The Redmond-based company must have done something wrong if the Japanese publisher prefers Sony.

Sony and Nintendo had an almost trouble-free relationship with Square Enix in the previous decade. Still, by the 2010s, Microsoft had found common ground with the publisher, with several of their games eventually appearing on Xbox consoles. It seems to have changed again in the last few years. There are concrete examples of it happening: Forspoken (whose developers, Luminous Productions, were merged into the publisher… ) has been released only for PlayStation 5 and PC, Final Fantasy XVI will also be released first for PS5 and then six months later for PC; the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster games will be coming soon to PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch and Octopath Traveler II is skipping Xbox…

On Windows Central, Jez Corden wrote that “something is functionally wrong” regarding Microsoft’s relationship with Square Enix, and on Twitter he suggested that Microsoft was to blame for the breakdown in the relationship. If that’s the case, Square Enix is being professional about it because we’re not hearing anything from them, and they’re not even suggesting that Xbox isn’t a good place for the publisher’s games. (There’s been a previous case of a Japanese developer and Microsoft having a bad relationship, and then PlatinumGames’ Xbox One-exclusive Scalebound ended up in the bin…)

In the case of Final Fantasy XVI, Sony is co-developing so the project can be completed faster, while Octopath Traveler II is not on Microsoft’s platform because the publisher is looking into the Xbox sales of its other games. On the other hand, if Sony is so close to Square Enix, it’s probably not a coincidence that we’re hearing that the publisher could be acquired by Sony (and they have at least $5 billion for such transactions, and that’s about what the Japanese company is worth…).

Source: WCCFTech