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[Malak]

Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix wants to simultaneously release games across all markets, but this move has been hindered by exclusivity deals.

Meanwhile, faced with a rapidly diminishing yen and record-breaking game development spending, the Japanese publisher wants to expand its horizons onto the global video games market. In a recent New Year's Letter, Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda outlines an interesting plan to unify the company's publishing units across all geographies.

The idea is to create "One Square Enix" that releases games simultaneously across worldwide markets. No longer will Square Enix have two separate divisions for Western and domestic audiences.

Exclusivity, however, will dampen the effectiveness of this worldwide reach. Most publishers release their games on all platforms in an effort to capture as much market reach as possible and diversify royalties, sales, and overall earnings.

How would exclusivity affect Square Enix's plans? The West is primarily dominated by PlayStation, but Xbox and Nintendo still maintain strong footholds on the market. This is a different story in Japan, however. Xbox has yet to really capture this region, so the PlayStation and Switch typically reign in this overseas market.

If Square Enix wants to engage more of the global market then it would behoove the publisher to focus on widespread releases for large AAA titles.

Square Enix's latest games, including Final Fantasy VII Remake including the Intergrade expansion and subsequent next-gen release, Forspoken, and even the massively anticipated Final Fantasy XVI, are all PlayStation exclusives. Microsoft has confirmed that Final Fantasy VII Remake in particular will never come to Xbox, which will undoubtedly affect Square Enix's overall earnings (by how much remains undetermined as we don't know the contractual payouts from Sony).

On a surface level, it looks like Square Enix's grand publishing aspirations are undermined by exclusivity deals for some of its biggest games, namely those in the Final Fantasy franchise. That being said, other major mainline franchises like Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts are still available on Xbox so the exclusivity deals are by no means complete.

Soucer:https://www.tweaktown.com/news/8992...indered-by-playstation-exclusivity/index.html

 

[KyoZz]

And who is doing those exclusivity deals?

 

[Chukhopops]

On the development side, we sold three studios—Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal—as well as associated IP to Embracer Group in August of last year. The objective of this divestment was to further concentrate our resources as the increasing sophistication and complexity of game development have made such endeavors more costly to pursue. This divestment represents part of the aforementioned structural reforms and was designed to effect fundamental change in our portfolio of studios.

Interesting to see the reasoning from Square.

 

[Nankatsu]

Title makes it sound like Playstation is holding SE at gunpoint and forcing them go exclusivity route.

 

[BennyBlanco]

When FFXVI comes to PC it will be timed EGS exclusive too. Square stinks.

 

[JaksGhost]

Where do SE Switch exclusives fit into this writer's narrative?

 

[graywolf323]

is this article a joke? they also do a bunch of Switch exclusives too which I noticed is not mentioned anywhere in the article

 

[bentanchorbolt]

Maybe they shouldn't have signed those deals, then.

 

[DenchDeckard]

How the funk can this guy write this article?

Im baffled here.

 

[Gamer_By_Proxy]

Just pandering while signing the exclusive deals. Surprised he didn't mention driving an EV or something.

 

[anthony2690]

is this article a joke? they also do a bunch of Switch exclusives too which I noticed is not mentioned anywhere in the article

Surely releasing live a live, ff7 remake & that really nice box art switch game (that I've forgot the name too, played the demo though) on every platform would make more sense.

Especially if they want to expand the ips/brands worldwide on all platforms.

Surprised the writer omitted the exclusive switch titles.

 

[jshackles]

 

[mansoor1980]

Title makes it sound like Playstation is holding SE at gunpoint and forcing them go exclusivity route.

 

[DeepEnigma]

The user comment in the article nails it.

Why not mention the tons of Switch exclusives made by SE ? Like Dragon Quest Treasures - Harvestia - Triangle Strategy - Live a Live - Front mission remake etc ?

 

[vivftp]

Why is this tagged as news? At best its some random persons opinion. At worst it's console war fodder

 

[a multicultural team of v]

I can't even call this a dumb fucking article because that would be unfair to all the other dumb fucking articles that exist.

 

[Unrivaledx88]

Sounds fake, square wouldnt be doing exclusives if this was the plan, and sounds like whoever made this article doesnt pay attention to the Switch

 

[Gudji]

I knew jimbo was a gangstah and pointed the gun at SE CEOs.

 

[BennyBlanco]

FF7R —> sony deal ——> gets DLC and another sony deal —-> EGS deal ——> probably waiting for a gamepass deal for Xbox release

FF Chaos and all the KH games are still stuck on EGS and definitely selling like shit

Modern Square is obnoxious. I don’t even blame Sony for this one. Square takes every deal they can get.

 

[Kiraly]

Not surprised with this myopic shortsighted vision of its leader. Hope they enjoy to wallow in mediocrity.

 

[jshackles]

FF7R —> sony deal ——> gets DLC and another sony deal —-> EGS deal ——> probably waiting for a gamepass deal for Xbox release

FF Chaos and all the KH games are still stuck on EGS and definitely selling like shit

Modern Square is obnoxious. I don’t even blame Sony for this one. Square takes every deal they can get.

Truth. I'd rebuy all the Kingdom Hearts games for the third time so fast if they were on Steam.

I'd also be interested in seeing sales figures EGS vs Steam on Final Fantasy VII Remake, considering it's damn near constantly still in the top 10 charts on Steam (especially when it's on sale).

 

[Robb]

Hindered by exclusivity? Seems like a pretty easy solution to just stop with the exclusivity deals if that’s the case.

 

[SlimySnake]

Square Execs have shown repeatedly that they will destroy franchises just to pocket a few million. They did it for Rise of Tomb Raider then again with FF7 Remake and now with practically every big game they make.

Rise bombed, but FF7 didnt. Definitely didnt hit its full potential either. Now Forspoken is going to bomb and FF16 will underperform compare to lets say Elden Rings and well every other AAA game in 2023. It will be outsold be Spiderman, Zelda, Starfield, Star wars and Harry Potter.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

lol. numbers don't support that hot cake.

 

[remember_spinal]

Sounds like the author is trying to paint a narrative over sour grapes of FFXVI and Rebirth not coming out on xbox

I expect to see a lot more articles and threads over the “concern” of square enix’ business not growing due to not releasing games on xbox, especially as we get closer to the release of FFXVI.

 

[reksveks]

Definitely seems to be a bifurcation in business plans between sega/capcom and Square Enix.

I do think PC growing is going to force the issue more so.

 

[remember_spinal]

Square Execs have shown repeatedly that they will destroy franchises just to pocket a few million. They did it for Rise of Tomb Raider then again with FF7 Remake and now with practically every big game they make.

Rise bombed, but FF7 didnt. Definitely didnt hit its full potential either. Now Forspoken is going to bomb and FF16 will underperform compare to lets say Elden Rings and well every other AAA game in 2023. It will be outsold be Spiderman, Zelda, Starfield, Star wars and Harry Potter.

Every single player platform exclusive game will bomb compared to elden ring

 

[Jim Ryan other Clone]

Go away, you and your Xbox bullshit opinion, because only a Xbox bot would say so. No one forced SE to make this deals and the best games are on PlayStation whenever you cry in the night and wishing to be not true the reality is different. No one hinder anything you just want to cry why a company has make a business decision to partner with a console maker for some of their products.

 

[JaksGhost]

Square Execs have shown repeatedly that they will destroy franchises just to pocket a few million. They did it for Rise of Tomb Raider then again with FF7 Remake and now with practically every big game they make.

Rise bombed, but FF7 didnt. Definitely didnt hit its full potential either. Now Forspoken is going to bomb and FF16 will underperform compare to lets say Elden Rings and well every other AAA game in 2023. It will be outsold be Spiderman, Zelda, Starfield, Star wars and Harry Potter.

You're such a fucking sensationalist it hurts. Why compare this to Elden Ring when the last FF entry only got 10 million across multiple platforms and iterations.

 

[Chukhopops]

Our Group has multiple blockchain games based on original IPs under Our Group has multiple blockchain games based on original IPs under development, some of which we announced last year, and we are undertaking preparations that will enable us to unveil even more titles this year. We are also engaged in global sourcing from an investment perspective and will continue to take stakes in promising businesses whether we find them in Japan or abroad. Blockchain has been an object of exhilaration and a source of turmoil, but with that in the rearview mirror, we hope that blockchain games will transition to a new stage of growth in 2023.

Literally doubling down on NFTs is not something I expected.

 

[Mister Wolf]

They sold their soul for chicken change.

 

[Ar¢tos]

What I read there is "Square Enix's global aspirations hindered by Square Enix choices", I really don't see how it is Sony's fault...

 

[Anime-Vix]

The user comment in the article nails it.

I think the reason he didn't mention that is because those are niche ips. Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Dragon quest are Square Enix big ips. Limiting those games exclusivity to one platform hurt the brand and reach of those games.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Square Enix's latest games, including Final Fantasy VII Remake including the Intergrade expansion and subsequent next-gen release, Forspoken, and even the massively anticipated Final Fantasy XVI, are all PlayStation exclusives.

 

[Anime-Vix]

Also you guys need to stop acting like porting games cost millions of dollars. Porting games to ps5 or Xbox has never been easier. Square enix has the resources and manpower to easily release their games simultaneously. There is really no excuse.

 

[S0ULZB0URNE]

Square chose to partner with Sony.....




They also chose to partner with Nintendo.

Article is clickbait BS and having it as a thread is console warring territory.

 

[remember_spinal]

Also you guys need to stop acting like porting games cost millions of dollars. Porting games to ps5 or Xbox has never been easier. Square enix has the resources and manpower to easily release their games simultaneously. There is really no excuse.

If it made financial sense they would do it. The sales of FFXV and FFXIII were probably abysmal on xbox to not even make it worth it

 

[FoxMcChief]

Don’t make exclusive deals then dumb dumbs.

 

[K2D]

New port begging thread? New port begging thread. /s

 

[FoxMcChief]

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Square just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about western culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in Japan where you can become successful by being Sony exclusive. If you screw Xbox over in the west, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the western public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase FFXVI for either system, nor will they purchase any of Square's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Square has alienated an entire market with this move.

Square, publicly apologize and make FF XVI multi platform or you can kiss your business goodbye.

 

[sendit]

Sorry you made the wrong choice in hardware based on your gaming preference. However, Square Enix games will be available on PC. It isn’t a single platform exclusive.

 

[SmokedMeat]

Square has only their own greediness to blame.

 

[fallingdove]

SE is holding back SE’s global aspirations. The company has horribly failed to remain competitive with western developers. Games like Forespoken are incredibly tone deaf and pale in comparison to even the most generic of western titles.

To add insult to injury, their bread and butter JRPGs and legacy titles see next to no investment and are often outsourced to less competent development teams.

SE are the definition of burning at both ends, though the wick is drenched in lighter fluid and they are burning with propane torches.

If FFXVI doesn’t knock it out of the park, I wouldn’t be surprised to see an accelerated merger/acquisition timeline with SE being swallowed up by Sony or Nintendo.

 

[FalsettoVibe]

The user comment in the article nails it.

Why is this tagged as news? At best its some random persons opinion. At worst it's console war fodder

I can't even call this a dumb fucking article because that would be unfair to all the other dumb fucking articles that exist.

Sounds like the author is trying to paint a narrative over sour grapes of FFXVI and Rebirth not coming out on xbox

I expect to see a lot more articles and threads over the “concern” of square enix’ business not growing due to not releasing games on xbox, especially as we get closer to the release of FFXVI.

All of this.

 

[Kimahri]

One of the things that I really don't like about SE. They're all over the place with where they release stuff.

I get why stuff don't release on switch with it being a weaker plstform for some games, but games only release on switch? Only on PS? It's kinda bullshit. And so many smaller experimental titles too, games that could really have benefitted from bigger audiences.

Like why was Valkyrie Elysium PS exclusive? Why is Front Mission only on Switch? Why are the best versions of FFX and FFXII only on Xbox?

And why cultivate xbox audience and release everything there for a whiøe only to pull the rug under them?

I love jaoanese games and square enix is my bread and butter, but god damn do I prefer western studios that release everything everwhere..

 

[SSfox]

# Playstation exclusives Port begging thread Chapter 127 Volume 18

 

[Ghost of Caelid]

And who is doing those exclusivity deals?

Companies are so short term motivated by profit they often hurt their long term prospect for growth...our corporate culture is silly.

 

[drganon]

What a stupid article. The switch has just as many exclusives as ps4\5 and almost all of them are on pc as well. Only Xbox is left in the dark, but considering how poorly jrpgs in general sell on there, its not worth square's efforts.

 

[cireza]

This is a different story in Japan, however. Xbox has yet to really capture this region, so the PlayStation and Switch typically reign in this overseas market.

It is Nintendo land only, Sony is barely relevant there anymore.

They fell for the quick cash grab, sure it is nice to get instant cash flow before a game is out, and you don't even to try that hard to make it good anymore. But in the end, it doesn't help building a strong image as a ton of players don't have access to the games, not talking about those upset when the game being made exclusive is from a multi-platform series.

Bad for the players, bad for the company long term. All this because they can't stand the temptation of getting some quick money.