620°

Why Final Fantasy 16 Is A PlayStation 5 Exclusive

Game Informer writes: "During my cover story trip to Square Enix’s Tokyo, Japan, offices, I asked producer Naoki Yoshida how developer Creative Business Unit III feels about the game’s PS5 exclusivity and what that does for the studio in terms of development. He says it’s important to distinguish that CBUIII doesn’t go into game development thinking it wants to limit a game to just one platform or company."

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Petebloodyonion375d ago ShowReplies(30)
coolastheycome375d ago

Definitely gonna hurt its sales being exclusive.

DarkZane375d ago

It would have costed them more money to port it on Series X and S than they would have made from the sales. Even more true with Gamepass since Xbox gamers don't buy games anymore. Plus Series S would have gimped the game.

MagUk375d ago (Edited 375d ago )

@DarkZane and all his up voters 🤦🏻‍♂️

Vizigoth04375d ago

That and reducing the resolution of the characters to stick figures.

Tacoboto375d ago

Or exclusivity on the top-selling platform heightens awareness to the title and it sells better due to more focused marketing / potential reputation being supremely polished on its target platform

andy85375d ago

It'd hurt the game more having to be adapted for Series S. What would it have sold...500k? If that. Wasn't Crisis core only about 5% sales on Xbox. It's more effort to make a whole new version for that low number

Chevalier375d ago (Edited 375d ago )

Exactly. It's not worth making 2 more versions for Xbox when you're bound to lose more money than with the extra development time. It's some crazy delusion that Xbox fans seem to think it's so easy to just release Xbox versions of games and it doesn't involve work to do it. Case in point Balders Gate 3 by Larian. Makes me wonder if co-op was scrapped for Halo Infinite for the same reason.

Pyrofire95375d ago

To a degree but the FF audience has been Playstation sided ever since FF7 in 1997 people who are fans of the series probably got a PS; at the very least fewer Xbox owners are fans.

FinalFantasyFanatic374d ago

I used to always buy the new Playstation for every new FF game, that's why I got the PS2 and PS3, can't remember what I got the PS4 for since FF15 didn't come out early in it's lifespan (I think it might have been Neptunia V2). Final Fantasy isn't a system seller anymore for me though, so I tend to look at what other exclusives are on offer now.

shinoff2183375d ago

Ff15 I think sold 15 million maybe 13 million xbox accounted for 2 of those mill. I'm sure whatever Sony gave them equaled those sales if not more.

andy85375d ago

That was also before Gamepass though, now Xbox players buy games far less because of it

FinalFantasyFanatic374d ago

Not likely, and I bet it'll come to PC at some point, maybe a year or two later like alot of the other FF games have. Xbox owners don't buy many games and they generally don't buy JRPGs, Square-Enix like any other company has probably already done a cost benefit analysis and found it wasn't going to make the return they wanted/needed. And there's no-way in hell the Switch could ever run this game, not a big surprise it's PS exclusive when you think logically about it.

ChasterMies374d ago

Where else would Square Enix release FFXVI? Nintendo Switch? This ain’t Pokémon graphics. The Series S? Probably would run like dog shit. The Series X? Too little marketshare in the jrpg market. I give Microsoft credit for courting the shooter crowd and western RPG crowed, but they left behind a lot of genres that PlayStation and Nintendo own now.

XBManiac374d ago

Being on Game Pass is what hurts sales... and income. Companies have learned about this and only some indies will be there if Microsoft money abandons Game Pass massive sponsoring plan.

neutralgamer1992374d ago

Cool

Wait for activision deal to go through and all square Enix and capcom games will be on PlayStation only. Those celebrating and defending Microsoft and their intention to buy publishers better keep up the same narrative and energy

The gaming land scape is about to change and 100% not for better. Less options aren’t good for gamers

+ Show (7) more repliesLast reply 374d ago
z2g375d ago

the answer is easy. Sony paid.

potatoseal375d ago (Edited 375d ago )

I don't think money would have been the deciding factor. Maybe Sony helping them with development of the game and optimization. I also remember one of the FF guys saying the game wouldn't be releasing so early without the help of Sony.

"From our point of view, the technical support we receive from the hardware manufacturer is a big factor in signing [exclusivity],”

https://www.pushsquare.com/...

Tacoboto375d ago

I replied in the chain above but wanted to do so here to highlight just how important this is.

This game needs to be performant and solid. Let's look at Starfield - the conversation isn't on the gameplay or tone or setting, it's on how much of a technical mess we think it could be. For FF16 and the first mainline attempt at action combat, the game needs to feel as polished/smooth/solid as possible.

In 2020 the Series devkits had very public performance issues. Microsoft's first party went nonexistent in 2022. Redfall was neglected by its own first party because all effort is on Starfield in 2023.

Square has every reason to be cautious around Xbox as a platform. That's not even touching on potential language barriers that could make any tech assistance difficult to even start. Money and time down the drain

Pyrofire95375d ago

The answer is somewhat more complex. It's not a long article. And it's such a clear and obvious answer that I don't think a reasonable person could say it's just about the money.

NotoriousWhiz375d ago (Edited 375d ago )

Developer support definitely can't be understated. Sony had their devs involved all through the process to ensure that they could meet their goals and optimize as best as they could. Microsoft probably did not have any devs helping Arkane and so we all know how that story ended. But on the other hand, Microsoft devs also did Halo infinite, so Microsoft devs may just not have the same level of talent as Sony's devs.

Maybe they should spend more money hiring and recruiting new talent and less money buying existing companies.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 375d ago
P_Bomb375d ago (Edited 375d ago )

Square weighs multiple offers. Sony won the FF roulette. Someone else won Redfall. That’s life 🤷🏻

rlow1375d ago

Do really believe that any other platform had a chance? If you do, then where is the FF remake? After Square left Nintendo it’s been pretty much all PlayStation.

Hell, Xbox would have had better odds if it had been roulette.

P_Bomb375d ago

Hmm. Well, we know XB has the money. But there were also those rumblings of a soured relationship with Square. Phil seems pro-Japan tho. He seems the type that would’ve liked to have FF. For whatever reason(s) it didn’t work out. The future is wide open tho.

Pyrofire95375d ago

FF has SUCH a history with PS it would have taken a LOT for anyone else to partner. SE probably had some intentions from the start and are smart enough to get some cash and resources out of SONY up front.

shadowT375d ago

maybe Xbox Series S was the problem

Pyrofire95375d ago

I wouldn't place it high up in the list of reasons but I could seeing it being a factor.

FinalFantasyFanatic374d ago

I suspect Gamepass deals or sales numbers personally, they did say support was a big deciding factor and I suspect Xbox gives little to none to developers.

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240°

Days Gone Director Says Bend's Project Costs Over $250M; Says PS Co-CEO Doesn't Want 2 Zombies Games

Days Gone director claims Sony has already poured in at least a $250M in Bend's project; says Days Gone sold more than Death Stranding.

shinoff218318h ago

Well that sucks. Seems they want more online trash. I'd rather of had the sequel if it was single player

MrNinosan4h ago

What online trash games did PS Studios release last 10 years?

Notellin2h ago

The past has nothing to do with the future. This is such a terrible argument. Everyone knows about their current live service push.

_SilverHawk_1h ago

It's so tragic what happened to days gone. It is such an amazing game but bandwagoners trashed it and it underperformed in it's launch year. Days gone is the best open world zombie game released in the past five years. I was recently playing it on pc and I'm still amazed by it.

Games are very expensive to make and it seems like it's normal for a AAA game to cost over a quarter billion to make so if a quality game like days gone greatly underperforms then people shouldn't be upset when they see a lot of GAAS. I still remember a lot of bandwagoners calling days gone trash but years later it's now amazing when it's considered a failure by sony.

If a game isn't the best thing seen since hats with pockets then a lot of gamers who haven't played it automatically calls it rubbish and whoever made it should be incarcerated

-Foxtrot18h ago

It would be a shame if it was true that Hermen never gave the franchise a chance simply because he didn't like it and they already had a "Zombie" game with TLOU.

NaughtyDog are most likely moving onto a new IP next so it would have been the perfect time to do it.

ThinkThink10h ago

Here's where xbox steps in and releases state of decay 3 day and date on ps5.

Grilla3h ago

Days gone 2 was canceled before Herman was in charge. That happened like 4 years ago.

vfl5233h ago

4 years ago he was head of Playstation Studios. He would've probably had a hand in the cancelation.

Notellin2h ago

Man two seconds of research could have saved you from this comment. Amazing work Grilla you fit in with the uniformed N4G community who speaks before verifying anything that they say.

Redemption-641h ago

Maybe encourage people to buy the game at full price and not when it's heavily discounted or go on plus. If this game had sold well when it was full priced a sequel would have been in the works. They made a single-player game that most people didn't support until they dropped the price.

excaliburps4h ago

Yep. Kind of weird since it wasn't a sales flop, no?

I know we have to take what Ross says with a grain of salt since we're hearing just one side of the story, but even so, the game wasn't bad at all. Heck, it's my brother's favorite last-gen game from what I recall.

The amount of zombies on screen, imagine that with the PS5 and SSD? That would be insanely fun!

Grilla3h ago

Most copies were sold on sale. Not enough ppl bought it at full price. I paid 20$ for it 6 -7 months after release.

Notellin2h ago(Edited 2h ago)

Yeah we should never believe the creators side until we hear the corporate/big business side as history has shown we should always believe billion dollar corporations.

What a bootlicker statement.

P_Bomb4h ago

Well I don’t want 10 live service games, but they have no problem doing that lol. Ugh.

CrimsonWing693h ago(Edited 3h ago)

Oh great so we only get what the big wigs want… y’know, the people that really have their fingers on the pulse of what their consumers want. Faaaaantastic!

rippermcrip1h ago

Well consider they know the sales... they do know what the consumer wants.

It sold shit.

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60°

Greetings from the newly minted CEO - Shams Jorjani

Operating under the username BigKahuna_AGS, Jorjani created a lengthy thread on the Helldivers subreddit to introduce himself to the community following his appointment as CEO in early May.

50°

Frostpunk 2 Dev Talks Creative Risks, Supply and Demand, and More

Game Rant speaks with Frostpunk 2 co-game director and design director Jakub Stokalski about everything 11 bit poured into the sequel.

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