Considering their similarities, and the fact that both publishers are vying for the attention and money of the same players a lot of the time, it was perhaps inevitable that one platform’s gains would eventually come at the expense of the other. While there’s been no official word from any party involved, the timing ofFinal Fantasy’sarrival on PlayStation Now has suspiciously coincided with the news that some of series' games are simultaneously leaving Microsoft’s Game Pass. Through the act of taking with one hand, whilst simultaneously giving with the other, Square Enix has helped to boost Sony’s subscription platform in a number of significant ways.
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Game Pass' Lost Final Fantasy Games
In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t all that long ago that Microsoft and Square Enix were shouting from the metaphorical rooftops about the strategic partnership that they’d struck up out of the blue. At the tail end of 2019, to understandably excited fan fare, the pair announced that a laundry list ofFinal Fantasytitles from across the franchise’s iconic lineage, would beheading to Xbox’s Game Pass. With the subscription platform having received widespread praise from players across the world thanks to its sheer undeniable value, the addition of some of the most instantly recognizable JRPGs made the service an even more robust and mouth-watering proposition. Fast forward to the present, however, and the language and atmosphere regarding the subject has shifted considerably.
Not only do games come and go from Game Pass all the time, there’s also nothing to suggest that something can’t theoretically return in the future either. By a similar token, Microsoft’s subscription service isn’t likely to suffer too much in the short-term due to the removal ofFinal Fantasy, especially consideringSquare Enix’sDragon QuestandKingdom Heartsfranchises are both still representing the JRPG genre within it. The nature in which the news has landed in tandem with the arrival of these games on Sony’s competing platform, though, is a big indicator that PlayStation and Xbox are about to more frequently compete with each other for the rights to externally developed games. With that in mind, the loss of these titles from Game Pass becomes all the more significant, as it marks the first example of its rival’s platform being boosted at its own expense.
Final Fantasy on PlayStation Now
The circumstances of how the franchise has arrived, seemingly at the expense of Microsoft’s Game Pass, is a big win for Sony for a number of reasons. It’s worth keeping in mind that multiple deals that have been struck between the platform holder and Square Enix since the announcement of theFinal Fantasy 7 Remake, suggesting that both parties are keen to make the PlayStation ecosystem the de facto home of the series - similar to the arrangement that existed back during the franchise’s PS1 and PS2-eras. Alongside the aforementioned remake and PS Now announcements,Final Fantasy 16is also penciled in to be at least a timed console exclusive for the PS5. Locking down the digital and streaming rights for a period of exclusivity helps foster the sense that fans are going to need to be invested in Sony’s platforms if they want to keep playing these games in a timely manner.
