The output of Final Fantasy 16 caused a large stirons after an announcement of a new approach to the JRPG franchise. Thanks to the team that headed the development of the Final Fantasy 14, and the promising universe, the game had great potential.
Square Enix quickly signed an agreement with the PlayStation and issued Final Fantasy 16 as an exclusive for PS5. In the first week of sales, the game diverged more than 3 million. copies, however, apparently, its indicators disappointed some representatives of the industry.
Among such people, the former head of Square Enix Yakov Navki, who recently reflected on the launch of the game. In his opinion, the exclusivity for PS5 has become the main limiting factor for JRPG.
According to Axios, Jacob Navki considers Final Fantasy 16 a good game in essence. She received excellent reviews, scoring 87/100 points on Metacritic, impressing critics with a rich gaming process and many others. However, Square Enix has taken a serious risk by signing an exclusivity contract with PlayStation.
Jacob Navkov claims that Square Enix was forced to rely on the PlayStation to sell the game. Although the PlayStation spent a lot of time on the marketing of the game, she did not put as much effort as in the case of other games from internal studios
He further noted that such contracts for exclusivity put publishers in a disadvantage, because:
While Square Enix publicly stated that she was satisfied with the results of sales, the reports stated that the highest leadership expected more from the release of Final Fantasy.
Square Enix began work on the PC Port port, hoping to release it in 2024. However, the former leader of Square Enix believes that the best option for the publisher would be to exit the game on the PC on the first day.
Nevertheless, Square Enix continues to execute the Final Fantasy 7 Rebicket exclusivity contract. The next large franchise JRPG release will again become an exclusive for PS5, but with a shorter three-month contract for exclusivity.