Since launching a decade ago, Final Fantasy XIV has been a PlayStation console exclusive, an arrangement many never expected to change. Well, surprise! Today during the big Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival, Phil Spencer strode out onto the stage with FF14 producer Naoki Yoshida to announce the game is coming to Xbox early next year. Here’s what Phil had to say…
“It’s great to be here with so many Warriors of Light, thank you for the very warm welcome. The Xbox community is passionate about games, and like so many players around the world, the Final Fantasy series is one that gets lots of love from Team Xbox. We’re very happy to announce the Xbox version of Final Fantasy XIV with my friend Yoshida-san here today. Together with his team, we are bringing the best online experience for this game to Xbox fans everywhere and through crossplay you can experience Final Fantasy XIV with old and new players alike.”
Interestingly, it seems this will be part of a deeper partnership between Xbox and Square Enix. According to Yoshi-P, Spencer was heavily involved in bringing Final Fantasy XIV to Xbox, and Spencer himself called this a “seminal moment” in Microsoft’s relationship with Square Enix.
“We see this as a seminal moment in our relationship with you [referring to Yoshida] and the Final Fantasy team as we look to partner more closely together in the future.”
Ultimately though, it was Square Enix’s new CEO Takashi Kiryu who made the strongest statement, saying in no uncertain terms that the company is “planning to bring our games to Xbox” going forward. Needless to say, this is a fairly big turnabout, as exactly the opposite has been true lately. Not only have big titles like Final Fantasy XVI been PlayStation exclusive, but even lower profile games were arbitrarily skipping Microsoft’s platform. Some even believed an acquisition by Sony was in the works, but now it seems like that won’t be the case.
The Xbox Series X/S version of Final Fantasy XIV will offer full crossplay, as well as 4K resolution on the Series X. Again, Spencer also slipped in that line about the Xbox version of FF14 offering the “best online experience,” whatever that might mean.
Final Fantasy XIV arrives on Xbox Series X/S in the spring of 2024. An open beta will launch alongside the game’s 6.5x update, which will likely arrive early in 2023.
