Xbox Misses Out On Yet Another Upcoming Square Enix Release

I'm glad I have a PS5 at times like this. Still, I'm not a fan of this kind of exclusivity. I get why a first-person studio would keep its games exclusive. This third-party stuff is for the birds.

Xbox also misses FF pixel remasters 1-6 and the upcoming FF 16 and 7 Remake pt 2.

Sony is probably making plans to gobble up SE.

Further justifying Xbox's acquisition of Activision

It is what it is. Maybe SE just don’t see the value of releasing on Xbox where games like this may do poorly. I assume they look at different metrics before deciding what to release on and do what they thinks best. This isn’t a case of Sony throwing tons of cash at them, they’re just skipping the console off of their own backs.

@Fenbops The metric is skewed by the fact they're just not even making the effort. I could say, for example, the Neptunia series won't sell well on XBOX, when the grand total of titles that have appeared on XBOX is... Precisely ZERO. Same with Disgaea.

Far too many companies can say that the XBOX versions sold poorly, when they're often hobbled in some way, either having a superior Playstation version or a protracted release time, losing the 'golden months' of first adoption.

How many people who own a Playstation and XBOX even gave a glance towards Dragon Quest XI S when it released on XBOX, and how many already had completed Dragon Quest XI on PS4 months earlier and didn't want to double dip?

I know this won't effect me since I play square enix games on playstation but even I'm starting to see that square have a problem with Microsoft. And I know people will just say its sony but its the fact they make plenty of exclusives for both nintnedo and playstation and even bring out games to nintendo before playstation. So it's either they have had a falling out with Microsoft behind the scenes we don't know about or they have a problem with Microsoft being an American company and are trying to be loyal as possible to their own.

@UltimateOtaku91 Honestly, it's pretty doubtful is has anything to do with some sort of economic nationalism, because Square Enix has zero issue supporting Valve, or Google, or Apple. For a while SE was doing Epic Store exclusives and they finally knocked that off, then went entirely back to Steam and they don't hardly release on EGS at all now. Square Enix just seems brutal in placing games only in storefronts they feel they will perform adequately or below expectations, or to whomever is greasing their palms when it makes sense. Square Enix is also miserably mismanaged, but I don't think that has much to do with this particular issue.

This is why I laugh at Sony's attempts to argue exclusivity hurts competition. Sony's had exclusives long before Microsoft tuned into the idea of exclusivity. Sony has no one to blame but itself for Microsoft biding it's time and seizing upon the opportunity to buy up developers, just like Sony did for years. That Sony wants to talk about how bad for business its own model is is truly and laughably pot calling kettle black.

Kind of a shame, I guess, cause this game deserves more attention, and it seems like the sort of thing that would have done really well on Gamepass.

@UltimateOtaku91

So it's either they have had a falling out with Microsoft behind the scenes we don't know about or they have a problem with Microsoft being an American company and are trying to be loyal as possible to their own

If what say is even remotely true, (the part about not supporting Microsoft because they are an American company) then Squeenix are a seriously weird and f****d up company. Imagine Western development studios not releasing games on Nintendo or PlayStation because they are Japanese companies. It would be insane and frankly distasteful, but hey it is Squeenix we are discussing after all.🤷‍♂️

Kinda funny how right as Microsoft seems to be repairing their relationship with Atlus, Square Enix wants nothing to do with them now.

@Friendly I don't think it would go that far. My theory is that Sony would never have enough money to convince SE to end their fairly beneficial relationship with Nintendo, but they do have enough to keep them out of Xbox.

@UltimateOtaku91 Playstation is american too now

@Trmn8r because xbox players don’t buy squares games ? lmao

Thank you Atlas for releasing better JRPG's and more support than Square-Enix on Xbox

@nomither6

because xbox players don’t buy squares games ?lmao

Yep, Xbox players don't buy games not released on Xbox. Absolutely mind blowing stuff 🙄....Are you a PlayStation fan-boy by any chance?

@BrilliantBill I'm going to pick FFXIV (the second time around). The first time was WAY BELOW expectations.

To me, it seems like SE are desperate to be bought up by Playstation or Nintendo. They sold off most of their Western Studios/IP's and downsized but with the 'long' A/B deal and Sony aggressively 'fighting' to block it, it perhaps wouldn't help Sony at all to acquire SE at this moment. I could see an announcement coming soon after A/B deal closes...

@nomither6 Sony may well be making more Western games but that maybe because they 'block' Japanese games on Xbox so effectively are the 'ONLY' high-end (Sony's term) Console to cater to the Japanese market so don't technically need to make their 'own' or make any 'real' effort in Japan.

A Japanese Gamer is still going to buy a Playstation because of Final Fantasy and all the other '3rd Party' Japanese games because Xbox doesn't have them. They effectively have Square Enix exclusivity if you exclude 'Nintendo' so don't really need to make any effort themselves in Japan to win over gamers...

The 2d-hd and pixel remasters are the only square games that interest me and at this point I wouldn't play ff16 if it was gave to me lol.

@Ashadelo It's a harsh truth. Atlus does JRPG better than Square now

Square Enix must hate Xbox..

@Trmn8r Yes they do ! My hope is Atlus,Sega and Sammy is next on MS shopping list 🙃

I'm guessing sales and overall engagement with the games that have come over, like Octopath 1, DQXI S, and Crisis Core, must have been pretty bad for S-E to not even consider cheap ports of former Switch exclusives on Xbox to be potentially profitable.

@nomither6 There still a Japanese company just because there based in USA doesn't make them American.

@Ralizah It's truly hard to say. On one hand you have Bandai Namco releasing games on Xbox with no complaints, on the other you have SEGA releasing ATLUS titles on Xbox with support from Game Pass, so it really backs SE into a corner of their own. I really think Square Enix probably sees Game Pass as the more financially viable method to distribute on Xbox, but also have no interest in cannibalizing their day one sales on other platforms, which haven't exactly been stellar for a while now. I suspect a batch of older titles will come to Xbox eventually as Game Pass additions.

@Snake_V5 they’re Japanese in name only, they now operate like any other Californian tech giant while catering to a western audience. I’d argue they’ve lost their identity over the past decade while Nintendo has managed to keep theirs. So I think it’s fair to have the opinion that Sony are now mostly a US company.

@SplooshDmg I agree that if more games are coming, they're coming via GP. Square-Enix doesn't seem to consider ports profitable outside of those deals.

The real question is whether Microsoft is even game or not. If engagement with their titles is low on Game Pass, there's not much incentive for Microsoft to keep funneling money their way.

It works both ways, though. There's likely a reason Microsoft seems to keep renegotiating to keep the Yakuza games up on the service.

When it comes to Atlus, once the inevitable SMT V ports happen, I'm curious to see if those hit the service or not.

@Sol4ris to be fair, there have been plenty of Square Enix games on Xbox. They know exactly how many people bought final fantasy 15, octopath, dragons quest 11, etc on Xbox. They know exactly how many people played the games even when they were on gamepass at no added cost to the player.

Its very possible they saw those small numbers and decided they might actually save money by not making and maintaining a xbox version.

The japan issue that xbox faces is a complex issue because they need to convince developers to make xbox versions and they need to convince people to buy them. Its really hard to make both of those things happen simultaneously. Chances are if you are a fan of Japanese games you already have Nintendo or playstation. Why buy a console if you are unsure if your favorite genre will be available? Why develop a version if you aren't sure an audience will be there? It will be a long term issue for xbox but they are making the effort to get there.

@Ralizah See, I think that's where it gets tricky. I think MS is interested, but I think for an agreeable price between both parties, some time since the initial release probably has to pass for the game to exhaust as many sales as possible. Square Enix kinda seems to have the same attitude as Take Two, that subs are for older titles that have already made their sales, and in a sense, I don't think that's a poor attitude.

SEGA and MS of course entered a strategic partnership, so I'm sure Game Pass and Xbox support were part of that deal. I kinda suspect that the SMT games are def coming to Game Pass, I'd make that bet anyway. So, I think JRPGs and stuff of course have value to MS, but it's also got to come at the right price.

@Snake_V5 SIE is as American as apple pie, except run by a Brit. Sony Group Corp is Japanese......kind of.......but honestly they've never really been a "normal" Japanese company to begin with. SGC is predominantly an export company. Most of what they have ever made (predating even PS) has always been mostly made for export, and while they enjoy decent sales in Japan, aside from early PlayStation, that's never been Sony's primary market. Their revenues plummet when the Yen is strong, and soar when the Yen is weak. They've more or less always been a company in Japan that exists for selling things to the rest of the world, not really a "Japanese company" in the traditional sense of most other Japanese companies. They're less tied to Japan than even Toyota and Honda. Always have been, going waaay back to the pre-Walkman era.

Nintendo and Sega, and, yes, Square-Enix, are anchored firmly to Japan though.

@Sebatrox This is a 90's SNES game that released only in Japan, was fan-translated in patches for ROM rips over years, and then they finally re-made it in the Octopath engine as a Switch exclusive that launched last year, and now PS/Steam. It looks old, because it is old, it's an HD-2D remake of a real SNES game.

@UltimateOtaku91 S-E makes no sense. Remember they rented out one of their premium western studios (Crystal Dynamics) to work on MS content before selling ALL their western studios (with CD already in the MS contract.) They don't hate MS or they wouldn't have rented their assets to them. There's definitely some sort of MS-S-E rift going on, though, or Sony/Nintendo just making it easy to stick with them.

I think mostly with this they're just doing the same thing that happened with EA and WiiU, they're looking at "oh look isometric JRPGS don't sell well on Xbox so lets not port this" without getting that the market can't exist if they don't build it first. If no SE tyep games are on the platform nobody buying SE type games will be buying the platform. Chicken and egg.

Then again they didn't put the FF pixel remasters on freaking Switch until ages after mobile. Does anything ever make sense from SE?

I do think Sony has them on a short leash, and the time from when Sony owned a chunk of the company has really left an imprint in their management and decision making I think. But this? Nintendo obviously paid up. Maybe Sony did too? Weird all the way around.

@Fenbops No, there Japanese by origin. They were founded in Japan, its a Japanese company but they operate in USA and like you said conduct business like America.

That's like Apple moving there headquarters to Japan and saying there now Japanese, Apple is American.

@Snake_V5 SIE is in CA now , parent company is Sony sure , but playstation is american now

@Sol4ris Squares games didn’t sell well enough on Xbox to keep going

is that better for you ?

@Kaloudz i cant WAIT for that pixel remaster! I'll be getting it on the switch but would love an xbox port. I fully expect that collection to "not meet expectations" no matter where it goes. I played this specific game and really enjoyed it, so not too bummed it isn't coming to xbox, but it didn't sell particularly well on the switch so I'm not so sure the low sales make sense in this case as to not bring it to xbox. Just don't think they really care. But they can't sell us NFTs at least!

give us octopath 2 you cowards. altho tbh I'm enjoying chained echoes more than i enjoyed first octo

Oh no... A bunch of remakes and Forspoken aren't coming to Xbox. Shame /s
Nothing of value lost here. Square sold their best IP with Tomb Raider etc so I couldn't care less about them now.

Honestly can’t see why people get sniffy over this - if it’s not been announced for Xbox isn’t this the same as with Redfall and Starfield not being announced on PlayStation?

@Kaloudz you are in for a treat my friend. FF1-6 (specifically 4, 5, and especially 6) is PEAK Square IMO. Having played every Final Fantasy from around the time it released FF6 is my favorite game of all time and this is when Square was the gold standard for JRPS in the 90s. I feel once Sakaguchi left and they merged with Enix they are a shell of their former selves and not the bar that they used to be. I will be neck deep in the Pixel Remaster day one and I can't wait.

@Jayphex Starfield not being announced for PS is like GoW not being announced for Switch and Mario not being announced for PS. 1st part, that's a given.

This is about games that are everywhere EXCEPT Xbox. When it's the omitted platform it's a very strange look. Especially when a particular publisher continuously omits the same platform. But Square's not even consistent with that, such as Octopath 1 that's only not on PS. Just weirdness from them. Always weirdness from them. But hey, they just released new NFT FF cards. Nothing weird about that.

@Reaper4993 You hit the mail right on the head. I wish I could “like” this comment multiple times.

I was already planning to get it on Switch anyways.

Not surprised, sony bought all se new games exclusive.

, 2@*ValentineMeikin DQ XI for me was an interesting case where if I do double dip, it's usually on another platform. Also the Xbox version was in Game Pass for a long time, so I don't think I outright purchased it when I played there. The Persona titles are in that boat too. Essentially it's like this - game launches on Sony hardware. If we later see a mild upgrade re-release that's multi-platform, sometimes it is hard to justify the rebuy. Persona 5 R, for example. On Switch the justification is "it's portable and finally on Nintendo!" On Xbox it's "one of the best versions of the game and finally on Xbox - ooo and it's on gamepass, let me pre-download that!" And on PS5 it was "yea that's gonna be a full price download to get dlc you may have already bought on the PS4 version and an FPS bump for a turn-based Rpg, please understand." Like the convo from the Sony fan side was very sour while the other platforms were more positive. DQ was a similar boat for me, where I had trouble justifying dropping another $60 for some modest upgrades to a game I already owned, but have run through it in other places (GP on Xbox, and when they pulled that I jumped on a Steam Sale for my deck).

That's why I support Microsoft to acquire as many studios and publishers as they want. That's the only way for them to get games sometimes.

The PlayStation part of Sony is basically American. Other divisions are still headquartered and led from Japan, including semiconductors, banking, medical devices, etc. The general headquarters is here. They are pretty happy with the US since PS sales are great. If that were to change, things would switch.

Not a fan of what Square has been doing recently so I don't mind that much them being off Xbox but the bigger games should be released if they had sense. They can keep their Forspokens.

Mind you, I bought Octopath on Xbox.

Squenix has created their very own catch-22 here. Their rpg games don't sell well on Xbox because no squenix rpgs games to buy on Xbox when released.

@jkald When asked to provide documents to regulators, Sony stalled, asked for extensions, said the cost was burdensome, and that the documents were "in Japanese."

Sony is a Japanese company. That includes the PlayStation branch. They are not American. Japan is calling the shots.

@Kaloudz i’ve always been of the mind that ff6 is the absolute best in the series & ff7 is the most important in the series due to taking the series to new audiences and bringing it mainstream. Its natural that since its your first it might be pretty hard to top, and it is my second favorite and in my top 5 games of all time. 9 (even tho its the highest rated) still doesnt get talked about enough and is my 3rd favorite. I love that game. Ff6 is old now but the 16 bit era holds up so well with the ATB combat system and the sprites on top of the hand-drawn/pre-rendered backgrounds. Id put the story and character development far above any other FF. Its incredible. I know that game inside and out.

No one cares about this game.

That stinks. Sometimes it's good to be both a switch and xbox owner.

@Kaloudz i would wait for the switch port honestly, which it looks like it will be releasing VERY soon. I dont think touch controls on a phone would do it justice. Dont think it has controller support. 4 and 6 are the two ill spend the most time with. Those games are timeless.

@jbreez00 the weird thing to me is that they DO... And then randomly don't. DQ XI S is on Xbox. And DQ is weird because if anything they are generally more Nintendo focused than Sony. FF VII-XIII/XIII-2/LR are on Xbox, but not Xiv. I don't know if XI still works or if that's effectively PC only though. Then also FF XV. Before they purged their non-Japanese acquisitions, Xbox got stuff like Deus Ex and Tomb Raider. Xbox has their Guardians of the Galaxy game, the Avengers game (just lacking Spiderman because of Sony "exclusives are bad for the industry" throwing cash at them). Xbox got Kingdom Hearts 3. Outriders was a day 1 Game Pass release. And they've had a number of their titles (including most of the FFs and DQ XI) in Game Pass at times. Oh, Type 0 was on Xbox. They published Sleeping Dogs and the Life is Strange series, Worlds of Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross, Stranger of Paradise: FF Origin, Nier Atomata. The original Nier on 360 with a protag redesign, and the remake later (Replicant) on X1. Diofield Chronicles also hit the platform last yr.

But there are all these odd skips. Like Xbox gets Chrono Cross but not Tactics Ogre, Valkyrie Profile, Front Mission or Live a Live? Diofield but not Octopath or Triangle Strat? Some of these still live as Switch exclusive even, but they're all hitting PC. And you'd think they're move to turn Valkyrie Profile into an action game might benefit an Xbox player base, but they thought otherwise. Most FFs from PS1 era to current, so the reason people balk now isn't that Xbox shouldn't expect FF games. It's that they were invited to the table for everything but one MMO, then all of sudden we have classic remakes and rereleases not coming, 16 not coming, etc. It's kind of like reminding people who say it was expected that Spidey games going forward wouldn't be on Xbox due to a misunderstanding of the Spidey rights (some ppl think Sony outright owns the character in all media), and you pull up a list to remind them that the ONLY console game prior to the Insomniac titles that wasn't multiplatform was PS1s Enter Electro. Obv no bearing on Square, but a similar situation of the narrative VS the truth behind people's expectations.

@Kaloudz if by download somewhere besides the Play Store, sure there are ways. But if you're going to sail those seas (yarrr) I'd actually just recommend grabbing a GBA rom and patching it with a graphics, font, and music patch (to kinda un-GBA it). That gets you the newer translation, which I believe is what the Pixel Remaster has. Also controller support, which PR doesn't, as well as bonus content (a dungeon or two, more espers, etc). PR does have some pretty magic effects, though, can't lie lol.

I got a PS4 and switch, so personally this sort of stuff doesn't affect me too much. That said, to me it doesn't make a lot of sense to think that there isn't something else other than just finances happening here.

I'm throwing this as a bit of an open question in case anybody has a real sense of it. To me the SE question of releasing in Xbox is not if the game will have comparable sales to the other platforms. To me is more like will the cost of adapting to Xbox break even and get some profit from:

-sales over the world and, in particular, the almost half a million Xbox series consoles in JPN (even if a decent amount of these are secondary systems

-a gamepass deal. It feels Microsoft would be quite open to a reasonably decent deal to put on GP many of these games even if just as part of trying to attarct more customers in Japan or worldwide with Japanese game fans. Xbox is selling in Japan more consoles than it has in years, so not crazy to think they still might get a decent user base if they got more and more Japanese games there

Now the caveat here is that cost of adaptation, I'm assuming this is relatively low for games that are already there in possibly Switch and/or PS and PC. Here is where if anybody knows I'd love to hear, cause perhaps I'm assuming this to be lower that it actually is. Anyway, this would be my way of approaching te Xbox question as SE. I understand prioritising the other platforms, but I find difficult to think they wouldn't make some extra money based on the above premise.

@SplooshDmg your back o.o

@Ralizah to be fair Ms actually promotes Sega and Atlas titles on GP. Look an how Persona and Yakuza were both treated compared to Octopath and DQ Builders 2 The Sega titles get marketing budgets; the SE titles were blog posts.

But also to Sega does physical and new games on Xbox day one. I have no fear that a new Yakuza:LAD will launch on Xbox at the same time as the other platforms. I’m always surprised when Xbox gets a day 1 SE release. So there’s that. I do think the relationship is a bit strained but I don’t think that’s the entire issue either.

@eduscxbox But the studios and publishers they have acquired already had their games on xbox so that doesn't make sense. It would make sense if xbox were to buy a japanese Studio who's games don't come to xbox.

As Xbox grows (e.g. after the games start coming out from these acquisitions) and its userbase increases, it will be Square Enix that misses the boat. I do understand that their games may not sell as well on Xbox - it’s hard for me to keep them profitable by myself - but thats usually because they are not day one and so have been played somewhere else already. Also yes those user-bases have a Switch or Playstation because you know that is where their games will release.

But it’s almost like Sega and Atlus realised the future potential in Xbox and Square Enix is just oblivious.

@Reaper4993 Pretty sure Xbox had exclusivity with Tomb Raider and that proved a huge mistake as sales weren't worth it. Wonder if they've been burnt by MS exclusivity deals and don't think its worth the cost to develop for both the One, X and S? Only reason I can think of really?

If xbox was a lucrative market for SE, then they would support the platform.
Im part of the problem, with gamepass effectively devaluing buying full price games, I have never bought anything other than forza dlc on the platform and probably never will. Given that their games miss the traditional xbox demographic, they have clearly decided that the market is not worth their time. Should full price games sales on xbox for these types of titles improve in the future, im sure se will change tune. But im also sure with so many of us simply using it as a GP machine (which is exactly as MS wants), there may be others who will decide the same based on sales projections of full price software on the platform. I really hope that doesn't happen.

I just can’t see people playing this on a ps5 or Xbox

@UltimateOtaku91

But the studios and publishers they have acquired already had their games on xbox so that doesn't make sense. It would make sense if xbox were to buy a japanese Studio who's games don't come to xbox.

But they fixed the problem, that sony can make exclusive deals with them

@Reptilio I’m currently playing Octopath 2 and I think Chained Echoes is still the better game.

At this point I’m very tempted to trade my Xbox in.

None of the Xbox exclusives really speak to me anymore.

My favourite game franchise halo isn’t what it used to be.

Pretty much every game comes to PlayStation.

Theres no real insentive to owning an Xbox for me anyways.

Gamepass is okay but there’s nothing on there that I can’t get on PlayStation or makes me feel like I’m missing out by not having it seems to have a lot of average games on it.

@Baler I can see people playing it I’ve recently bought a backbone for my phone perfect game to play handheld.

@mousieone I decided to come pay a visit. I'll probably delete my account when my supply of patience or anti-anxiety medication runs out. Whichever comes first. uwu

@Meehanuk_1987 i guess you could do that.

At this point, given Square's refusal/agreements that cause them not to bring games to XB, Square won't be getting any of my money no matter how good their games are in the future. I have never blacklisted a publisher, but Square has gotten me there.

I have PS5, Switch, and PC as well. But, the only games I play on PS5 and Switch are first party exclusives. The rest, I all play on XB or PC XB for the achievement tracking on my gaming card.

It is not that Forspoken is all that great of a game, to me, this is more about the Publisher's treatment of the gamers on my primary platform.

This game can probably be ported over to the Xbox in a couple of weeks. I think they don't like the proposition of game pass until they've creamed off the ones willing to pay. I reckon eventually this will land day 1 on gamepass on the Xbox. They get all the sales from other platforms, and then the gamepass revenue and aren't bothered if people play it either way

@ValentineMeikin I'm actually one of the weird ones who pre-ordered DQXI on PS4 played for an hour and never went back to it because I have a bad tendency to not play my PS consoles. I also bought it on Xbox on day one and sunk over 40 hours into the game. I still need to finish it though. The QoL changes between the original and the S versions make playing the original suck.

@StonyKL That tomb raider game didn't do well because it released with fallout 4 and call of duty and people were upset about the deal and then boycotted it once it was available to them because of that deal (ha the irony).

Octopath 2 hurt the most and the FF Pixel Collection kicked me while I was down.

@Kaloudz The absolute best thing about that era of JRPGS (specifically Square ones) is that they arent the 70 hours slogs that alot of jrpgs are today. I think that is just too long and much prefer the 25-30 or so hours it takes for those types of games.

I can usually do most stuff on FF 4 and 6 in 20 or so, so perfect length IMO but since you wont know those games inside and out id bet more on the 25-35 range depending your speed.

thats playstation fault they sign agreement behind close doors while the deal of activision is in pending jim ryan put all their effort by making sure xbox do not get access to great japanese deals.

I've already lumped Squeenix with Sony, and yes, cancelled them both.

@Reaper4993 hardly the same. Sony buy little known devs an nurture an invest an turn them in to AAA devs. Naughty Dog for instance made games for Apple 2 wen Sony bought them. Microsoft simply buy already huge, established dev an just keep makin the same game but make them exclusive.

@theduckofdeath
Thanks for the reply. Absolutely, the final decision is on Japan in terms of big stuff. Usual day-to-day operations are handled in the US, as far as I understand.

I love square. But currently Sony is ruining them.

@FenIsMightier SE putting Octopath Traveler 2 on the PS5 boggles the mind, though if SE isn't see the sales numbers on the MS machines, I makes sense. I've been having fun with the first one and would rather play #2 on my Xbox, too.

@Kaloudz Yes. One thing i remember Sakaguchi saying "heard it in an interview long ago" is that Final Fantasy is meant to be beaten, so even if you don't know the systems all that well, if you grind youll be come powerful enough over time to just brute force your way around the game, essentially creating your own difficulty. You'll see those notorious "level 1" playthroughs on older FFs where they dont gain any levels and just try to make it as difficult as possible.
I personally love standard level in games like that where you create your own challenge, or can become a god if you so choose by simply putting in the time.

@Kaloudz Yup! Just throw an elixir and it's all over.

@Kaloudz I miss those. JRPGs, specifically, I look for those books but they just dont make em. Everything is an online guide, now. I like what Dark Horse does with that hardcover ones (BOTW was the last one i got) but those are few and far between these days.