Man I enjoyed FF16 an extra 50% because xbox losers could not play it, square better at least ask 75+ million for the port
Rumor: Final Fantasy 16 is coming to Xbox
- Thread starter John Elden Ring
- Start date
Business is business. You have to explain to me the reason why would Square Enix go against the deal they made with Sony? Happily-
People can bring up sales all they want. The game still sold good and made Square Enix money.
Maximmillion dude even said the money Sony paid for all 3 more than covers the cost of all 3 games and sales anyway.
Well firstly we don't know if the exclusivity deal includes all three parts, or was just for the first two. We also don't know if it was done for all parts at once prior to even the first game's release, or has been done at the start of main development for each specific part. If the latter, that'd mean SIE and Square-Enix would have to begin negotiations for Part 3's exclusivity right now.
Even supposing things were agreed to well way back, Square-Enix can still buy their way out of that contract. Or, SIE can buy their way out of it, both sides can mutually agree to take a different approach. The fact is, we have SE's new CEO on record saying they want to pursue more multiplatform releases of big games. IMO I still think that "just" means PS & PC Day 1 for stuff like FF VII Part 3, or FF XVII. Though, depending on what the next Xbox actually technically is, that "Day 1" could extend to that platform as well (if it's basically a PC at that point).
I don't have much faith that Part 3 is going to be a PlayStation timed exclusive, at the very least it'll probably be PC (Steam) Day 1 looking at SE's trajectory. And if that's the case, I don't see the point in SIE paying to cover dev costs when they aren't getting a lot back out of it. OK the sales for XVI and Rebirth have been pretty good, but nothing balls-out amazing like GOW Ragnarok or Helldivers II.
The money SIE pay for timed exclusivity on FF releases could probably be better spent developing new installments of their own legacy IP like Legend of Dragoon, Dark Cloud or Okage if just sticking to JRPGs. Or maybe partnering with Level 5 on another White Knight Chronicles. All games that wouldn't need budgets as large as a main FF and would likely have quite better profit margins relative sales figures, too, due to cheaper costs to develop. Even shifting that FF money to, say, a remake of Vagrant Story with SE instead would be more cost-effective.
And those are all things SIE could leverage actual exclusivity on without much fuss.
There's no constrained budget for FFXVI, the game had money poured into it. This is just the directional decisions making perceived wrong calls. Just like certain movies don't totally reflect the dollar amount spent in the finished product, sometimes this is the case with games as well.
Also, the difficulty is also not an issue of money, they just wanted the game to be that easy, this was repeated multiple times in pre-release marketing.
Honestly my biggest criticism is probably the overall story and its message/theme stopping midway through the game and its only really picking back in the like last 10% of the game and even then not really having that much interesting to say.
I just don't think Kazutoyo Maehiro is a great writer, there's a reason why FFXIV's writing improved substantially after he was gone as the Main Scenario Writer back after the launch of Heavensward(he moved to FFXVI).
Second main criticism would be the whole lack of RPGness.
Quests are fairly mediocre and the loadout system being so restrictive(coupled with the fact that the game is easy) turns the moment to moment experience more boring than it really should be.
Overall I feel like XVI is a fine game, good even, but there's a lot of "what ifs".
I don't think this is too surprising considering this team had a lot of talent that either hadn't worked on such a project before or hadn't in a long time.
Considering the exclusivity window has shortened from FF7R Part 1 ---> FFXVI --- FF7 Part 2(we see those dates in the trailers) I feel like SIE are probably seeing the sales as diminishing returns.
Now that Square-Enix is also changing strategy(which is estimated to take 3 years to take full effect) I don't think we'll see many of those past a certain point since it's quite possible both parties are not seeing the return they would like to see.
On the subject of those other JRPGs you're talking about, the chances of that happening are near non-existent.
Not only are SIE not in the business of looking in their bags of old IPs, they're not in the business of looking at much lower budget stuff either.
Also, nobody should be partening up with Level 5 which have issues just shipping games nowadays.
I still remember their Level-5 Vision presentation and how all the titles in that presentation.
New Fantasy life? Delayed from 2023 to 2024current release date Oct 10
Decapolice? Delayedfrom 2023 to 2024 with no firm date as of yet
Inazuma Eleven? Delayed a quadrillion times, even beta tests have been delayed(again 2024 but no firm date)
Recall that this game's first public release window was supposed to be in 2018.
Akihiro Hino is a dingus.
Too much speculation in your post.
The deal was for all 3 games. I provide you a direct source with somebody from Sony saying so.
It’s Sony’s deal to back out of. I don’t know why they would do such a thing. The CEO saying they want to be more multi platform doesn’t change signed contracts. Sony didn’t get FF7 remake trilogy for free.
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I played with motion blur set to 0, performance mode. and I didn't have any performance issues. It was a beaut Clark.
I also played with motion blur set to 0 & in performance mode & I could tell the frame rate wasn't consistent
We all know Microsoft has the cash to buy their way out of the timed exclusivity deals that Bethesda made with Sony for Death Loop and Ghostwire Tokyo. Once Microsoft bought Bethesda/Zenimax they could have done so if these contracts could be broken up like some here have said but instead they didn't and Microsoft honored the contracts. I think the reason for that is Microsoft didn't want to be hit with legal actions from Sony. I don't see many examples of 3rd party studio/publishers breaking up their timed exclusivity deals. The 3rd party game comes out exclusivity on said platform and once the timeframe of the deal has expired that's when the game gets ported to more platforms. Nevertheless, if Square is still interested in doing timed exclusives with Sony moving forward then it is possible that Square would want to revive their deals by including PC in the mix at the game's launch. Sony would still get timed exclusive but it would be console exclusive only rather than across the board.
There were definitely BIG framerate drops even in performance mode. Felt like 30s but definitely at least low 40s at times.
And this is where SIE have entered full stupid mode, for me. They are going to bleed themselves out of profits by just chasing massive Hollywood-style AAA games and typical GAAS titles. Both markets are quite saturated, and have issues with creative redundancy due to high costs of making content within them. That leads to very safe design choices that might placate large swathes of the customer base, but from an artistic PV, is pretty boring.
But that is SIE's choice to make. I just can't see it boding well long-term, especially if their "answer" for the escalating costs of AAA games and AAA GAAS is to be more openly multiplatform (getting closer to Day 1 for basically everything). Like there's already the rumor Until Dawn 2 is going to be PS & PC Day 1; SIE doesn't seem to value that content differentiation (i.e exclusives, preferably genuine exclusives) is still the biggest driver for one product over competitors, in ANY industry.
But like I said, these are their choices they are free to make. No one can stop them except those running SIE.
Square Enix is completely dissatisfied because the Final Fantasy series is selling quite poorly in Japan compared to the West. In Japan, Final Fantasy has never been that popular since Dragon Quest is far more popular than Final Fantasy in Japan. In order for Square Enix to popularize Final Fantasy in Japan, all future Final Fantasy games must be released for the next Nintendo platform.
People like you are weird. You never stop to ask if Square-Enix's own creative whiplash from game to game is a reason for sales maybe not being as high as they could've been. Always quick to blame exclusivity.
The truth is, Final Fantasy has not been a consistent brand since the PS2 days. That's ages ago in the gaming world. XIII was a MASSIVE departure from previous mainline games and divisive; Lightning Returns was also quite contentious, and I don't even need to get into FF XV (which was supposed to have been part of a trilogy for the PS3/360 era). XVI, as well, also proved divisive; even VII Remake's choices were a bit divisive among fans of the OG.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that the string of increasing divisiveness and splintering in the fanbase with these installments...might've convinced some to hold off on Rebirth until they could be assured it was worth the investment. Rebirth could be the best Final Fantasy since VII, X or XII; it is still going to pay some price for installments released in-between being contentious among big parts of the fanbase.
I'd argue if XIII, Lightning Returns, XV, VII Remake and XVI were more unifying in creative choices and unified the fanbase, Rebirth would probably be at around 2x the sales it's currently at, on the same singular platform. All of those are quality games one way or another, absolutely, but being high-quality doesn't mean too much if what's there isn't appealing to subjective tastes of a chunk of the core fanbase.
In that context, Final Fantasy has a bit of a Sonic problem, but it's still much better off than other IP like Halo (which also have a Sonic problem but are arguably worst off than Sonic because at least Sonic has good movies and occasional solid game here and there). Its problems have little to do with being exclusive to one platform, though getting the games on other systems (primarily Nintendo & PC) would be the "quickest" way to get a bit more money from them.
As a long-time FF fan, you're describing my experience. FF13 really was the turning point. I've never been able to get past 4-5 hours into it. The demo for Lightning Returns made me decide to never play it. I have FF15 but have never played it. Having to go outside of the game to get the full story is a huge turn-off. , I'll eventually play 15 and 16, but the series seems to have just been all over the place for years now. As for VII Remake, there were so many comments stating that people just wanted a simple remake - not a re-imagining. It makes sense that those people wouldn't pick up the second part. For my part, I haven't played it but likely will one day - but Nomura makes me far less interested. Just not a fan of his.
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And now they're talking about snowboarding in Part 3. No offense to the team, but people aren't really playing FF games for snowboarding or other minigames. Those don't get seen as the core of the experience and sometimes a metric ton of superfluous content can almost be seen as a turn-off.
It's one thing if the snowboarding stuff is significant thematically and integrated into the main campaign (like maybe as part of a boss fight), but I'm not entirely sure if that's going to be the case. Guess we'll see.