Square Enix will release games simultaneously on both Xbox and PlayStation going forward

TrishaCat

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I agree Sony need to buy a Japanese publisher. Square, Tecmo, Sega, anyone tbh
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no
 
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Have you thought about the possibility that these penny pinchers at Sony were responsible for ending the partnership with Square Enix?

Very likely the case.

Regardless, I don't really care if SIE get exclusivity to FF games going forward or not; they aren't really treating their own 1P titles as exclusives given Day 1 for GAAS and narrowing windows for AAA non-GAAS like Spiderman 2. A very foolish strategy on SIE's part IMHO, but it's what they're doing. Not to mention, toying with Day 1 for games like LEGO Horizon and Until Dawn Remake.

However, I have to think Square-Enix want to prioritize simultaneous releases on PC (specifically, Steam) over Xbox; Xbox as a hardware platform is sharply declining and that also means the customer base for a FF games there have already migrated elsewhere for the most part, such as PlayStation, Steam, and Nintendo. Speaking of Nintendo, that has to probably be a major priority for them going forward as well, but they can't talk about it publicly until Nintendo officially reveals the Switch 2.

I agree Sony need to buy a Japanese publisher. Square, Tecmo, Sega, anyone tbh
But they will cost alot more than Bungie, Haven, Firewalk etc. Closet being Tecmo and Bungie in price

Given current SIE are the ones who hyped up Concord only to have the biggest AAA bomb in the industry and closing the studio after barely two months....I dunno, man.

Like when the ABK stuff was going on, I was 100% fine with SIE buying a big Japanese publisher. But mainly because I thought that would mean more exclusives for PlayStation consoles and bringing back dormant IPs that otherwise wouldn't be coming back. However the past year or so's shown me that, very likely, SIE would not have either of those interests with a big publisher acquisition.

So at the end of the day, we'd just be getting the same games we're already getting, but SIE get more money from the sales. And likely, we probably get less games from that acquired 3P because SIE'd be in a mode to increase profit margins to recoup spending costs, and that'd probably mean even more 1P games going to more platforms to compensate. This is how I feel people like Totoki think, and they're calling the shots right now.

In short, I think we'd just see a mass acceleration of their multiplatform strategy, just like we've seen happen with Xbox post-ABK. That's ultimately done nothing but hurt Xbox consoles in the market, no reason to see why a similar strategy would bear different results for PlayStation.
 
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voke

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I agree Sony need to buy a Japanese publisher. Square, Tecmo, Sega, anyone tbh
But they will cost alot more than Bungie, Haven, Firewalk etc. Closet being Tecmo and Bungie in price
What exactly does Sony have to gain from buying one of the following? PS is getting all of these games to begin with, a Bethesda type purchase serves no purpose other than gatekeeping games even more.

After the purchase each studio is a PS exclusive dev? Thus making their value slimmer as they are selling to a smaller audience
 
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Kokoloko

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They’ve closed down studios before and bought studios after, this is nothing new in the industry.
They have some of the best selling games, Im sure they will get some right and some wrong. But its mostly they get right.

Some studios they’ve bought.

2020 - Insomniac
2021 - Bluepoint
2021 - HouseMarque
Asobi - Xdev Expansion- Former Japan Studios

All with successful titles.
How Insomniac is doing under Sony is better than ever and one of the studios with the most output and kept most their quality. So people cant just bring up studios they’ve sacked when the argument for buying comes up.
MS has bought 2 giant publishers, and they weren’t very successful with any of there studios the whole past generation.

Sony cant just depend on making new studios. And They need more games, more ips and more genres tbh.
Other publishers do the same, no reason why Sony cant
 
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Kokoloko

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What exactly does Sony have to gain from buying one of the following? PS is getting all of these games to begin with, a Bethesda type purchase serves no purpose other than gatekeeping games even more.

After the purchase each studio is a PS exclusive dev? Thus making their value slimmer as they are selling to a smaller audience

Its not just about exclusives. Thats a part of it.
They will gain profit from the games they sell if they own them. Even if they decide not to have them exclusive. Have more IPs in their library, more genres under Playstation studios.

FF14 profit could be Sony profit. Fromsoft Proft would be Sony profit. Persona 6 profit etc, would be Sony etc etc.

Xbox without Minecraft, Bethesda and Activision would be mostly worthless now. Halo means nothing, theres Gears, Forza, Flight Sim and Sea of Thieves, thats about it. Those titles still hold worth and liked.
With purchases, now they Have Minecraft, COD, Doom, Diablo, WOW, Elder Scrolls online, Candy Crush, the next Elder Scrolls. It still holds some demand, until they fuck it up anyway.

Yeah MS spent a ridiculous amount and probably wont ever make there money back, but Japanese Publishers arent that expensive. And Sony has money. And if they decide to make some exclusives or new ips from the new studios/publisher they bought they have more teams

Right now, I’d like more 1st party games from PS and more genres.
If they make it exclusive, or gatekeep, thats more worth for people to buy a Playstation. They still need that, there not the Platform thats forced to go Multiplatform like MS.

Nintendo and Playstation still have that ability to be draw people into their platform with exclusives. Nintendo more so, but before 2019, PS had that draw too. Gatekeeping is a way of making your playform stand out more. MS was gonna do that, just like platforms always have
 
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BroodCorp

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Giving FF16 to PS makes sense given how divisive an entry it is. That way if the lasting memory is negative they can just blame Sony.
 
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Its not just about exclusives. Thats a part of it.
They will gain profit from the games they sell if they own them. Even if they decide not to have them exclusive. Have more IPs in their library, more genres under Playstation studios.

FF14 profit could be Sony profit. Fromsoft Proft would be Sony profit. Persona 6 profit etc, would be Sony etc etc.

Xbox without Minecraft, Bethesda and Activision would be mostly worthless now. Halo means nothing, theres Gears, Forza, Flight Sim and Sea of Thieves, thats about it. Those titles still hold worth and liked.
With purchases, now they Have Minecraft, COD, Doom, Diablo, WOW, Elder Scrolls online, Candy Crush, the next Elder Scrolls. It still holds some demand, until they fuck it up anyway.

Yeah MS spent a ridiculous amount and probably wont ever make there money back, but Japanese Publishers arent that expensive. And Sony has money. And if they decide to make some exclusives or new ips from the new studios/publisher they bought they have more teams

Right now, I’d like more 1st party games from PS and more genres.
If they make it exclusive, or gatekeep, thats more worth for people to buy a Playstation. They still need that, there not the Platform thats forced to go Multiplatform like MS.

Nintendo and Playstation still have that ability to be draw people into their platform with exclusives. Nintendo more so, but before 2019, PS had that draw too. Gatekeeping is a way of making your playform stand out more. MS was gonna do that, just like platforms always have

You're ignoring the warning example from that strategy though: Microsoft.

Microsoft initially bought Zenimax to do exactly what you're saying SIE would do with buying Capcom, SEGA and/or From Software. They intended to foreclose a lot of ABK IP off of PlayStation to replicate what they were going to do with Zenimax. However, the combined costs in those acquisitions was a massive reason why they've reneged on that and are finding themselves publishing their games on all platforms now.

If Microsoft weren't able to salvage Xbox as a console by making games like Starfield, TES, DOOM, Wolfenstein, Crash, Spyro, (likely) Tony Hawk and other IP console exclusives, what makes you think SIE would be able to boost PlayStation hardware sales by making Persona, Street Fighter, and Elden Ring console-exclusives to PlayStation?

Now I'm not saying those IP as exclusives WOULDN'T boost PlayStation console rates. They would...if the costs in acquiring them were low enough. And that right there is the problem: buying those type of 3P would cost several billions of dollars, and SIE are focused on profit margins to a comical degree. To them, the only way that type of acquisition would make sense is to keep those games multiplatform or even get them to more platforms, not less. The same reality Microsoft ran into after buying Zenimax & especially ABK. Though Xbox was the weaker brand, so that reality just punched them a lot harder, and faster. Doesn't mean PlayStation wouldn't get punched, it'd just be a bit slower and not hit quite as hard.

Also like we're seeing with Xbox post-ABK, it doesn't seem like these big M&As are actually resulting in more games. In fact, I'd say we're getting less. We won't see any future games from Arkane Austin since they were shut down. We almost lost HiFi Rush 2 because Microsoft closed Tango Gameworks (only for Krafton to save them). We saw a planned Crash 5 get cancelled. Toys for Bob had to buy their independence else Microsoft were going to close them, too. And where the hell is Everwild, where the hell is Contraband, where the hell is State of Decay 3 or Outer Worlds 2? Didn't Blizzard's survival game get cancelled after MS purchased ABK?

See what I mean? Meanwhile with SIE, Insomniac have basically become a Marvel studio and rumor has it the next Rachet & Clank was internally cancelled. The sales of these PC ports that people kept saying would bring us more games, well where are those games? Maybe arguably Astro Bot is something of a product of that, but meanwhile Naughty Dog cancelled Factions 2 & probably won't have any new game to show for at least a couple of years. Insomniac cancelled the Spiderman GAAS title, Concord became the biggest AAA failure of the decade & Firewalk was closed. Neon Koi is dead, and we never even got to see what they were working on. Bungie is a mess ATM, and not a word on what Bluepoint might be up to.

It's crazy enough some Xbox diehards still want Microsoft to buy yet more publishers, but on the flipside...do you really want current SIE to buy a big 3P publisher? Even if they did, what are the chances that acts as a propellant for PS consoles and not just facilitate SIE being a multiplatform publisher even faster?
 

Kokoloko

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You're ignoring the warning example from that strategy though: Microsoft.

Microsoft initially bought Zenimax to do exactly what you're saying SIE would do with buying Capcom, SEGA and/or From Software. They intended to foreclose a lot of ABK IP off of PlayStation to replicate what they were going to do with Zenimax. However, the combined costs in those acquisitions was a massive reason why they've reneged on that and are finding themselves publishing their games on all platforms now.

If Microsoft weren't able to salvage Xbox as a console by making games like Starfield, TES, DOOM, Wolfenstein, Crash, Spyro, (likely) Tony Hawk and other IP console exclusives, what makes you think SIE would be able to boost PlayStation hardware sales by making Persona, Street Fighter, and Elden Ring console-exclusives to PlayStation?

Now I'm not saying those IP as exclusives WOULDN'T boost PlayStation console rates. They would...if the costs in acquiring them were low enough. And that right there is the problem: buying those type of 3P would cost several billions of dollars, and SIE are focused on profit margins to a comical degree. To them, the only way that type of acquisition would make sense is to keep those games multiplatform or even get them to more platforms, not less. The same reality Microsoft ran into after buying Zenimax & especially ABK. Though Xbox was the weaker brand, so that reality just punched them a lot harder, and faster. Doesn't mean PlayStation wouldn't get punched, it'd just be a bit slower and not hit quite as hard.

Also like we're seeing with Xbox post-ABK, it doesn't seem like these big M&As are actually resulting in more games. In fact, I'd say we're getting less. We won't see any future games from Arkane Austin since they were shut down. We almost lost HiFi Rush 2 because Microsoft closed Tango Gameworks (only for Krafton to save them). We saw a planned Crash 5 get cancelled. Toys for Bob had to buy their independence else Microsoft were going to close them, too. And where the hell is Everwild, where the hell is Contraband, where the hell is State of Decay 3 or Outer Worlds 2? Didn't Blizzard's survival game get cancelled after MS purchased ABK?

See what I mean? Meanwhile with SIE, Insomniac have basically become a Marvel studio and rumor has it the next Rachet & Clank was internally cancelled. The sales of these PC ports that people kept saying would bring us more games, well where are those games? Maybe arguably Astro Bot is something of a product of that, but meanwhile Naughty Dog cancelled Factions 2 & probably won't have any new game to show for at least a couple of years. Insomniac cancelled the Spiderman GAAS title, Concord became the biggest AAA failure of the decade & Firewalk was closed. Neon Koi is dead, and we never even got to see what they were working on. Bungie is a mess ATM, and not a word on what Bluepoint might be up to.

It's crazy enough some Xbox diehards still want Microsoft to buy yet more publishers, but on the flipside...do you really want current SIE to buy a big 3P publisher? Even if they did, what are the chances that acts as a propellant for PS consoles and not just facilitate SIE being a multiplatform publisher even faster?

Not disagreeing.
Just some points.

PS and Xbox have a big different in there userbase. Xbox cant rely on the smaller fanbase to buy all those Bethesda exclusives, and they were expecting people to migrate over for games likE Starfield and others. And they had Gamepass which is suicide for sales.

Sony kinda can rely on their user base. Even if right now they are killing it with PC releases.

Yeah sometimes games like Bloodborne and Returnal get smaller numbers or take longer to reach, but without Squares crazy expectations of success, games like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts can survive and do well. Yakuza and Persona lived off Playstation, Persona 5 and Yakuza Zero were popular as exclusives. No reason why they cant now.

And if Sony have to, they have the PC release a couple years later. Which they are now doing now . All these games would do way better than Xbox could expect a Bethesda Xbox exclusive because PS userbase buys games and theres probably double the amount of fans.

We can’t say Sony cant run a publisher by looking at what Xbox does. Xbox does Gampepass which kills sales, xbox userbase are not the spenders PS and Nintendo are. Not for there exclusives anyway. Xbox is MS run, yes Sony makes plenty mistakes but they are competent and profitable. Xbox we dont even know how profitable they are.

Whether Sony miraculous wises up and goes back to there old ways, or carry on this PC release thing, having more popular IPs that sell well, is better than having less.
The money Metaphor, Yakuza, Persona 3 remake, Total War, Football Manager and Point 2 made this year could of been a part of PS’s profits and they are all respected games with there fanbases. Im pretty sure they all made profit anyway lol.

The rate Sony is releasing hits, its not enough. And even last gen when everything was going well, they’d still close studios and have secret studios with projects that get closed down. They cant just rely on building teams, thats not working out well. Obvious they have to do some, like always and you’ll get a jewel once in awhile but thats not enough for now.

To make more games, they need more teams few choices..
1. They expand there current teams which they are supposedly doing ( not fast enough if you ask me ). Testing to see if new IPS become hits.

2. They buy studios they have a relationship with.
3. Or buy IPs/ Publishers there fans have a relationship with, e.g, MGS, Square, Persona/Yakuza etc etc.

Which way would you say is the best way to get more games, ips and teams? Id trust what they use to do, but not with the current talent scouting.
Doing what they did with Stellar Blade is good, but there not gonna have new ips that way, they’ll never own it and the studios once they have become successful will just go be 3rd party, like how Atlus, Yakuza Team, FromSoft have done.
 
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R4tion4l Sk3pt1c

R4tion4l Sk3pt1c

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People not buying games on Xbox, they should really focus on Steam and Switch 2.

Hell their games underperformed on Xbox 360 when Xbox was at its peak, now it’s just a gamepass machine.
They are also focusing on Steam all upcoming games will be day and date for PC going forward
 
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peter42O

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Visions and Saga already came out and sold like shit. The rest will flop too. Fantasian is number 3398 on Steam

Visions sold poorly everywhere. Romancing Saga 2 isn't on Xbox and still sold horribly. I may pick it up for PlayStation 5 but im more interested in Dragon Quest III HD-2D remake as it looks freaking awesome. My only concern is that due to it being a turn based game, im not sure if I will complete it. Depends on how long it is. No interest in that Fantasian game at all.

Put your money where mouth is and buy these fucking games if you want them. I don't.

I did buy Visions of Mana day one for Xbox Series X. I will buy the games that I obviously want to play but in no way, shape or form am I going to pass on games that I want to play because they're not exclusive or this or that.

PS fans put them on top we can put them down just as easily. It is not on us to bail them out anymore

Put them on top? SquareSoft was already on top during the NES/SNES generations. And when their games were exclusive to your beloved PlayStation, barely any of you showed up. I showed up more than you guys and yet, you ponies always claim to buy games. Yeah, right.

The only ones bragging here are Xbox and PC fans. Why do you think that PC troll made this thread?

As I said, the game is number 3400 on Steam and non-existent on Xbox. OP doesn't give two shits about it. Exbots fans are still butthurt about FF16 and FF7Rebirth, that's the only reason why we keep getting these articles.

Yoshida and Kyriu will learn the hard way, like Sony and their flop PC ports, that catering to people that never supported you always backfire badly.

Hit me up when you find Fantasian on the Xbox charts 🤣

I'm an Xbox fan and not having Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy VII Remake or Final Fantasy VI Rebirth on Xbox was disappointing but I did what a normal gamer would do which is buy it where I can play it which was PlayStation. Fantasian isn't going to make the PlayStation charts either so it doesn't matter. It will do best on Switch is my guess.

Square Enix will be more successful in the long term by being everywhere because accepting a decade old exclusivity deal from anyone may look great at the time when a decade later, not so much. Sony's PC ports have done poorly but that's because they're not day one. If they were (like Helldivers 2), they would do some serious numbers.

This may be you wish, but in the real world we know that minimum the third part of the FFVII remake will be exclusive too. Who knows what else Jimbo kept signed. Probably Kindom Hearts 4 and (this one maybe on Switch 2 too) Dragon Quest XII.

My guess is that the third and final part of Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy will be the last major exclusive. I don't see Kingdom Hearts 4 or Dragon Quest XII being exclusive to anyone.
 

peter42O

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You just fail to see the logic.

Take Two, the publisher of the biggest third party game on the planet, GTA, will release GTA6 on consoles first.

Square Enix, the maker of Final Fantasy games, will release FF7 3 on PS5 exclusively.

Nintendo, the maker of Zelda and Mario games, will keep releasing exclusively on their hardware.

Nintendo isn't a third party publisher and in fact, is the ONLY hardware manufacturer of the three to not publish their games on PC, PlayStation and/or Xbox. Part 3 of FF7R will be exclusive because it's part of their decade old deal which is what got Square Enix into this spot to begin with. Signing an exclusivity deal might have looked great a decade ago but now, not so much. As for Take Two Interactive, GTA is the only game that skips PC until later on because it's one of the very few and rare games in which people will double and even triple dip.
 
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Gods&Monsters

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Sony's PC ports have done poorly but that's because they're not day one. If they were (like Helldivers 2), they would do some serious numbers.
Concord, Until Dawn, Horizon RE and Lego Horizon says otherwise. When you go full multiplat, no one cares anymore. You are nothing more than Ubisoft or Embracer.

Sony is actually doing worse than even the smallest indie devs making cheap porn games in their spare time 🤣

"Reach more people" is a myth.

And when their games were exclusive to your beloved PlayStation, barely any of you showed up. I showed up more than you guys and yet, you ponies always claim to buy games. Yeah, right.
It sold more than they will ever sale on Xbox+PC combined. Good luck to Square, they will need it 😬
 
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peter42O

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Concord, Until Dawn, Horizon RE and Lego Horizon says otherwise. When you go full multiplat, no one cares anymore. You are nothing more than Ubisoft or Embracer.

Sony is actually doing worse than even the smallest indie devs making cheap porn games in their spare time 🤣

"Reach more people" is a myth.

Two of those games are remasters which aren't going to do anything regardless. Lego Horizon will do best on Switch because it's a kids game. Concord should have been a free to play game because being just another hero shooter isn't going to make an impact at all.

Sony's top tier titles like God of War, Spider Man, Uncharted, TLOU, Horizon, etc. being day one on PC with their next installment will do massive numbers. We both know these games blow away the two remasters and the two other games you mentioned.

I disagree with people not caring anymore. It comes down to if the games are new releases and are great. If Ghost of Yotei was day one on PC, it would be huge for Sony because first, there's no delay and second, it's the next installment in what is already one hell of a franchise.

Reaching more people isn't a myth because look at Elden Ring. It has sold over 25m copies as of this past June. If it was only on PlayStation 5 and current generation only, do you really believe that it would reach those numbers? I don't. Do you think Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Ghost Recon, etc. are in Ubisoft's billion dollar club for the last decade if they were only on PlayStation for example?

Reaching more people is factual but it doesn't happen overnight. It does take years and multiple game releases because you have to gain the confidence of those that you were ignoring to begin with
and that takes time.

It sold more than they will ever sale on Xbox+PC combined. Good luck to Square, they will need it.

No publisher (including Sony) is going to expect to sell insane numbers on Xbox/PC when they're releasing the game years later and everyone has already moved on. Look at Rise of the Tomb Raider, PlayStation owners had to wait and none of them showed up and Rise is the best game out of the rebooted trilogy. The only exception to this rule would be Rockstar and Nintendo. Everyone else must be day one everywhere because if you're not, you're not going to get the sales and revenue and in turn profit that you're expecting to get.

There's too many games and too many other options that if you're delaying your release for whatever reason on multiple platforms, the vast majority of people on those other platforms aren't going to give a shit. And side note for Square Enix, they're also horrible as selecting release dates for their games. Visions of Mana on August 30th the same day as Outlaws which okay, they got lucky with that one but you also have Madden which is everyone is going to be playing followed by Astro Bot on PlayStation and then Space Marine 2 as multi-platform. Plus, a month later, Metaphor was releasing which had way more hype and excitement. Releasing Romancing Saga 2 a few weeks ago after Metaphor and before Dragon Age while releasing Dragon Quest III in ten days from now were/are horrible release dates. These games should have their own month and be nowhere near the October/November/December quarter.
 
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R4tion4l Sk3pt1c

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You just fail to see the logic.

Take Two, the publisher of the biggest third party game on the planet, GTA, will release GTA6 on consoles first.

Square Enix, the maker of Final Fantasy games, will release FF7 3 on PS5 exclusively.

Nintendo, the maker of Zelda and Mario games, will keep releasing exclusively on their hardware.
What logic leaving money on the table and we haven’t gotten any official announcement from Take 2 that the PC version is delayed all the Take-2 CEO said that a PC version is happening
 
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