TGS 2022: Microsoft Still Hasn’t Given Up On Final Fantasy XIV Coming To the Xbox

Here’s a little bit of news to help some of you get your hopes up. Whether or not it pans out remains to be seen. Do you remember when Phil Spencer told the press that there were plans to bring Final Fantasy XIV to the Xbox? You’d be okay for not remembering, it was three years ago – right around the time we started seeing more crossplay between the Xbox and the PlayStation platforms.

During a press briefing, Phil Spencer discussed bringing ten Final Fantasy games to the platform and specifically noted that Final Fantasy XIV would be added at some point in the future as well, saying, “I wanted you to know, rest assured that we will be bringing that game to Xbox.” He went on to add that they “have a great relationship with Yoshida” and are working through what bringing the game to the console as a cross-platform IP would entail.

Of course, the game has yet to make it to the Xbox, but according to a discussion Spencer had with the Japanese site Game Watch at TGS, it’s something they’re still hoping to do. He told them that they “haven’t given up yet”. And that both Microsoft and Square Enix have made this commitment to gamers so they “will continue to coordinate [their] efforts.”

It shouldn’t be too surprising that we won’t be seeing the game on Xbox soon. Aside from the issue of porting it to the console, it’s worth remembering that the last few years have not been great for things like game development – what with hardware shortages and the like. Square Enix is still waiting to put in the new data center in North America because they don’t have the hardware for it yet. Then, add to that that they’d just wrapped up a decades-worth of story and are starting on the next, and have big plans for graphics upgrades. Obviously, fitting in a console port is a big addition to an otherwise heavy workload. Perhaps with all that going on, what we’d be looking at is a port that coincides with the release of the 7.0 expansion. That could be great timing for everyone involved.