Kirby64

Member
Aug 16, 2020
156
I've also seen people speculate that Switch 2 support will fall off a cliff in 2028/2029 when the ps6/nextbox launch. The entire industry (minus Nintendo) is seemingly having a coming to Jesus moment on inflating budgets not offsetting increased production costs, and we've had the longest period of cross gen ever, but the moment next gen consoles launch the whole industry will double down on the same mistakes that got them here.
This could certainly happen to some devs - but some companies, mainly Japanese ones? They aren't missing the gravy train this time. Nintendo is the only truly relevant platform left in Japan.
 

Tea-Stance

Member
Feb 11, 2024
376
I have no problem with this as long as the weakest system (switch 2) doesn't compromise the dev vision/game design.

I'd guess it's mostly load time / ssd stuff like ratchet dimension/portal hopping etc)

I can't think of much else tbh that I've played this gen that probably couldn't have been done on ps4/pro (rumoured switch 2 specs) without just dropping fps/resolution/texture quality.

Squares decisions have been weird to say the least. Like Octopath Traveller releasing on the Strada of all things and not even on ps4, but OT2 launching with ps4/ps5 versions. Just baffling lol

Hopefully Switch 2 has decent settings. Late PS4 games look perfectly fine for me, but I'm not buying some retro-ass crap looking graphics.

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Duxxy3

Member
Oct 27, 2017
22,088
USA
I would have already bought Rebirth if it was on Steam. I originally bought Remake on PS5, but didn't play it. I bought it again on PC and played straight through. So now I'm waiting on the PC version of Rebirth.

I'd probably buy FFXVI on PC as well.

I don't know how many sales they'll pick up on Xbox. Hard to say because they have never consistently released games on Xbox enough to build up any sort of base there.
 
Jun 10, 2018
8,969
This response is why our gaming industry is crumbling. Keep pushing for higher fidelity, everything else be dammed. Why not focus on creating a great game?
Yep, and this is why I insist gamers are partly culpable in creating the current climate of the gaming industry.

How you can be cognizant of the unsustainability of AAA development and yet still insist on that level of resource allocation is indicative of core gamers *only* being able to measure quality by the high dollar figure and whether a game sports all the latest graphical effects. Anything less than that and it's clear it's a problem.
 

FrostweaveBandage

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Sep 27, 2019
6,990
This response is why our gaming industry is crumbling. Keep pushing for higher fidelity, everything else be dammed. Why not focus on creating a great game?
I mean, I have no problem with it, personally, and for the most part I don't even have an eye for it. Just speaking generally about how people react to Switch ports having reduced fidelity. If the sales increases override the online chatter, then it's great for all involved.

With apologies to John and the rest of the guys, I am anxiously looking forward to an era where we don't need DF to "proof" every title that's released.
 

JustALurker

Member
Feb 12, 2019
1,027
That's not I call barely...

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The game lost a lot a stuff, geometry was reduced, texture was lower res, shadow map was changed, shadow resolution was reduced, lightning reduce or altered, reflexion and SSR was lost.
I don't see a problem, one is running on a more powerful machine while one is on a handheld.

I know for a lot of people games are about pushing the cutting edge but it's a business at the end of the day. Studios and publishers will have to choose if they want to develop for high-end PC's only; or try and meet in the middle with additional platforms and make more money.
 

mlk1227

Member
Jan 31, 2021
1,131
My only question about them returning to Nintendo is how are they going to make their top-tier games look good when they're pushing the PS5 to its limits, certainly now that we think the Switch 2 is still not as powerful as XSX/PS5.
I think everyone is jumping the gun… we don't know if this new strategy means that a game like Rebirth would be day one Switch 2 (especially since the developers have talked about the ease of sticking to one platform). They could be talking about other HD games in the pipeline like IX Remake which may have been planned for just PS.

I don't think SE would suddenly have Part 3 take a quality dive from Remake and Rebirth just to fit on Switch 2. They def mean PC and Xbox (depending on whatever state Xbox is in by that point). At the same time though we need to see Switch 2 in action, for all we know Rebirth could function just fine on it (which would be great since they need those sales).
 

GhostTrick

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,517
I've also seen people speculate that Switch 2 support will fall off a cliff in 2028/2029 when the ps6/nextbox launch. The entire industry (minus Nintendo) is seemingly having a coming to Jesus moment on inflating budgets not offsetting increased production costs, and we've had the longest period of cross gen ever, but the moment next gen consoles launch the whole industry will double down on the same mistakes that got them here.

I have a hard time seeing that. Considering we're still seeing a lot of cross-gen titles (or current gen titles only that barely make any leap visually), I have to wonder if PS5/Series X will even be left out, considering the gap in power will be even smaller.
 

Kyrios

Member
Oct 27, 2017
15,001
I don't know how many sales they'll pick up on Xbox. Hard to say because they have never consistently released games on Xbox enough to build up any sort of base there.

Eh let's be fair, this pivot is more about not wanting to miss the Switch 2 train and the current PC one. Potential Xbox versions are a happy side effect of this.
 

Spehornoob

Member
Nov 15, 2017
9,060
Great to hear. It's clear exclusivity was no longer working for the FF brand.

Still, I think the biggest thing they have to do is find out how to get mainline numbered titles out more consistently. It was eight years between FFXV and FFXVI, they lost a whole generation of kids between mainline titles.

Have CBU3 and CBU1 alternately release mainline titles once the latter is finished with the Remake trilogy, each iterating on their own style of game but also taking inspiration from one another where appropriate. Get a mainline FF out every 3-4 years instead of 8, on as many platforms as possible.
 

KanameYuuki

Member
Dec 23, 2017
2,681
Colombia
I don't see a problem, one is running on a more powerful machine while one is on a handheld.

I know for a lot of people games are about pushing the cutting edge but it's a business at the end of the day. Studios and publishers will have to choose if they want to develop for high-end PC's only; or try and meet in the middle with additional platforms and make more money.

And it is specially a dumb comparison when the core gameplay is exactly the same and if anything it shows how scalable games can be, make for the weakest hardware and give all the bell and whistles to the rest, weak PCs would play the game and the strong hardware should have much better performance, everyone wins.
 

Mr Evil 37

Member
Mar 7, 2022
11,950
Did they though? I mean, most of those games are free on the sub service. Do we know if they've been successful on the platform when people have to buy them day 1 at full price?
They were on Game Pass, but then the next entries were not, and they seemed to sell very well. Put backlist titles on Game Pass to create an audience, then sell new entries to them.
 

Kuro

Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,163
I guess I have to ask how different is this creative studio thing vs CBUs really? It seems like CBU3 for example went like unchanged. Is it just x producer can only work on y or something I'm not really seeing the difference. Maybe I'm just pea brain tho.
They moved marketing from CBU-specific to a single branch and Kitase is no longer manager of CBU1 - Hamaguchi (the game director of Remake project) was made manager of the renamed Creative Studio 1. CBU3/CS3 seems to have gone untouched besides the name because they are still printing money with YoshiP as head. CBU2/CS2 moved the head Dragon Quest producer into a role in the mobile division which I think is CBU4/CS4.

They also seemed to have pulled back on producer power and put more power in the hands of game studio management like directors. Also something about restructuring HR and better educational/developmental programs for new devs.
 

beebop

Member
May 30, 2023
1,870
I don't think anyone expect the PS version to not be the biggest sellers anytime soon. Nor to expect the Xbox SKU to sell that much. The point is when you combine multiple platforms, you get substantially more sales. Even if one platform represents 60% of the sales, why would you spit on 40% of the rest of your sales ?
I mean that even if you consider the delta in install base, the market for the games you've withheld from that platform is going to be disproportionately lower.
 

Remeran

Member
Nov 27, 2018
3,914
Did they though? I mean, most of those games are free on the sub service. Do we know if they've been successful on the platform when people have to buy them day 1 at full price?
Why do you think MS is paying for those games to be on their service? They even went back and re-upped the agreement after it expired. The clear answer for Sega is that MS is paying good money, and the clear answer for MS is that the games are doing good numbers.

Sega is putting in the work and clearly seeing the dividends otherwise they would have stopped a while ago.
 

Clippy

Member
Feb 11, 2022
2,231
Did they though? I mean, most of those games are free on the sub service. Do we know if they've been successful on the platform when people have to buy them day 1 at full price?
The answer is yes. During launch month Infinite Wealth ranked slightly higher on the Xbox Circana chart than it did on the PS chart. The PS release will have sold a bigger number still, because it's the bigger platform, nevertheless in the most relevant Xbox market the latest Yakuza game did just as well as it did on a relative to other games as it did on PS. Nothing to suggest it had some genre disadvantage compared to PlayStation.
 

Charpunk

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,722
Would be super rad to get FF games on PC day and date. Loved FFXVI but the PS5 version was just....not terrific at times.
 

Spork4000

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
8,668
If anything, we should be happy things are going to switch 2. Competent switch 2 versions means actually good resolutions and frame rates on PS5 and Series X|S.
 

CenaToon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,442
People just about sony exclusives, but i hope this message also applies for dragon quest games. Free the games from Nintendo's shackles Square Enix for fucks sake.
 

BassForever

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
30,109
CT
Does this strategy include Switch exclusive games?
My guess is games that wouldn't happen at all without a publisher stepping in to foot most/all of the bill like Mario RPG or Bayonetta 2/3 stay exclusive, timed exclusive deals like we've seen for things like 7 Remake or Live A Live probably go the way of the dodo. I also expect when a company like Nintendo or Sony kept the source code for something those remasters or collections will stay exclusive (see Castlevania SotN and the early Mana games).
 

Mass Effect

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 31, 2017
16,972
I know everyone keeps mentioning Sony, but I wonder if this also means no more Switch and EGS exclusives as well? Everyone seems to forget that Nintendo paid for their fair share of timed exclusivity deals too, maybe just not the massive AAA stuff (well except DQ11S).

I don't see a problem, one is running on a more powerful machine while one is on a handheld.

I know for a lot of people games are about pushing the cutting edge but it's a business at the end of the day. Studios and publishers will have to choose if they want to develop for high-end PC's only; or try and meet in the middle with additional platforms and make more money.

The problem is they stripped all of the original assets out of the PS4 and PC versions when they backported 11 S to those systems. Nobody was asking for DQ11 to be some technical showcase, but why make the game look worse on more powerful systems for no reason [than cost I suppose]?

They already had those original assets; why didn't they reimplement them? If modders could do it, no reason Square couldn't.
 
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FrostweaveBandage

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Sep 27, 2019
6,990
I think everyone is jumping the gun… we don't know if this new strategy means that a game like Rebirth would be day one Switch 2 (especially since the developers have talked about the ease of sticking to one platform). They could be talking about other HD games in the pipeline like IX Remake which may have been planned for just PS.

I don't think SE would suddenly have Part 3 take a quality dive from Remake and Rebirth just to fit on Switch 2. They def mean PC and Xbox (depending on whatever state Xbox is in by that point). At the same time though we need to see Switch 2 in action, for all we know Rebirth could function just fine on it (which would be great since they need those sales).
Honestly think instead they should focus on porting Remake/Rebirth to Switch 2 such that RePart3 can be released to it and the level of quality will be in line with those titles. Then they can go nuts with the higher end systems.
 

get2sammyb

Editor at Push Square
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
3,043
UK
So much chatter about Sony's exclusives, and obviously they have been the high-profile ones, but Square Enix's strategy has been strange for a long time. Octopath Traveller 1, for example, never launched on PlayStation -- but did on Xbox. Yet its sequel launched on PlayStation, but not on Xbox!

And there have been many other instances of oddities and inconsistencies.
 

LumberPanda

Member
Feb 3, 2019
6,526
I've also seen people speculate that Switch 2 support will fall off a cliff in 2028/2029 when the ps6/nextbox launch. The entire industry (minus Nintendo) is seemingly having a coming to Jesus moment on inflating budgets not offsetting increased production costs, and we've had the longest period of cross gen ever, but the moment next gen consoles launch the whole industry will double down on the same mistakes that got them here.
Well the hardware isn't actually responsible for ballooning budgets, executive decisions at the C Suite are.

On paper stronger hardware means you can spend the same amount of money and the hardware now does a lot more of the work for you. If the hardware properly supports ray tracing, then you can cut a lot of the light prebaking, etc. It's up to the C Suite to decide "let's up the budget".

They can easily end up in a situation where, by cutting the budget, they just throw whatever they come up with at a PS6 but then have to spend lots more actually cutting down for the Switch 2.
 

logash

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,853
So much chatter about Sony's exclusives, and obviously they have been the high-profile ones, but Square Enix's strategy has been strange for a long time. Octopath Traveller 1, for example, never launched on PlayStation -- but did on Xbox. Yet its sequel launched on PlayStation, but not on Xbox!

And there have been many other instances of oddities and inconsistencies.
Yup, time to clean that shit up and release on everything.
 

foxuzamaki

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
21,639
So part vii 3 since a few months back they said the whole trilogy has the same deal with ps, that will be the last exclusive and 17 whenever that is will be multi? hopefully
It's possible they have something planned for Nintendo for the switch 2 that probably started a while ago, as console launches do
 

CenaToon

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,442
What am I missing here? DQ11 was on PS from day one and even 11S was ported again

yeah because dragon quest 11 is the only dragon quest game released since 2017. Also, just like the final fantasy saga, you can play any dragon quest in modern consoles or steam... You dont need to buy an old nintendo DS to play the snes trilogy remake.
 

GhostTrick

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,517
So much chatter about Sony's exclusives, and obviously they have been the high-profile ones, but Square Enix's strategy has been strange for a long time. Octopath Traveller 1, for example, never launched on PlayStation -- but did on Xbox. Yet its sequel launched on PlayStation, but not on Xbox!

And there have been many other instances of oddities and inconsistencies.


You can also add Pixel Remasters, Valkyrie Profile or Chrono Trigger.
 

Dekuman

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,056
Yeah I think it's important to note Nintendo was mentioned alongside Sony/MS and not it's own thing, in this case iOS/Android is its own thing, so you can see a clear example of internal market segemntation reflected in their public facing goals.

Also worth noting this doesn't exclude time exclusivities and marketing deals, i think those can still happen.

In anycase, i don't think it's about just money that is affecting this decision but their brand power. No amount of money can fix declining FF7 sales and it's doing real damage to the prestige of their games and brand.
 

Angst

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,505
I'm guessing 7 part 3 will still be exclusive but that will be the last one.

I also unfortunately see them still arbitrarily excluding Xbox occasionally. But I hope I'm wrong.
 

vio55555

Member
Apr 11, 2024
286
First smart thing that SE has done with FF in a while (I'll still always believe that splitting FF7 remake into 3 games was an error).

The PS5 and Epic exclusivity arrangements were a complete and utter debacle. The fact that they released FF16/FF7 Rebirth and saw their profit margins get shredded for the fiscal year is mindblowing with the extra revenue that the two tentpoles brought in...

They've finally realized that the FF fanbase hasn't been exclusive to a single platform for almost 20 years. There's millions of potential FF buyers on other platforms that were getting ignored; they have to develop the fanbase where it is.

Unlike first party fanbases where the entire fanbase has been tied to the platform for decades, SE faces the opposite situation with tons of players owning a variety of FFs on different platforms.

And with Nintendo's dominance of Japan, they absolutely have to get the newer FFs onto Switch 2, there's no substitute to Switch 2 releases for sales in Japan.
 

asmith906

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,633
I hate how people read that report and blame Square current problems on a few exclusive. They were having big problems on multiple fronts that force them to reevaluate their entire business.

Hell we're still waiting to see FF16 on pc and I'm pretty sure exclusivity ran out awhile ago.
 

David Matter

Banned
Apr 16, 2024
304
PREDICTION:

FINAL FANTASY 17 will be multiplatform, and future final fantasy spin off games are going to be multiplatform

But I have this feeling, I could be wrong of course, but I think FF7 Remake PART 3 is going to be PS5 exclusive, I could take the L in this prediction, but I think this could be true, because if this a contract signed many years ago, i am pretty sure sony will take it (maybe reducing the exclusivity window or launching the game on PC at the same time), or of there is some kind of clause in that contract that says that they can negotiate the exclusivity of all remake parts, I think sony will take it unless square is asking a pretty crazy price, who knows, but I think people shouldnt be surprised at all if remake part 3 is timed exclusive