Final Fantasy XVI was a PS5 at release on June 22 2023, and had no immediate ports or versions available on other consoles and platforms, in part because Final Fantasy XVI has a minimum six-month exclusive contract with Sony. However, that did not mean that it couldn’t come to other platforms at some point; and now the rumors of an Xbox X/S release of Final Fantasy are starting to flare up again.
Producer Naoki Yoshida said in 2023 he would like to release a PC port in the future, however, he urged people not to think that this would be an immediate thing after the six-month exclusivity contract with Sony.
At the time, Yoshida was negative to the idea of Final Fantasy coming to Xbox. In the ongoing dispute between Sony and Microsoft, it had come to light in publicly available documentation from the CMA (3.67) that Sony has agreements with third-party developers to prevent them from working with Microsoft directly. As previously covered by Fandom Pulse however, these two rivals aren’t afraid of playing footsies with each other when money and access to gamers are involved.
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Square Enix is free to collaborate with other companies (presumably after the six-month exclusivity period), but they are not allowed to work with Microsoft or the Xbox in particular. Although the precise terms of this exclusion are still unknown, it appears that third-party games created for Sony will probably never be available on Xbox, if at all.
Lately, the rumor mill has been burning coal over a leaked video where insider Shpeshal Nick let the cat out of the bag during a gaming podcast.
Does that imply, however, that games like Final Fantasy XVI or the often rumored Final Fantasy 7 Remake will eventually make an appearance on Xbox? In an interview with Xbox CEO Phil Spencer at Gamescom 2023, IGN specifically asked him that question. Spencer did not reveal Final Fantasy 7 Remake and XVI for Microsoft’s platform, but he did hint that deals are being worked on.
“I recognize that when people buy an Xbox, they want to make sure the great games that they want to play are coming,” Spencer said. “If there’s any publisher out there where that hasn’t been true, Square’s one of the top. Sarah Bond [Corporate Vice President, Game Creator Experience and Ecosystem at Microsoft] and I fly to Tokyo and have conversations, and we’ve spent a lot of time with Square. There’s obviously business deals and relationships that will have to get worked through on certain games.
It was revealed during the recent FTC v. Microsoft trial that Xbox had given purchasing Square Enix serious consideration for 2019. In a frustrating but acknowledged aspect of the competition in the video game industry, Square Enix was also brought up multiple times by Sony during the trial. Final Fantasy 16 was cited as an example of the kind of games Sony’s PlayStation was purchasing exclusivity rights to.
“But I’ll say it was really great to have the CEO of Square and Yoshi there to just talk about their commitment to Xbox. Because I can say, like, ‘I’m the head of Xbox, blah blah blah,’ but having the CEO of one of the third-parties make a commitment to the platform, I thought was a really meaningful step.
“So you’ll hear more. I’m not going to push them. They’re going to have to find their own rhythm. But having them make a commitment to Xbox was really important both to me, and I’ve heard it from the community, to the community as well. And 14 was more of a commitment.”
We discovered how important it is now for Xbox to have a vast game library and to make sure it doesn’t pass up important titles like Final Fantasy XVI; whether Sony allows them to or not.
Are you a fan of Final Fantasy? With Sony among others buying up of large gaming companies, do you think exclusivity in gaming has gone too far? Leave a comment below!
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