PlayStation gamers are about to lose a ton of exclusives

Square Enix has announced plans to “aggressively pursue” a multiplatform strategy, seemingly putting an end to the company’s stream of PlayStation exclusives.

It goes without saying that Square Enix is not a first-party PlayStation studio, but you could forgive a very casual gamer for perhaps assuming that to be the case.

After all, a number of very prominent Square Enix titles have been PlayStation console exclusives.

That list includes Forspoken, Final Fantasy XVI, Foamstars, and the recently launched Final Fantasy VII Rebirth to name just a few.

I say ‘console exclusives’ because several of these titles also launched on PC - not on Xbox though.

We seemingly won’t see all too much more of this.

In their latest financial report, Square Enix explained that its three-year long-term growth plan would see the company “aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs”.

The fiscal years included in that three-year window run from 31 March 2024 to 31 March 2027.

The goal of the strategy is so that “more customers can enjoy our titles", which isn’t all that different from what we’re seeing with Xbox given the recent ports of Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Hi-Fi Rush, and Pentiment.

Take a look at the fantastic Hi-Fi Rush in action below.

This change in strategy comes as Square Enix simultaneously reflected on what appeared to be a somewhat challenging year for sales, with figures suggesting that both Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth underperformed.

They referenced “low profitability at the HD Games".

It stands to reason that we could see both of the aforementioned games eventually ported over to Xbox.

It does throw up some interesting questions regarding the third and final Final Fantasy VII instalment.

Both Remake and Rebirth were launched as PS5 console exclusives. If I had to guess, I’d expect the same from a third game, with the entire trilogy eventually being ported over to other platforms but we’re going to have to sit tight.

If you ask me, more games for all is only ever a good thing. Square Enix is an independent studio. Accessing the widest possible audience makes perfect sense.