Final Fantasy XIV: Dawn Trail Marks the Return of the FF Series to Xbox consoles. In an Interview with Eurogamer, Naoki Yoshida known for his work on the aforementioned FFXIV and Final Fantasy XVI said that Square Enix (who is going through a rough stretch financially) is interested in working on Xbox again.
“At Square Enix, we have been changing our policy. So now we are moving towards the policy of releasing our games on a multiplatform basis, and we really want as many players as possible to play our titles. So with Final Fantasy 14 as the starting point, we do want to release more Square Enix games on Xbox, and there will be more of our titles released on Xbox.” Yoshida said, in reference to the company supporting the Xbox Series consoles moving forwards.
Why the 180 Turn?
Despite the fact that the PS5 is by far the best selling console of the generation, Square Enix has seen its Final Fantasy series continue its downward spiral in popularity and sales. Its second installment in the Pseudo sequel/remake of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, triumphed critically but faltered commercially.
According to Bloomberg, FFVII: Rebirth failed to meet internal expectations, and it is selling half of what Remake did with in the same time frame. The game joins Final Fantasy XVI as an underperforming title. The Xbox Series of consoles does have a 30 million unit installed base of users. Square Enix might be wise to tap into that fandom.
Yoshida would use Xbox’s lack of popularity in Japan as one of the reasons why Square Enix hasn’t brought in the series into the new Xbox consoles.
“But when it comes to the Xbox platform and the fact that it was difficult for Japanese titles to be released on the platform, that’s tied into the fact that in the Japanese market there is an extremely low number of users on Xbox.” Yoshida explained.
His reasoning is strange given that historically the Xbox has performed poorly in Japan, but that didn’t stop Final Fantasy XIII, and XV from showing up on its consoles.
A larger reason for SE missing the American console is that Sony has paid large sums of money for exclusivity of Final Fantasy on its own platform.
Will Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth Arrive to Xbox Series Consoles at Some Point?
It appears that Sony still holds exclusivity deals with that particular brand of Final Fantasy games, but there is a chance that Xbox owners will see Final Fantasy XVI at some point in their machines.
Square Enix executives must be wondering why Asian made RPGs like Elden Ring, and Wukong are dominating the marketplace while Final Fantasy sits on the sidelines. So, the issues with its games might go much further than their confinement to the PlayStation 5. For whatever reason, modern gamers are just not resonating with the long running franchise.
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