Final Fantasy is Playstation and Playstation is Final Fantasy. GT and FF are more inherent to Playstation brand identity than the new age garbage of horizons and last of us's, sales numbers be damned. ResetEra keyboard marketers don't understand why FF exclusivity is important but Sony does and that is why they go after it instead of spending on yakuza or persona.
Eh.
At the end of the day, FF is a 3P IP so it's not something Sony has inherent control over. That doesn't just mean in terms of what platforms aside PlayStation it goes to, but also design decisions and overall quality consistency. The IP itself is strongly associated with PlayStation but despite all the universal praise Rebirth has gotten, it's also the only Final Fantasy in the last several years to have gotten such universal praise across the board.
So IMO, if Sony want to continue keeping big FF games exclusive to PlayStation consoles, they need to also make sure there is a consistency in the branding and quality of the releases, meaning they should maybe be more involved in the design process of the games themselves. You know, like how Japan Studio was for Demon's Souls and Bloodborne.
I don't think Sony or especially Square-Enix can afford that many more polarizing releases like XVI or XV, because I think that over time does hurt market perception of latter releases even if those newer releases fix things the previous games messed up. Like with XVI; critics mostly quite enjoyed it, but I'm not gonna deny there were large parts of the fanbase who weren't feeling the design changes from previous entries. That's nothing to do with quality, simply a difference in preference.
Otherwise, and again this is just my opinion, but if Sony aren't willing to engage in some co-development of future big FF games the way they did in the past with From Software games, and Square-Enix corporate types want to push for other platforms for multiplat releases (or else ask for even more money from Sony for timed exclusivity)....I think Sony would just be better off making their own JRPG. They could still definitely get marketing rights globally for those future big Final Fantasy titles, but otherwise use that timed exclusivity money to invest in your own IP that could fill the JRPG niche.
And it's not like Sony don't have that IP. Dark Cloud. Legend of Dragoon. Okage. PoPoLocrois. Arc the Lad. Wild ARMS. Rogue Galaxy. White Knight Chronicles. They can co-develop sensible AA-tier entries in those IP with devs like Level 5. Heck, they can still partner with Square-Enix for example for JRPG exclusives of IP strongly associated with PlayStation like Parasite Eve or Xenogears, which could probably be done well as high-budget AA games and would be IP Square-Enix would prob be a lot more chill with in being timed or even full PS exclusives.
That's kinda where I'm at with the PlayStation/Final Fantasy stuff these days. The IP obviously has a lot of importance to PlayStation, but is that importance enough to really keep pushing for what will likely be more expensive timed exclusives, when Sony want to rely more on their own games and Square-Enix leadership want to do what they feel's best to prioritize more revenue/profit? Maybe Sony should do a strategic partnership with Square-Enix at large like how Microsoft's done with SEGA/Atlus, but more substantive.
That way they still get global marketing rights to stuff like mainline FF games, but also maybe do some co-development for exclusives in IP like Parasite Eve or PoPoLocrois. I can probably see Nintendo doing something similar, but with Dragon Quest IP. And at least this way people like Jez Corden could finally STFU about not having Final Fantasy games on Xbox Day 1. Not that it'd make much a difference for the console prospects there, something that constantly gets overlooked.
