethesda choses Xbox and that´s business as usual.

It is what it is.

[Babadook7]

I think it’s more accurate to say that Final Fantasy fans have been choosing PlayStation for decades. This deal is just the latest example of SE recognizing that brand loyalty. Promotional support doesn’t likely have to amount to much in terms of actual dollars spent by Sony to be the deciding factor. Sorry Xbox fans but that’s how it works.

[Obscure_Observer]

"This deal is just the latest example of SE recognizing that brand loyalty."

Square used to be a solid partner for Nintendo which they had millions of fans worldwide before they´d decided and left them behind to follow Sony to never look back; so I don´t think SE recognizes "loyalty" as major factor.

PS5´s userbase is 30 million vs Xbox Series consoles with a 18.5 million usersbase, not much of a staggering difference to warrant a decision to not port for Xbox consoles imo, so I´m positive that SE would undoubtedly make more money going multiplatform, but still...

They chose to go exclusive with Playstation for whatever reason and that´s ok.

Bethesda knew they would lose some Playstation faithful when they decided to be acquired by Microsoft.

Square/Enix knew they would lose some Xbox faithful when they decided to go exclusive with FFXVI on PS5.

They don´t care about our feelings, they care about their money! !fter all, they have a business to run.

Gamers wil chose with their wallets. Like I said: Business as usual. It is what it is.

[Babadook7]

"Square used to be a solid partner for “Nintendo which they had millions of fans worldwide before they´d decided and left them behind to follow Sony to never look back”

Prior to the decades I referred to.

“PS5´s userbase is 30 million vs Xbox Series consoles with a 18.5 million usersbase“”

Check Final Fantasy 13 or 15 sales. Playstation titles (FF) outsells Xbox by 2x - 4x.

[Obscure_Observer]

"Check Final Fantasy 13 or 15 sales. Playstation titles (FF) outsells Xbox by 2x - 4x."

Still not a reason to refuse and port for a 18.5 Million userbase.

Anyway, I just hope for PS5 owners to make SE´s risky decision with FFXVI worthwhile, because Babylon´s Fall floped hard and Forspoken got luminous productions shut down.

Final Fantasy isn´t nearly as popular as it used to be back in the day, so I hope for this new iteration to be more successful than their last FF main game.

Now, Playstation and SE seems pretty confident though, they gonna release FFXVI in the same month that both Street Fighter 6 and Diablo 4 will be out, which is a pretty bold move.

2023 will be an awesome year for gamers all around.

[Godmars290]

FF fans have been choosing Playstation since FF7. MS might have managed to lure Square away during the 360 era, but nothing really came of that. Not on the level of FF7, much less anywhere close.

[andy85]

@obscure it is a reason though. Japan doesn't like Xbox but it's not even that, if they made a version for Series X then they would have to make a dumbed down version for Series S. 80% of XVs sales were on PS and that gap would be even wider now that Xbox gamers seem more reliant on gamepass which it wouldn't be on. It probably isn't worth the effort.

[wiz7191]

@babadook it’s more PlayStations in people’s homes then Xbox’s so wouldn’t it be obvious that it would sell more on PlayStation ?? Given when FF13 was on 360 it was on multiple disk , didn’t nobody want to hassle with that. It sold more due to circumstances not just popularity , but with a 117 million PS4s being sold and the FF7 remake only shipped around 6 million , how many are you really supporting ?

[fr0sty]

"PS5´s userbase is 30 million vs Xbox Series consoles with a 18.5 million usersbase, not much of a staggering difference to warrant a decision to not port for Xbox consoles"

This fails to factor in the extra money needed to invest into optimization of the game so it will run on Series S, or having to remove features from all versions in order to make the full game playable on S.

[Obscure_Observer]

@fr0sty

"This fails to factor in the extra money needed to invest into optimization of the game so it will run on Series S, or having to remove features from all versions in order to make the full game playable on S."

In my opinion this game is far from impressive from a visual and performance perspective, imo. If the S can run games like Flight Simulator, Hellblade II, Gears of War 6 and Forza Motorsport for example, I can´t fathom why it wouldn´t be able to run FFXVI.

But that´s just me and my two cents.

Besides, Xbox Studios would gladly help SE with any technical support they would require. That´s not a good excuse.

But I´m not here crying for this game to be ported to Xbox, Sony can have it, I don´t care. If I want it, I will just play it on a PS5 or PC.

[CobraKai]

@Obscure

I felt Nintendo had a hand in Square moving to PlayStation. Sticking to cartridges at the time wasn’t the best for the games Square was making. In this case, technology was the deciding factor.

[Aloymetal]

Enix chooses PlayStation because that's where most of the games will sell as usual. Bethesda chooses xbox because Todd has always been in bed with MS/Phil and received a big a$$ check and that's business as usual.

[rlow1]

Suurrreee , it’s always the same with you guys. Everything sells on PlayStation and MS just gives big fat checks. How original.

[SonyStyled]

Aloy, you’re a PS fanboy don’t paint the rest of the PS community in a very good light similarly to how a couple others do for another console. The vast majority of the PlayStation community is twice your age or more

[Aloymetal]

@SonyStyled
You assume too much but at least you got the ''you're a PS fanboy'' right, been that way since 1996 and never been disappointed, but wait, was I supposed to be upset because you called me that???...

[DashMad]

dragon quest sell more on Nintendo platform than PS that doesn't stop SE to make PS version, DQ 11 originally was meant to be PS4 exclusives, the leak said that board director said it would sell far less so they decided to make 3DS version and yep the 3DS version outsold PS4 version. announcement of DQ12 suggest it would be PS exclusive the moneyhat must be sweet for them to ignore their main audience lol.

[wiz7191]

@Aloymetal MS was the ones who helped Bethesda get into making games for consoles in the first place ..
https://www.polygon.com/pla...

If it wasn’t for Microsoft , Bethesda wouldn’t even been in the console space ..

[Gamer_Dude]

Why doesn't Square choose all platforms and sell their game everywhere?

[shinoff2183]

Obscure

It is a bit different though. On xbox they have only missed a couple games. Square releases alot on xbox still. Forspoken , ff7 remake ff16 and maybe a couple more. Where as bethsada if you own a Playstation your sh out of luck for anything from them

Now onto Nintendo and square. That relationship was ruined by alot of stubbornness. From what I've read square went to Nintendo. Hey this cartridges aren't doing it could you go disc based. Nintendo being Nintendo decided not to heed squares advice and square moved on to Sony due to Nintendo sticking with cartridges. Alot of developers did the same. Sony was more in a right place right time situation. Thats the just of what I've read.

Maybe right now but what about reports of in the uk ff15 selling 80 percent on ps and only 20 percent on xbox. Not a good look from xbox gamers. You don't think that played a part in squares decision. Like I've said before. They probably talked about a deal. Square took xbox numbers(square game sales on xbox) crunched some numbers and seen the deal was worth making it exclusive.

I'm not saying this or about every Xbox gamer but it's readily available information that for whatever reason they aren't buying and just relying on gamepass. It can't be discredited.

I use gamepass myself but some games I'll still buy physical. Starfield fallout most obsidian stuff and inxile.

[gangsta_red]

"Maybe right now but what about reports of in the uk ff15 selling 80 percent on ps and only 20 percent on xbox. Not a good look from xbox gamers."

These percentages don't really tell the whole story and I know there's a fallacy that can probably be applied to these type of comments. Of course FF will sell more on PS considering PS has a larger install base, but whats the ratio of sales for Xbox in the wild? I'm guessing FF sold enough for Xbox's install base for them to continue to release FF games on Xbox.

Let's not forget that Square dropped exclusivity of FF Versus to make it multiplatform. If Xbox sales for FF were that dismal, I doubt Square would even bother to release games for Xbox. I could also argue if the game sales were so bad then why the need for Sony to continue to pay for exclusivity for their own system?

"From what I've read square went to Nintendo. Hey this cartridges aren't doing it could you go disc based. "

Square actually had a FF in development for the N64 and it was cancelled in favor of FF 7 for Playstation. I remember seeing pictures for the next FF in Nintendo Power.

"Sony was more in a right place right time situation."

You can also thank Nintendo for this. Fun fact, the playstation was supposed to be a CD add on for Nintendo's system at the time. Nintendo and Sony were to announce their joint partnership, but Nintendo announces that they would not go with Sony for their disc based system. Sony was pissed because that was some ultimate disrespect and decided to take their add on for Nintendo and make it it's own console, Playstation.

[GotGame818]

You can play Bethesda games on PC and cloud. Nobody is out of luck if they don't have an Xbox.

[Stanjara]

I just wanted to write your comment.
Those FMV CGI animation could not fit even on one black PS1 CD back in the day.

I would also add PS Japan fans also buy merch.

FF limited editions, figurines, mc Donald deals, clothing brands and all hent... Kmmhmm... Anime stuff.

Xbox zombie fans searching for $1 GP codes on the street.

Psst..$1 GP dude... -What did you say to me?

$1 ... Gppp....game pisssst

[shinoff2183]

Gangsta red

Literally its said square left nintendo behind due to them having major problems trying to get it(ff7) onto cartridge. I know all about the history. Nintendo just wouldnt budge due to being stubborn.

[wiz7191]

@Shinoff the things is Bethesda is still releasing multi platform games tho and still supporting the ones that’s already out. Only games that’s been exclusive are new IPS , why wouldn’t they be though ?? It’ll be the same thing Sony is doing with Bungie. How much you’re willing to bet the next dishonored or Doom will be multi platform ? They currently doing it now , every new Minecraft game and expansion been getting multi platform releases. Psychonauts 2 is also multi platform after Double Fine was bought by MS. Elders Scroll 6 being an exclusive is a given , ES always been associated with Xbox. Bethesda had a tight relationship with MS for 20 years now , the ES Morrowind was the first console ES and that was because of MS. Bethesda wouldn’t even though about making ES on a console if it wasn’t for MS.

https://www.polygon.com/pla...

[Crows90]

Except not true. Bethesda sold much more Skyrim on PlayStation than Xbox. all Bethesda published games did better on PlayStation. Not business as usual.

[Obscure_Observer]

"Except not true. Bethesda sold much more Skyrim on PlayStation than Xbox. all Bethesda published games did better on PlayStation. Not business as usual."

I said: "They chose to go exclusive with Playstation for *whatever* reason and that´s ok."

Translation = They don´t have to justify their reasons for doing exclusive business with Sony. It´s their business and they´ll run it the way they see fit.

Oblivion sold more on Xbox. Did Bethesda skipped Skyrim on Playstation or even the Wii because of it? NO.

Xbox games sell more on STEAM when compared to Playstation games sales.

Would YOU accept a Half Life 3 exclusivity for Xbox consoles? No, I don´t think you would.

The problem with part of the Playstation community is that self-entitled people live under the illusion that just because they have the best-selling console every studio or publisher should bend to Sony, something that never happened and never will.

Sony always had closer ties/relationship with Capcom, Kojima, Square/Enix, From Software...

Microsoft always had closer ties/relationship with Bethesda, CDPR, VALVE, SEGA

So Microsoft always had a closer relationship with Bethesda and according to Todd Howard, that relationship definitely weights over the decision to be acquired by them, it´s not just a money thing.

I see the same scenario happening in FFXVI case (obviously in a much smaller scale).

[Crows90]

@obscure

Xbox did bring PC games to consoles. That's it. How do partnerships exist with MS? They're not successful. There's no real partnership other than $$$.

[Obscure_Observer]

"There's no real partnership other than $$$"

https://www.engadget.com/20...

https://wccftech.com/gabe-n...

https://www.pcgamer.com/mic...

Gabe Newell always had a closer relationship with Microsoft in comparison with Sony. ALWAYS!

Since he thinks Xbox Series X is better than the PS5 (same opinion applies to X360 vs PS3) he could make the SAME deal Sony did with Square and bring Half Life 3 exclusively to Xbox Series consoles.

Would you accept and respect his decision? Or would you be here crying yet again because another company chose Xbox over Playstation? I guess we both know the answer. Lol XD

[wiz7191]

@Crows90 boy now you know that’s BS LOL
https://www.polygon.com/pla...
XBOX launched ES on consoles .. it’s also funny Skyrim is ratings is sitting at a 9.3 on 360 and a 9.0 on PS3 lol
https://www.vgchartz.com/ga...
The PS4 and Xbox One versions , yeah it sold more on the PS4 .. but I mean that would be common sense since technically the Xbox One sold like shit compared to the PS4.

[Nacho_Z]

Square chooses Sony because they want to work hand in hand to make the best game possible.

Bethesda chooses Microsoft because they stumped up the money to buy them.

That's how it is.

[Obscure_Observer]

"Square chooses Sony because they want to work hand in hand to make the best game possible."

From Pete Hines:

"As we’ve all shared, the expectation is that Bethesda Softworks and our studios will continue as we have in the past, just with more support and resources than we’ve ever had before."

More support and resources than Bethesda ever had before, which means Starfield and all of the Bethesda future games will be better than ever thanks to Xbox Game Studios support AND resources!

We´ll see which one will turn out to be the better game. Lol.

[Traecy]

Luminous productions has merged within S-E, so basically it's still a part of Square Enix. From the recent previews of FFXVI most media outlets that played the demo are praising the game. FFXVI will be a hit for S-E & PS5. Babylon Fall was a Platinum game published by Square Enix.

[MADGameR]

Bathesda is dumb as hell for choosing X Box lol That's like saying ''Hey! I want to take guarenteed BIG losses on my finances!'' absolutely illogical and stupid.

[DOMination-]

Bad take

Naughty Dog are dumb for being owned by Sony because they’d get another 10 million sales if they were multiplatform

See how that’s not really how it works

[gold_drake]

thats not the same thing and you know it.

[DarXyde]

It might make more sense to say that Xbox picked up big publishers that were wounded. Zenimax was acquired during the Fallout 76 chaos, ABK deal went public when the scandals came out.

[Obscure_Observer]

You forgot to mention Obsidian, which PS fanboys on N4G said at the time of the acquisition were in a near bankruptcy state.

It´s gonna be awesome to see those crippled/wounded publishers and studios deliver awesome games now that they have proper support and resources now they´re under Xbox Games Studios.

[DarXyde]

Obscure_Observer,

A few things:
1. Not sure if you're implying I'm a PS fanboy. If so, that's a pretty lazy mischaracterization of where I stand. I am quite far removed from "rah rah Sony".

2. I'm very clearly talking about publishers. Obsidian is not a publisher.

3. I don't think resources were ever the outstanding issue with Zenimax. Love the not-so-subtle "ABK is one of those wounded publishers that will be under Microsoft" point you slipped in there. Maybe, maybe not. Let's not speak with such certainty on things we know nothing about.

4. Irrelevant to this reply in general, but did you seriously say Microsoft has a closer relationship with SEGA? Based on what, Jet Set Radio being on Xbox? Please explain because I would personally argue they're closest with Nintendo.

[ChasterMies]

Bethesda to chose Xbox because Microsoft bought Bethesda.

[DOMination-]

It’s that simple. Don’t know why there’s so much arguing

Also Square work with Sony because Sony gives them money. Again, it’s just that simple.

[sinspirit]

@Obscure_Observer

Square chooses PlayStation because it sells so little on XBox it's not worth developing for it, and hampering their game design and output for the Series S is not worth it for them. Square turned a leaf on their decision to use Unreal and prioritize game development quality and efficiency versus using an in-house engine to save a good buck. Next gen was coming up and might have even allowed their engine to work well enough and they still made that decision. Alongside that decision is also whether they should develop for a platform that not only does not sell that much, but also requires them to develop for a box severely underpowered for this generation. If XBox first parties already have issues with supporting the Series S and are having issues delivering on promises then why wouldn't a major third party seeking high fidelity gameplay experiences?

You're living in the distant past and comparing apples to oranges. Your examples make no sense either. A decision financially beneficial based off of consumer feedback versus a company selling because the owners wanted money is night and day.

MS thought they could use the cheaper option to gain market share and draw in consumers and it backfired because they didn't care about the developers, again.

Tired of the forced comparisons with intent to mislead and play down a side while playing up another. It's ridiculous that so consistently we have try-to-be stealthy fanboys always first-posting every thing and trying to manipulate the rest of the comments this way. We know this is particularly a certain-sided habit on here and it's quite worth being labelled as trolling. Get off whatever group chat and discord channel you guys are using to run this group that does this and just be a real part of N4G for once.

[z2g]

promotional support is just fancy talk for: "Sony paid us to keep it off other platforms".

This is just more of Sony's hypocritical MO.

[Goosejuice]

Like stalker 2?

[The3faces]

Without MS funding Stalker 2 would of ceased development.

[Goosejuice]

That's just one example though. There have been games where Sony funded as well but still got hate for that. MS has plenty of 3rd party and indie exclusives every year just like Sony. But only 1 get hated on for it

[Binarycode]

Stalker 2 will tank.

[Traecy]

Exactly.

[Chevalier]

Ark 2?
Contraband?
Warhammer Darktides?

[Pedantic91]

Tit for tat i suppose . ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Goosejuice]

Guess it just confuses me how some of these people hate sony for having 3rd party exclusives but not MS who also have multiple of them

[DOMination-]

But Sony have been doing it since the mid 90s. They are both guilty of this practise.

Exclusives give identities to consoles. First or third party. If anything they are much rarer than they were in the 90s when the Xbox and PS2 had radically different libraries.

[Dawknight316]

Wait so games like Starfield and Stalker 2 and those timed exclusive indies like Tunic and Deaths Door don’t matter? They weren’t bought.

[Stanjara]

Eastward... Jesus that thing is not on PS yet.

[BandarHub]

If you ask me this it's strange to make this game exclusive.
FF has always been more popular on the PS and they were going to outsell Xbox 10:1, no matter what. Why spend millions securing it as an exclusive?
I think that Sony bought it to show that they had exclusives mid-way through the year. If they didn't then they only would have Forspoken and Spiderman 2 for 2023.

[excaliburps]

Maybe Square Enix doesn't think the Xbox market is big enough to warrant the dev and marketing cost? Just guessing but maybe given the Xbox brand is pretty much dead in Japan, and JRPG's are mostly popular in Asia and Japan (where the Xbox brand is very, very weak), they didn't think it's worth it?

[Traecy]

Agreed.Folks saying Sony paid for exclusivity when there's a possibility Square approached Sony with the deal of exclusivity.

[JEECE]

Yeah the "Sony moneyhatting Square Enix to get an exclusive" situation always seems like a better deal for Square than Sony, because they were already going to sell far more copies of their games on Playstation than on Xbox. If they can get Sony to throw them a bunch of money and still sell almost as many copies as they were going to sell anyway (plus cutting out or delaying the costs of porting the game depending on whether it is full or timed exclusive), why not do it?

[phoenixwing]

It is a better deal for square but Sony gets some clout with jrpg lovers this way. The main reason I wanted a ps5 in the early days was knowing it would be on ps5 first and foremost.

Now though I keep my ps5 because of 3d audio. It's just that good with the headset.

[Crows90]

Well for one the series S is quite a problem for devs. Secondly they development costs and headaches of making it run on another system wasn't worth it to them.

This gen Microsoft insulted gamers with yet again the weakest console available.

[Traecy]

Imagine playing FFXVI on the Series S in blurry 720/900p.

[Obscure_Observer]

"Well for one the series S is quite a problem for devs. Secondly they development costs and headaches of making it run on another system wasn't worth it to them.

This gen Microsoft insulted gamers with yet again the weakest console available."

We´ll see about that when we get games comparison between Starfield and Fable running on Series S vs FFXVI and Forspoken running on PS5. Oh, there´ll be comparisons between GT7 (PS5) vs Forza Motorsport (XSS).

We might found out soon enough.

[GotGame818]

PSVR2 just released along with free patches for some games like RE Village and GT. That more than makes up for fewer 1st party standard game releases. From what I've seen PSVR2 is amazing.

Also Sony has a very strong 1st party lineup already available for PS5.

[MeteorPanda]

How is it strange when Sony have had their engineers working alongside the devs to make sure this game pushes the specs of the ps5 along with it's unique loading times.

The Japanese work closer together than western development teams - you always see colabs amongst themselves

[Exvalos]

The facts are final fantasy sells like trash on xbox, and has sold well on sony consoles for decades, we as a community have pushed ff14 to being the world's most popular mmo, xbox gamers just don't really play final fantasy, it is what it is.

[Workshyskiver]

The Xbox One which sold fair less of a share to the PS4 than the XsX has to the Ps5, accounted for 21% of FF15s first weeks share. If you as a business can't make that large of an increase to sales worth it for minimal return, then you are incompetent. But given its Squaresoft thats looking pretty reasonable.

[Chevalier]

Really? That's some crap reasoning. Xbox 360 were basically tied with PS3 for console sales and 2/3 of the sales were still on Playstation even with Xbox best selling system.

Xbox gamers don't buy JRPGs anywhere near where close to Playstation and Nintendo customers. Would explain why Octopath 2 only released on the Switch and PS4 recently for example and skipped Xbox completely.

[Auron]

Sony paid. And we will find out soon what else they paid for. Thanks to the ftc case.

[gold_drake]

we might never find out, documents like these dont tend to be for the public to have access to.

and Square might aswell approached Sony, as their games sell better on playstation

[gangsta_red]

All that fancy talk for just saying "Sony paid us to keep FF off other platforms".

[Hofstaderman]

Maybe it can’t run on the series S

[Aloymetal]

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[gangsta_red]

Only one way to find out...after six months or more

[BehindTheRows]

No different than other companies who pay to keep games (and full publishers) off of competing platforms.

[Ryuk_2007]

It's called MONEY-HAT. And the pc version being delayed 6 months to a year for "reasons" despite the reveal trailer saying "The following content is captured on PC emulating the ps5 experience" is funny as well lol

[Traecy]

One hand washes the other. Can't wait to play this on the PS5.

[X-23]

People who are such big fans of games from what would be considered a part of Playstation's exclusive library in the past, why would they not own a Playstation console in the first place? This is coming from someone whose owned a Playstation every generation as well as other consoles alongside it.
Let's leave Final Fantasy out of the equation. You know that the chance of games that are developed in Japan that are well done will be arriving on Sony's console no questions asked, so if you've enjoyed these kind of games as some of them claim, why would you not own a Playstation?

This isn't me saying you can't buy an Xbox, of course you can I own both consoles, the first one I purchased was the PS5 and picked up my Xbox when Forza came out I also own a Switch. It's been like this since Nintendo and Sega where going back and fourth, buy them both and stop complaining over what moves companies decide to make.

Everyone who cares about Final Fantasy recognizes it as a Sony brand, even if it isn't written in stone it's been like that since after Super Nintendo damn near. There's always the chance the games will come to another platform as remasters or nowadays deluxe editions, but there is no guarantee. It is what it is imo, Square doesn't own a explanation to anyone for pursuing what they think is most profitable for their business.

[kingnick]

I think people are more annoyed at Sony's repeated attempts to disingenuously paint themselves as the good guys when they have shown repeatedly in the past they are just as bad as Microsoft with both companies having a well documented history of anti-competitive practices and abusing their market power and not just in gaming I might add.

When all's said and done many of these anti-competitive practices will backfire, if Microsoft and Sony engage in tit-for-tat making games in existing franchises exclusives to their systems in future they'll loose sales and money in the long run.

It would be far better for both companies to fund new IPs but both companies prefer the safer bet of making existing franchises on multiple consoles plarforms exclusive to their console platforms in future.

[Petebloodyonion]

Basically a bogus answer that means nothing and deflects the real topics.
Remember when it was the same exact answer regarding Rise of the Tomb Raider exclusivity on Xbox?

The truth is all companies (Nintendo, MS, and Sony) are willing to provide support related to console structure and optimization for major AAA games. heck ppl should remember the heat that MS got with ID@Xbox for asking that game from the program get released at least on the same day.

[kingnick]

Crystal Dynamics often preferred to focus on their lead platform(s) and outsource porting of their games to other platforms to Nixxes Software who Sony now own.

Crystal Dynamics is a tiny company compared to the behemoth that is Square Enix.

[gold_drake]

dear god, what is it with all these "Sony paid to keep it off xbox" comments.

we dont know that.

Square might have approached Sony for funds and a deal came out of it.

Final Fantasy is a pseudo playstation franchise. fans see it that way, Square knows their games sell very well on Playstation and Sony has supported the games too.

are people rly trying to justify the bethesda buyout with a game being exclusive? its simply not the same.

so lets not point fingers as to who did what. we dont know that.

and we might never find out. the documents sony has to bring fourth, might never be made public as things like that are rarely made public.

[kingnick]

The whole thing could backfire with Microsoft making scummy moves like making the next Elder Scrolls game exclusive to PC and Xbox consoles which is a really shitty move against Playstation owners who are fans of the series.

The PS5 and Xbox series are so close in terms of specs there's not really any compelling reason to make existing franchises with large playerbases on Playstation consoles have future instalments exclusive to Xbox.

[repsahj]

I remember during nintendo-sony-sega days, even with exclusives it is still a healthy competition. Now with M$, everything became toxic.

[GamingSinceForever]

The difference is all of those companies are/were great gaming companies. MS is incompetent and they seriously lack creativity. So it sucks seeing them in control of these publishers. Now if they treat it like Minecraft great, but if they want to take away the likes of Fallout and Doom trying to force people into their ecosystem that’s not good.

[kingnick]

Nintendo were toxic AF using their market power to coerce and control developers and publishers which is why many jumped ship to the PS1. Once Sony gained a foothold with the PS1 they also abused their market power specifically against Sega but other companies as well.

All's fair in low and war and the console makers were most certainly at war back then despite what ignorant people like yourself would like to think.

The console business has always been cutthroat and scummy, you just didn't hear about it back in the day before the internet as magazines and media outlets had to stay on the good side of platform holders or be discriminated against so the seedy underbelly of the industry was rarely exposed.

[antikbaka]

basically it's $$$

Square always is glad to sell themselves

[Ninver]

Um yeah devs and publishers sell games to keep their business afloat. They're not doing charity work.

[antikbaka]

square doing it quite shitty to be honest if they had to sell lots of ips

[thejigisup]

People must remember that when trying to compare Sony and Nintendo that devs must account for how much weaker the Nintendo hardware is. Sometimes it's just simply not worth sacrificing the vision of your game to release it on inferior hardware. I would love to see ffxvi on the switch but I think the issue works be performance based.

[Anunnaki]

Every time I see a story like this I remember how Xbox paid the creator of Final Fantasy a gigantic sum of money to make two games for them ending his career basically and keeping most JRPG fans from playing them.

[kingnick]

You clearly have no understanding of the situation.

After the failure of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within Sakaguchi had to accept responsibility as is customary in Japanese business culture and his standing fell within SE. He'd been working out of Hawaii for a while at that point so he wasn't really connected to the inner circle at SE anymore which had become increasingly corportate and lost a lot of staff from the Square days.

He was depressed and got tired of being a manager at SE spending more time overseeing paperwork then working on actual games and decided to leave the company.

Microsoft offered him a contract to make games and a lot of the management and coding was outsourced to Artoon and Feelplus for better and worse the games were good but not genre defining. Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey wouldn't have been made at all if Microsoft didn't fund both games.

Sakaguchi had issues with Ken Kutaragi who was known to be abrasive and often dismissive of game creators concerns expecting developers to shutup and deal with whatever they were handed by Sony which burned Sony big time with the PS3 as many developers elected to make the Xbox360 their lead platform and couldn't justify the effort required to attempt to bring PS3 versions of games to performance parity.

I played a bit of Blue Dragon but got bored and never went back and played it again. I passed Lost Odyssey twice and while I enjoyed the story and characters the game was very tedious due to long load times before and after random battles.

It's hard to have a tight narrative in a game if the scenario writer isn't overseeing all aspects of the game but I don't think Sakaguchi wants to make AAA games anymore and hasn't for a while.

[lelo2play]

All about the Money. The rest of what he said is BS.

[GhostScholar]

If anyone thinks Square isn’t leaving money on the table by not having the game on everything then they don’t understand basic math. For those who do get to play it I hope it’s better than xv.

[darkrider]

It will be nice to see final fantasy made just for the ps5 and not affected by the cross gen series s.

Let's what they can achieve!