Reports from top names in the Final Fantasy Franchise show that Square Enix may be reneging on their plans to keep Final Fantasy games exclusive to Play Station 5. The news comes after leading employees at the franchise provided in-house perspectives about two of the series' most recent entries during an interview with IGN Brasil.
Naoki Hamaguchi, director of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and Yoshinori Kitase, producer of the Final Fantasy franchise spoke with the media outfit about controversies surrounding the referenced entries, which led to disappointing sales results. Although the franchise is yet to release exact figures for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth sales, Kitase said that the game was one of PlayStation 5’s best-selling games this year.
Meanwhile, Kitase disclosed that Black Myth: Wukong and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree were other top-performing games on the console. That said, what’s clear is that the game has yet to meet the predecessor’s high expectations, which sold 3.5 million units within the first 72 hours after launching. However, it’s clear that the Final Fantasy 7 Remake enjoyed the privilege of launching on PlayStation 4, which has a wider customer base than the PS5 and ran during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Final Fantasy on Multiple Platforms to Become “New Normal”
Square Enix console’s exclusivity days are over, according to the Final Fantasy’s representatives. “While we are confident and happy that we are reaching a certain level of sales, it is clear that with the modernity of games, we cannot be exclusive to a single platform,” said Kitase, emphasizing the need for the franchise to offer the game to many more gamers.
Meanwhile, the news about extending PlayStation’s Final Fantasy games to new platforms comes in line with a recent trend in the gaming industry. Microsoft is also reportedly embracing a strategy of releasing their first-party games on competing consoles.
Games like The Outer Wilds 2, Indiana Jones and the Golden Circle, and Halo are expected to launch on PlayStation consoles. Other titles like Avowed and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II remain Xbox exclusive. (Rumors have it that Microsoft admitted that keeping Hellblade II as an Xbox exclusive was an error on their part).
However, there are no reports of Sony adopting this model. Although the firm has demonstrated significant success in bringing console titles to the PC platform, its pace is significantly slow. Gamers can revel in the truth that The Last of Us Part II will feature on PC in 2025, four years after its PS4 release. However, we all can only wait to see when classic games like Bloodborne and the original Uncharted trilogy will spread from consoles to PCs.
Conclusion
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth fell short of matching or repeating the feats of the 2020-launched Final Fantasy 7 Remake with a disappointing sales record, inspiring the franchise’s developers to look elsewhere for gamers. Hopefully, other gaming developers like Sony won’t have to wait till similar situations arise before driving swifter expansions for their games across multiple platforms.