This isn’t entirely true. The money Sony pays to SE still goes in to running SE. That means keeping the lights on or back into other projects. This applies to any “exclusivity deal” so of course they are going to take guaranteed up front money.
We can debate if this is a wise use of funds on Sony’s part, or if it is good for the industry/consumers or whatever, but these deals are going to happen. It isn’t a big deal.
Considering that FF7R was theoretically a 1 year timed exclusive, but is seems to be a 2 year one, by the time a game like FF16 or Forspoken will arrive on Xbox we’ll really have another console, lmao. Sucks for fans of these games that bought them on Xbox.
True lol, it was interesting to see - using Gamstat - how Xbox was the platform where the biggest amount of people had played Yakuza 0, NieR Automata, Final Fantasy XV and all sorts of Japanese games lmao
[quote=“Whistler, post:25, topic:7443”]
Just let it go.
Sony obviously has a deal(s) going on with SE, no sense in complaining about it. Remember Sony used to own part of SE so they obviously still have some connection there.
People really need chill on this exclusivity thing. Buy the console, make a friend that has the other console, or play something else. Heck right now you can probably buy a PS5 or XSX play some games and sell the used console for a profit. Later you’ll be able to buy a console used and sell it when done for practically no loss of money.
[ I bought a pro right before covid locked down everything, for ff14 and remake, hadn't been on a PlayStation in over 4 years...the xbox is way superior, i spent time over there 7 months and i lived in ff14. What drove me off was why i left 4 years ago, was terrible service from PlayStation.....the ui from start up of console was chalk full.of error crashes on the desktop, then there were lots of daily internet disconnnects, i could say more but to us who want ff14 and their 16, dragonquest it is a big deal tou s. Im 62, i, dont want to have to wait another generration to play a game that is old now, and i could be dead.I mean, yeah, it’s not optimal, but they are not full exclusive. People like to say “Final Fantasy XV only sold 20% of its copies on Xbox!!!
” but that was 2 million copies according to Gamstat, that’s still a ton of money to make on the platform.
I bought the freaking FFXV on Xbox and then they neglected me the next 3 AAA sequels in the series, come on. Obviously I didn’t bought a SE game in years and years, they don’t value me as a customer, I don’t value them as a publisher (fortunately their games are bad, so no big deal).
I mean, I personally thought 16 looked like shit. Halo Infinite at least had two excuses for the bad graphics: using a new engine from the ground up and being an Xbox One game instead of a next-gen one. 16’s graphics looked even worse than Halo Infinite’s in some scenes - while being a PS5 exclusive - and the game didn’t get any criticism for it 
Anyway I do think it’ll be good, but the story will be nonsense.
I don’t care personally, but I care for Xbox brand and this is objectively a direct blow against it.
Not really, most people on Xbox really don’t give a damn about games like FF, that is why I find strange that Sony always tries to moneyhat stuff like Final Fantasy when like only 20% of the sales of those games come from Xbox. 99% of the people buying an Xbox do so not because of Final Fantasy or whatever JRPG but because of other western-centric software. It would make more sense to moneyhat games of similar budget and scope but with a more Xbox-centric audience like Mafia Definitive Edition, Borderlands 3, Subnautica Below Zero, Outriders or Mass Effect Legendary Edition. Those would have been smarter - and possibly cheaper - moneyhats.
They can’t moneyhat say GTA or Red Dead Redemption but they could moneyhat games like those and that I do think would hurt Xbox in the markets where the brand is strong in a major way.
I mean they pay a compensatory amount to account for lost sales on other platforms. It offers more security that’s it. The idea SE would fold or the lights go out otherwise is laughable.
It’s a blow for the brand image obviously, FF has been multiplatform since Xbox 360 and now we are back at 6th gen standards. It’s also a direct blow at any possible asian penetration strategy. like the MHW asian exclusivity deal and many others. Phil said 2893819238 times that he cares about asia and asian games on Xbox and this FF situation is a mortal blow against his stance.
Asia is Switch, mobile and PC territory. The Series S has been the best selling console in India, which is cool, but still, the Asian market is tiny in terms of console sales if you take Japan out. And Japan is already moving away from franchises like Final Fantasy (they went from selling 4 million on PS2 to 1 million on PS4 and I really doubt 16 will sell even 600,000 copies in Japan).
I said also asian games and FF is like one of the best selling asian games in the west since forever. Come on, it’s not a niche game, it’s much worse than Deathloop or Ghostwire Tokyo which could bomb anyway.
As I said, this thing affects me very very tangentially, but considering the grand scale implications, I still think MS should act, otherwise you risk a domino effect like SFV, where fighting games dried out on Xbox.
I disagree with this and I’ll give a perfect example as to why -
My friend is a PlayStation guy since 1995. Will never change. He obviously owns a PS5. He looks as timed console exclusives as a benefit to him and here’s why - take Kena for example. He wants to play it but if he owned an Xbox instead of PS5, he would have to wait until that timed exclusivity expires and even then, it’s no guarantee that he even gets the game on Xbox.
So for him, it creates extra value and incentive to own a PS5 because for him, he knows Sony is going to do a lot of these deals and while some games are of no interest to him, some are and he knows that Microsoft focuses more on co-op/multi-player games which he doesn’t care about and he knows their quality isn’t up to par with Sony (and Nintendo for that matter).
So when people can only buy one console and look things over to see one being aggressive while the other really isn’t in this regard, a lot of people will go with PS5 especially if the games they want to play end up being timed exclusive for PS5.
As for me, I easily see where my friend is coming from because if I was him, I would be thinking the same way because it’s all about which platform is giving me the best quality games that I want to play.
In general, I think PS fanboys get upset with the Bethesda games being exclusive. Well, too bad. Buy an Xbox or play them on PC. I think Xbox fanboys get upset with these timed exclusive deals but again, too bad. Buy a PS5. This is how I see it. I believe that if you truly want to play a game, you’ll do what is necessary to do so. If not, then obviously you don’t want to play the game which in turn means why complain about it?
Also, I realize a lot of Xbox fans seem to forget about all the games and content Microsoft paid for during the Xbox 360 generation which seems weird to me.
Both Sony and Microsoft do these deals. Look at Stalker 2 for example. Here’s the differences though - Sony goes after the top tier major AAA titles that more times than not make an impact where as Microsoft goes after the AA/Indie titles that more times than not won’t make an impact.
Microsoft can easily do the same thing. They’re a trillion dollar company. Pretty sure if they offered double the money that Sony offers Square Enix, im pretty certain they would accept Microsoft’s payday.
I still have to complete FF9 and play FF10-12. So I can just wait this out 
And i hope the trajectory in their main line series goes up again, because FF15 was pure trash and FF7R looks like Kingdom Hearts without Disney characters. So good luck Square.
Same, tons of Final Fantasy in my backlog. Will wait for the definitive edition.
Your friend wouldn’t buy an Xbox even if MS would buy SE, Capcom, Rockstar altogether, he’s not really a good market sample.
MS didn’t do anything like this since Tomb Raider, so recalling 360 deals is not really useful for the discussion. MS does GP deals, indie deals and acquisition, because AAA deals are hated by journos who fuel hatred against the brand. It’s more possibile that they buy SE than they buy ff17 for example.
You should probably calm down and not make it personal. And maybe also don’t put words in my mouth.
I never talked about it from a consumer POV.
It’s great for Sony as a brand and their console. It’s great business. No matter how upset or bad it is for consumers not in their ecosystem. You’re not living in an idealistic world where corporations care about all consumers lol. Sony cares about themselves and the money they can make. Same for MS. I mean MS bought a whole publisher that Sony fans will never be able to play, unless they join the Xbox ecosystem. Who cares if it’s fair or not lol. It’s business. No ifs and buts. If you can make those moves, good on them. As much as it sucks for other consumers.
It’s funny seeing people upset about this. They wouldn’t be as upset if the roles were reversed.
MS doesn’t do anything similar since 6 years ago, come on. Buying and funding a company =/ writing checks for deals. Arbitrarily taking away content from multiplatform games is a bad behaviour for consumers but it’s criticised only for Xbox.
Who says any of these companies would fold without these deals? It just makes it easier on them, it’s “free money” or more money to do less work. That doesn’t change that the money does go to running the place or making more games.
The gaming community needs to stop placing some sort of morality on these deals. Like these deals can only be done to feed starving orphans, otherwise it is a shady illegal drug deal. I’m just tired of the hyperbole, the complaining, etc… It’s like every single gaming company is a “bitch eating crackers” (meme) now because of the toxic so-called fans of gaming.