Final Fantasy 7 Remake isn’t on Xbox, according to Microsoft because Sony has an ‘exclusion deal’

FF7 Remake may not appear on Xbox any time soon.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake was only available on PlayStation consoles for a full year after release. The exclusivity deal has now expired and the game has also been released for PC. So far, fans have been waiting in vain for a version for Xbox One and Series X/S. And that could remain the case for a long time, as Microsoft explains.

Sony is blocking several games from appearing on Xbox

in one documentwhich is part of the investigation of the Microsoft’s planned takeover of Activision Blizzard Microsoft has stated that we may not see some titles on Xbox. The reason for this is therefore a deal that Sony has with some third-party publishers. This should explicitly exclude Xbox consoles from the list of possible platforms on which certain games can appear. In addition to the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Microsoft also mentions Bloodborne and the upcoming titles Final Fantasy 16 and the Silent Hill 2 Remake as an example.

Except for Bloodborne, all of these titles are third-party games. So even if the PlayStation exclusivity expires, the Xbox ban appears to be unaffected. Accordingly, FF7 Remake could probably only appear on Microsoft’s consoles if Sony explicitly allows it. This could possibly also apply to the second part of the remake, Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth.

You can get a first look at the second part of the remake here:

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Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – The first look at the second part of the remake

Sony opposes Microsoft’s ABK takeover

As Microsoft notes in the report, exclusivity strategies are not uncommon in the gaming industry. The document does not reveal whether the publisher himself has or had similar deals. However, Microsoft admits that Sony has more exclusive games with “better quality”. Of course, this concession is no coincidence – Microsoft wants to smash the argument that the takeover of Activision Blizzard could be anti-competitive.

In recent months, the fronts at Microsoft and Sony on the planned ABK takeover have hardened more and more. Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer has even accused Sony of growing by making Xbox smaller. The biggest bone of contention here, of course, is the Call of Duty series. According to a report, Microsoft Sony could want to make the deal a little tastier by allowing CoD to appear on PS Plus in the future.

Did you realize that the expiration of the exclusivity deal doesn’t mean that the game can be released on Xbox consoles right away?