I remember the day Square Enix announced that an upcoming little game called Final Fantasy 13 would launch not only on the PlayStation 3 but also on the Xbox 360. It wasn't just a simultaneous release that blindsided the fandom. It was the sheer notion of a Final Fantasy title going to Microsoft in the first place. Tempers flared (because people are so stupid) and the graphical debate between the pair of platforms continued until people got their hands on FF13… at which point the conversation turned to whether or not it was a particularly good video game.
As it happens, it could all happen before. As part of a recent interview, former Xbox exec Ed Fries shared a surprising lament: He tried to hop past FFs to the original Xbox.
The Lost Odyssey
There was a relatively short period in video game history when the Xbox not only succeeded in winning over JRPG publishers… but in contract. Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, an early pair of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's post-Square projects, went straight to the Xbox 360. Vesperia's Tale was a 360 exclusive in Japan for about a year, and it ever Gone to the PS3 somewhere. (This left great extra content out of reach for non-Japanese games until the Definitive Edition launched a decade later.) The list goes on.
Long story short, then – Microsoft made real progress. But I have something to say about everything I just quoted. They are all Xbox 360 games. None of them belong to the time period that propped them up on the original console. That's where Ed Fries' regret comes from. If they managed to pull it off, Final Fantasy 10, 12, and maybe online only 11 OG would appear on the Xbox. Either alongside the PlayStation 2, or—if the examples above are anything to go by—ideally as Halo-supported exclusives.
Speaking with Expansion Pass on YouTube—appreciate the heads-up, GamesRadar!—Fries looks back at the early days of the Xbox and its largely unsuccessful attempts to court Japanese game-makers. He met with Squire again and again, but nothing ever stuck. He did the same with Sega, Capcom and Konami; So, there was a time when Persona, Breath of Fire (remember that?), and Suikoden could share the road on Xbox or be synonymous with the brand.
But Final Fantasy is the crown jewel, and Fries cites the series as “really up there” in terms of delighting and enthralling him. (And potentially more units moved, of course. That's the idea.) He also makes an interesting claim:
“[Xbox] I was able to make some deals after I left Square, but it was always like a difficult discussion because they wanted to compete with Sony. But they haven't been very clear in their support for Xbox. They didn't make it clear that they were supporting Xbox.”
A bit of a secret partnership, then, though it definitely took the JRPG-loving world by storm and quite a frenzy when it was revealed that FF13's Lightning would be making a crossover to the Xbox 360 alongside the PS3. To say nothing of the fact that Sakaguchi-san himself took his business to the House of Halo. Nowadays, it all seems rather quaint; But, even if Ed Fries couldn't bring Tidus and Yuna to Xbox, Microsoft managed to make quite a splash years later.
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