Xbox Boss Phil Spencer shared his thoughts on the possibility of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 16 coming to Xbox consoles.
A few months ago at Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest 2023, Game Director Naoki Yoshida welcome Spencer to the stage together with Square Enix Boss Takashi Kiryu to announce that FF14 was coming to Xbox consoles after its long time stay at PlayStation. This then sparked speculations that since FF14 has landed on Xbox, surely the other titles will be coming as well. Media outlet IGN has now interviewed Spencer at Gamescom 2023 to finally confirm if some of the popular titles like FF7 Remake and FF16 will be coming to Xbox as well.
“I recognize that when people buy an Xbox, they want to make sure the great games that they want to play are coming,” Spencer said. “If there’s any publisher out there where that hasn’t been true, Square’s one of the top. Sarah Bond [Corporate Vice President, Game Creator Experience and Ecosystem at Microsoft] and I fly to Tokyo and have conversations, and we’ve spent a lot of time with Square. There’s obviously business deals and relationships that will have to get worked through on certain games.
“But I’ll say it was really great to have the CEO of Square and Yoshi there to just talk about their commitment to Xbox. Because I can say, like, ‘I’m the head of Xbox, blah blah blah,’ but having the CEO of one of the third-parties make a commitment to the platform, I thought was a really meaningful step.
“So you’ll hear more. I’m not going to push them. They’re going to have to find their own rhythm. But having them make a commitment to Xbox was really important both to me, and I’ve heard it from the community, to the community as well. And 14 was more of a commitment.”
So there is a possibility that the popular titles are finally coming to Xbox sooner or later, but it will depend on Square Enix. There are talks, but these discussions could take a long time.