Square Enix Points To PlayStation Exclusivity As A Key Reason For Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Success

Now, as Square Enix is embarking on a journey to remake one game with three games, we’re learning why Square has decided to keep all three of these games exclusive to PlayStation consoles.

In an interview with the Washington Post, producer Yoshinori Kitase cites keeping Final Fantasy VII: Remake, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, and seemingly the third game exclusive to one platform has been a core part of the success of the first two games so far.

[Snookies12]

I don't really think that's true. I went out of my way to buy a PS5 to play FF VII: Rebirth. So, it's the other way around for me lol. I would have bought another Xbox (after trading mine in not too long ago) if it was only there to play. Final Fantasy's name recognition, on top of VII's renown in the gaming world is why it's moving a lot of units.

[Nitrowolf2]

Did you not read it or just not get past the title?

The PS5 in the headline is obviously because it's what's exclusive platform it's on, but this is pertaining to the games scope and how being on a single platform really helped them build this world. That has played to it's success, otherwise it possibly wouldn't be getting as good as reviews. Good review and having good things to talk about your game bring in sales.

It could have been exclusive to any other platform, they're just pointing out how that really helped them, versus setting resources and time aside to developing another platform at the same time, that would have ultimately downgraded what they could have done, or delay the game out to who knows when.

[Ironmike]

It's only a timed exclusive it ends in May feel free to check

[mkis007]

Ironmike

Let me know how remake plays on xbox will you? Are the controls good?😶

[Babadook7]

“It's only a timed exclusive it ends in May feel free to check“

And if Rebirth is like Remake don’t count on the game actually coming to PC in May. Who knows how long it will take to develop. Remake took longer than the exclusivity deal. There’s no announcement either.

[Christopher]

***It's only a timed exclusive it ends in May feel free to check ***

SIE says they're not timed. Feel free to check.

[Asterphoenix]

Ironmike

It will be the same case as with FF7 Remake. It will drop on PC sometime after the PS timed exclusivity is up. The recent news of it being a PlayStation console exclusive is highly likely true with lots of Sony people had a hand in support the development of these titles. Which is shown in the credits of those titles which other Square multiplatform titles don't.

[blacktiger]

But you went out of the way,
THAT'S A HUGE SUCCESS

[Ironmike]

Same as u congrats

[KwietStorm_BLM]

You either didn't read the interview at all or you just didn't get it.

[Juancho51]

Just cause you don’t think it’s true doesnt make it so. Final Fantasy 7 and other titles have been Sony exclusives and have utilized the hardware and systems specifically so they could push boundaries and not succopmb to lowest common denominators. Sony’s partnership with them on these projects is very obviously breneficial to the game and the gamers alike, the final product is a testament. We all played FF7 on PS1, if i didnt already have a PS5 i would’ve bought one just for these titles because of how much i loved ff7.

[derek]

@Snook, not saying your opinion is irrelevant but SE opinion holds way more weight.

[Michiel1989]

Square has more incentive to lie/give a skewed view though, they are the one benefitting from it the most.
It's kinda insane how you all gobble up pr talk like hungry turkeys. No matter the result of their partnership, they would have always talked positive about it. No company would ever say anything negative, especially not so short after launch or you might as well start pouring gasoline over your money.

[Games_People_Play]

That nice little 💰 Sony gave them for exclusivity, probably didn’t hurt either.

[z2g]

I agree. An exclusive intentionally limits who can play it. You’ll get disagrees because loyalty supersedes logic amongst the diehards. What’s objectivity, anyway….

[lelo2play]

Square Enix basically belong to Sony...

[DarXyde]

Well known fact that games sell hardware. But it is also true that people look to maximize their hardware investment over the course of a few years and buy in before there's much to play yet.

We'll get an idea of how much Rebirth drives PS5 sales by end of March. Since it's a late month release, we'll have a better idea in March.

If PS5 sales are high, we can assume people held off on getting a PS5 until Rebirth.

If PS5 sales remain within the typical estimates with high Rebirth sales, the game is likely being sold to an existing install base.

[TwoPicklesGood]

lol

[Tacoboto]

FFXV was open world and released on the weak as heck Xbox One S day and date with everything else.

Ubisoft titles... Red Dead Redemption 2... Hogwarts Legacy... GTA V on the 360 and PS3.

No. Being exclusive isn't the reason it's a seamless map.

[The Wood]

reflex reactionary cap

[MrNinosan]

Just admit you have not played Rebirth, if you compare it's open world with FFXV.

[Tacoboto]

I haven't played yet - decided to start Armored Core VI instead, but the Special Edition came in and is awaiting install.

But I have been playing games, that have been multiplatform and open-world, since the 360 era. This developer comment makes no sense and seems insulting to the dev team actually.

[Barlos]

That's a laugh, because that was also the reason why FFXVI didn't perform as well as expected wasn't it?

[Rocketisleague]

Yeah, that was the excuse.

Ff7 is a system seller. Simple as.

[Barlos]

Definitely. Always has been.

[Ironmike]

I don't think it is and I own both games remake and rebirth but iam only giving my op of remake as I haven't played rebirth yet but remake is notva system seller its good game and actually got me into the franchise

[Rocketisleague]

Nobody cares what you think of the game ironmike, or me for that matter. It is factually a system seller. Final fantasy in general used to sell systems. Ff7 in particular is the one that made final fantasy a system seller in the first place. Hence a good remake pushing the nostalgia drug trip over those who didn't get ps5s yet.

Ff16 was actually the point at which I finally got a ps5 myself.

[fsfsxii]

Doesnt help that 16 is pos

[Barlos]

But it's not though

[Shane Kim]

You must be delusional if you think it being on xbox would make any difference. FFXVI was sadly written off from the get go.

[Barlos]

It wouldn't. Xbox doesn't do JRPGs. I did think it was a great game though. Sure it was a departure from typical FF formula, but it was no less enjoyable. To me at least.

[Ironmike]

Exactly it bs article

[FinalFantasyFanatic]

Considering Rebirth's success, I sometimes wonder if FF16 isn't as good as people make it out to be, I haven't played it so I can't say for sure.

[slate91]

Yeah the lump sum they're getting from Sony is definitely key to their success.

[DarkZane]

You're incredibly delusional if you think it would have made a difference if it was on Xbox.

[slate91]

Selling anything to an install base of 30+ million will make a difference. This website got you gassed up.

[mkis007]

Go look up sales splits for games, then go look up sales splits for japanese games...xbox sells like a tenth of what the same japanese game sells on playstation.

[Sephiroushin]

if we go by crisis core numbers not even a margin of error difference!

[porkChop]

Considering Xbox isn't getting the FF7 remake trilogy, did you really expect the Xbox fanbase to buy the prequel?

[Sephiroushin]

@pork
are you asking me, really?
Well, I dont expect xbox fanbase to buy them at all even if it was coming to xbox same day release... now a days xbox gamers would first ask if it was coming to gamepass, get told "no", then proceed to wait for it to come to gamepass sometime ...

[MrNinosan]

@porkChop
Crisis Core has nothing to do with Remake.
It's a prequel to Final Fantasy VII, which is available on Xbox, but that didn't sell either.

[S2Killinit]

I think anyone who wants to minimize costs of production would be smart to release on PlayStation, as opposed to xbox.

Considering that xbox base doesnt play games like FF relative to PlayStation or Nintendo, why would they want to release on xbox with its 30 million instal base? It would be wiser to release on PlayStation and invest the savings into making a better game.

Incidentally, thats what he is saying in the interview. But someone has to spell it out to people it seems.

[Alos88]

@slate91 Not when the platform in question has a historical indifference to japanese rpgs. Xbox only ever accounted for about 30% of FFXV's lifetime sales, and it's likely Sony's cash incentive for exclusivity more than made up for that.

[MrNinosan]

@Alos88.
FFXV didn't even stand for 10% of the sales on Xbox compared to Playstation.

[Ironmike]

That doesn't make any sense what's so ever iam calling bs on this u release on pc more sales common sense who let's these articles pass sqaure was saying exclusive hurt final fantasy 16

[Ironmike]

I did buy the double pack remake and rebirth on psn haven't played rebirth yet playing remake and just had battle with a haunted house crazy game love it though but it wouldn't have persuaded me to buy ps5 if I didn't have 1 it was a few big games made my want a ps5 gt7 god war 2 returnable horizon last part one and 2 I believe no one came got power to do that but a good couple of games on system definitely makes u want one

[Popsicle]

The Hell House battle in Remake is great. It’s the first battle that they take the training wheels off and at that point you are forced to have a good understanding of the battle mechanics. Otherwise that house will whip your a@!

[Ironmike]

Yeah it was hard especially when u get su ked in door as well great game

[MrNinosan]

Even better on Hard Mode. Then Hell House becomes a "raid boss".

Hard Mode and some VR Battles in Rebirth is even better. This Platinum will be a real challenge

[GoodGuy09]

I really would've loved it if it was on PC day one as well and it'd definitely be more popular as many big streamers play on PC. But whatevs. I get annoyed by the 1080p resolution to get to 60fps in the game. 16 looks and runs bad on the ps5. I wish Square would step it up on their PC game.

[franwex]

Well Sony paid for ff16 one year exclusivity and helped with development a bit.

Rebirth doesn’t have a 1 year exclusivity deal, so maybe it will show up in PC in a few months (or maybe even Xbox, but I doubt it).

[andy85]

16 doesn't look bad in the slightest. Obviously not GOW or Horizon standard but looking bad? Absolutely not.

[Neonridr]

so having your game release on less systems is why it's so successful?

[purple101]

yeh cos' it only just about runs on ps5, imagine how much of a joke it would be on series s,

[Neonridr]

that doesn't equate to more sales ironically. There are a bunch of Series X owners who wouldn't buy a PS5 for one game. So that's sales they missed out on.

[z2g]

That makes like zero sense.
They are basically saying “this game is a success bc we chose to intentionally limit who could play it”. Exclusive games will almost always sell less than multiplatform games. Exclusives primary purpose are to sell consoles, that’s why they are exclusive to their respective consoles. It’s a calculated marketing maneuver. But bc it’s limited to one console, nobody else can play it.

Obviously PlayStation is the leading platform , but there are still millions and millions of Xbox players out there who would have also purchased the game….

In no way does that point reflect reality. It could have been even MORE successful.

[Shane Kim]

Sales from other jrpg's don't show that.

[cooperdnizzle]

Your comment is what doesn't actually reflect reality. There are plenty of exclusive games that sell much better than multi platform games. Grow a brain and do your own research.

Also even more out of reality, thinking there are millions of people who would buy on Xbox. Not a Jrpg. They didn't even do the kingdom heart remasters for Xbox because the one time they tried it cost more money to make it for the console then the ended up selling.

I get it some people like to make up their own reality and push it as truth. You are sadly one of those people.

[helicoptergirl]

Imagine designing this game to work on the Series S ?? Yeah, it's better where it is, as an exclusive. People who don't want to buy a PS5 can just wait for the PC version.

[chronoforce]

Less platforms less problems I suppose. I would have imagined making the game with an engine that already has tools and features to support multiplatform development would have allowed the team to jump that hurdle.

[Asterphoenix]

Multiplatform development would of took a extra 2 years at least plus without the extra development support from Sony. I knew it from the start Square and Sony had been possibly discussing this since around the PS3 FF7 tech demo was shown or around before the remasters got revealed at the nintendo direct years ago for consoles.

[Ironmike]

Do u know that game is only a timed exclusive it runs out in May its well documented so u probably see a pc version at some point this yr or next

[Asplundh]

It may come to pc but it was confirmed yesterday that Sony had secured the whole trilogy as console exclusives.

[Ironmike]

Not fo pc they done so it can't go on console but that was a while ago so I do t know if that still stands

[SDuck]

The only positive for them is that they only need to quality control one version of the game instead of risking a buggy release but I'm 100% positive sales would've been even better if it had a wide release across all platforms (unless again, if it was all buggy)

[Tzuno]

Square should get their asses in gear and remake Vagrant Story asap!

[Hofstaderman]

Yes please and Xenogears

[lelo2play]

* facepalm *

[GhostScholar]

That makes no sense. Even if Xbox is as void of players as this site tries to portray it, I think it’s near impossible that it wouldn’t sell more if it was on everything.

[Charlieboy333]

Making it for 'everything' would have increased the time and development cost significantly. Plus they would have had to make sure it runs on the series S. which would have limited them and caused massive headaches just to release a crap running/looking version of their game.

PS5 exclusivity allowed them to focus on creating the best game they could in the shortest amount of time.....the funds and support from Sony helped with this even more. Now that they have produced their ideal version of the game they can take more time to work on making a PC version, but forget about it releasing on xbox.

You have the ball-and-chain series S to thank for that and it's no one's fault except Microsoft's for making xbox development impractical with that weak shit and their parity clause. It REALLY isn't that hard to understand and makes complete sense!

[GhostScholar]

We’re not talking about a game that pushes the envelope graphically or gameplay wise. It’s a remake of a 30 year old game. It looks fine and plays fine but it wouldnt be hard to run on series s or even ps4 or Xbox one. Nice try though.

[BillyCrystals]

Could this game or FF16 even run on a Series S? A console that makes up around 75% of the Xbox userbase (according to Microsoft).

[Charlieboy333]

Nope and it wouldn't even have been the same game if it was designed to work on the series S with it's crappy memory limitations.

[OneLove]

Sounds more like laziness but I'm one to talk cuz I wouldn't of bought it anyways lol

[Ironmike]

I thought it was 50/50

[franwex]

Sony not only secured console exclusivity for a limited time period after release but also paid for EXCLUSION from Xbox. Meaning that they paid Square to not bring the trilogy. According to the court documents from the Activision purchase anyway.

I’m not sure about how accurate that report is and things have changed a lot from then. I doubt the games would appear on Xbox for other reasons (parity with series s). Essentially the PS5 is the lead platform and it’s designed with the ps5 in mind which makes initial development easier.

[DefaultComment]

*sigh* I'm just gonna say it, Square Enix just shot themselves in the foot.

[CrimsonWing69]

I saw an article saying it hasn’t sold very well.

[DefaultComment]

Hence why I said that Square Enix just shot themselves in the foot.

[TheEroica]

The game is a sales let down in Japan....

[Christopher]

Sold less than pandemic high game on PS4 with much wider market reach = sales let down even though it is chart topper and selling over 18x more than the second game on the list.

With figures like this and comparing to the numbers of last games in the series, almost all games are let downs. We should just shutter the industry.

[CrimsonWing69]

Isn’t selling significantly worse than the the previous entry bad, no matter if it’s first in charts or not? It’s like the movie industry… a movie can be a complete and total financial flop but still be number 1 in the box office. This is about return on investment. Helldivers 2 has done 3 mill+, we need to wait and see how this did globally, but it’s straight up a bummer that a game this massive and amazing is selling poorly. I don’t want Square to look at these games as “volatile” and then look at some GaaS game and say, “this is what we need to do instead!”

[Christopher]

Crimson, they called it a let down. If a game sells enough to make profit, is it a let down even off it's less than the first game in only the first week and knowing that sequels sell worse? What is bad for a sequel reliant on people having played and finished the first? It's not the same level as the first game which has no barrier for entry at all.

[46player]

PS5 is better, thats why.

[neomahi]

Xbox sales suck and Final Fantasy is synonymous with PlayStation, always has been. Nobody talks about Final Fantasy on Nintendo at all except for Final Fantasy III on the American Super Nintendo

[UltimateOwnage]

Agreed.

[Bathyj]

Not sure who this helped not being on Xbox. /S

Oh, it helped the people who made it and the console its on. As well as their fans.

See how that works.

[Hedstrom]

I think exclusively can cause a hype that wouldnt be if it wasnt. And since FF games sells alot more on Playstation i think its the obvious choice. But i dont think the game would have sold less if it included Xbox. However a sure shot in the foot would have been to be exclusive to Xbox.

[gold_drake]

say what u want, but sony and square know the influence ff7 has had and still has and do everything to make it sell.

ms or nintendo dont know that. there is no history.

[anast]

This is a good choice. Imagine the headache dealing with the Xbox S.