Even though Square Enix and Sony’s partnership goes back years, something has to change for the publisher, it has realized, and that includes getting its biggest games outside of the reach of a single console., Square Enix reports a profit drop of -69.7% year over year, thanks to high dev cost amortization, even if sales are up 1%. But the company has made it clear it plans to make the most of though high development costs with releases on more platforms.
Many of Square Enix’s biggest games have been locked into one-platform partnerships, like last year’s Final Fantasy 16 and this year’s Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, both out on a single system, the PlayStation 5. Even if that console is very popular, Square Enix now fully understands they cannot limit themselves to this strategy no matter what kind of relationship they’ve had with Sony.
While the concept of game exclusivity is not going away, essentially everyone in the industry understand that limiting releases to just a single console in the face of ballooning development costs and the pursuit of live revenue is a poor idea. Microsoft has been on its “play anywhere” kick for a while with day and date releases on PC and cloud gaming elsewhere. Now, Sony is trying to expand its PC release plan as well .
Square Enix goes on to say they are focusing more on quality over quantity, and a number of games in development have been cancelled as a result. We’ll see where this goes, and if it means anything for the game that are already out.Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.