In addition to its home on Windows, Square Enix's popular massively multiplayer game
Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn has had a home on PlayStation 3 since its 2013 launch and PlayStation 4 since April 2014. Fans have often asked why the game never made it to Xbox One, and the game's creators have maintained that it's because Microsoft's console infrastructure didn't allow for cross-platform play, enabling players from any platform able to play together on the same servers.
However, that fact of life has changed. A big focus of Microsoft's news at E3 2016 was the capability for players to enjoy a variety of games on both Xbox One and Windows, with multiplayer servers across those and any other willing platforms.
So does this change the potential for
Final Fantasy 14? According to
Final Fantasy 14director Naoki Yoshida, yes, it does. It's just a matter of working out continuing negotiations with Microsoft.
"Microsoft actually approached the
Final Fantasy 14 team about the cross-platform opportunity," Yoshida told Polygon. "When our team reviewed the regulations that are associated with that, we realized that Microsoft may not have the experience or understanding of running an MMORPG as an online game genre just yet. The
Final Fantasy 14 team has fed back to Microsoft that there are certain elements of its regulations that we would have to consider waived. We're waiting on Microsoft's response for that, but we are having discussions."
While
Final Fantasy 14 may be expanding to a new console, some fans are also wondering about when or whether it will leave an older one. A common topic among players is whether or not Square Enix will stop supporting the PlayStation 3, as the old technology could hold back what's possible with future expansion packs.
"At this point, we've already declared that we'll continue to fully support the PS3 through the 3.x series of patches," Yoshida said. "That's about all we can say at this point. If anything changes with that, we'll be sure to update our players so that they are aware."
Final Fantasy 14's first expansion pack,
Heavensward, was released a year ago. Patch 3.3, titled "Revenge of the Horde," hit the game last week.
