‘We have a great relationship with Yoshida’
The ballad of Final Fantasy XIV on Xbox might finally be hitting its crescendo.
For years it’s been a battle of policy between Sony and Microsoft, with the former refusing to play nice with the latter with cross-play, and Microsoft allegedly requiring archaic rules that prevented certain games from integrating with each other. But with the cross-play walls officially coming down with games like Fornite, Rocket League and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the ball is in Microsoft’s court to settle all that up. Cue Ron Howard’s voice: “they are.”
Although it wasn’t technically part of the X019 briefing, Phil Spencer spoke to press specifically about Final Fantasy XIV (with the context of bringing a whopping 10 Final Fantasy games to the Xbox platform), stating that it was going to happen, definitively. When? Who knows!
Here’s the full, unmistakable quote from Spencer: “I wanted you to know, rest assured that we will be bringing that game to Xbox…we have a great relationship with Yoshida-san and we’re working through what it means to bring [to Xbox] a cross-platform MMO that they’ve run for years.” See, definitive!
It’s no secret that Phantasy Star Online 2 greased the wheels for this move, and Phil Spencer has been aggressively pushing a more open ecosystem for Microsoft. Look no further than DualShock 4 compatibility for Project xCloud on PC! So many strides have been made this generation thanks to Microsoft and Sony finally working together, and that only means good things for the next generation.
Which, mind, will probably be when Microsoft will be hosting Final Fantasy XIV. Project Scarlett is only a year away, and Microsoft is only in the planning stages for bringing the game to Xbox (note that Spencer also does not say “Xbox One” here). It stands to reason that Square Enix would make a next-generation version of the game (which was already available on PS3 in the past), as it has many years left in it, and Shadowbringers will still be active when the new consoles are out. A 2021 next-gen expansion would be perfect timing.
The Final Fantasy series is coming to Xbox Game Pass [The Verge]
