Square Enix May Finally be Ready to Release Games on Xbox
In the recent Final Fantasy Fan Fest 2023, in a surprise reveal, Phil Spencer was invited to the stage by Naoki Yoshida of Final Fantasy XIV to announce that they plan to bring Square Enix games to Xbox ‘whenever possible’. This comes after years of PlayStation and PC exclusivity has left Xbox gamers thirsting for games from the studio. With the Japanese publishers being responsible for some of the biggest RPGs of the last three decades, it’s rare that Xbox players have been able to experience any of these- until now, it seems.
Image by Square Enix
This announcement came after Yoshi-P revealed that hit MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV would be unburdening itself from the shackles of PC and PlayStation to grace modern Xbox consoles. This is a huge step for Square-Enix, who have been notorious for simply ignoring the platform for multiple years- leaving games like the Final Fantasy VII Remake and recent Final Fantasy XIV out of Xbox player’s grasp. While its unlikely that these specifically will come to Xbox any time soon, this announcement does seem to imply that Microsoft’s platforms will be more recognised by the company in the coming years.
Image by Square Enix
This comes after other Japanese developers including Atlus have been more inclusive of Xbox with the porting of several Persona games over to the platform. Although Microsoft’s consoles still continue to sell much less in Japan, publishers seem to finally be seeing the power that Xbox can hold in the Western market. Commenting on the reveal, Phil Spencer had the following to say:
"Thank you Kiryu-san. we deeply respect the rich legacy of Square Enix, and we look forward to building on the relationship that we've established in bringing Final Fantasy XIV to the Xbox, and partnering closely with you and the Square Enix team on future games.”
Image by Square Enix
With Final Fantasy XIV and all of its current content hitting Xbox at some time in early 2024, hopefully, we’ll see some more Square Enix representation on Microsoft’s consoles after years of being left out. Whether this means existing games like the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series will come to Xbox consoles or if it’s just future releases remains to be seen. However, it’s a good first step showing that Japanese developers haven’t completely written off Xbox players. With other franchises like Kingdom Hearts and Nier slowly migrating over, could this be the JRPG renaissance on Xbox? Probably not, but it’s a start.
