Square Enix Won't Release Next-Gen Exclusives for Some Time

Square Enix has revealed that its games currently in development will be available on both current and next generation consoles, and games exclusively made and released for next-gen consoles will be "somewhat farther down the road". The company, which develops Final Fantasy and will publish Marvel's Avengers, made the announcement in an investor Q&A. President Yosuke Matsuda said: "The next-generation consoles will have backward compatibility, so we plan for the time being to make our new titles available for both current and next-generation consoles. It will therefore be somewhat farther down the road that we release titles exclusively for the next-generation consoles." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] What's interesting here is that mention of backwards compatibility. It may be that Square Enix is only working on current-generation versions of its games right now, because Xbox Series X and PS5 will both play them out of the box. It's not entirely clear from the text - we asked for clarification from Square Enix, but received a no-comment response. Microsoft's new Smart Delivery policy, which allows players to buy a current-gen game and get access to its next-gen version for no extra cost (already adopted by the likes of CD Projekt Red for Cyberpunk 2077), could also be an option. However, Smart Delivery is an opt-in for third-party publishers, who may not want to give multiple copies away for free. Either way, sticking to current-gen releases is an understandable move – releasing next-gen exclusives results in a far smaller pool of potial buyers, particularly when you take into account that PS4 is now the 4th highest-selling console of all time. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News, and he is playable exclusively on Ouya. Never forget. Follow him on Twitter.