Phil Spencer Says That Microsoft Hasn’t Given Up on Bringing Final Fantasy XIV to Xbox

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Image: Square Enix

It’s been over ten years since the launch of Final Fantasy XIV on PC and PlayStation and Phil Spencer says that Microsoft still hasn’t given up on bringing it to Xbox. The popular online game has over 25 million players and was also released for the PlayStation 5 in 2021. He recently attended the Tokyo Game Show and during an interview with Game Watch was asked about the current status of bringing the game to Xbox since he’d previously stated in 2019 that it was being worked on. Phil Spencer says that Microsoft and Square Enix are still committed to working with each other on the game.

Hahaha, I did say that (laughs). Of course, we haven’t given up yet. This is Microsoft and Square Enix’s commitment to the game fans of both companies, and we will continue to coordinate in the future.

It appears that Microsoft’s cross-play regulations are what is still holding up the game from making its way to the Xbox consoles. Evidently, in particular, there are two rules that are preventing it. Square Enix video game producer, director, and designer, Naoki Yoshida (aka Yoshi-P), went into detail about the two rules that are preventing the Xbox release. The following is from a group interview with members of WccfTech, Massively OP, and IGN Latin America in 2019.

Two months ago, I discussed with Phil Spencer. I have explained this before but we are prepared to do crossplay at any time. To play an MMORPG, there are 2 regulations for Microsoft which stand in the way of making crossplay feasible. Unless these regulations are rejected, there is no meaning. Simply speaking, the matching base FPS style game has no issues with those 2 regulations. If we had made an FPS game [had FF14 been one of those games], then we would already have crossplay. One of the regulations is that players with different platforms cannot chat with each other in-game. Then how do you play an MMO? The other regulation is you cannot make a community with plays on a different platform. You can’t form a guild, you can’t enter into a link shell, [and] no free company. So I would like to have Microsoft change their regulations. And this is not limited to Microsoft but there are many players who only have crossplay experience with FPS games, especially with the business scene. For an MMORPG, a game which full communication is possible, regulations need to be created considering how massive an MMORPG is to have true crossplay. Final Fantasy XIV will not release crossplay without making this clear because that would only hurt the players. I think we can only try to continue having our discussions with those parties [to communicate and relay what is needed].

So to summarize, Microsoft would need to allow players to chat in-game and join communities with users on other platforms.

Source: VGC

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Peter Brosdahl
As a child of the 70’s I was part of the many who became enthralled by the video arcade invasion of the 1980’s. Saving money from various odd jobs I purchased my first computer from a friend of my dad, a used Atari 400, around 1982. Eventually it would end up being a lifelong passion of upgrading and modifying equipment that, of course, led into a career in IT support.

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