Square Enix intends to release “more and more” of its games simultaneously on Xbox going forward. In a recent interview, Final Fantasy producer and industry legend Naoki Yoshida said that the Japanese studio would follow a multi-platform release strategy for more of its future titles. Square Enix has stuck to launching its recent games exclusively on the PS5, but its biggest titles have fallen short of expectations.
Yoshida, fondly known as Yoshi-P, made the comments in an interview with 4Gamer following the Tokyo Game Show, ahead of the release of Square Enix’s Fantasian Neo Dimension. The role-playing title first launched as Fantasian on Apple devices via Apple Arcade in 2021. The game, developed by Mistwalker and published by Square, is now coming to PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox and PlayStation platforms on December 5.
“Of course, we want you to play the game on other platforms as well,” Yoshida said about the game releasing on PC and consoles. “This time, the Xbox Series X|S version will be released at the same time. In the future, Square Enix will release more and more titles simultaneously on each platform, and this is close to the first installment, so I hope Xbox users will play it as well,” he added (translated from Japanese).
Yoshida’s comments come just over a month after he said he’d like to see Final Fantasy XVI release on Xbox consoles. The action-RPG released exclusively on the PS5 in 2023, before making its way to PC in September 2024. An Xbox port of the game is yet to be confirmed by Square Enix.
“Of course we did announce the PC version of the game, so looking towards the Xbox version, we do want to release it on Xbox,” Yoshida had said in an interview in September. “But when it comes to the specifics such as when the game would be available and such, we are not in a position to be able to share anything.”
Earlier this year, Square Enix experienced its biggest quarterly decline in 13 years after its recent big-budget games underperformed commercially. Sales of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI and Foamstars — all exclusive launches on PlayStation — fell short of the company’s expectations in both revenue and profit.
As a result, the publisher said it would abandon its PlayStation exclusive strategy and instead launch its biggest games simultaneously on all platforms, including PC, Xbox and Nintendo Switch.