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derpysquirtle64 said:
I mentioned a few posts earlier about paying for ports as an option, but in the same post I also said, that I don't think this will work. Because it won't grow an audience. Yes, it will help to reach software parity with other consoles short term, but the moment Microsoft stops paying for these ports, the publishers will stop supporting them again. But the problem is that GamePass cheques are not really much different. It gives publishers who are not willing to take risks with Xbox ports and idea that Microsoft has a tool to mitigate risks and their concerns. So, I think that right now, it's easier for publishers who are not sure about needing to do an Xbox port, to just skip the platform if they don't receive the GamePass check when it was before. Once again, Square Enix comes to mind. Microsoft offered them a check for FF7-12. It didn't do very well for them. Now, they abandoned the platform because they wait for another GamePass check. Another thing is about companies taking advantage of GamePass. To be honest, maybe I'm wrong and forgetting something, but with an exception of Yakuza, I can't really think about any Japanese game that really managed to grow a dedicated audience on Xbox. Yakuza for sure is substantial and it's clear that it doesn't even need GamePass anymore, for SEGA to justify bringing future titles to the platform. It will sell enough day one at full price. As for funding first-party JRPGs - totally agree, completely worthless at this moment and won't do anything but hurt the publisher and potential game which will get thrown straight into oblivion no matter how good it will be. The bigger part of the game's target audience won't be able to play it. To conclude all this, I doubt there will be any progress regarding this in the near future, because as I've said, Microsoft needs to either make some bold, revolutionary move or wait for Sony to make a huge mistake. Basically, the situation with Japanese games on Xbox can only improve with a noticeable part of these titles core audience moving over to Xbox, and it hasn't obviously happened this gen. I don't believe that even with all the GamePass deals, Microsoft can get THEIR loyal Xbox audience interested in these types of games, so without substantial audience growth, it will never gonna work. |
I think actually supporting a platform over time would grow an audience, eventually. You don't always start off with millions of sales, especially when half the franchise is missing from a platform and as far as I'm aware, 13 sold decent on Xbox 360 and 14 sold okay as well despite Xbox One being an awful platform, Lol.
I think Square Enix barely tries still, they give up far too quickly when things get a little difficult, I think you can look at Xbox Japanese support overall and say that it is way better than the Xbox One era and they've done really well to get some IPs, some of which haven't touched Xbox since the 360 era and some of which have never touched Xbox.
But this complaint always rolls back around to Square Enix mainly, Square is by far the most noticeable holdout aside from some really niche stuff, they do some cheap years old ports and they don't do great so they give up on the entire franchise for Xbox? I think it's actually too early to say if Yakuza has a substantial audience on Xbox yet (purely sales, we have no sales data) but it still seems like Sega tries a lot better than Square.
If even some niche IPs are coming to Xbox but Final Fantasy isn't? It makes me think that Square is probably asking for too much because Final Fantasy is way bigger than some of these other Japanese IPs that Xbox has recently got, I think progress is being made *almost* everywhere aside from Square Enix who have somehow got worse.
I do agree that Square doesn't dislike Xbox, I just think the reason is simply that Square Enix is an incredibly risk averse company, even more than most other companies, there are companies who make way less than Square who take way more risks and there are countless examples of Square being a risk averse company, for example...
Their handling of their Western studios, they spun off IO Interactive after one underperformance and then IO Interactive went on to be more successful than ever without Square Enix, Lol. They killed off Deus Ex the moment one entry underperformed, they shoved CD/Eidos onto the safety blanket of Marvel IPs (which backfired), they sold their Western divisions for cheap (probably for a quick money injection).
Then there's the examples of how quickly they give up on their Xbox audience, all the money hats they accept, for their biggest releases and quite frankly, a lot of their side projects look incredibly cheap with little effort put into them and it shows in their reviews too, stuff like Left Alive, Babylon's Fall, etc. Even the most recent Star Ocean and I'm sorry but Forspoken looks like Isekai Final Fantasy but a lot blander, Lol.
It's just Square, an incredibly risk averse company, the situation would be a lot worse without Game Pass, I don't think they dislike Xbox though but I wish they would just sell to Sony so we don't have to complain about them all the time and have to guess all the time will/won't Square support Xbox with this IP, Lol.
Last edited by Ryuu96 - on 18 December 2022
