Final Fantasy Dev Insists The Future Is Bright For Square Enix Games On Xbox

I want to know what this actually means. Like yes more Final Fantasy and SE games for Xbox (woo) but what dose it mean in practice? Will we get stuff we missed like the 7 remakes and 16 or just that going forward we won't get skipped?

Not into any square enix games really but actions speak louder then words so much bull crap coming out of gaming company's over the last few years I believe nothing they say anymore

Perfect timing. FFVII Rebirth's timed exclusivity for PS5 ends...... tomorrow. So the series s version should be ready to release in 24 hours.
Now I know what you're thinking, the PC version isn't even ready for release tomorrow.
FF16's PC port is launching, 9 months AFTER the timed exclusivity was over.

But wait a minute, I thought Square Enix regretted not releasing Rebirth for PC last Feb....... when a PC port isn't even ready 6 months later lol. So if there was a day 1 PC release, NOBODY would be playing Rebirth right now.

Sorry, I made a big mistake, the timed exclusivity for Remake was only 3 months and ended on May 29th 2024.
So where are the PC and Xbox versions then?????? Oh right, another year and a half away at least if Xbox's 1st party 2020 announced games are anything to go by.
But Rebirth would have sold SO MUCH MORE last Feb if the game took another 18 months to develop lol.

@BlueSheepz "They won't sell".
Have you seen the pathetic numbers Crisis Core did on Xbox's platforms and this INCLUDES last gen's 45 million Xbones too. Those sales cemented any games not going to Xbox going forward.

As slimey Phil says, it's just business.

I'd be surprised if xbox gets kingdom hearts 4 at this point.

One brand that seems to finally own up their mistake to skip Xbox consoles. Hopefully we see FF16 and/or FF Remake/Rebirth by sometime before 2026 on Series consoles.

@BlueSheepz ....or they could just stop making promises and release the games...?

More promises than ff games on xbox 🔥🔥

I'd like to think its true, but there's nothing on the release schedules for games where exclusivity clauses elapsed ages ago, so SE are certainly not being held back from delivering if they want to.
They are simply keeping all options open, but they will be watching sales of titles on Xbox to help guide their choices.

I'd love more people to be able to play the FF games, I played them on PS and loved em... would be great to see people on xbox sharing that joy.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

Sure. Not like we've heard this before and nothing come of it.

@BlueSheepz keep hoping mate

It is inevitable, nowadays games need more than ever not to be limited by devices. The exclusivity of these games, along with other bad decisions, are responsible for Square-Enix being in such a bad situation.

These games will be released on Xbox, on PC, on the various cloud services and on Nintendo consoles, the only thing that could prevent it is that Square goes bankrupt before.

@InterceptorAlpha Remind me the last time Square Enix said "we want to double down on Xbox" and nothing came of it? Because, last I checked, Square only started to express a desire to support Xbox last year

I really just want the Pixel Remasters on my Xbox and anything going forward. I loved FFVII, but I just can't get excited about what they did to the remakes. I'll always prefer turn-based over action RPGs.

@FarmDog08 I really thought when they announced the retail print run of pixel collection they would have at least announced a digital xbox version.

@BlueSheepz honestly I am not a big fan of final Fantasy games, but I am happy that they will come to Xbox as Square Enix mentioned many times already with their new multi platform strategy/approach and Xbox fans of the series can get the games on their Xbox. I have friends that they purchased a PS5 explicitly to play the last games of the series. Third party developers should release their games everywhere possible and not limit their customer number, to maintain their business and be successful. There were also games of the entry that did quite well on Xbox such as FF14, FF15 for example. All these BS that they don't sell on Xbox are from the usual haters / ps fans writing every day on push square and showing up here on the comments' section on every negative Xbox rumour / news.

I'm not a huge fan of their games but I'm glad they are abandoning the platform exclusive mentality.

I have been buying their games for playstation but would rather play them on xbox or pc.

Cool. SE has released games like Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts III, Dragon Quest XI S, or Visions of Mana on Xbox.

So, I will believe in their words, expecting to see more FF, and maybe titles like Harvestella on the green.

Square Enix is actually releasing Visions of Mana and Dragon Quest III as play anywhere which is awesome support. I want more companies to do that. I can play on my Series X and then move to my Legion Go. All with 1 digital copy.

Also remember SE can’t put their games on Gamepass (which is always an attractive option if sales have dried up) if the games aren’t on the system in the first place.

Will be glad if they improve their Xbox support for sure.

I think Foamstars and Forspoken are pretty much guarantees. Former is going FTP in October so they'd release on Xbox to try and increase the playerbase. Meanwhile the latter's exclusivity ends in January 2025 and sounds like the kind of situation where Game Pass may give the game a second wind.

So bizarre how Square Enix went from ignoring Xbox and partnering with Sony alone for all this content during all the time where Xbox was showing upward momentum, to the detriment of that momentum often, to now making a huge push into trying to build a base on Xbox, while Xbox momentum is in nosedive freefall.

And they're putting their money where their mouth is, too. The paid sponsor ad on my dashboard last night was for FFXIV free trial (if I saw it while launching XIV, does it count as an ad?) They're actually paying to advertise FF on Xbox. Square Enix. Paying. On Xbox...

If they'd done this years ago Xbox might be in another place today.

Of course it could be all talk, but their mention of building support for the franchise on Xbox seems like they legit know where to start and the hole they're starting in which is a good omen that they're not going to do a Square Enix, dump a few games, watch low sales, and then bail again.

@Grumblevolcano Still floors me that Forspoken had such a long exclusivity lock. Between Forspoken, Concord, and Bungie, I'm starting to think the old running joke about Jimbo and the scotch was just true commentating.

@BlueSheepz Strange. You must be either too young to remember or just have a poor memory.

SE's increasing support was a huge part of Xbox 360 prerelease, and even post release. All that resulted in was a couple mediocre launch windows games, then nothing of substance until they started doing multiplat, day an date releases. During that drought, however, they were publishing ganes for Nintendo and Sony still.

Once again during the Xbox One's life. And what was gotten from that? Some PS1 ports, the card game, and 15, a game that did so poorly half the story, that was supposed to be told through DLC, was cut.

Now here we are, at the third time. Will it be the charm? I doubt it. But we'll see.

@andrewsqual when Square Enix announce that the FF7 remake trilogy hits Switch/Xbox id expect Crisis Core to sell better on both systems. But don't blame people skipping it on Xbox if you need a PS5 to complete the trilogy.

@InterceptorAlpha "Only a couple mediocre launch window games"

I still remember the pony meltdown when FFXIII was announced to be on 360, lol.

XV gets a bad sales rep. It sold 10 million and broke even in 2 weeks. It sold "only" 1.4 million on Xbox, but it also sold "only" 5 mill on PS, making Xbox just shy of 20% of console sales which isn't horrible. PC makes up the other 4+ million. Still crushed that they killed the rest of the story DLC for a 10mil selling game.

Pixel Remaster please

The proverbial proof will be in the pudding, I'll wait and see if Squeenix actually makes good on it's threats with more Xbox support 😉 on big games like FF7R, Rebirth etc, before believing their corporate PR statements.
Either way, I'm happy for having DQ11, Diofield Chronicles, VoM and others on Xbox. Fingers crossed we'll get DQ12 too..

lmao, it was X019. Short memories in the Xbox community.

@Jenkinss "Short memories in the Xbox community."

We drink to forget.

I mean say what you want about Xbox, however there are roughly 30 million Series X & S consoles in the wild now, so why wouldn't Square-Enix or any other publisher want their games exposed to an additional 30ish million more customers?

3rd party exclusives should simply not be a thing. Unless they're co-developed or co-funded by the platform manufacturer, then it muddies the waters a bit, but other than in those cases 3rd party titles should release on every platform technically capable of running them.

At least release the mainline entries. The FF Pixel Remasters I-VI and FFXVI.

@Jenkinss Source?

@Grumblevolcano idk Foamstars will probably never leave PS, the game flopped over there and it probably will do nothing on Xbox, PC or Switch

@andrewsqual I eventually bought Crisis Core, but didn’t buy at release because it came out right after they announced pixel remasters for PS and Switch…so was a little salty/confused about SE bringing more games to Xbox

@DreamlandGem Will do. Thanks!

@K1LLEGAL To me what is strange with Square Enix is the likely higher selling new games (or IPs) either omit Xbox if that be from exclusivity by Sony or just didn't come from some other decision. They keep bringing the smaller more niche titles that are least likely to sell as well to Xbox then wonder why no one buys anything.
The only exception I can think of are the Nier games.

But like you said the games that do come at least (mostly, Nier games don't) they have the full features of the Xbox ecosystem with Xbox+PC license in 1.

Square are the kings of weird decision making.

Oh dear. The Xbox don't buy JRPG crowd will be disappointed that Naoki Yoshida hints in his Eurogamer interview that Square Enix are happy with the really strong reception" the Xbox port has received. & Want to build on it.

@NEStalgia

"If they'd done this years ago Xbox might be in another place today."

Eh, no. The lack of a few big FF games didn't help Xbox, of course, but their damage is mostly self-inflicted. They've perfected the art of self-sabotage.

@Ralizah Very true but before they mastered self sabotage squares missing presence, especially back when square actually mattered a lot more, did a lot to hold back Xbox credibility and adoption.

@NEStalgia I'd say Xbox's fate as a brand was sealed the moment Uncle Phil assumed his throne. The man worked as a mascot, but his leadership has been absolutely disastrous.

Back in the day, Microsoft would work with Japanese creators to release exclusive games on their console to help account for the lacking Japanese support, for example. But they don't do that now, because countless billions were spent re-inventing Xbox into a streaming service. The complete lack of oversight with their developers is also remarkable.

Final Fantasy just isn't THAT big of a brand anymore, and S-E's lacking support isn't going to tank a major console line. What will is having almost nothing else of note releasing on the platform for years at a time.

@kuu_nousee oh 100%, yea they always have been - even as far as their naming conventions and their release cadences (nothing for months then like 5 big rpgs in 2 weeks)

I don't need these to be released on Xbox, cause I could play them elsewhere. That said, Xbox it's currently my preferred platform to play with, so I would love to see FXVI and the pixel remaster on Xbox.

Less so FFVII remake, cause I don't like the "reboot" aspect of it, but might give it a chance someday (huge fan of the original).

The more the better, people can then choose where to play.

FFXIV was a nice addition, it's on my list cause everybody says it's brilliant. If I only had the time to play an MMO like in the olden days...

When the games don't sell on Xbox, wonder what Square's excuse will be now.

Not that they put out 42 games in 4 years, that's a game every 5 weeks with a lot not being of great quality (and I've played most of them) with a bunch being exclusive to PlayStation and more to Nintendo, that they're all over the place where the games are.

Don't worry, the NFT game is happening.

@Ralizah "Final Fantasy just isn't THAT big of a brand anymore, and S-E's lacking support isn't going to tank a major console line."

As much as I love FF and have played pretty much every game in the series, plus the sequels and the spin offs I would have to agree with you here. The series is nowhere near as popular as it used to be and attempts to reinvent the series in 15 and 16 seem to lose as many, or more fans than they gains. For every new fan who like action conbat gain they seem to lose an old fan who just wants turn based atb.

I also reckon the statement from SE is likely very misleading and will still be entirely dependant on the level of work required from them. I can't see them porting remake / rebirth or FF16 as it would be a lot of work, but would not be surprised if they port stuff like the pixel remaster collection as its probably much simpler and would sell.

I think it's hard for Square-Enix to release FF7 remake trilogy and FF16 due to exclusivity contracts, Microsoft acknowledged the deal (FTC leak) as games that won't come to Xbox in unknown period of time (highly likely until PS5 generation ended).
However Xbox has another chance with other publishers like partnering with Atlus to bring Persona series to Xbox, and now partnering with Koei Tecmo to finally bring Atelier series to Xbox.
I know Persona & Atelier won't beat Final Fantasy, but hey better than nothing at all. At least Xbox try and acknowledge that their platforms getting skipped many times by Japanese publishers, Xbox also got skipped by many Chinese publishers & indie developers. Well Xbox still has many homeworks to do well in Asian region