Apparently they learned something after all.

From their Financial Report released today:

"Shift to a multiplatform strategy
For HD titles, the Group will aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs. Especially, in regards to major franchises and AAA titles including catalog titles, it will build an environment where more customers can enjoy our titles. In addition, it will also devise a platform strategy for SD titles that includes not only iOS and Android, but also the possibility of PC launches."

https://tdnet-pdf.kabutan.jp/20240513/140120240513592496.pdf

Excellent news.  I am more than happy to buy rebirth and 16, just need a Steam release.

I like Rebirth a lot but Stellar Blade is a better game.

Nice sentiments from their financial updates.

-Multiplatform
-More frequent releases
-More unified integration of talent across the company.

They also alluded to FFVII Rebirth canabalising FF16 a little bit and vice versa. I think this is something not a lot of people touched on but it definitely would have helped VIIR to arrive in a more quiet period in the year and would have helped XVI if its DLC did not arrive whilst people are literally still playing Rebirth. Probably a Summer-September release date would have given Rebirth a better sales window and allowed XVI to get a more meaningful boost from its DLC.

In terms of efficiencies, I couldn't help but notice that FFXV (+Forspoken), FFXVI and VII Rebirth all have widley different qualities of world transversal. Ironically, FFXV has a better implementation of the parkour and textual animations then either of the recent FF games. I think this points towards an inefficiency in terms of how they're creating these systems from scratch and not necessarily having a unified platform/engine for growth. UE5 is not perfect but I think it only makes sense now, that they build all their HD games from it going forward.

Digital Foundary give a good look at how Switch 2 will be able to handle modern 4k era games. It's good on one hand because it shows incorporating Nintendo into the mainline of FF going forward shouldn't shift much the development targets... DLSS 720p docked at low settings should be able to translate most modern experiences into a functional 30fps Switch 2 title. 1080p DLSS/30fps will ideally be the target for most 3rd party ports but games with CPU bounding like Dragons Dogma (struggle to acheive a consistent 30fps on PS5 at 1440p) will need a lot more optimising and may still skip the console because of systems requiring to b be reworked.  



On the other hand, I genuinely want Square to embrace high quality, ambitious AA games. More ambitious then the HD sprite games but way more quality then the likes of recent spins offs (FF: Origins) 

So no concrete numbers yet but HD games division posted a large $50 million loss. Not looking good unless you believe Foamstars was massively expensive.

Good point. I can remember FF7 Rebirth trailer was the big closing event of the Summer Games Festival.....Only weeks before FF16 launched.

That felt weird and definitionally took some wind out of FF16 launch.

Also announced that lay offs will be coming for the small divisions in EU/USA.

It's looking likely Switch's successor will have extensive support from Square then. We may see current mainline FF return to Nintendo for the first time in 30 years, which would really be something.

Multiplatform only makes sense, especially with game engines being scalable. Frankly it is embarrassing it took square this long to figure it out