First, we have to see if FFVII Rebirth gets announced for other platforms (very likely) or not.
SE probably learned their lesson from the botched initial XVI trailers and aren't specifically announcing a PC port coming months later in the very first line of PS5 adverts. Which, IMO, damaged a decent chunk of potential XVI sales on PS5. Showing that, in fact, there is notable amount of customer crossover between console and PC when it comes to these AAA games these days, and that the two platforms do in fact have some degree of competition with each other in gamer's time and money.
But I digress...
Second, we have to see if FVII Rebirth gets announced for other platfoms which are these platforms (could be only PC).
Doesn't matter; as I was illustrating above, even PC/Steam is a competitive platform for consoles like PlayStation, due to crossover between enthusiasts (hardcore, core) customers in those spaces for modern AAA games. FF XVI is probably a pretty good indicator of this theory bearing out as true; had there not been mention of a PC version coming "mere months" after PS5 in the first wave of adverts for the game on PS5, I posit that the game's sales would've been better.
And that is not to say they are even bad, but SE seemed to have even higher expectations in some upper target which were not met. They would have met that target if they hadn't been going on talking about a PC version before the PS5 version of the game even launched.
Third, we have to see when it's going to see released in that other platform(s). The sentence said "not available on other platforms at least until 05/29/2024".
The point is, the stated time is shorter than for XVI, which was shorter than for VII Remake Part 1. It's a downward trend, that's what I've noticed.
That doesn't mean that the game will be released in other platforms and doesn't mean that it will be released in other platforms on 05/30/2024.
Yes, that's true. But it does mean that it's going to come to SOME other platform after that date. It could be one, it could be multiple. It could be PC, it could be Xbox, it could be Switch 2, it could be all three.
All we really can discern from the exclusivity window is that either SE have heightened agency to get the game on more platforms sooner to hit sales targets, or Sony have decreased agency in locking in big FF games to their platforms in a coveted sense. But considering Sony were saying they want people to think of PS when they think of the home of FF, reducing the exclusivity window on
their part doesn't make sense to me.
And well, even if they plan to release FFVII Rebirth 05/30/2024 on Xbox, PC and Switch 2 (which I think won't happen), that wouldn't mean that the exclusivity reduction would be due to a bad relationship with Sony. Pretty likely would only mean that SE decided that for them is better to have a shorter exclusivity would benefit their own business, and/or Sony considered that for their own business wasn't worth it to pay for the sequel an exclusivity as long as the first one.
Yes, which is the
CONCERING part we are talking about here! Why would the partnership have weakened? Well, we have seen Mascot Spencer™ out here squeezing his way into that SE/Sony dynamic. We know he has a ton of money to throw around thanks to magnitudes more successful divisions at Microsoft ponying up the cash. We know that he and the other higher-ups at Xbox have a desire to "spend Sony out of business". We know that would involve a mix of targeted acquisitions and strategic partnerships. We know that would involve trying to weaken Sony's ties to their closest, strongest 3P partners, especially in Japan. We have already
SEEN them accomplish this to a very notable degree with Sega/Atlus. We are WORRIED that they are trying to do the same with Square-Enix. And we
KNOW they have these intentions because of the leaked emails from the FTC hearings over the summer.
Do you see what I mean when I say you aren't looking at the forest from the trees? You have got to start actually tying motives and probabilities together. These are coordinated efforts on the part of a company like Microsoft. And, I do not necessarily blame them for trying to get better business going with other game companies, that's what they are supposed to be doing. The blame would fall on Sony for letting things play out this way, by being too slow to, say, acquire a company like SE when the conditions were favorable on both ends to make that happen. Or making a big move for share purchases and general investments into the company, even amid the changing of their old CEO to the new CEO.
The onus would fall on Sony for this happening, but you seem more interested in finding a way to spin that into "Well, that's actually not bad for Sony at all. Just look at the fiscal results this quarter! Microsoft could buy Square-Enix all they like, it won't change anything!", or something thereof. What makes it an additional slap to the face, is that in losing grip on strong hold of these big 3P games (particularly Japanese ones) that PlayStation had in the past, they have nothing of equivalent cooking internally to serve as replacements to provide value (via stronger & true exclusivity) to their console.
And yes, you need that, and in great variety of genre types (at least, that should be the goal) in order to move consoles long-term at a high clip. If it wasn't important, companies like Nintendo would be doing what Microsoft did (in gradually devaluing the console itself) 7 years ago. Something Sony, IMO, is stupidly slipping into doing themselves increasingly so, but not even in a way that at least sets healthy cadence to stem any potential bleed as best as possible.
As of now Foamstar has only been announced for PS.
Yeah, for now. But consider this: it's a live-service/GaaS title. If we're going to say that Sony, for example, are well-off bringing their live-service/GaaS titles to PC with short interval windows or even Day 1, and certain titles (like MLB) to other console platforms Day 1 since those all boost player metrics...why would Square-Enix
not be considering the same?
You don't think Square-Enix are salivating at the prospect of selling a game like Foamstars on a platform that has Splatoon on it? Foamstars is coming to PS4 as well, after all, so it probably won't require a lot of effort to get that adjusted for the Switch 2. If they have plans for the game on Switch 2, it's simply too early to announce anything.
