On August 27th Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn – the much improved overhaul of the MMO – will be officialy released after leaving beta for PS3 and PC. In time, the game will also be launched on PS4 but neither the Xbox 360 nor the Xbox One will see the title.
Director Naoki Yoshida explained the reason to RPGSite. Microsoft does not allow games carried on Xbox Live to share servers with other platforms meaning that if the game were to come to Xbox 360 that console's owners wouldn't be able to play with PS3 or PS4 players and Yoshida takes issue with this.
"The policy has not changed on Microsoft side," he said. "The main reason from our side is that I don't want the community to be divided; to be split into two or more. For example, one players might be on the PC version, another might be on the PS4 version, and I'm playing the Xbox version – but we're not able to join the same game servers. I just don't like the idea. I disagree with it.
"To be frankly honest with you, there are now so many mobile devices, smart phones, everything – why would you ever just stick to one platform from the hardware aspect? [Why not] Just make it open to everyone? That's my opinion.
Square Enix's last MMO, Final Fantasy XI, could actually be cross-played on PC, PS2 and Xbox 360 so quite why it's impossible this time around isn't clear.
You can have a look at our E3 hands-on here while the beta is currently ongoing.
