Topic: List of Square-Enix RPGs Ignoring Xbox

Despite Octopath, Dragon Quest XI and Builders 2 all releasing onto Gamepass (as well as Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy)… Square-Enix still manages to ignore Xbox with a lot of it’s RPGs.

Actraiser Renaissance
Collection Of Mana
Secret Of Mana
Trials Of Mana
Legend Of Mana
Saga Frontier
I Am Setsuna
lost Sphear
Oninaki
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles
Final Fantasy VII Remake (Soon?)
Star Ocean Series

Bit of a shame! Any thoughts? Mine are that it’s pretty much a self-fulfilling prophecy. Most people (I feel) want most of their games in one place and if they started buying their RPGs on Playstation they’re not going to switch to Xbox; and that is why sales are low on Xbox which then means SE won’t release their games on the platform; therefore leading to lower sales.

I think the solution is Microsoft themselves taking the hit and paying for these to come to the platform (if not Gamepass - though it may as well come to Gamepass at that point) even if sales end up being low. That way the platform stops becoming the “forgotten” one. It’s disappointing though because I had hoped things were on the up since the recent Gamepass additions.

@JohannVanDerSmut thanks for the response.

I don’t know about FFVIIR coming to Gamepass. But I do believe it will end up coming to Xbox. Wasn’t the deal that, when the Intergrade expansion came out, Sony extended their timed exclusivity by 6 months. That seems unnecessary unless it will eventually come to Xbox. Hoping for early 2022. But who knows at this point!

I do believe if Xbox series sell well (and so far it looks like it is) more and more JRPG will come to the system but the reality is the biggest part of Xbox fans are more into shooters than RPGs...

@Balta666 That does seem to be the case; but at the same time, JRPGs aren’t big on the system so the audience hasn’t arrived. I really just wish Microsoft had eaten the cost of Mistwalker and kept them pumping out bangers even if they didn’t sell well.

@K1LLEGAL it is kind of hard. Microsoft will put more money where the mouth is... And that makes sense. But you still have a nice bunch of RPGs on the store if not the most recent and like I said it only can get better from now on (but it unrealistic to expect it to be on par with PS5 and switch anytime soon)

So Square Enix and Playstation have been 'partners' for a long time (Sony had a LOT of shares in SE too at on point) and both are more known for their JRPG's and in Japan, the Xbox has traditionally been a poor performer so it doesn't really surprise me in the least.

Xbox now owns some of the biggest Western RPG game developers in the industry with Bethesda & Obsidian - as well as inXile. Apart from Tango Gameworks, they don't really have any Japanese developers.

It can't be easy for MS to try and secure JRPGs exclusively for Xbox with publishers compared to Sony. Sony is much bigger in Japan and being exclusive on Sony's platform isn't going to hurt sales as much in their most popular region than being on Xbox. With the relationship Sony has with SE, I can see why Sony could negotiate Exclusivity (timed or otherwise) on any JRPG made by SE but MS could struggle.

I couldn't care less myself. Ever since I started gaming in the 70's, I have needed multiple devices to enable me to play 'ALL' the games I wanted. In the last 20yrs+, the Playstation has always been the 'home' of the JRPG - even though Xbox has had a few of its own and even got a few Final Fantasy games eventually, if I wanted to play JRPG's (as well as other more Japanese style games), I had to own a Playstation as well as Xbox.

Now both MS and Sony have (and probably will continue to invest in) building up a great portfolio of first party studio's, the 'need' to own a device to access both publishers games increases. You could make an argument that during the XB1/PS4 gen, that you could get away with 'just' a PS4 because Xbox had 'few' exclusives that appealed and Sony's offerings made up for 'missing' out on those - but with games like Starfield, Redfall, Fable, Perfect Dark, State of Decay 3, Flight Sim, Avowed, Outer Worlds 2, Hellblade 2 etc (as well as the 'holy' trinity of Halo, Forza and Gears), there are a lot more reasons to own both.

As I own both, I couldn't care less that PS will get more JRPG's for example because I can still play them. I had to buy a PS5 to play Spider-Man, R&C, Wolverine, Horizon: Forbidden West, God of War: Ragnarok and any other 'exclusives' (first or 3rd Party) just like I had to buy an Xbox for their games too. At least with Xbox, you don't need to buy a 'console' as you can stream to Mobile/PC and no doubt other devices (Smart TV's, older gen hardware etc) soon - basically playing on Virtual Xbox consoles in servers in the cloud.

Yes it would be cool if MS can bring more 'Oriental' games - I'd love to see them get Black Myth: Wukong for example. Its an area that Xbox isn't as strong as their competition, but its not like MS don't have their strengths too (and 'arguably' more diverse than Sony's). As far as more JRPG's on Xbox, particularly SE JRPG's, I think its going to be 'difficult' for MS. First they have to be much more competitive in the Japanese market - maybe even overtake Playstation - so that the 'loss' of sales and reach in their main target area would be too much for SE to ignore. Game Pass numbers too could help too. We will have to see how Xbox is doing in Japan but even if its doing very well now, it could still take years for JRPG's to come as deals are often made early in development...

@BAMozzy Yea I mean potentially all these SE additions to Gamepass are testing the waters to see how beneficial it can be to release on Xbox too.

I agree about needing multiple consoles to experience gaming in full. I have a Series X, Switch and PS4 as well as everything else. I purchased a lot of the above list on Switch. But would love for a lot of them to be out on Xbox. I’ll just hope Gamepass is turning around their fortunes in the East.

Yeah, I think the issue is that the audience simply isn't there. I hang out on both Push Square and Pure Xbox and I definitely see more people talking about JRPGs at Push Square than on Pure Xbox. It's kind of a tough situation because there have to be games in order to attract that audience, but at the same time it's a risk to invest in a platform that is known to not have that user base. Which is why I think it's a good thing that Microsoft can entice Japanese developers to release their games on Game Pass as Microsoft will cover the investment and the developers can start establishing a new user base without any risk. Not to mention that Game Pass has a wide availability on multiple platforms, so there's definitely more of an incentive for Japanese developers to port their games to the Xbox ecosystem now compared to in the past. Hopefully this is something that will become more common in the future.

It will also be interesting to see if the increase in Western RPGs on the Xbox ecosystem will somehow encourage users to try out Japanese RPGs. Considering Microsoft now owns Bethesda (Fallout, Elder Scrolls), Obsidian (The Outer Worlds, Avowed), inXile (Wasteland) as well as the Fable franchise, the Xbox ecosystem is going to become the best place to experience WRPGs. That will definitely attract a lot of people who are fans of those games, so maybe that will also help contribute to more JRPGs on the system. Not saying that all WRPG fans are also fans of JRPGs because both genres are notably different, but maybe it will still have an impact somehow.

@LtSarge I agree with you but I’d argue that the audience is really only on Nintendo with the large Japanese ones only really doing well on PlayStation. But games like Neo The World End with you and Phoenix Wright the one that gets brought up for only doing 4k copies on Xbox didn’t do so hot on PS these days either. The audience for most Japanese games is kind of small and they’ll go to the platform that they think will get those games.

That said a lot of non Square games have been listed for coming to Xbox including Rune Factory and smaller Japanese indie games are popping up. All in all it’s okay.

It’s just weird Square Enix thinks a full priced Android port is worth the time and effort but not Xbox? o.O

@mousieone Well Nintendo is a also a Japanese based company with huge popularity in Japan so it makes sense that Nintendo have a number of JRPGs too but haven't had the hardware to offer the latest, greatest 'big' games. That's where Playstation comes in...

As for Square Enix making 'Android' ports, there are millions more Android devices than Xbox consoles - especially in Japan where Mobile gaming is also huge. Therefore it makes a LOT of sense to do an Android port over an Xbox port that may sell a few hundred thousand at most...

Part of MS's plans to be competitive in Japan is Game Pass Mobile and putting Xbox on as many devices as possible. Its going to take time for MS to build up a user base where missing out on 'Xbox' would have a big repercussion. Even if MS have caught up today, deals for the next few years of JRPG's are already likely in place. Give it time, but I don't think MS will truly compete with Nintendo and Sony on JRPG's specifically, but they could end up getting more than they do now from the likes of SE. Its like MS could have more cinematic 3rd person action adventure single player games but the mindset of many will be that 'Sony' is the place for them (and JRPGs) and MS is for FPS and Online MP gaming - it can be hard to shake off perception and MS are still paying for the XB1 launch - although they have made a positive start to this generation...

@BAMozzy well the issue with the android port is the fact mobile users generally don’t pay full price; not the size of the base. Not to mention the competition is greater on mobile devices period. I can’t see this particular game pulling big numbers in the mobile space but I could wrong.

As for my Nintendo comment; it was more to suggest that the people Who prefer these types of games are relatively small in comparison. I get the why I just meant the size isn’t as big as people think. Minus games like FF or Pokémon it’s very rare these games hit 1 million copies.

@mousieone The point I was making though about Android is that its got a lot more potential reach and mobile gaming is much more popular in Japan where the bulk of JRPG fans are situated. I wouldn't of thought Pokemon Go would have had the popularity it did but targeting a platform that virtually everybody already has makes 'more' sense than porting to a device that the majority of JRPG gamers don't have.

I know the popularity of a LOT of these games are 'small' outside of Japan and barely sell 1m copies globally. Its balancing up the 'costs' to port against the potential sales and like you say, the majority of these don't sell more than a million. If Xbox has 'few' users in their main target area, their is little incentive to invest porting to Xbox to play games the vast majority will be buying on PS hardware. They are perhaps more likely to want to 'rebuy' an Android version to play on their Mobile than buy an Xbox to play a game they can play on their PS.

All I said was that at the moment, I don't see things changing too much. If MS do really challenge in Japan and can overturn the mindset of gamers, publishers etc, things can change. They have made a concerted effort in recent years so you never know but as JRPG's are generally quite niche outside of Japan and Xbox isn't known for having JRPG's, its going to take time for companies like Square Enix to want to invest in porting games to that platform. They need to be 'convinced' that investment would be worth while and part of that would be having a sizeable presence in their major territory. Even that could be seen as a 'risk' because the Xbox isn't known for its JRPG's and may not have much of a JRPG fanbase. Publishers would perhaps need to be convinced that Xbox gamers would be interested in JRPG's enough to warrant that investment.

Looking at SE and their games, I would say that the Japanese style games are generally partnered to Sony and they have had a good relationship. However, look at Crystal Dynamics who partnered with Xbox and are now working with the Initiative on Perfect Dark - that to me says that SE are associating PS with Japanese style games but partner with Xbox on more 'western' style games.

Its a circular thing that until something 'changes', its a perpetual circle. So until Xbox makes it impossible to ignore in the major JRPG territories, there isn't an incentive to 'try' and without 'trying' there aren't enough options to convince gamers to buy into Xbox hardware. However, as Xbox isn't just the console anymore and many people in those target areas have 'hardware' that can have Xbox Game Pass on, its no longer dependent on console sales to increase the Xbox users in that region. SE may well test the waters periodically but with Sony's history and association with JRPG's (as well as Xbox's lack of those) there also has to be a change of mindset. One such way maybe to test the waters with a JRPG but I still expect the PS5 to be a 'lead' platform and perhaps better placed to secure 'exclusivity' or Marketing rights which again would reinforce popular stereotypes...

There's loads of Atlus / Sega ones too - I knew about Persona but my partner has just started playing 13 Sentinels on their PS5 and I realised it's not even on PC or Switch.

Given Xbox's improving relationship with Sega I'm really hoping they'll stump up cash to get the Atlus games ported too - Persona is huge obviously but there's quite a few weird and wonderful (but well thought out stories) we're missing out on

@BAMozzy I agreed with most of your points which is why I didn’t bother reposting. I still agree with most of them.However,

My thing about mobile is the price not the instal base. Even PoGo is free. Genshin is Free. All the big successes are monetized differently. VNs tend to have a chapter by chapter payment plan. Fantasiani on Apple Arcade. that’s why I questioned it. That instal base is very price conscious.

With the announcement of Avengers heading to Gamepass it doesn't look like to me that Square is ignoring Xbox.

Well yeah, but that's a game from one of their western studios.

Reading the first post it's pretty clear they're referencing the fact that their Japanese studios aren't making Xbox versions of all their games, even recent releases like the Trials of Mana, Actraiser Renaissance, & Legend of Mana remakes/remasters.

@RR529 Wester studios, Eastern studios doesn't matter. Just because one of the studios isn't making games for Xbox doesn't meant they are ignoring Xbox at all.

@Tasuki Yea I was referring to the RPGs; which, yea there are a lot of releases which skip Xbox. The western games they publish must sell much better on Xbox though like Tomb Raider etc.

Anyway here is to hoping they announce FFVIIR in the TGS event!

@Widey85 yup Atlus and NIS are the other ones. Persona/Trails. At least the Yakuza series came over

FFVII Remake PS timed exclusivity doesn't end until December 2021 so at best it could be a shadow drop Game Pass announcement at the Game Awards. Think Spring/Summer 2022 is more likely though given Game Pass hasn't gotten FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns yet

@JohannVanDerSmut thanks for confirming after the fact!

@Grumblevolcano I wasn’t necessarily talking about Gamepass - more just coming to Xbox in general. And I know it hasn’t ended yet but could always have given a date like Jan 2022 or whatever.