With no square games announced for Xbox in 2023 its clear square Japan is moving away from Xbox. I fear dragon quest will skip Xbox. I just wish they can announce they’re skipping Xbox because at this point its clear to see they dont value having a partnership with Xbox .
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If Square Enix has become an impossibly then I want to see NIS/Falcom/Gust games soon because the quantity there far makes up for Square (and because I like all their games more than Square’s lol)
And also more Atlus backlog games, many Switch/PS/PC games there to pick at.
If the Xbox side of the relationship has lost interest in Square then it’s time to start making up for it with other publisher’s games.
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I think my new expectations for square games are if its 2D then its guaranteed on switch and most likely PlayStation. Then if 3d its guaranteed on PlayStation and possibly next gen Nintendo console. I don’t think Microsoft will even get crumbs from square going forward
Dragon Quest is already skipping Xbox. Infinity Strash is a spin-off, but Xbox is the only platform where it won’t come out. I have already lost hope for the HD-2D Remake of the third chapter, while I still have very low hopes for the XII. If Kingdom Hearts IV comes out on Xbox, it will be because Disney wanted it.
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I’m also skeptical for the future at this point. Chrono Cross made it over, did it sell this poorly? Did the FF games perform so badly on Game Pass? At this point, it can’t only be timed exclusivity deals. If Diofield Chronicles gets released on Xbox, including a physical version, I don’t understand that a collection of their most important IP does not.
Honestly, if Square only brings over games with a deal/cheque at this point, it’s a lost cause. I don’t blame Xbox for not wanting to do this for every game. I think the long-term relationship with their customers on the platform has been damaged at this point.
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They’ve started making some Switch only 3D games already like Harvestella and DQ Treasures.
Personally I think the next Nintendo hardware will make it harder for Sony to pay for Square games if Square thinks they can squeeze big AAA games onto it. Nier Automata and DQ11 Switch shows they are willing and capable of such a thing
But as we see now, even if Sony money is not involved anymore it doesn’t mean Xbox releases.
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Not a fan of kingdom heart, but would suck to miss out on a major game like dragon quest
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Next gen Nintendo console will most likely get all square games. I feel Sony might even lose their grip with mainline final fantasy game because Nintendo market is too big to miss out on. I think Sony got lucky with switch being underpowered because dont think square would skip Nintendo of hardware is up to par
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Who knows… Square Enix has already decided not to release Pixel remasters on Xbox even before seeing Crisis Core sales, so I still don’t understand how they choose to release certain titles on Xbox.
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It probably all comes back to this post
Crisis Core and Pixel Remasters are not the same team so the Pixel team (and many of Square’s teams) seems to just not care for Xbox and Square doesn’t care to make them include Xbox.
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Maybe someone other than Sony will purchase Square and put in some decent management.
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Yeah and with Harvestella and DQ Treasures not even being Nintendo published (unlike other Square Switch exclusives) I’m pretty sure these are unpaid exclusives and Square just didn’t think they’d sell on PlayStation.
There aren’t any unpaid Square PS exclusives anymore so it could be a sign the company will be very Nintendo leaning come Switch 2.
But again, this obviously won’t result in more Xbox releases (in fact maybe it even results in less PS releases lmao)
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It’s most striking because 2022 has been relatively straightforward but 2023 is a dearth. It’s gone from half assed support - excluding big title Sony moneyhats and “anything but Xbox” Sony moneyhats - to absolutely no support at all.
Not releasing a non-moneyhatted multiplatform game on Xbox is basically just lost revenue for SE, both from game sales, merchandising, IP growth and eventual potential GamePass deals. Unless there’s money from Sony to cover that, I can only imagine SE are holding MS to ransom for big upfront payments for every single port. In which case, fuck em.
This is 100% where I stand right now. If Microsoft’s JRPG budget is X million dollars and that could go towards SOME S-E games or MOST NIS/Falcom games then I know what I’d prefer 
Personally, there’s a lot of those that I missed so I’d even be fine with late full-priced ports (assuming they ran well)
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It doesnt have to be moneyhatted. SE relationship with sony means theyll simply ignore the xbox indirectly to appease Sony
You think Sony wont appreciate a ton of these games not coming to xbox? Theres no reason for SE to ditch xbox support for these games.
Well again if there’s a million red tapes on Square like Sony did this and Sony did that and Square hates Xbox (I’m sure Sony is very appeased by Square’s Switch exclusives…) and nananana then Xbox should simply get the troves of other JRPG publishers (none of which Sony cares about) on board because they will have to make up for the loss of Square somehow. Can’t just do nothing about it.
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I get the feeling they’ve been doing this, the extra push for Persona (let’s face it, it’s been years since we’ve seen Xbox market the hell out of a game like Royal) feels like it comes from a place of needing a big name JRPG franchise in the portfolio.
Dumping GamePass money towards projects like Eiyuden Chronicle, could be considered the same.
I think it’s short sighted to suggest MS are sitting on their hands because Falcom still haven’t been brought on board. Those games are exceptionally niche, even within fans of the genre, and focusing on relationships with SEGA, Bandai Namco and Capcom is the right response for now IMO.
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If Square Enix wants to run their company into the ground, they can continue what they are doing. They will always find a scapegoat. First it was western studios, now it is the whole Japan and so on.
They are using Sony’s playbook for their releases except they don’t have the cultists, that would buy their content unconditionallly.
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This is true, and to add on to that, like it or not (and I don’t 
) these deals and ports can take years to bear fruit. We didn’t get official word about Persona until this summer after all.
I do think that the team at Xbox can walk and chew gum and pursue both avenues though.
There is no point in pursuing Square Enix at this point.
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