What you need to know
- Naoki Yoshida (a.k.a. Yoshi-P), the director and producer of Square Enix’s popular MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV, was recently interviewed by Eurogamer about the possibility of Square Enix bringing more of their titles to Xbox.
- During the interview, Naoki Yoshida confirmed that Square Enix desires to bring more of its games to Xbox consoles and strengthen its relationship with the Xbox community of players.
- In addition, our managing editor, Jez Corden, recently interviewed the developers of Final Fantasy 16 and discovered hints that we could soon see more Final Fantasy games on Xbox.
On August 28, 2024, the gaming website Eurogamer interviewed Naoki Yoshida (a.k.a. Yoshi-P), the director and producer of Square Enix’s popular MMORPG, Final Fantasy 14. Eurogamer and Yoshi-P discussed Square Enix’s newfound ongoing mission to bring more of their titles to Xbox consoles during this interview.
In the interview, Naoki Yoshida states that thanks to Final Fantasy 14’s successful launch on Xbox consoles, Square Enix would like to “further deepen the relationship with Xbox gamers.” He then goes on to say that the number of Final Fantasy fans on Xbox consoles declined in the years after Final Fantasy 15 was released in 2016.
However, with the “really strong reception” Final Fantasy 14’s Xbox port has (as Naoki Yoshida describes it), he says, and I quote from the interview:
With Final Fantasy 14 as an opportunity, we can take this opportunity to strengthen the community on Xbox towards the Final Fantasy franchise. I think this is where we would take more communication and work on establishing the community moving forward. And this is important, not for Final Fantasy 14, but, I would say, for Square Enix. With Final Fantasy 14’s release on Xbox, Phil Spencer spent a lot of his time and a lot of effort and put in a lot of hard work into making it a reality. So we would like to make the best of that and further deepen the relationship with Xbox gamers moving forward.
Naoki Yoshida also mentions that Xbox consoles have often struggled to find success due to the lack of people playing them. However, he says that Square Enix aims to change that with their recent newfound business strategy of releasing games on multiple platforms to attract as many players as possible to play their titles. Naoki Yoshida then says, and I quote:
So with Final Fantasy 14 as the starting point, we do want to release more Square Enix games on Xbox, and there will be more of our titles released on Xbox. So I hope players will look forward to future things to come on the platform.”
In recent years, Final Fantasy fans on Xbox consoles have been missing out on critically acclaimed Square Enix titles like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Final Fantasy 16, and Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, to name a few, due to timed PlayStation exclusivity and their release on other platforms like the PC.
With Naoki Yoshida’s statement provided in this interview, as well as hinting at the idea of bringing Final Fantasy 16 to Xbox consoles after the PC version is finished during Noisy Pixel’s interview, the possibility of these Final Fantasy titles and others coming to Xbox consoles may finally become a reality.
What compounds the likelihood of these highly-requested Xbox ports happening is that our managing editor, Jez Corden, interviewed the developers of Final Fantasy 16, and they stated they would like to see that game come to Xbox in the future. Also, during Jez Corden’s most recent podcast livestream, he hinted that games like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 16 could be gearing up for an Xbox debut.
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More Square Enix games on Xbox please
As a long-time Final Fantasy fan, I, too, desire to see more Final Fantasy games come to Xbox consoles. I’m excited to hear about Naoki Yoshida’s interview and Jez Cordon’s hint that it may finally happen. While playing Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 16 on Xbox would be fantastic, I would love to see an Xbox port of Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster.
Playing remastered versions of the first six Final Fantasy titles on the go via Xbox Cloud Gaming would be amazing. They would also make great additions to Xbox Game Pass’ vast library of games alongside other beloved Xbox JRPGs like Dragon Quest XI, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Persona 3: Reload, and more.
However, we must wait to see if Square Enix can deliver its promise and bring these beloved titles to Xbox consoles. In the meantime, you can keep yourself busy by checking out Square Enix’s upcoming Xbox title/upcoming PC title, Visions of Mana, which is scheduled to launch this week on August 29, 2024. Plus, there’s the free playable demo you can download right now for the PC port of Final Fantasy 16, which will released on September 17, 2024.
