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

[TrishaCat]

Fantasian is neither a new game nor a Square Enix game. Y'all know that right? Like they're publishing it now but they weren't even it's original publishers.

 

[Ezekiel]

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.

Plenty of other games skip PC day one bud, like most SIE games.

The biggest game on the planet is not doing day one on PC.

 

[Neversummer]

I guess you could say that in a certain way. Sony should have acquired Square Enix but instead they squandered their entire acquisition budget on trash like Bungie, Haven and Firewalk so no more exclusives.

I mean Sony can still acquire Square Enix & Capcom both to truly & fully bolster PS studios output to compete w Nintendo at a 1 to 1 level seeing they had enough to acquire Paramount (which would’ve been a worse acquisition then Firewalk in the entertainment side) it’s rather if Herman & Sony has the long term vision to see the clear signs of importance of owning the studios & ip as a platform holder. Seeing how PS/Herman is focus on PC & Nintendo my guess is that PS doesn’t see this future nor see Valve/Steam & Nintendo as direct competitor even thoe id argue Valve/Steam & Nintendo are bigger threat if not companies/platform/storefronts that can easily replace PS if they continue to blur the line which both Valve/Steam & Nintendo is doing under PS nose.

Kadokawa/Fromsoft
Capcom
Square Enix
Arc Ststem Work

Are studios/publishers that should easily be under PS as they have proven there cadence, ip & output for decades

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

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.

This is a lie. Romancing SaGa 2 Remake already beat Metaphor & Persona 3 Reload's debuts in Japan. IIRC it's the 2nd-highest JRPG opening in Japan this year only behind FF VII Rebirth. And I'd assume the game is doing quite well in other markets too.

You really should've at least looked at the Japanese sales charts before trying to throw shade on RS2R calling it a failure. The game's performing quite well and yes, it isn't on Xbox. It didn't need Xbox.

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.

I'd throw an option #4 in there: work with 3P in co-development deals reviving legacy IP that can work as AA and AAA entries.

Something SIE kind of are doing with the different Hero projects, but those are all new IPs and, well, most of them won't really be giant commercial successes or lead into long-running franchises. Not everything's going to be Stellar Blade or Black Myth Wukong.

Meanwhile SIE have plenty of legacy IP they could've brought back or been initiating bringing back, as smaller AA games (think Sifu/Kena/Stray in terms of scope & budget)to fill in their release schedules. Parappa/UmJammer, Jet Moto, Warhawk, Omega Boost (would love a sequel to this), Jumping Flash etc. Heck, they were working on a Twisted Metal game but got stupid and tried pushing it as a GAAS. Now it's dead and they have no new Twisted Metal ready for Season 2 of the TV show.

 

[Neversummer]

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

Capcom
Kadokawa/Fromsoft
Square Enix

Are the top list that covers PS in there weakest market/genre.

Sony/PS needs to stop acquiring these no name, no cadence, no ip studios that have no history they are to risky & hold no value. They ultimately waste more time then just going all in for the big fishes just like Xbox did but in the case of PS they haven’t diminished there platform/storefront to the degree of Xbox where they could make all of a publisher game exclusive & still be successful if not more if they tie it to cross media or there live service to further bolster & promote the release of major key games releases

 

[Neversummer]

no

Lmao all of those studios have 1-2 thing in common.

Games that where ass & didn’t resonate w the market & or hold no value & took to long in output to even be considered viable as a studios that cranks out amazing review smaller AA games that sold great for what they are.

I would also say that the closing of some of those studios have been on the poor leadership & vision of PS leaders such as Jim & Herman

 

[Neversummer]

What exactly does Sony have to gain from buying one of the following? PS is getting all of these games to begin with

PS is getting there games as of late 2024 but seeing how bleak PS future is with trends of there action being similar to Xbox these 3rd party publisher in the future could not publish, skip or loose focus on developing on PS & instead focus solely on Steam, Nintendo & if other players consolidate major publisher like Apple they could focus on them who have bigger wallets then Sony

 

[R4tion4l Sk3pt1c]

PS is getting there games as of late 2024 but seeing how bleak PS future is with trends of there action being similar to Xbox these 3rd party publisher in the future could not publish, skip or loose focus on developing on PS & instead focus solely on Steam, Nintendo & if other players consolidate major publisher like Apple they could focus on them who have bigger wallets then Sony

I mean it’s already been going that way with physical media being fazed out

 

[Neversummer]

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?

I think a major cause to MS/Xbox going multiplat is also them since 2016 w PC releases & Gamepass devaluing the Xbox platform/hardware & training there consumers to not buy games devaluing the Xbox storefront w gamepass which when they acquire & as shown w the leaks had full attention to make Zenimax & ABK including COD to be exclusive to Xbox but what happen was likely the money pincher & Satya forcing more eyes due to the ftc to go full multiplat due to there previous lack of being success & just solely focus on making back the 100 billion as fast at any cost since Xbox gamers don’t buy games nor there console sells they can make it up on PS, Nintendo & PC.

 

[R4tion4l Sk3pt1c]

I think a major cause to MS/Xbox going multiplat is also them since 2016 w PC releases & Gamepass devaluing the Xbox platform/hardware & training there consumers to not buy games devaluing the Xbox storefront w gamepass which when they acquire & as shown w the leaks had full attention to make Zenimax & ABK including COD to be exclusive to Xbox but what happen was likely the money pincher & Satya forcing more eyes due to the ftc to go full multiplat due to there previous lack of being success & just solely focus on making back the 100 billion as fast at any cost since Xbox gamers don’t buy games nor there console sells they can make it up on PS, Nintendo & PC.

It’s going to be really funny if the next Xbox is a windows box and you can play PlayStation exclusives on it through Steam

 

[Neversummer]

It’s going to be really funny if the next Xbox is a windows box and you can play PlayStation exclusives on it through Steam

I fully expect that to be Xbox/Phil final Ka boom to somehow get Xbox to have PS games & PC gamers whether publisher/devs decides to release them on Xbox. It will certainly kill the Xbox storefront completely but atleast Xbox can have a device that is not reliant w 3rd party similar to how PC act

 

[peter42O]

Plenty of other games skip PC day one bud, like most SIE games.

The biggest game on the planet is not doing day one on PC.

Very few games skip PC day one unless it's an exclusivity contract of some kind. Every publisher is on PC so it would be tough for games to skip the platform. GTA 6 only skips PC because it's one of the very few games that will get people to double dip and then triple dip when they remaster it for next generation.

This is a lie. Romancing SaGa 2 Remake already beat Metaphor & Persona 3 Reload's debuts in Japan. IIRC it's the 2nd-highest JRPG opening in Japan this year only behind FF VII Rebirth. And I'd assume the game is doing quite well in other markets too.

You really should've at least looked at the Japanese sales charts before trying to throw shade on RS2R calling it a failure. The game's performing quite well and yes, it isn't on Xbox. It didn't need Xbox.

It barely beat out Metaphor and was released on Switch where chances are is where it sold the most copies. If Metaphor was on Switch, it would have beat out Saga. How is the game doing everywhere else? How is it doing overall? Not only that but both Metaphor and Reload sold over 1m copies in one day and one week respectively. Has Romancing Saga 2 hit 1m copies overall yet? If not, are you really touting it's success over Metaphor in Japan which was only by 6,600 copies? You're right though, I didn't look at any charts because well, I just did now and obviously, I was right from the start and didn't need to check any charts because I knew it wasn't topping Metaphor and Reload.

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

It barely beat out Metaphor and was released on Switch where chances are is where it sold the most copies. If Metaphor was on Switch, it would have beat out Saga. How is the game doing everywhere else? How is it doing overall? Not only that but both Metaphor and Reload sold over 1m copies in one day and one week respectively. Has Romancing Saga 2 hit 1m copies overall yet? If not, are you really touting it's success over Metaphor in Japan which was only by 6,600 copies? You're right though, I didn't look at any charts because well, I just did now and obviously, I was right from the start and didn't need to check any charts because I knew it wasn't topping Metaphor and Reload.

Dude this downplaying is just not a good look. Facts are facts; RS2R outsold a hyped new IP from the makers of a JRPG series that's been surging in popularity the past few years. Trying to dismiss that by saying "Oh well y'know if Metaphor was on Switch" is just tasteless.

Like no duh Metaphor would've had higher numbers if it were on Switch, but blame SEGA/Atlus for that. Point being, to be the #2 chart-topping JRPG of the year in Japan, Metaphor needed Switch SIGNIFICANTLY more than RS2R needs Xbox. These platforms are not like-for-like. Also expecting SE to rush out a sales statement for a AA remake of a decades-old niche (compared to FF and DQ, or Persona) JRPG just because SEGA/Atlus touted 1 million sold-in (not purely sold-through, otherwise "shipped" wouldn't have been included) for Metaphor is silly. Different publishers operate on different metrics.

Also, considering the likelihood RS2R has a notably smaller budget than Metaphor, they don't need to match its sales numbers to have similar or better profit margins, if you want to also touch on that part of the topic

I think a major cause to MS/Xbox going multiplat is also them since 2016 w PC releases & Gamepass devaluing the Xbox platform/hardware & training there consumers to not buy games devaluing the Xbox storefront w gamepass which when they acquire & as shown w the leaks had full attention to make Zenimax & ABK including COD to be exclusive to Xbox but what happen was likely the money pincher & Satya forcing more eyes due to the ftc to go full multiplat due to there previous lack of being success & just solely focus on making back the 100 billion as fast at any cost since Xbox gamers don’t buy games nor there console sells they can make it up on PS, Nintendo & PC.

Well TBF, when MS started putting their games on PC in 2016, it wasn't Day 1 for all of them, and none of those ports went to Steam. They were confined to just the Microsoft/Windows Store, so the strategy at the time was less harmful to Xbox consoles. At least, compared to the collapse we'd see this gen for XBS once MS committed to bringing all their games to Steam Day 1 in 2020.

Keeping the PC ports confined to Windows Store for a while, at least meant that any erosion in Xbox One console sales MS saw would've meant a lateral transfer of that gamer in their ecosystem from one Microsoft platform (Xbox) to another (Microsoft Store). Either way, MS still owned them in their entirety; also they had the Xbox One X in 2017 which also helped with console sales, and probably offsetting a good amount of whatever percentage were leaving Xbox to go to PC via Microsoft Store for 1P games.

All of that went out the window in 2020, and if it weren't for PS5 shortages, PS4 shortages & the pandemic, Xbox Series sales would've completely collapsed by late 2021/early 2022 IMHO. Since they don't have a Series X Pro this gen, they've got nothing else to offset the bleeding of Xbox users jumping to PC for Steam to get their games Day 1, and to a lesser extent those going to PS5 to get ports of their games after a 3/6/12 month time period. Nothing else at least, until the next gen of Xbox devices.

But if they aren't PC-like hybrids in design & business model...if they're just full-on traditional consoles yet again, I don't see how their hardware survives past the first year.

 

[Landiri]

Xbox is a dying platform.

 

[peter42O]

Dude this downplaying is just not a good look. Facts are facts; RS2R outsold a hyped new IP from the makers of a JRPG series that's been surging in popularity the past few years. Trying to dismiss that by saying "Oh well y'know if Metaphor was on Switch" is just tasteless.

Like no duh Metaphor would've had higher numbers if it were on Switch, but blame SEGA/Atlus for that. Point being, to be the #2 chart-topping JRPG of the year in Japan, Metaphor needed Switch SIGNIFICANTLY more than RS2R needs Xbox. These platforms are not like-for-like. Also expecting SE to rush out a sales statement for a AA remake of a decades-old niche (compared to FF and DQ, or Persona) JRPG just because SEGA/Atlus touted 1 million sold-in (not purely sold-through, otherwise "shipped" wouldn't have been included) for Metaphor is silly. Different publishers operate on different metrics.

Also, considering the likelihood RS2R has a notably smaller budget than Metaphor, they don't need to match its sales numbers to have similar or better profit margins, if you want to also touch on that part of the topic

I'm not really downplaying it when it's an already known IP of what 30 years? I mean come on. A new IP is always going to have an uphill battle compared to a game that's part of an already known IP especially if it's a remake. Also, trying to say it did awesome and beat out Metaphor when it was only by a few thousand units, seriously, give me a break. There's nothing here to brag about. In the long term, it will come and go while Metaphor will still be discussed and played.

I never said that RS2R needs Xbox or need it more than Atlus needing Switch. You're comparing two different install bases and different target audiences. Would Metaphor do much better on Switch than RS2R would do on Xbox? Of course it would. Switch does have 140m+ owners while Xbox is at 35m give or take. Also, Switch is perfect for all of these JRPG's. After all, it wasn't Sony that started JRPG's or them being big. It was Nintendo with NES and SNES.

I agree in regards to the budget aspect. Metaphor obviously has a bigger budget but that's not surprising. Outside of Final Fantasy IP, what else does Square Enix usually put a lot of money into? Like, nothing. Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts may be high but still lower than Final Fantasy. The only game that they put a lot of money into was Forspoken and that was a disaster on numerous levels.

All im saying is that outselling Metaphor by a few thousand isn't something to brag about and if anything, could have done better if Square Enix released it in it's own month instead of squashing all of their games together which didn't work in 2022 and isn't working now because the audience and fan base for all of their games is basically the same people and they're not going to buy and play every Square Enix release especially if they're also fans of Sega/Atlus and other companies like Falcom. Square Enix has always been horrible with release dates to where it's not even funny.

As for Xbox, it's not about one port or a few ports. It's about building an audience on that platform and even if it was 20% of PlayStation audience, that's still an extra 1m in sales since I will put FF XVI/Rebirth at 5m in sales individually so to get an extra 1m in sales for each isn't something that should be disregarded. The smaller AA games would still sell more even if it's only a few thousand. It's still more than what they currently get.

It's also just basic math. Having your game(s) on one platform with a 60m user install base is obviously going to sell less than a combined install base of 235m including Xbox and Switch. Numbers go higher if the game is cross-generation and even higher if the game is on PC. The more users that have access to your games, the more sales you'll get. It's that simple. After all, people can't buy your games if they're not on their platform of choice and the vast majority of people aren't running out buying the other console regardless of what they have and offer in the future.

More than anything though, Microsoft has been and will be porting more of their games everywhere. Sony has been and will be porting more of their games everywhere. If the two hardware manufacturers are multi-platform, why would anyone here believe that a third party publisher which isn't getting all the extra money from 30% rips on every sales transaction WOULDN'T be fully multi-platform?

 

[arvfab]

The more users that have access to your games, the more sales you'll get. It's that simple.

Silly game devs wasting time with consoles and PC instead of making mobile games. Hell, go for browser games, almost every device can access one.

 

[On Demand]

Multi platform doesn’t automatically translate to more sales. If that was true, exclusives games like Sony first party wouldn’t sell more than a lot of games that are on every platform.

There’s plenty multiplatform flops.

Exclusives actually help the developer with less money spent and more money given.

 

[arvfab]

Exclusives actually help the developer with less money spent and more money given.

And most importantly:

Usually better quality products for us gamers.

 

[On Demand]

And most importantly:

Usually better quality products for us gamers.

Yes. Making a game for one console makes development easier and increases quality and polish significantly

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/video-games/2024/03/06/final-fantasy-vii-rebirth-platform-exclusive/

 

[peter42O]

Silly game devs wasting time with consoles and PC instead of making mobile games. Hell, go for browser games, almost every device can access one.

Square Enix does have mobile games so they are. lol