I knew I'd catch a bunch of Sony fanbois when I stated simple facts anyone who pays attention to the gaming industry would have known independently.

This board is nothing if not completely misinformed.

January 1, 2023 New Year's Letter from the President of Square Enix

quote:
On the publishing side, we are moving away from the previous geography- and function-based model under which our Japanese and Western publishing organizations operated independently of one another. Instead, we are creating an end-to-end global publishing organization based on the concept of “One Square Enix.” We launched this new structure late last year with close cooperation between our two Chief Publishing Officers (CPOs), a newly created role. We undertook especially thorough changes to the organizational structure of our Western operations, adopting a sales and marketing structure optimized to match the new studio portfolio created by the divestment of our three overseas studios. We are expanding our functions so that we can capture as much of the upside as possible from the digital shift that has been gaining momentum since the outbreak of the pandemic.

I know some idiot here will say "that doesn't specifically say they're moving away from exclusive deals," but that would show a very shallow intellectual capability. If Square Enix was going to move to one process for all games, they would either have to adopt a process for just one console exclusively for every game or adopt a process for all consoles together for every game. Given their recent earnings calls, it seems clear PS exclusives aren't working for them.This is obvious to people who know how to read and understand without being blinded by fandom.

World premiering Visions of Mana at the March 2024 Xbox Developer Direct was a clear sign of things to come. Anyone being would have recognized the message being sent. That followed the announcement last year of FF14 going to XBox.

December 26, 2023

quote:
An encouraging development for Square Enix is the recent commitment from the CEOs of Square Enix and Xbox to 'partner more closely.' This suggests that future Square Enix games will be more consistently available on Xbox, a shift from past practices. Notably, games like FF7 Remake and FF16 did not initially arrive on Xbox, representing missed opportunities for increased revenues due to limited exposure in the Western market.

July 28, 2023

quote:
here's what Square Enix CEO Takashi Kiryu had to say:

"As CEO of Square Enix, we want to continue to deliver fabulous games to fans across the world, and of course we want to welcome the Xbox community as well, and starting with today’s announcement of Final Fantasy XIV coming in Spring 2024, and whenever possible, we are planning to bring our games to Xbox for players around the world to enjoy. We’re really looking forward to working closely with Phil and the Xbox team to make this possible."

Next time do your own research. Or, better yet, just start paying attention. This has not been a secret. It has been obvious and they've been telling you this is coming for some time now.

This post was edited on 5/15/24 at 3:33 pm