Square Enix: Microsoft Turned Final Fantasy XIV Down

Final Fantasy Union: "There has been much speculation about Final Fantasy XIV since its announcement at E3 2009. And more recently, Square Enix revealed that the game would not be appearing on the Xbox 360.

However, Hiromichi Tanaka, the game's director, has now announced that it was actually Microsoft who turned the game down - Square Enix wanted it to be on the Xbox 360. Slightly different to what he said just a few weeks ago."

[GWAVE]

Doesn't make sense to me. I guess Microsoft doesn't want their gamers paying two subscription fees at the same time...

@ below

I hear what you're saying, but last I checked Microsoft has been losing and closing 1st-party studios, not building them.

[XxSolid SnakexX]

M$ finally realized paying for 3rd party games is a waste of money and are finally trying to build 1st party studios

[SeanRL]

That...makes a lot more sense. Plus, they probably realized that no matter what, it would still sell better on ps3.

[iFLOWLIKEWATER]

egative. I see Final Fantasy on the 360 as a win for everyone except that fanboy who killed or threatened to kill himself and the ones a slightly less retarded than him.

How many million to port it? I say 5 million. How many million to advertise? I say 5 million. How many million sold on the 360? 1.3+ million. How many millions in profit? 75+ million...

[GrieverSoul]

This reminds me of domestic abuse! MS is the husband and Squenix is the wife that is constantly being beat to a pulp.

And... YET SHE IS STILL ON HIS SIDE!!! WTF?!

So much support for MS from Squenix, so many Jrpgs exclusive to the 360 and now MS simply says "NO!"

On a serious side:
Its simply, they wanted it to be a month fee only without requiring Xbox LIVE Gold. MS thought it would open a precedent and wasnt willing to do it because other developers would try and do the same.

[XxSolid SnakexX]

I know that but like I said they finally realized that wasting money on third party content is pointless and now they are trying to save up money for first party studios.

[WrAiTh Sp3cTr3]

iFLow...Actually that would be $65 million in profit...to split. Seeing as though, by your statement, that their investment was a total of $10 million. But I see where you're coming from and it sounds reasonable.

Ahh, Cold, you're...cold.

[- Ghost of Sparta -]

They're not trying to build more 1st party studios. Microsoft's Xbox Live policy won't allow for what FFXIV is trying to accomplish. Xbox Live, unlike PSN, is a very closed service. GWAVE had it right, they won't allow 2 subscriptions.

[captain-obvious]

it makes sense
they dont want PPL to pay twice

[sikbeta]

@XxSolid SnakexX

that Could make sense but is not the case, maybe SE wanted an special "treatment", like a "free pass" for FFXIV Players in order to not pay for live and just pay for the subscription fee...

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

MS doesn't allow two subscription fees like Hulu Plus? They allowed FF XI in the past as well so I don't see the issue there.

I suspect, SE is bargaining to hard and now using the public as their pawn to negotiate.

[- Ghost of Sparta -]

@ Idle: Microsoft changed their policy after XI, so you're wrong.

[Reibooi]

Bottom line on this is SE and MS did not want to budge on the game. SE wanted full control over the way the game ran on Xbox Live like they did with Final Fantasy XI and MS was unwilling to give them that control and because of that MS probably just said screw it.

Big mistake on their part in my opinion. They don't have any real MMO's on the console aside from FFXI and I don't see much anything else working with the Xbox if SE can't get MS to deal.

[JD_Shadow]

Personally, I just think this is another part to the story. They aren't changing the reason, but rather giving us another way to describe it.

IFLOW: Final Fantasy XIII would like to speak to you about your "win".

And Cold, could you provoke any gamers anymore? On second thought, don't answer that.

[rockleex]

They ARE saving their money... but for shovelware Kinect games.

[Heisenberg]

He clearly created a bunch of accounts to agree with himself, as if he thinks he's fooling anyone. Why don't you just piss off already? You clearly crave the attention of the people here, but nobody here wants you around, cause you just troll for the sake of trolling. You don't even try to be reasonable anymore, you're like greenringoflife (or maybe you're the same person.) you've given up trying to hide your agenda, now you just blatantly troll in hopes of the sweet negative attention you crave. How embarrassing. So you must have logged in and out 12 times to give yourself those agrees huh? Funny how you always seem to have around 12 agrees, So sad....

[Sez]

I do agree with you on getting the PC version. I don't like playing MMO's on console. So even if it would have came to the 360. I wouldnt get it. Something are meant to be played on pc.

[IdleLeeSiuLung]

ghost said:

"@ Idle: Microsoft changed their policy after XI, so you're wrong. "

What about Hulu Plus? Is that not an additional subscription on top of Xbox Live Gold?

I have not seen Xbox Live Policy, can you point me to it instead of just claiming I'm wrong? Policy or not, MS will bend it if they want it enough.

[N4PS3Fanboys]

"That...makes a lot more sense. Plus, they probably realized that no matter what, it would still sell better on ps3."

That doesn't make sense... The vast majority of multiplatform games sell better on the 360, but of course Sony still wants them on their console.

[kingjoker34]

uhh final fantasy games sell better on ps systems

[fatstarr]

They realized xbox users dont play rpgs let alone mmos and if they do Microsoft knows the 360 is the last place they would want to do that at.

[evercast]

You are not required to have to gold account for FFXI. So paying two subscription fees really wouldn't be the problem. I have no idea why M$ would turn them down though.

[StanLee]

I think more than anything, Microsoft knows its audience. I don't know that the game would be successful on the platform. In the end, I don't see the game being very successful, period.

[rob6021]

I'm thinking that MS only didn't require it in FFXI because they wanted a final fantasy game on their platform.. Now that they have it and now 13, they want to enforce gold membership, so they get a chunk of the pie. Considering FFXI players on 360 probably didn't buy too many other games, and didn't have gold memberships - MS sees it as a loss.

[Corepred4]

so Microsoft isn't getting FF XIV? At all? After it was announced wasn't Greenburg telling people to go ask Square Enix if it was exclusive or not, in a smug way? Indicating that it was going to the 360?

[evilmonkey501]

maybe that was vs ???

[NexGen]

That just doesn't make sense. Maybe they meant that MS's live policies wouldn't budge in order to allow them to agree on release/subscription terms?

A refusal to budge on their fees/policies is not the same as turning down the product.

Either way, it would be in SE's best interest to get this on as many machines as possible.

[dragonelite]

in the last 6 month they made 2 new dev team

[lelo2play]

Maybe Microsoft is pissed because they announced it for PC/PS3 and would be much later released on the X360, so they told Square to keep it... or maybe they are pissed because Versus is exclusive to PS3 and want it... maybe they are pissed because FF13 was exclusive in Japan... or maybe Microsoft is simply pissed about something.

Well they don't seem happy with Square for some reason.

[evilmonkey501]

If you read up on Squares history, you will find that they burn just about EVERYBODY. Microsoft said no because it violates their holy cow , which is XBL.

[Jamegohanssj5]

First Party and Microsoft in the same sentence? Lulz.

TGSI

[November 9 2004]

it doesn't need to be 1st party, what you think playstation relied on most of last 2 gens? 3rd party...

[Hellsvacancy]

Cold 2000, thats ok buddy, i shall b buyin the "superior" Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Versus

Bollocks 2 FF-Online anyway, doesnt interest me none the slightest, much like FF13

[lucifon]

You dont need 2 sub fees, FF11 only required silver which is free.

[evilmonkey501]

WHICH IS WHY your not getting it.

[Abriael]

It's very, very easy to guess why Microsoft refused Final Fantasy XIV, and there's really no difference with was previously announced (they said that they couldn't find an agreement with microsoft, which is basically the same they are saying now, making this... well... not news). The only thing that changed is the wording. The concept is exactly the same.
Picking up Final Fantasy XIV would have required Microsoft to budge on two very important points.
Reading the piece of news makes it quite clear. Square Enix offered Final Fantasy XIV (obviously) on the same terms as they did Final Fantasy XI. With cross-platform servers and online gameplay allowed even for silver accounts.

Microsoft accepted those terms with Final Fantasy XI because then xbox live was in it's infancy and policies were still being ironed.
Now Xbox Live's policies are set in stone, and they don't allow cross-platform gameplay nor any kind of online gameplay on silver accounts. Ever.
Budging on those things for Square Enix at this stage would create a precedent that would force Microsoft to allow the same for many other big fishes in the pond that would love to have their own online subscriptions bypassing the Live gold membership.

Activision with call of duty comes to mind. If activision managed to force microsoft to enable online gameplay for call of duty on silver accounts in order to create their own subscription services (Kotick and others expressed that will on multiple occasions), Microsoft would miss millions in revenue as the ones that play just those games would pass on renewing their Gold membership.

This is not the first and won't be the last online game that Microsoft will pass on. Basically anything that requires it's own pay-to-play subscription will be very much hard pressed to find any room on Xbox 360.

So no, despite the will of some to spin it that way, this isn't some smug and proud rebuttal by Microsoft telling SE to shove it because they don't need Final Fantasy XIV.
It's simply Microsoft being cornered by the very profitable but extremely rigid business model they created.
In order to continue to be profitable like it is, they need it to stay rigid. In order for it to stay rigid, they will have to give up on the games that would require their policies to be loosened. If they open the floodgates once, they'd bleed millions.

[Persistantthug]

Can you all imagine the CONSOLE WARS we could have had?

Would have been awesome.
*sigh*

[Newtype]

I guess MS is considerate of their fanbase, and here I thought SE was being the considerate ones.

[pixelsword]

Dude is such a liar, he's worse than that one guy from Id saying they they "wanted" to remove a faction, then Carmack owned him.

ffxiv will be bought from me... as a used, discounted game.

And don't say that "that'll make them want to go multiplatform even more", because that's the second time they broke their word, so it ain't because of lack of support; and who cares if they go multiplatform anyways as long as the game is solid, it's a win/win; but with S-E and Rage the games aren't solid: you got a poor port from FF, and a faction removed from Rage.

[princejb134]

actually i just think ms thinks ff xiv isnt worth it
i have a ps3 and i know im not buying that game
im not into mmorpg

[silvacrest]

whether that is true or not RPGs certainly sell better on the PS3

[Reibooi]

@GWAVE

They aren't supposed to pay 2 fees.

I don't know if anyone remembers this or not. But when this gen began MS talked up MMO's on the 360 alot and one of the key things was that Silver members WOULD NOT need to be a gold member to play a MMO and the reason behind that was so users didn't have to pay 2 fees.

I don't know if Final Fantasy XI worked that way on 360 or not as I was a gold member for the short time I played it on 360 before I moved onto the PC version. However I am reasonably sure you can play Final Fantasy XI online with just a silver account on Xbox Live.

Point to this is that the 2 fees thing is NOT the reason the game isn't coming to 360. It's more then likely that MS would not give SE the control over the game they wanted and that lead to them saying screw it. That or MS was being to greedy and when SE didn't play ball MS just flat out said no to the game on their console. Either is a good bet.

[Imperator]

If FFvsXIII goes multiplat, I will completely stop supporting SE both this generation, any generation that follows until they return to their Japanese roots and kick wada out on the streets.

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

I think Nomura wants Versus to stay exclusive because hes worked so hard on the graphics.

[zerocool3397]

Im not bothered about games going multiplatform. SE have never had a specific console. Nintendo then Sony then Xbox... sometimes more than one. People specifically asking for it to be segregated to one console are really only being selfish, after all, if its on all consoles it doesn't hurt anyone, it doesn't affect your life in anyway. Do all you fanboys work for the respective companies? or do you just like saying idiotic statements to make yourself seem important.

If it comes to xbox or ps3 it doesn't alter my life, it would be nice to have the variety though.

[vhero]

They don't like it because they like 100% control over live and MMO's are controlled by the dev and are online with 0% control to MS and they don't like that. They also don't like the fact non gold subscribers can play online like with FFXI. Plus the fact this will be huge in Japan somewhere MS cannot crack no matter how much they try. Right now though MS have no money to spare as all there spare money is going on Kinect and making sure it is successful as they cannot afford for that to fail.

[8thnightvolley]

mS would let gold members have to pay double pay that would cause and uproar

[Inside_out]

It's about time...Square has been blackmailing M$ for a while now, Steve is in charge now and he told them to take a hike...GOOD.

The Asians hate M$. M$ spent a small fortune on those guys with nothing to show for it.

[jammers]

Makes sense since having to pay an additional subscription beyond the live account would really suck.

[Selyah]

Heh but yeah play online was done for XI and that still had the subscription you just had to sign in from a separate launcher first.

[40cal]

I think it has more to do with Microsoft's policies concerning developer access to LIVE.

[vhero]

You wouldn't need gold to play it online and that's probably where the problems would come from. You didn't for FFXI and MS probably didn't like that.

[Selyah]

Ah well, gonna be getting this on ps3 eventually anyway. Kinda funny how Square Enix changed their tune with whose choice it was.

[TheColbertinator]

That is just odd

[Myst]

Wow, this is not a cool move in my eyes. Then again I guess they felt they had enough with Monster Hunter even though it doesn't seem to be leaving Japan.

[Obama]

I know ff13 versus will stay exclusive, but I am surprised that ff14 will too.

[Biggest]

If by exclusive you mean on PC and then, much later by the way, on the PS3. I had FFXI on PC and will be getting FFXIV on PC as well.

[Denethor_II]

No he means console exclusive, but there's always some little dweeb like yourself with his cock in one hand and his mouse in the other.

[BigPenguin]

If he has his cock in one hand, and his mouse in the other, then both his hands are full. HOW DID HE TYPE!!!!!

WITCH!!!!!!

[Biggest]

Pardon me for pointing out that exclusive had a meaning before N4G was created. Xbox fanboys call 360/PC games exclusive and PS3 fanboy call them out on it. Vice versa is in order here. And if you've played FFXI for any extended period of time I am sure you heard of PS2 limitations and other random bullshit. In a constantly changing game such as MMOs, the PC is more often than not the way to play.

[Imperator]

It's not console exclusive, there's no such thing. Whenever a game is on 360/PC we all know it isn't a 360 exclusive so let's not start. FFXIV is not a PS3 exclusive. Let's not be hypocrites.

[SuperStrokey1123]

Id be shocked if 13 vs stayed exclusive. Like MS and SE are like best friends now for some reason. Its likely to do with Square being super greedy and MS being just as bad...

[Ludakriss]

Being a bit naive there aren't ya friend? Exclusive, Square-Enix and Sony...connection to all these is long gone.

[krisprolls]

@ludakriss :

yeah, like MGS4 came to 360... Er, wait. FF13 vs is PS3 exclusive, get over it.

And FF14 is PC / PS3, no 360 version, get over it too.

[Sez]

Wrong post

[Sez]

If it's in pc. Then it's not exclusive. You should know this already. If 360 fanboys can't claim console exclusive. Then neither can you.

[You Noob]

the reason is ... Xbox live is closed to user created content and use different term of policy Unreal 3 mod support is the perfect example of XBL limitation)

Now... this :)

[blasian]

Well M$ can say goodbye to all those Monster Hunter Online subscriptions in japan when this game hits.

[Fishy Fingers]

The source interview states:

"still trying to speak with them and negotiate. If it should come to an agreement that is definitely an Xbox version to follow - at the moment we have stopped development, but only once. "

So who knows what might happen in the future if they hammer out an agreement, surely if there was a definite NO then development would of never started, not started and then stopped?

[trounbyfire]

Square enix has because the "Wh0r3" of the gaming industry really you don't have to put out on the first date....wait well companies don't :) anyway many japanese companies have gotten burned from having to much faith in the 360 square, capcom, namco and so on

they should have realized that different console = different demographic