Of course dividing the fans is bad, that's why the games should be multiplatform. this way, no one is left out.

i didnt knew sony worked on Star Ocean 4!, thats really impressive considering it was a timed exclusive for the 360

In this case, though, I suspect Square Enix is considering Japan the primary market, with the U.S. and Europe just the icing on the cake. And in the Japanese market, the Xbox brand presence is just ludicrously weak. So as far as Japan goes, at best, the number of gamers left out because they only own a 360 and no PS3 or PS4 would be too tiny to be worth it.

And, yes, there is North America and Europe, but generally speaking more insular Japanese developers consider these markets secondary, sometimes not even bothering to release translated copies of games to these regions. And we can only assume that they have sales data on the previous Star Ocean title on Xbox platforms and weren't exactly astounded, which might factor into their decision. So when Sony decided to lock down a bit of exclusivity, I don't think they NEEDED to offer a lot; just some cost-saving development aid, and boom, they've offset the entire Xbox fanbase's profit potential. =P

Now, I think that if Microsoft began fork over the funding and personnel to port Japanese titles to their platform (A 'we'll do all the work' deal, basically,) they might be able to counteract this a little bit. I don't think it's a matter of Square Enix not wanting to launch on Xbox Platforms so much as it is deciding that, given the Xbox One's horrible Japanese install base, and even the 360's pretty lackluster one, they just don't consider even the nominal monetary risk of porting a JRPG to that platform to be worth it, especially with Sony offering a better deal.

If Microsoft wants to have a comparable library of Japanese content on their console, in all likelihood they're going to have to start paying developers just to be included. =P It's what inevitably starts to happen when you're being beaten THAT badly in the developer's home region.

Who talked about xbox? this game is japan centric, meaning it shouldn't ignore the wii u. only a more westernized game could think about xbox too.

Aaah, fair point. Sorry, whenever exclusivity comes up, it's usually about the Xbox. x3 Anyway, Japan is kinda weird like that, Monster Hunter's been an exclusive thing on Nintendo platforms for quite awhile if I recall correctly, despite Nintendo not, as far as I know, owning any form of its IP. o.o (Capcom does, right?) I think it usually boils down to one of those two platform holders offering a better deal than the other, and it might just be me, but there seems to be a lot less crossover between Sony's and Nintendo's platforms in Japan than there are Sony's and Microsoft's in the U.S. Perhaps both companies are simply more aggressive in securing exclusive content.

" I think it usually boils down to one of those two platform holders offering a better deal than the other"

That's the bad part. third parties would sell more with multiplats and players would get more games on their console. but instead of this win win situation, we get BS like this announcement. And cases like this simply look silly. I could understand a paid exclusivity for ps4. but if they're already bothering on making it to two vastly different platforms (ps3 makes everything harder), they might as well port it to the 8th gen home console with the bigger installed base too, wii u. these exclusivities should only happen when the game wouldn't exist otherwise, like bayonetta 2.

Jeez stop saying they are co-developing the game with SCEJ, they just pushed Square Enix and tri-Ace to make the game, SCEJ is not helping or producing this game. It's nothing like Bloodborne, but probably just funding like SFV and Dissidia.

Star Ocean is far more Western-centric than Japanese centric. While Square/tri-ace would never completely ignore their home market, the majority of the series sales come from Japan.

We don't live in a perfect world and games being exclusive makes sense. It's one of the main ways, the consoles differentiate themselves from each other. If someone wants to play JRPG's they'll have to buy a ps4 or sit those games out.

All the Tales games in the 7th generation should have been mulitplatform (360 and PS3) since they are all less then 7GB in file size so they easily would have fit on a single DVD.