‘It is growing exponentially the amount of resources to be allocated’
In November 2019, Phil Spencer stated that Microsoft Final Fantasy XIV to the Xbox platform.
It was a great decision, and if it could really communicate with PC and PS4 (now PS5 too), it would mean even more people would go on an adventure together in Eorzea. But it looks like that’s too big an order for Square Enix, at least for now.
Speaking to The Washington Post, producer and all-round personality Naoki “Yoshi P,” Yoshida explained that it is a matter of resources. He puts it quite clearly, stating, “We provide content quite regularly and our cycle is quite short. And it’s a pretty stable cadence that we’re going to keep going … we need to think about long-term planning with additional platforms, we need additional testing for that particular platform. So it is driving exponential growth in the amount of resources to be allocated. “
Yoshi P is, of course, talking about the recently unveiled PS5 edition, which was given priority. As well as possible graphics improvements on PC, which Square Enix deploys for every expansion release.
I reached out to Square Enix and Microsoft last year to see how the talks were going, and both emphatically “did not comment” on the situation. At least now we have an idea why the partnership might not go ahead after all. This has been on and off since 2016: it would be nice to see it finally fixed at some point.
It’s weird to think back to all the MMO problems Microsoft has had over the years: we should’ve gotten it Real fantasy live online
Final Fantasy XIV director discusses the challenges of building an always-online game [The Washington Post]
