If you can afford it, why not? That’s what Sony would think when Square Enix would offer its games to different platforms. It seems that the Japanese distributor perfectly values each new title that it will launch, offering it directly to the highest bidder. If you are capable of money, it is up to you, but if the other is able to give much more than you, it is possible that he keeps it for himself.
This is what emerges from the words of the producer of Final Fantasy XVI for GameInformer and Tweakville captures it perfectly, because with them it reaffirms that it is not that the treatment is directly conditional on one of the companies, but rather that they are looking to see who offers them the most for the game, hoping that after showing it, they will literally “come to them with their offers”. Here are his words:
Final Fantasy is one of Square Enix’s most important franchises along with Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts. When we started development, we approached multiple platforms, multiple companies, to release the game. And when you get closer, they come back later with their offers.
Take it for granted: Final Fantasy XVI isn’t coming to Xbox
It’s about as obvious as Starfield being an Xbox exclusive. With these words from a member of the Final Fantasy XVI development studio they perfectly mean that Sony paid for this exclusive to be so. And if that deal went through as stated, when they start development, that means Sony has pretty much paid for the game.
Microsoft can do that too, of course, but we also think there’s a point where the money can’t be, since Redmond has plenty of money to make deals like this. Then there’s the matter of Xbox’s unstable but ongoing relationship with Square Enix, that the same thing gets you all Kingdom Hearts in Game Pass, that the same thing doesn’t get you a sequel to a title of a first opus which came out a long time ago, less than a year (Octopath Traveler).
