Square Enix output strategy | Discussion thread.

[bladestrikex]

There’s no reason to generalize an entire fan base like this even if you provided any type of evidence whatsoever that it was true, and it also has nothing to do with the thread topic.

It is relevant to Square Enix, and just simply looking at the page is evidence enough dude, seriously just 2 days ago when I checked it XV had 8.5, and that Forspoken DLC had 6.9, then after people pointed out that the FFXVI DLC had lower userscores than XV and even the Forspoken DLC, all of a sudden only a day later suddenly hundreds of negative reviews dragging down only FFXV's score and the Forspoken DLC, and a bunch of the most recent 10/10 reviews left on the XVI DLC page practically all saying the same "flopspoken and XV killed FF" shitpost, with similarly worded posts and similarly generic usernames.

Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide user reviews

Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was reviewed.

www.metacritic.com

There is literally no other explanation for why FFXV or Forspoken DLC would suddenly have their userscores significantly lowered only AFTER the FFXVI DLC released and people pointed out its score was lower than XV and Forspoken's DLC. Only FFXVI fanboys are doing it based on all the evidence there is to glean, give another explanation why up until 3 days FFXV had 1640 scores, now suddenly out of nowhere 300+ more were added all negative all at once, it's clearly FFXVI fanboys trying to retaliate against XV and Forspoken, you cannot be serious that you can't see how petty XVI fanboys are all over resetera, twitter, youtube, etc. This shit pissed me off because it's clear fanboy bullshit done just to attack another game that is better than the game they like, and they can't accept that so they are trying to hurt XV's public perception just to boost XVI's perception in their little fanboy war.

I'm not sure how to process all this words salad except that it seems to be about petty people being petty and that giving them any attention is giving credit to their action and probably empowering them even more.

Ignore them really, you, we, should be better than that.

I mentioned it because I want to bring attention to the scumbag XVI fandom who are clearly review bombing FFXV just to try and make XVI look better with an arbitrary number, it's just the straw breaking the camels back for me regarding how utterly disgusting people XVI fans have been, and yes, this is without a doubt done by XVI fans, they do not deserve to be looked upon kindly.

 

[Koni]

It is relevant to Square Enix, and just simply looking at the page is evidence enough dude, seriously just 2 days ago when I checked it XV had 8.5, and that Forspoken DLC had 6.9, then after people pointed out that the FFXVI DLC had lower userscores than XV and even the Forspoken DLC, all of a sudden only a day later suddenly hundreds of negative reviews dragging down only FFXV's score and the Forspoken DLC, and a bunch of the most recent 10/10 reviews left on the XVI DLC page practically all saying the same "flopspoken and XV killed FF" shitpost, with similarly worded posts and similarly generic usernames.

Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide user reviews

Metacritic aggregates music, game, tv, and movie reviews from the leading critics. Only Metacritic.com uses METASCORES, which let you know at a glance how each item was reviewed.

www.metacritic.com

There is literally no other explanation for why FFXV or Forspoken DLC would suddenly have their userscores significantly lowered only AFTER the FFXVI DLC released and people pointed out its score was lower than XV and Forspoken's DLC. Only FFXVI fanboys are doing it based on all the evidence there is to glean, give another explanation why up until 3 days FFXV had 1640 scores, now suddenly out of nowhere 300+ more were added all negative all at once, it's clearly FFXVI fanboys trying to retaliate against XV and Forspoken, you cannot be serious that you can't see how petty XVI fanboys are all over resetera, twitter, youtube, etc. This shit pissed me off because it's clear fanboy bullshit done just to attack another game that is better than the game they like, and they can't accept that so they are trying to hurt XV's public perception just to boost XVI's perception in their little fanboy war.


I mentioned it because I want to bring attention to the scumbag XVI fandom who are clearly review bombing FFXV just to try and make XVI look better with an arbitrary number, it's just the straw breaking the camels back for me regarding how utterly disgusting people XVI fans have been, and yes, this is without a doubt done by XVI fans, they do not deserve to be looked upon kindly.

It's a Square Enix game, but this really has nothing to do with their output strategy. I'm not sure what you want Square Enix to do about some people review bombing their old games. It's one thing if it was because of something Square Enix did themselves that was unpopular, but it's not in this case. Like you said, it's really just fanboy wars. If I were to hazard a guess, I don't think Square Enix really cares all that much.

Also to be absolutely frank talking like this makes you look like you're fully a part of said wars, just from the anti-FFXVI side. I mean you literally just said "XVI fans have been disgusting people and they do not deserve to be looked upon kindly". Come on, man.

 

[MechaJackie]

I can't even comprehend how someone takes notice of metacritic user scores getting review bombed, who cares about shit like that? lmao
Might as well be waging wars over random twitter polls.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

I can't even comprehend how someone takes notice of metacritic user scores getting review bombed, who cares about shit like that? lmao
Might as well be waging wars over random twitter polls.

The user was banned, let’s get back to the thread topic please.

 

[Person]

New mainline SaGa game was released today. Not sure how it's doing on Switch and PS4, but it's not lighting the world on fire on Steam.

 

[Aostia82]

New mainline SaGa game was released today. Not sure how it's doing on Switch and PS4, but it's not lighting the world on fire on Steam.

Small tip, but they didn't even distributed review codes for it, at least in Italy

 

[Person]

Small tip, but they didn't even distributed review codes for it, at least in Italy

I really don’t understand why they sometimes seem to have a total indifference to their own game releases.

 

[Djehuty]

I really don’t understand why they sometimes seem to have a total indifference to their own game releases.

Classic square enix

Sends a game out to die

“Why did it die?”

 

[GoldenFingers]

New mainline SaGa game was released today. Not sure how it's doing on Switch and PS4, but it's not lighting the world on fire on Steam.

It's the second best-reviewed SaGa game ever, for what it is worth, with some chance of ticking higher than SSG.

It is also one of the largest multi-platform releases for a an RPG franchise, launching simultaneously worldwide on PS4, PS5 , Switch, PC, iOS, and Android.

PC might actually be 6th-highest SKU. My guess is Switch lead (by a lot), then PS4, then PS5, and then the rest in some basically random order.

Small tip, but they didn't even distributed review codes for it, at least in Italy

The game needs a UI patch or a few, but also the game is an insane sprawling adventuee where even people that beat all 5 protagonist campaigns have barely a view into the internals of the overall campaign. 17 worlds, each with large branching plots, multiple entirely distinct versions between playthroughs, and some campaigns are Nier like where you start up a new game with the same character to find that it is basically a totally different t campaign. All of that is on top of probably the best turn based system in an RPG.

The game is going to have legs. Only a few of the reviews played enough to wrap their heads around what the fuck is going on.

 

[Evilnemesis8]

It's the second best-reviewed SaGa game ever, for what it is worth, with some chance of ticking higher than SSG.

It is also one of the largest multi-platform releases for a an RPG franchise, launching simultaneously worldwide on PS4, PS5 , Switch, PC, iOS, and Android.

PC might actually be 6th-highest SKU.

I could be wrong but I don't think there's a big appetite on mobile for that product.
$50 USD(it's 66.99 CAD over here) is a ginormous price point for the two phone platforms.

 

[GoldenFingers]

I could be wrong but I don't think there's a big appetite on mobile for that product.
$50 USD(it's 66.99 CAD over here) is a ginormous price point for the two phone platforms.

I agree, but a bunch of the turn-based based IPs have done well there. This comes after spending a decade of treating SaGa well on mobile.

All signs point to these doing better on mobile than they did on Xbox, so if mobile is bad then Xbox would have been like 2000 copies.

Companies don't do releases on platforms to only sell 4k or 5k. I don't know the order of mobile and PC, but the mobile version is good, arguably better with touch than a controller, and the mobile game is very successful. It's not a major major release (launch to a few hundred thousand and then leg a few hundred thousand more over a few years), but the circumstances seem like it leads to a less lopsided platform spread than usual.

EDIT: concurrent peak for EB is 5x the peak concurrent of what SSG got on Steam. But that wasn't global and was half the price in the West.

 

[Person]

I agree, but a bunch of the turn-based based IPs have done well there. This comes after spending a decade of treating SaGa well on mobile.

All signs point to these doing better on mobile than they did on Xbox, so if mobile is bad then Xbox would have been like 2000 copies.

What does Xbox have to do with the mobile SKUs allegedly being ahead of the PC SKU of a game with no Xbox release?

 

[fiendcode]

I could be wrong but I don't think there's a big appetite on mobile for that product.
$50 USD(it's 66.99 CAD over here) is a ginormous price point for the two phone platforms.

50+ downloads on the Play Store (this is a global app afaik). The market for premium games on mobile is practically nonexistent, I'm surprised they bother with Android/iOS and especially over Xbox.

SaGa Emerald Beyond - Apps on Google Play

FORGE YOUR OWN TALE

play.google.com

 

[GoldenFingers]

What does Xbox have to do with the mobile SKUs allegedly being ahead of the PC SKU of a game with no Xbox release?

They release on mobile instead of Xbox because the previous SaGa games that they released on both likely sold better on mobile than on Xbox.

Companies actually have this sort of data to base decisions on. When they do things that look weird to us, the decisions are made with information we don't have. My point is that, LTD, the sales for the series have not been totally dire on mobile, and were likely higher there for RS2 and RS3 than they were on Xbox.

There's always diminishing returns for adding more platforms, though, so PC/mobile are scraping the tail while Switch and PS4/5 are the vast majority.

I'd love to see the full breakdown by platform for the SaGa games. They've had fantastic platform coverage since the RS2/RS3 updates, but it looks like mobile has declined while Steam has risen. The JP:worldwide ratio is more extreme than most JRPG franchises which throws off a lot of expectations.

 

[Person]

They release on mobile instead of Xbox because the previous SaGa games that they released on both likely sold better on mobile than on Xbox.

Companies actually have this sort of data to base decisions on. When they do things that look weird to us, the decisions are made with information we don't have. My point is that, LTD, the sales for the series have not been totally dire on mobile, and were likely higher there for RS2 and RS3 than they were on Xbox.

There's always diminishing returns for adding more platforms, though, so PC/mobile are scraping the tail while Switch and PS4/5 are the vast majority.

I'd love to see the full breakdown by platform for the SaGa games. They've had fantastic platform coverage since the RS2/RS3 updates, but it looks like mobile has declined while Steam has risen. The JP:worldwide ratio is more extreme than most JRPG franchises which throws off a lot of expectations.

Still doesn’t answer the question, but thanks to friendcode’s post we see that android is orders of magnitude behind PC.

 

[GoldenFingers]

50+ downloads on the Play Store (this is a global app afaik). The market for premium games on mobile is practically nonexistent, I'm surprised they bother with Android/iOS and especially over Xbox.

SaGa Emerald Beyond - Apps on Google Play

FORGE YOUR OWN TALE

play.google.com

Wow, that's a huge decline from the previous SaGa games. The market has seemingly shifted a ton in the last 5 or 6 years, with this launch having like no relationship to how SSG launched-- Steam launch revenue is like 10x for EB what it was for SSG, and then way way way down on mobile.

 

[ILikeFeet]

50+ downloads on the Play Store (this is a global app afaik). The market for premium games on mobile is practically nonexistent, I'm surprised they bother with Android/iOS and especially over Xbox.

SaGa Emerald Beyond - Apps on Google Play

FORGE YOUR OWN TALE

play.google.com

Wonder if this is playable on windows. That's what I think android is missing, being able to move around and continue games elsewhere like on a TV or monitor

 

[Danny]

50+ downloads on the Play Store (this is a global app afaik). The market for premium games on mobile is practically nonexistent, I'm surprised they bother with Android/iOS and especially over Xbox.

SaGa Emerald Beyond - Apps on Google Play

FORGE YOUR OWN TALE

play.google.com

The only reason Japanese games continue to release on Xbox must be because of Microsoft, they sell next to nothing to justify any releases on Xbox. The fact that Japanese games come out on Xbox instead of Switch is almost laughably stupid, the difference in sales potential is simply enormous.

 

[Person]

The only reason Japanese games continue to release on Xbox must be because of Microsoft, they sell next to nothing to justify any releases on Xbox. The fact that Japanese games come out on Xbox instead of Switch is almost laughably stupid, the difference in sales potential is simply enormous.

How much did Microsoft pay for Dragon’s Dogma 2? There’s a certain triviality to an Xbox port of games that’s just not achievable on Switch.

Switch should get more games, that are designed from the ground up to be multi-platform with the Switch as a planned SKU early on. But so many of you are taking the lack of such games and jumping into some weird bitterness about the existence of Xbox games and just repeating unsupported nonsense.

 

[MechaJackie]

Despite not being a real contender to first place in the console wars, Microsoft still is running a hardware platform with a not insignificant userbase, sometimes the porting cost is just not that high, sometimes some companies and franchises find more success on the platform than others, outside of smaller niche releases Capcom hasn't been shy to publish on the platform.

Funnily enough Xbox is taking some of the same fire Nintendo takes because of the Series S, unfortunately the entire industry is just dead set on high end graphics.

 

[Danny]

Despite not being a real contender to first place in the console wars, Microsoft still is running a hardware platform with a not insignificant userbase, sometimes the porting cost is just not that high, sometimes some companies and franchises find more success on the platform than others, outside of smaller niche releases Capcom hasn't been shy to publish on the platform.

Funnily enough Xbox is taking some of the same fire Nintendo takes because of the Series S, unfortunately the entire industry is just dead set on high end graphics.

Xbox is the only gaming platform ever created where Final Fantasy games sell a few thousand copies. Enough said.

 

[MegaXZero]

Xbox is the only gaming platform ever created where Final Fantasy games sell a few thousand copies. Enough said.

Are you thinking of just Japan? Because FF15 sold more than that on Xbox globally. Also just ignoring 13.

 

[MechaJackie]

Xbox is the only gaming platform ever created where Final Fantasy games sell a few thousand copies. Enough said.

What a thoroughly bizarre post, I don't even know where to begin.

 

[mariodk18]

Translated: SE- Resolved to review its HD game title development policy and revised the pipeline of titles under development, and as a result, expects to record an extraordinary loss of 22.1 billion yen for the fiscal year ending March 2024.

 

[Joseki]

Well that’s a lot of losses.

 

[Djehuty]

Legendary failure

Not a single thing done right except for power washing game.

 

[Damage2]

That must mean that they cancelled 1 or 2 AAA games, no?

 

[Djehuty]

That must mean that they cancelled 1 or 2 AAA games, no?

Probably down to basics.

Ff7 part 3
Dw12
Kh4
Ff17


Which for my part is a must. They need to revisited their core franchises and strengths becuase all of them are in a bad position

 

[Evilnemesis8]

That must mean that they cancelled 1 or 2 AAA games, no?

Most likely.
Could be two of them or one that has been in development for a long time that wasn't working out.
It could also be 1 AAA game and a bunch of smaller projects all canned at the same time.

 

[Oregano]

Considering this fiscal year contains the launch of both Final Fantasy XVI, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, both of which should be amongst Square Enix's most profitable releases(in the HD games segment at least) that's an extremely costly restructure.

 

[foxuzamaki]

Were gonna be wondering for a long time what could have been from these projects

 

[Bodokoh]

It's time to put a stop to unnecessary projects like Forspoken, Foamstars, DQ spin-off that nobodies asked, and etc.

 

[Damage2]

Forspoken it was a big budget project made to sell for western audiences, it didnt work out and it wasnt well received.

But at least they tried to make something like that, it was made with the same team that worked on FFXV too

 

[Joseki]

Dragon Quest
NieR
Final Fantasy
Kingdom Hearts
Team Asano

I suspect not much of anything else will survive the "restructuring" in the short-medium term.

 

[GodlyTrident]

Oof. I guess the one story about underperformed release will about Final Fantasy Rebirth. Though I wonder what games were cancelled.

 

[MarcoP90]

Well that’s a lot of losses.

These aren't losses caused by the sales performance of their releases during the FY ending on March 2024; this is specifically for the review of their upcoming pipeline (basically: projects being canceled or paused indefinitely).

 

[KarlRemarx]

It's time to put a stop to unnecessary projects like Forspoken, Foamstars, DQ spin-off that nobodies asked, and etc.

Dragon Quest
NieR
Final Fantasy
Kingdom Hearts
Team Asano

I suspect not much of anything else will survive the "restructuring" in the short-medium term.

I have strong doubts that the existence or cancellation of other A/AA/AAA projects have anything to do with S-E's problems with delivering on their core strengths. The issue is the combination of poor product managers and a senior leadership that obsesses over fads (NFTs, AI-generated art, devaluing even their most prestigious IP like FF7 with mobile battle royale titles that nobody wants) rather than delivering the basics effectively.

Like, the problems with FF and DQ have nothing to do with whether a Tactics Ogre remake or Dragon Quest Builders exists. The problems are:

-Releasing DQ spinoffs at a rate that far exceeds production and localisation of the mainline series on all modern platforms. Customers are not going to know or care about spinoffs when the mainline series is largely unavailable on PC and HD consoles - meanwhile the core audience has been spread across multiple platforms that have completely piecemeal availability of the mainline series.
-Sending games like Tactics Ogre to die with zero marketing and a schedule that clashes with multiple other S-E games, that were crammed into a single 6 month window that have large player overlap. Someone interested in TO is part of the core S-E A/AA audience who would potentially take a chance on the likes of Various Daylife, Harvestella, Diofield, SaGa, Crisis Core, Theatrythm, Octopath 2 etc - all of which were released in a single 6 month window in 2022/2023. It is frankly absurd (or complete arrogance) to fail to understand your customer base and make demands of their spending to this degree.
-A deranged relationship with Sony. S-E are destroying their own sales potential due to this business relationship, to the point where S-E are more committed to PlayStation exclusivity than Sony themselves. Sony literally released a multiplatform GAAS (helldivers) right before the PlayStation exclusive Foamstars which of course has utterly bombed, because even Sony themselves know the purpose of these titles is to generate massive revenues off the widest possible customer base, wider than the PS ecosystem even. When it comes to traditional AAA content, again Sony have their cake and eat it with Steam ports yet S-E have repeatedly sent their most prestigious brands to die on EGS, all for chump change that is utterly dwarfed by their actual sales potential on Steam if they weren't deliberately alienating those customers. This relationship has also resulted in them failing to react and fully capitalise on the success of Switch.

 

[ILikeFeet]

I would hope their upcoming slate doesn't have exclusivity tied to it. they're really limiting their sales, especially by not even hitting PC day one. a real "shooting themselves in the foot" moment here

the spinoffs to big IPs like DQ and FF are fine, but with the main games so far away, they need to be careful how they handle them. DQ spinoffs was a disaster class, and FF doesn't really have any anymore.

and speaking of, Final Fantasy could use a sub-series with a more stable game design. FF changes itself up more than Zelda does, to the point where the games don't even play like each other. that doesn't give people a reason to come back if they don't like the direction. that's fine and all, but there should be some kind of stability methinks

 

[Aostia82]

As said in the other thread, I can see them.cut all the Diofield/Harvestella/Voice of cards + all the cheap remasters and keep

Ff
Dq
Nier
Kh

+ Asano games

 

[GoldenFingers]

Were gonna be wondering for a long time what could have been from these projects

Look at their 7th-15th most prominent IPs that were still getting reasons, and now imagine half of those IPs not getting games instead.

They were supporting a ton of IPs. Now they will be supporting fewer. Star Ocean, Valkyrie, TWEWY, Front Mission are all probably extra extra dead now (but thankfully SE is willing to sell rights like the FM remakes). If somebody else wants to fund an SO game they can.

As said in the other thread, I can see them.cut all the Diofield/Harvestella/Voice of cards + all the cheap remasters and keep

Ff
Dq
Nier
Kh

+ Asano games

Yeah, basically, but I think cheap remasters are safe. Mana and SaGa as well. Series with multiple releases that did well within the last decade are probably fine. I don't think any of the recent remasters were flops, but it is really hard to speculate on budgets in situations for all of the weird hybrid remaksters that extensively use old codes or assets interwoven with new stuff.

Voice, Paranormasight, Dungeon Encounters were actually cheap games, so there's some chance they still try little things like those from time to time.

AA and AAA in new IPs are dead for for the foreseeable future. Low/mid-budget remakes and remasters in their major IPs have generally done well so I'm not super worried about that space. The real issue is where their cutoff is between major and tertiary. I've long believed that Chrono Trigger ports were canceled over the same explicitly stated reasons the Pixel Remasters were made and that some type of updated recode was coming, but now, who knows.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Mana and SaGa as well.

I don't know about these. especially with Visions starting to take up more budget, it's gonna be an ask if the timing and platform choice is gonna work out in its favor like Trials

 

[foxuzamaki]

I don't know about these. especially with Visions starting to take up more budget, it's gonna be an ask if the timing and platform choice is gonna work out in its favor like Trials

God, they may have just fucked the mana series. I just don't understand the logic, maybe they thought switch 2 would be out by now? But Square is probably one of the 1st to know about switch 2 plans

 

[GoldenFingers]

God, they may have just fucked the mana series. I just don't understand the logic, maybe they thought switch 2 would be out by now? But Square is probably one of the 1st to know about switch 2 plans

Seiten Densetsu 4 and the DS games fucked it up. The remakes were extreme outliers.

Every normal developer thought there was no way Nintendo would go a full 8 years off of a mobile chip.

 

[foxuzamaki]

Seiten Densetsu 4 and the DS games fucked it up. The remakes were extreme outliers.

Every normal developer thought there was no way Nintendo would go a full 8 years off of a mobile chip.

This stuff is planned years in advance, most publishers who aren't indie should know roughly when the switch 2 would drop by now and plan accordingly

 

[GoldenFingers]

This stuff is planned years in advance, most publishers who aren't indie should know roughly when the switch 2 would drop by now and plan accordingly

Yeah, and Switch 2 seemingly got delayed a full year, in at least two chunks. When Visions was greenlit, Switch 2 was planned for 2024 probably.

 

[ILikeFeet]

Every normal developer thought there was no way Nintendo would go a full 8 years off of a mobile chip.

nah. this game was greenlit in the height of Switch popularity and probably before Nintendo started telling devs about Drake. it has no bearing on Visions

Yeah, and Switch 2 seemingly got delayed a full year, in at least two chunks. When Visions was greenlit, Switch 2 was planned for 2024 probably.

I heavily question this "delay". that would imply Nintendo told them it was launching in a specific quarter, by which it'd probably would have leaked, much like this "delay" leaked. nah, I think devs just assumed it would hit before christmas and are surprised it didn't.

but again, Visions wasn't made to hit a suspected date of hardware. that would be incredibly stupid of SE and very much at odds with how close SE and Nintendo are. the game was never intended to hit Nintendo day one

 

[Oregano]

Seiten Densetsu 4 and the DS games fucked it up. The remakes were extreme outliers.

Every normal developer thought there was no way Nintendo would go a full 8 years off of a mobile chip.

Yeah, and Switch 2 seemingly got delayed a full year, in at least two chunks. When Visions was greenlit, Switch 2 was planned for 2024 probably.

Even if this is true it doesn't make a massive difference when publishers are still supporting the much older PS4 and Xbox One because their audiences are too big to ignore. Even if Switch 2 was released in 2024(and before Summer 2024) it would have a miniscule install base compared to the Switch.

Basically regardless of whether we think it's a good or bad idea they didn't see that audience as essential and likely planned for release without a Nintendo SKU at all.

 

[Danny]

nah. this game was greenlit in the height of Switch popularity and probably before Nintendo started telling devs about Drake. it has no bearing on Visions


I heavily question this "delay". that would imply Nintendo told them it was launching in a specific quarter, by which it'd probably would have leaked, much like this "delay" leaked. nah, I think devs just assumed it would hit before christmas and are surprised it didn't.

but again, Visions wasn't made to hit a suspected date of hardware. that would be incredibly stupid of SE and very much at odds with how close SE and Nintendo are. the game was never intended to hit Nintendo day one

I don't think Nintendo and SE are ''close''. SE is close to Sony. The fact that their relationship with Nintendo have improved since the era where they released no games at all on Nintendo systems does not change the fact that SE is much more close to Sony.

 

[MechaJackie]

I don't think Nintendo and SE are ''close''. SE is close to Sony. The fact that their relationship with Nintendo have improved since the era where they released no games at all on Nintendo systems does not change the fact that SE is much more close to Sony.

Nowhere in the post you're replying to there's even any mention of SE and Sony's relationship. It has nothing to do with what ILikeFeet said. What even is your point?

 

[GoldenFingers]

I don't think Nintendo and SE are ''close''. SE is close to Sony. The fact that their relationship with Nintendo have improved since the era where they released no games at all on Nintendo systems does not change the fact that SE is much more close to Sony.

Nintendo regularly publishes Square Enix games regionally, about once per year. Has Sony published any SE games in the last decade? Or any SE games period? They published Squaresoft games pre-merger and pre-EA partnership.

Publisher deals are a wildly closer relationship and larger total value than marketing deals in exchange for exclusivity windows.