It's been well-documented that Xbox and Square Enix's relationship seems to have broken down over the past few months, with just one game from the Japanese company having been announced for Xbox consoles in 2023 so far.
Head of Xbox Phil Spencer acknowledged this as part of a Giant Bomb interview following the Xbox Games Showcase 2023 yesterday, where he was talking about the work Microsoft has been doing with Japanese teams:
"I remember five years ago, it was, 'when is an Atlus game going to come to Xbox?'. So it was awesome to see three games [at the Xbox Games Showcase 2023]. Capcom announcing a new IP on the stage, also coming to Game Pass, which was great.
And I say all of that, and then I can look at my friends at Square [Enix] and say 'ooh... come on!'. I gotta get on an airplane again."
Spencer was later questioned about the reasons why certain Japanese teams might avoid to choose bringing their games to Xbox, suggesting that sometimes business deals get in the way, sometimes it's to eliminate the risk of releasing on multiple platforms, and sometimes it's because the team simply doesn't have much connection to Xbox.
With all of this mind, the Xbox boss says there's still plenty of work ahead:
"I love the progress that we've made, I think about [the work we've done] over five or six years there, but there's obviously more work for us to do."