Square Enix & Microsoft: The Honey Moon Period Is Over

Square Enix and Microsoft have a rather strange relationship quite akin to that of a roller coaster. Early on in the current generation's life, Square Enix was happy to offer their games on Microsoft's system, distributing exclusive titles like The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Star Ocean: The Last Hope - now also on the PlayStation 3 - and just recently Final Fantasy XIII was released on both major consoles. Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada explained it as a way of expanding their audience. So then why isn't Final Fantasy XIV heading down the same route as well?

[NYC_Gamer]

most of the 360 fanbase doesnt even care about these kinda games

[DasBunker]

indeed all they want is teh shootzors!

[RememberThe357]

But I have friends that are big 360 gamers and they spend a lot of time plays sports game as well. I've played so much FIFA the last few weeks it's ridiculous.

[El_Colombiano]

Actually, yeah. Show me sale numbers for any game that got even near what Halo 3 sold that isn't a shooter.

BTW, don't worry. I'm not expecting an answer. There isn't one.

[- Ghost of Sparta -]

Square-Enix saw the kind of reaction that ensued after FFXIII sucked and realized that it only sucked because of all the compromises they had to make for it to run on weaker hardware. No towns, linear missions, no shops, and just nothing to do until the last couple chapters.

R.I.P SE if Versus goes multi.

[Rush]

Why are PS3 users that have most likely never even touched a 360 in there life talking about what the 360 fans want.

Your all nothing but bloody trolls and idiots, I have loads of friends that love JRPG's on the 360.

Seriously I lose hope for humanity every time I see a PS3 fanboy on here going on about how 360 users only like shooters, at the same time saying how amazing KillZone 3 is going to be.

Make up your minds you stupid moronic trolls.

[wages of sin]

Is good for the gander then because shooters are the top sellers on the PS3 as well with everything else taking a distant second. The fact of the matter is, while many of my fellow PS3 owners like to think they are part of some high minded gaming elite, they aren't. The fact of the matter is regardless of platform, certain genres don't get community support that others do. Case in point, look at UC1 and 2. UC went vastly under noticed and UC2 didn't fair any better until it started getting so many awards.

With the exception of exclusives (MAG, Killzone2 etc) FPS's are better on the 360 in my opinion. With exception, if a a game is multi-plat, I buy it on my 360. FFXIII being the exception. However, with more devs getting used to (and being able to afford) working on the PS3, going forward, if a multi-plat is better on PS3, I'll be more prone to bite.

[Mr_Bun]

Pro Tip:
"Your" is not the same as "You're"

I'm sure you were too busy calling people "idiots", "stupid", "moronic" to notice
/FACEPALM

[MRMagoo123]

@Rush the difference is even tho killzone3 is going to be great and better looking than anything the 360 can handle ps3 owners still buy other games thats why there are no games that dominate the sales on the ps3 all games sell well, the 360 has halo thats all it has that sells amazing numbers thats why its known as a console for ppl that like twitch no skill shooters. Ill put it in a way even a 360 owner can understand in the ps3 basket you have 50 easter eggs with 10 different flavors in the 360 basket you have 50 easter eggs but only 2 different flavors now if you where to sell these eggs from each basket you would find with logical thought involved that the ps3 eggs would all sell but the numbers would be distributed evenly more or less in the 360 basket there would be high sales on both flavours making it seem like they get alot higher sales than the ps3 ones. i hope you can understand this if not maybe ask a teacher about it or your mum perhaps.

[MR LOOKINGBILL]

just like ps3 fanboys....LOL

[Snakefist30]

U got nothing better to do besides talking Bullsh**t things abut ps3 fanboys.

[UltraNova]

MS will allow SE to release FF Versus on the 360 in return for not allowing them to release FFonline ;)

[sikbeta]

The guys at SE, especially Wada are the worst, they betrayed their Real Fans for more money, they thought that in order to "sell more" they needed to change = weternize those old School Franchises Squaresoft made and JRPG Fans love just to "appeal" to others and by that, they made a bunch of low quality games unappealing to anyone, cos those who SE were "aiming" to sell don't really care about their games anyway, no matter how much SE change those franchises, the only thing SE obtain is the disappointment of the Real Fans and how they stop supporting those games.

[DarkSpawnClone]

@El_Colombiano

Top 20 console games of all time

The 20 best-selling console/handheld games, not originally bundled with a console/handheld system. Cross-platform sales are not counted.

1. Wii Play (Wii – 27.38 million, Wii remote bundled with all copies)[68]
2. Nintendogs (DS – 23.26 million, all five versions combined)[68]
3. Wii Fit (Wii – 22.61 million)[68]
4. Mario Kart Wii (Wii – 22.55 million)[68]
5. New Super Mario Bros. (DS – 22.49 million)[68]
6. Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow (Game Boy – 20.08 million approximately: 10.23 million in Japan,[48] 9.85 million in US)[19]
7. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! (DS – 18.72 million)[68]
8. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES – 18 million)[97]
9. Mario Kart DS (DS – 17.90 million)[68]
10. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl (DS – 17.39 million)[78]
11. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 - 17.33 million)[104]
12. Wii Sports Resort (Wii – 16.14 million)[68]
13. Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (PS2 – 14.89 million shipped)[93]
14. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii – 14.70 million)[68]
15. Pokémon Gold and Silver (Game Boy Color – 14.51 million approximately: 7.6 million in US,[19] 6.91 million in Japan)[48]
16. Super Mario Land (Game Boy – 14 million)[97]
17. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day! (DS – 13.71 million)[69]
18. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire (GBA – 13 million)[77]
19. Wii Fit Plus (Wii – 12.65 million)[68]
20. Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen (GBA – 11.82 million)[78]

there you go , lots of Nintendo games.. ohh look Gran Turismo ;D ...halo is not on this list. halo is the most sold fps of all time i think but not even close to the most sold game of all time.

[Blaze929]

494,300 first month people who bought FF13 on the Xbox 360. That's still nearly half a million customers for a series to put it's game on the system for the first time ever (besides FF11 MMO). Most games can't even do that in their lifetime this gen. Why would Square ignore even that size of a fanbase - even if it is lackluster to the total amount of 360s sold?

EDIT:

woah wtf is up with the disagrees? sheesh this site's fanbase is ridiculous. You all forget all the end of the say these companies are a business and about money. Not pleasing fanboys.

[NYC_Gamer]

i think in the end sqaure will forget about the xbl policy and release it on 360

[Rush]

Fanboys are not bound by logic Blaze I have made that mistake 1 to many times myself.

You can't reason or have a decision about a topic outside a fanboys belief or simply put in there world you ARE wrong.

[CHARLIEBROWNE]

Even though FF13 sold exceptionally well on the 360, i highly doubt the same people would
1. Buy the game
2. Then pay SE subscription on top of MS subscription.
Microsoft need to quit being so greedy for their customers sake and maybe even their own.

[ZombieAutopsy]

Even though i agree with you i have to somewhat disagree on something you said "You all forget all the end of the say these companies are a business and about money. Not pleasing fanboys. ", they are a business and part of being a business is pleasing share holders and Sony own 9% of SE.

[iamtehpwn]

Don't Marry for money.

[ClownBelt]

BS!

[rockleex]

For money.

Make sure you got Prenup.

[Greywulf]

As does Banjo Kazooie.

Unless a 360 title has a gun in it, its going to fail. Hell more people bought a Gran Turismo Demo than bought a Retail Forza title.

with a smaller install base.

Nothing wrong with it, the facts are that most people bought the 360 for halo, just as they did the Xbox 1, which is why they just barely out sold the defunct Xbox1. Microsoft has a problem expanding their audience because they aren't offering content thats not available next door. Theres nothing NEW to offer 360 customers except Sony associated titles.

Sony offers its own content
as does nitnendo.
Microsoft? Halo... halo.. and more halo.

[Rush]

Lolz nice stealth edit there Greywulf I was about do destroy your logic o well.

[Tricksy]

lol "stealth edit" wow ur life is so full that you care whether someone edits their comment

"stealth edit"- because its really that important

[guzman]

DAyum rite NYC_gamer! I dont givea phuck bout arepgzz juss gimme a gayme Wwere I can shootz Peeps in DA face!! every 3 secondz! I Luv my xBOX360! Now iph ya excuze me I gotta dephend My title az chamPeoN of Halo 3 in ma trailerpark. USA!USA! *smashes a full can of beer into his forehead*

[ZombieAutopsy]

I'm giving you a disagree and taking a bubble away for typing like DiZ.

[MadMan00]

People only assume this because of Halo is on 360, I hate shooters. Most of ym friends hate shooters all my friends that have a PS3...what are they playing? Shooters! Stop with this bull shit you idiots.

Go find some charts it will show PS3s top online game is shooter.

Can't realy find newer charts, but 11 months ago most played ps3 online game was soccom, lol...It's a shooter.

[Millionaire]

"Go find some charts it will show PS3s top online game is shooter. "

Yeah cause there are a lot of RPGs online right? Lol

Dumbass, most of the online multiplayer in consoles are shooters.

[ukilnme]

Total crap, but I expect no less from the PS3 loyalists that infest this site.

[YoungDrack]

ya what ever.

ff13 was destined to suck before it even came out, the characters are unappealing and boring, the environments dont have that final fantasy feelin to them and the overall game just didnt work

[mephman]

I wonder if this will affect any future decisions from Square Enix.

[Hardedge]

Who knows, it seems more like it's an issue with MMOs rather than games from SE in general. They just happen to be making FFXIV an MMO.

[ShawnCollier]

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering.

[Godmars290]

By the sound of it, with Wada making excuses and apologies for and too MS, I'd say no.

Nevermind that they've yet to deliver a game on the 360 says "Square" or that the effort that's gone into those attempts have effected the PS3. The established fanbase in general as they ignore it to make another.

Wada's just an idiot.

[Natsu X FairyTail]

It wasnt a real ''honey moon''. Most of the SE games that came to the Xbox360 were being prepared a long time ago. they dint have the time to put out a PS3 version at the same time. Like most of all the other Rpgs that were once exclusives on xbox.

Edit: disagreeing wont change the fact that what im saying is true.

When they were at the drawing board for games like Tales of vesperia on the xbox360 how could Namco or other devs prepare games for pS3 if it wasnt even out?

[DasBunker]

"how could Namco or other devs prepare games for pS3 if it wasnt even out? "

because consoles launch with 0 games right? because you know how could devs prepare games for X console if it wasnt even out?

[Natsu X FairyTail]

What I'm saying is They obviously had the Dev kits for the Xbox360 games a long time ago way before they had the PS3 ones. So thats a big reason why alot of rpgs came to xbox360 1st then to PS3 after.

[Trroy]

Every business strategy has its ups and downs. I'm sure charging for online play looked like a good idea at the beginning of this gen, and its certainly squeezed a lot of money out of 360 owners, for something that's largely identical and free on PSN (I'm talking online play here).

...we'll see how it turns out by the end of the gen.

[Basil-Rathboner]

If Wada had the brains or the balls he would say this, in the words of Arnie in Total Recall. "Consider that a divorce Micro$haft!"

[jack who]

oh noessss we is dooomedd

[ApocalypseShadow]

more like they cheated on sony after cheating on nintendo years before that.

square is a HO.and this HO went and screwed her bread winner by cheating because she thought the new guy had more money.gold digging b!tch.but the b!tch found out that there was no money for her.may of had her rent paid and got to drive an expensive car,but in the end,the kids(JRPG fans) stayed with sony.

now the cheating HO wants to come back to the bread winner after her adulterous ways.we'll see if the kids still call her mom and accept her @SS and not call her by her first name.

[mirroredderorrim]

Very nice. Love the analogy. +1

[squallheart]

i just had to log in and give you a buble because that had me laughing like an idiot xD

[A LIVING LEGEND]

The waking dream ends......how odd.
How fortunate that it ends,unfortunate it ever began.Can we continue as we once were...?
Let's see. :/

[dkp23]

"Because xbox owners dont care about these games and only want shooters"...A lot care, the problem is, these games are not that good...While I enjoyed Last Remnant, it wasnt that great and fxiii isnt that great....

[SolidSystem]

sorry didnt realize MS and Square had this sort of relationship.

MS is providing a platform
Square enix develops games.

just so happens the 360 got some games this time around. more flaimbait articles trying to make trouble.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

Indeed.Some concerns therein.

[George Sears]

I believe you guys are taking the title a bit out of proportion.

Anyways, MS losing FFXIV is just something they had to in order to maintain there buisness structure with Live. Call it greed but what can ya do.

[blasian]

Even though the chance off FFVersus to go on xbox is 0.1% if M$ keeps acting this way SE will take that .1% away.

[PSjesus]

And let me tell you,SE loves the most popular system in the market....Best of their games are on ds:
TWEWY
DQ4/DQ5/DQ6/DQ9-awesome-/DQjo ker1+2
FF3/FF4 remake
Chrono Triger
2 Kingdom Heart games.
.....SE well be back to SONY's lap when PS3 hit the 50m sale(at that time we'll see KH3)

[supersonicsaga]

We still have to pray that they won't wimp out by releasing KH3 on the wii. That is the only thing I dread.

[GigaGaia]

Final Fantasy XIV isn't the only one not going to 360. Final Fantasy Versus 13 is also not going to 360.

[ukilnme]

Final Fantasy Versus 13 is coming to the 360, I guarantee it. I have inside information. Bookmark this comment.

[mirroredderorrim]

I will book mark this. Let's see how close your insider is to that of an executive(s) that make decisions, and one(s) that may change on a whim.

Edit: if it does go multi, I'm calling shotty Xbox 360 port, 6-12 months after PS3 release.

If it's delayed because they somehow decide to start up a 360 version before releasing it to us in NA and E.U I will guarantee 12 people won't buy it in my circle.

SE's last chance to keeping *me* loyal is FFVSXIII. If they dumb down the experience in any way, I'll finally know SE is nothing more than a name and that I can shed them off as alink on the chain of interest, in this industry. Konami is next and Capcom is getting there as well. OT:RE5 was a joke.

[theunleashed64]

yeah & i can officially confirm that both halo & gears of war are
coming to the wii,3ds,ps3 yep i have inside information bookmark
this comment /s

[Spenok]

Lmao thats pretty much what i was thinking. Though it is completely possible for VS13 to come to the 360. And Gears and Halo have no chance in hell. I would just personally prefer VS13 to stay exclusive.

[oldjadedgamer]

I story goes something like

"OMG FFXIV ISN'T GOING TO BE ON THE 360!!! MS and SE MUST HATE EACH OTHER!!1!"

Well MS made a business decision to keep Live closed. It has nothing to do with MS disliking SE or vice versa.

I'm sure that FF13v would have already been announced as multi if Nomura had not been pro PS3. I think that decision could go either way.

Expect all SE games not developed by Nomura to be multiplat

[drdre74]

Thats why I dont play online games on 360. Im not paying for a gold account plus now that games are charging to play online if you buy a used game or if i borrow a game from a friend. I'm not double paying.

[palaeomerus]

The article says that Last Remnant was an exclusive? It was planned as multiplatforma nd the Sony version was cancelled after the 360 version bombed.

2ndly FF XI is on the 360 so claiming that FF XIV would break a precedent that would change Live forever isn't quite true.

[mephman]

Erm, The Last Remnant was planned as a timed exclusive and the PS3 version never appeared, thus it's an exclusive.

Also, while Final Fantasy XI is on the Xbox 360, it doesn't require an Xbox Live gold account. Final Fantasy XIV would.

[Spenok]

Erm, The Last Remnant was released on the PC, thus it's NOT an exclusive.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

FFXIV will likely require a fee on psn
However,you don't pay for psn.That 40$ a year gold subscription can be instead spent elsewhere.

[Spenok]

It wont "likely" require a fee, it will. They have already announced this. Its $12.99 a month.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

Have some 'information' of my own.
If vs. goes the way of money it can forget mine and many others.NO MORE second rate multis in a world filled with second rate fools.plz

:/ Bookmark this comment,.

[The_Zeitgeist]

Great intelligent article.

[Sez]

I said it before I'll say it again. I'm getting the Pc version in September. All this ps3fanboys acting like this is some kind of ownage becuase it's not on the 360. The ps3 version won't be out until march.which give them alot if time to get MS to agree to it. I'm sure square and MS will cont. Their talks in trying to get it in the 360 since they already started working on it.

But in the meantime I will be enjoying in September with a couple of other great title.

[ATi_Elite]

yeh most companies jumped on the 360 bandwagon after seeing Halo 3 do 10 million in sales but the only other game to do 5 million in sales or better is Halo: odst and Call of Duty and GTA IV.

All others 3 million or less

[GodGinrai]

MS really need to be more shrewd in terms of how they spend their money. the biggest games this gen do not come from square enix. i understand MS want to crack the japanese market but clearly buying up jrpg does not work...so why are MS still in talks with them..they would be better off spending that money on stuff that could expand their market share in europe/US. The 360 could do better in these regions and MS dont need to spend millions on jrpgs to do it.

If MS had more inhouse studios they could have just made there own MMO`s. MS is a very confusing company to watch..

[megazeroxuxm]

well, i'm just glad to have SE back on sony's side, and also on the pc's side. we all know that the only console that's fit to walk along side with PC right now is the PS3, and that's how it should be, no need for xbox to come in and create a horrendous foursome.

[jneul]

SE are just trying to avoid the real issue why they are not putting it on the 360, they already are having problems trying to fit FFXIV on ps3, do you honestly think they can fit it on the 360, remember how much that game was gimped on fit on the 360 and it was not even an open world game, good luck to 360 gamers wanting this because I still think 360 cannot do FFXIV.

[Capt-FuzzyPants]

Square should just stay with sony. the ps3 can handle so much more than the xbox 360.