Square Enix changes strategy and offers new hope for Xbox players | X-Box

In recent years, Square Enix has proven itself particularly close to PlayStation, particularly by offering several exclusives for Sony's consoles. Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI or even Forspoken, there is no shortage of examples. However, it seems that this time is over. At least that's what one of the new pillars of Square Enix's strategy suggests.

Square Enix wants change to improve its profitability

In its new medium-term business plan for the period from Q3 2025 to Q3 2027, Square Enix has already announced that it wants to “diversify profit opportunities by enhancing customer touchpoints.”

This includes several pillars, including “moving to a multi-platform strategy” by “actively pursuing a multi-platform strategy including Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms.”

Create an environment where more customers can enjoy our titles, whether major franchises or AAA titles, including catalog titles.

This new medium-term business plan is simply aimed at boosting the company's results, which, according to its president Takashi Kiryu, have been hampered by economic conditions, the yen/euro/dollar exchange rates or “Square Enix Group's ability to continue to gain ground.” Acceptance of its products and services being offered in highly competitive markets.

Square Enix games on more platforms: a boon for Xbox

Things are serious at Square Enix, which has given name to its long-term growth plan: Square Enix restarts and wakes up. In other words, Square Enix is ​​starting to reboot and wake up in search of greater profits and continued growth. Here are several points mentioned and included by the president of Square Enix among productivity and development improvements.

• Launching games that ensure excitement that will build loyalty to our brand, while giving the highest priority to putting a smile on the faces of our customers.
  • Maintain and grow fan bases of our major franchises by regularly releasing AAA titles.
  • Release mid-tier titles based on single line strategies, prioritizing profitability.
• Launching carefully selected SD titles with the aim of increasing our success rate.
• Explore how to get more out of our rich library of intellectual property.
• Be bold in trying to create new intellectual properties, prioritizing new forms of entertainment and balancing them with potential revenue. Explore new possibilities in entertainment, perhaps taking advantage of new technologies.

The most interesting thing that will directly impact Xbox is Square's desire to “diversify profit possibilities by enhancing customer touchpoints.” This includes games that are available to as many people as possible.

• Actively pursue a multi-platform strategy including Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms.
• Building an environment where more customers can enjoy our titles across major franchises and AAA titles, including catalog titles.
• Design a platform strategy for SD titles as well, which includes not only iOS and Android, but also the possibility of a PC launch.
• Increase new user acquisition when you launch a title and repeat user acquisition after you start managing a game launch.

When we read between the lines, we guess that Square Enix will release its games on more platforms while the publisher tends to favor PlayStation so far. In fact, we have already seen the beginnings of these changes with the announcement of the merger between Square Enix and Xbox in the summer of 2023.

We also know that Square Enix wants to convert some of its franchises to AAA and that the publisher will follow suit using AI and other technologies that allow it to optimize its costs. Will we finally see Final Fantasy VII Remake released on Xbox? Or the final episode as Naoki Yoshida suggested? One thing is for sure, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a PlayStation exclusive until June 2024.