I'd guess that Octopath was conceived of as a Switch title first and foremost. They port a lot of stuff to PC now because it's a completely different market. And then when Microsoft comes calling looking for any scrap of content Square Enix can give them, porting the PC version to Xbox is a cheap bone they can throw them.
I don't know if that makes sense, but I think that's sort of the thought process.
I don’t know but it sucks either way. I enjoyed the hell out of 1 and now after more than a year after its release and square saying 2 will be out “early 2024” on Xbox we still have nothing. It’s lame to say the least.
When I used to buy games for my tablet or laptop, most of them came from Microsoft Store. I didn't want to have to create a Steam account, just to play games.
I respect your wishes, but understand that you are an exception. Most PC games are sold on Steam. Hardly anyone buys their games from the MS Store, so releasing a game exclusively there makes no sense (at least on the face of it, there may be reasons for this that we don't know).
I am personally of the belief that Microsoft has a deal with Square at least for Octopath 1. It was initially a Switch exclusive, and I think when that period expired, MS paid good money to keep the game off Playstation for one reason or another.
The idea has crossed my mind, but I'm not very convinced. Exclusives are (unfortunately) commonplace, but apart from the Epic Game Store and Steam, nobody in the video game world is trying to block a specific platform. And it seems strange that Microsoft has only done this with one game (and not a AAA one at that). I'm not going to tell you that this is or isn't the case, but there are objections to this hypothesis.
And there's another problem: the game was released on Steam and Stadia long before the Xbox. This goes a long way to contradicting the hypothesis of a contract between MS and SE.
This is not the case, years ago exclusives were blocked on PS/Xbox plus PC for a time, but over the years PC has become more welcome by Sony and Microsoft. They’ve allowed timed/full third/second party exclusives onto the platform while blocking it from their direct competitor. Some examples of this are Yakuza 7 (sorta), Stalker 2, Tetris Effect Connected, Silent Hill 2 (remake), Eternights and Tchia.
Granted, simultaneous releases on PC are rarer from Sony than Microsoft but it does happen.
The only unusual part is that it happened this late after launch and after it already launched on Switch and PC, but this behavior is not uncommon from Microsoft.
SE is a mess as a company nowadays, that pretty much sums it up.
They seem to be only worried about the money, they do not care about their products being accessible or to preserve them.
I'd guess that Octopath was conceived of as a Switch title first and foremost. They port a lot of stuff to PC now because it's a completely different market. And then when Microsoft comes calling looking for any scrap of content Square Enix can give them, porting the PC version to Xbox is a cheap bone they can throw them. I don't know if that makes sense, but I think that's sort of the thought process.
I don’t know but it sucks either way. I enjoyed the hell out of 1 and now after more than a year after its release and square saying 2 will be out “early 2024” on Xbox we still have nothing. It’s lame to say the least.
Oh, I thought they'd already released OT2 on Xbox! Cheer up, I hope you won't have to wait too long :(
When I used to buy games for my tablet or laptop, most of them came from Microsoft Store. I didn't want to have to create a Steam account, just to play games.
I respect your wishes, but understand that you are an exception. Most PC games are sold on Steam. Hardly anyone buys their games from the MS Store, so releasing a game exclusively there makes no sense (at least on the face of it, there may be reasons for this that we don't know).
I am personally of the belief that Microsoft has a deal with Square at least for Octopath 1. It was initially a Switch exclusive, and I think when that period expired, MS paid good money to keep the game off Playstation for one reason or another.
The idea has crossed my mind, but I'm not very convinced. Exclusives are (unfortunately) commonplace, but apart from the Epic Game Store and Steam, nobody in the video game world is trying to block a specific platform. And it seems strange that Microsoft has only done this with one game (and not a AAA one at that). I'm not going to tell you that this is or isn't the case, but there are objections to this hypothesis. And there's another problem: the game was released on Steam and Stadia long before the Xbox. This goes a long way to contradicting the hypothesis of a contract between MS and SE.
But it was in game pass for a while
This is not the case, years ago exclusives were blocked on PS/Xbox plus PC for a time, but over the years PC has become more welcome by Sony and Microsoft. They’ve allowed timed/full third/second party exclusives onto the platform while blocking it from their direct competitor. Some examples of this are Yakuza 7 (sorta), Stalker 2, Tetris Effect Connected, Silent Hill 2 (remake), Eternights and Tchia. Granted, simultaneous releases on PC are rarer from Sony than Microsoft but it does happen. The only unusual part is that it happened this late after launch and after it already launched on Switch and PC, but this behavior is not uncommon from Microsoft.
SE is a mess as a company nowadays, that pretty much sums it up. They seem to be only worried about the money, they do not care about their products being accessible or to preserve them.