Because Square Enix is a piece of shit company when it comes to consistent releases for years.

FFXV Pocket Edition is only on iOS, android, Switch, PS4 and Xbox

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles Remaster is only on PS4 and Switch

The Last Remnant remaster is only on Switch, PS4, iOS and android while the Steam/PC version of the original was delisted.

Octopath Traveler 1 is on Switch, Xbox and PC

Dragon Quest Builders 1 came out on Playstation 4, Switch in 2016 and 2018, iOS and Android in 2022 and the PC version literally came out 3 days ago (2024)

Dragon Quest Builders 2 is on Switch, PS4 and PC

Chocobo GP is only on Switch

Chocobo's Mystery Dungeon Every Buddy is only on Switch and PS4

FF Pixel Remasters are only on Switch, PS4 and PC - came out on PC first, a year later on Switch and PS4 with new features, those new features came to PC a year after the console versions

Star Ocean 5 is only Playstation 3/4 while Star Ocean 4 and 6 are on all platforms except for Switch

Star Ocean 1 remake is on Playstation and Switch only while Star Ocean 2 is on everything

Chrono Trigger is only on PC

Secret of Mana OG is only on Switch, iOS and Android

Secret of Mana remake is on PS4 and PC - not on Switch or Xbox

Trials of Mana is on PS4, Switch and PC - not on Xbox

Legend of Mana is on PS4, Switch and PC - not on xbox

Visions of Mana is coming on all platforms except for Switch

Dragon Quest 1, 2 and 3 remakes are on Switch only

Theatrhythm Final Bar Line is only on PS4 and Switch

Dragon Quest Treasures is on both Switch and PC only

Tactics Ogre Reborn is only on Switch, PS4 and PC

Live A live is only on PS4, Switch and PC

Triangle Strategy is only on Switch and PC

The World Ends With You Remix is only on Switch while its sequel is on everything

Bravely Default 2 is on Switch and PC only

Kingdom Hearts 1.5+2.5 (two PS3 remasters) is on PS4 and Xbox (years later). Streaming only on Switch for some reason and EGS Exclusive on PC

Dude, holy cow, I did not realize they had that big of a problem just wow lol.

Summer of arcade was so gooood, I remember getting hyped for it every year and really anticipating games like Bastion (shout out smroadkill). It's part of the reason indies really thrived on 360, it was quite weird seeing the 180 going into the xbox one gen.

And I was told here that porting a game was almost as simple as hitting a button..

Well, that is clearly an oversimplification. But it can depend. Modern game development often uses frameworks, that are available on multiple platforms, which makes the task much easier, not completely absent. Certain technical problems can make the task more difficult at times. But in general if you develop a new game with hundreds of people over multiple years, porting usually needs less than 10 people over few months. You don't need to remake all the art for instance.

That said, the above is clearly political, SE management decides what game goes where.

It is extremely hard for me to believe that when Gears Tactics came out 7 months later on Xbox and Flight Simulator 1 year later. Mind you, those games were supposedly being developed simultaneously.

Well, for Gears Tactics it probably was a political or business decision, as they assume that customers for tactical less actiony games is more on PC than console. Maybe they had some difficulties to map mouse-based actions to controller.

But Flight Simulator might be one of the few exceptions, where porting was actually quite difficult. To be frank, I think Flight Simulator is basically technically impossible. That this works at all is amazing and such a big technical feat. Given how technically impossible it is and how low probably is the userbase, I don't think MS makes money on Flight Sim at all. Maybe I am wrong, I don't know, cost usually scales with artists needed to design, and Flight Sim mostly is generated from sattelite and aerial images, laserscan of elevations and other such real world data. The packs for certain locations they release contain data, where they touch this automatically generated stuff with manual labor. But developing these automatic generation systems is so absurdly incredibly amazing tech and also being able to stream the appropriate data as they have data for the whole world - impossible to keep in memory at all times - so they need dynamic loading of dataset in a really massive database. I cannot stop marveling about this feat of work. As a programmer I have low interest in working at games, as it is mostly boring for a programmer and badly paid work with bad conditions, but I would love an internship at Asobo, as I think every programmer can learn from what they did.

There is a report that Cloud streaming of all owned games is coming in 2024. Supposedly Xbox has had to wait this long after announcing the feature in June 2022 for release later in 2022, due to the regulators heavy focus on Cloud gaming during the ABK deal. Now that the FTC appeal is nearly over, they will be able to implement this long promised feature later this year.

Amen to this (and your previous response mostly).

I also believe Tactics was an exception and esp. in the case of Microsoft; they are DEFINITELY providing the framework to do that. A lot of code/engines are platform neutral and the only remaining thing to do are stuff like UI specific, inputs and then of course, the assets. Even the rendering (if you take something like Unreal engine) can be simply tweaked with a configuration but at the end it is the same engine.

Microsoft is really pushing for this now; which is great. More and more games will def. release on many platform at the same time because of those frameworks.
And if anything Microsoft is def. in the best position to do that (compared to Sony or Nintendo); they know how to do that better than anyone else out there.

Xbox is now claiming that the next Xbox (it's now confirmed Series X/S won't be the last) will be the largest generational leap of all-time. I do not understand that strategy. Xbox already has broad support for PC gaming, so why worry about a powerful console that will still fall short of some very powerful gaming PCs? Software and Game Pass will sell Xbox consoles, not big specs.
If we find out that Nintendo's upcoming platform is one of their biggest (if not biggest) leap in specs of all-time, what is the point? Is Nintendo really going to benefit from a docked Switch 2 that would outperform a Series S and get closer to a PS5? Nintendo customers (whether adults buying for themselves or for family members) typically come for the Nintendo software, a little bit of the third-party, and some Nintendo charm/quirks. Nintendo will just pass the costs onto us. A Switch 2 that is more powerful than Series S would probably be at least $500 USD. I really don't want that, especially if it's the only way to get Switch as a hybrid without a cheaper hybrid SKU.
Gaming PCs long ago outpaced consoles, there's no use in trying to get way closer to them if the price is too high.