In an age when subscriber powered platforms are becoming central to the health of a lot of publisher's digital entertainment endeavors, it's little surprise to see Sony and Microsoft's own creations starting to go head to head with each other. While the exact interpretation of the concept and the methods in which players access and consume games are admittedly different, both PlayStation Now and Xbox Game Pass are often compared to one another due their Netflix-inspired qualities. For a monthly or annual fee, players in both ecosystems receive instant access to a library of games, and franchises like Final Fantasy, that it could take them literal years to work their way through them.
Considering their similarities, and the fact that both publishers are vying for the attention and money of the same players a lot of the time, it was perhaps inevitable that one platform's gains would eventually come at the expense of the other. While there's been no official word from any party involved, the timing of Final Fantasy's arrival on PlayStation Now has suspiciously coincided with the news that some of series' games are simultaneously leaving Microsoft's Game Pass. Through the act of taking with one hand, whilst simultaneously giving with the other, Square Enix has helped to boost Sony's subscription platform in a number of significant ways.
Game Pass' Lost Final Fantasy Games
In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't all that long ago that Microsoft and Square Enix were shouting from the metaphorical rooftops about the strategic partnership that they'd struck up out of the blue. At the tail end of 2019, to understandably excited fan fare, the pair announced that a laundry list of Final Fantasy titles from across the franchise's iconic lineage, would be heading to Xbox's Game Pass. With the subscription platform having received widespread praise from players across the world thanks to its sheer undeniable value, the addition of some of the most instantly recognizable JRPGs made the service an even more robust and mouth-watering proposition. Fast forward to the present, however, and the language and atmosphere regarding the subject has shifted considerably.
Even though Square Enix's western developed titles like Marvel's Avengers are still up on Game Pass, several of the publisher's Final Fantasy series have already left the platform before the rollout of the initial plan has even been completed. Following Final Fantasy 15's departure back in January, the iconic PS1-era entries Final Fantasy 7 and 9 have both followed it on the way out. While that admittedly still leaves subscribers with Final Fantasy 8, 10/10-2 HD,12 The Zodiac Age, and the only recently added 13, the nature in which the others have been removed suggests it's only a matter of time until the license for these games expires without renewal as well. With Final Fantasy 13-2 and Lightning Returns expected to become available to subscribers before the end of the year, having already been delayed out of an expected 2020 release, there's a chance that their arrival might coincide with even more departures.
Not only do games come and go from Game Pass all the time, there's also nothing to suggest that something can't theoretically return in the future either. By a similar token, Microsoft's subscription service isn't likely to suffer too much in the short-term due to the removal of Final Fantasy, especially considering Square Enix's Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts franchises are both still representing the JRPG genre within it. The nature in which the news has landed in tandem with the arrival of these games on Sony's competing platform, though, is a big indicator that PlayStation and Xbox are about to more frequently compete with each other for the rights to externally developed games. With that in mind, the loss of these titles from Game Pass becomes all the more significant, as it marks the first example of its rival's platform being boosted at its own expense.
Final Fantasy on PlayStation Now
Back at the start of September, Square Enix and Sony announced tha,t between then and January 2022, five Final Fantasy games would be making their way to PlayStation Now. As it stands, PS4, PS5, and PC subscribers can currently play Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9, and can look forward to 10/10-2 HD and 12 joining them over the next two months. What could be significant about this rollout, especially when examining the fact that Game Pass has lost several of these games recently, is the fact that the series has also landed on the service with no expiration date announcement. It's not uncommon for both first and third party games to become available to PS Now subscribers with a leaving date already pre-planned and mentioned, which suggests that the absence of one here could be a sign that these games are going to be around for some time.
The circumstances of how the franchise has arrived, seemingly at the expense of Microsoft's Game Pass, is a big win for Sony for a number of reasons. It's worth keeping in mind that multiple deals that have been struck between the platform holder and Square Enix since the announcement of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, suggesting that both parties are keen to make the PlayStation ecosystem the de facto home of the series - similar to the arrangement that existed back during the franchise's PS1 and PS2-eras. Alongside the aforementioned remake and PS Now announcements, Final Fantasy 16 is also penciled in to be at least a timed console exclusive for the PS5. Locking down the digital and streaming rights for a period of exclusivity helps foster the sense that fans are going to need to be invested in Sony's platforms if they want to keep playing these games in a timely manner.
Game Pass' losses only help to reinforce this idea even further, as they legitimize Sony's subscription service as a direct competitor to Microsoft's widely praised platform. When comparing the two, it becomes clear for all to see, based on data like subscriber numbers, that PlayStation Now has struggled comparatively to find an audience and identity in the same manner that Game Pass has quickly been able to establish for itself. Making the platform the only place that players can pay for access to games like Final Fantasy 7 and 9, without them outright buying each title, couold help Sony start correcting this to a certain extent.