'Difficult to Comment' on Astro Bot's Square Enix Snub, Says Team Asobi

No answers, just more questions

With the release of Team Asobi's delightful platformer Astro Bot now behind us, the complete absence of Square Enix references in the Rescue Mission successor remains a mystery. Studio head Nicolas Doucet said that he finds it "difficult to comment" on why the publisher, whose fortunes have always been closely tied to PlayStation's own, seemingly chose to skip the nostalgic celebration.

Talking to Stephen Totilo's Game File (thanks, Eurogamer), Doucet said that most "partners just raised their hand and said, 'absolutely'", and PlayStation's first-party family was at the head of the line. Square Enix, it seems, wasn't interested, and Totillo put this observation to Doucet, who neatly sidestepped: "It's difficult to comment on [why Square Enix wasn't involved]. We really respect the choice of each publisher."

We might be reading too much into things. Still, this does align with Square Enix's stated multi-platform mandate, and perhaps the storied publisher/developer doesn't want to be seen to be so closely associated with Sony anymore. Considering that both Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth somehow failed to meet expectations, that might be best for everyone involved.

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Are the glory days of the Sony and Square Enix love affair behind us? Considering how well XVI and Rebirth are doing on PC, do you think Square Enix's multi-platform strategy will be successful? Let us know in the comments section below.

[source gamefile.news]

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About Khayl Adam

Khayl Adam is Push Square's roving Australian correspondent, a reporter tasked with scouring the internet for the richest, most succulent PlayStation stories. With five years of experience as a freelance journalist and mercenary wordsmith, RPGs are his first great love, but strategy and tactics games are a close second, genres in which he is only too happy to specialize.

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Comments 34

• 1
• BloodyBlact
• 8:10am

Sure i was surprised when i saw Alundra but no Cloud/Squall around!

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• Medic_alert
• 8:14am

I mean it's just Square Enix decision making in a nutshell at the moment.

Put out game after game after game that fails to meet expectations then ditch the chance to be involved with a game that is essentially free promotion for your games and is one of the highest rated of the year...

Smooth....

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• Kidfunkadelic83
• 8:19am

I hadnt even realised square were missing to be honest. Oh well. Free advertise obvioustly isn't in their interest.

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• Fazermint
• 8:21am

Seeing as Square probably uses ChatGPT to make decisions for them, this just seems to be the unfortunate results of a given AI prompt.

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• GymratAmarillo
• 8:23am

If I remember correctly getting Cloud in smash was also a piece of work and the character fells lackluster options wise compared with other cameos in Smash. Square either didn't like the idea of their ips on bot form for Astro or were asking too much money for it.

If this is just because they want to be seen as multiplatform then the suit guys at SE aren't that intelligent, decline money and advertisement when your company is in a low? Ok lol.

Btw hopefully the "days of the Sony and Square Enix love" are over lol. Sony is paying those games to some extent and those games aren't selling the numbers they were expecting. Just let the SE guys pay for their own games, pay for their own marketing and get the ps version whenever all the other versions are out.

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• Nei
• 8:27am

Turning down free promotion in a popular game sounds like a bad decision imho but I am biased as I would love SE bots in Astro.

"Considering how well XVI and Rebirth are doing on PC": FFXVI - not particularly well by any regard, Rebirth - not even announced for release atm.

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• LifeGirl
• 8:36am

Square ENIX's expectations were too high. Simple as that. Most people would have been thrilled with the sales and reviews that those games got.
Modern corps have an "always must get bigger" mentality that is completely unsustainable and is contributing to the current decline of the medium.

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• DiggleDog
• 8:38am

Square Enix is absolutely the type of company to brand their IP as “iconic” while declining to be part of a big PlayStation hootenanny at the same time their games are underperforming left, right and

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• Rich33
• 8:42am

I originally thought this was just a complete accident after levels were 'left on the cutting room floor' during QA testing, but now I have no idea what SE are up to....

Maybe they were just too embarrassed when they realised Astro ran at locked 60fps and with an image quality that didnt look like vaseline!

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• Blofse
• 8:46am

Tbh there was quite a bit square in astros playroom, so I didn't feel it needed any more. I did feel however they needed more ghost, one single bot? Grrr

But in the case of the original question, I think people are reading too much into this!

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• PuppetMaster
• 8:56am

Probably the sign that Sony x SE long and close partnership is ending.

To deny Cloud or any Square cameo in Astro Bot feels like SE are denying that they're not a part of PS long history and doesn't want to work together with Sony anymore.

I don't know how Sony reacting to this though, especially with them using more Astro Bot as the face for their marketing. But i'm not surprised if in the next couple of years Sony will do less and less collaborations with SE. Especially when lately Sony had a lot of partnership with Chinese and Korean devs and they pushed more their games over SE.

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• Yousef-
• 9:06am

@Kidfunkadelic83 me neither. I was too caught up in the gravity rush references to notice 😂

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• 1UP-HUSKY
• 9:26am

Square-enix are always hesitant with the use of their IP in other games. I don't think it has anything to do with their relation with Sony. Square-enix needs to get their head out of their a** and start realising the FF IP is not legendary anymore. They destroyed their golden goose FFVII by making it a trilogy and making controversial choices in the story.

I loved both remake and rebirth but was left dissapointed by both endings of the games. And I'm sure alot of fans might be waiting for part 3 to buy the full trilogy.

Maybe Cloud will be added in the upcoming DLC of Astrobot. He does belong in there as he is, for everyone growing up with the first Playstation, a iconic character.

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• DennisReynolds
• 9:37am

Its really strange especially when MS allowed characters like Spyro to be included.

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• topher6490
• 9:42am

The free advertising worked, too. Since Astro Bot came out, I've purchased:

• Ape Escape: On the Loose & 2
• God of War & Ragnarok
• Horizon: Zero Dawn & Forbidden West
• Katamari Damacy & We Love Katamari ReRolls
• LocoRoco 1 & 2 Remastered + Midnight Carnival
• PaRappa the Rapper Remastered + 2
• Patapon 1 & 2 Remastered
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2
• Uncharted: The Nathan Drake & Legacy of Thieves Collections

If Cloud had been in Astro Bot and got me "re-excited" about Final Fantasy VII, I would've bought Rebirth. As it stands, I'll buy Rebirth if I ever get around to finishing Remake.

EDIT: I would've also lost my **** if there was a Clive Rosfield bot. I hadn't owned a PlayStation since the PS3 which was pretty much a SmackDown vs. RAW machine for me. I bought a PS5 last year for XVI and it ended up being one of my favorite games of all time. I dabbled in God of War and Horizon before I sold the system after they announced the Slim model, but never actually bought the Slim until two weeks before Astro Bot. So I have plenty of catching up to do on PlayStation games.

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• Shepherd_Tallon
• 9:43am

I'm 50/50 on this:

Absolutely, when Square picks a direction they tend to put their blinders on and go for it. I wouldn't be surprised if their "aggressive" third party approach is exactly what happened here.

On the other hand I'd like to think we're getting a dedicated DLC stage later.

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• GeeEssEff
• 9:46am

@topher6490 Astrobot really does have a way of making you nostalgic for old games and wanting to dive back in. I haven’t purchased anything I didn’t own already but it has got me redownloading and playing the Legacy of thieves collection and some infamous.

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• DonkeyFantasy
• 9:50am

Sony should've bought Square instead of Bungie just to put the Square executives out of their misery.

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• Areus
• 9:53am

One Sony owned franchise that was also missing from Astro bot was Heavenly Sword

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• UltimateOtaku91
• 9:54am

This is a strange one, this game was in development for 3-4 years so obviously they would have asked square enix during the beginning. Which at that point they would gladly work with Sony, during that development time we've had Final Fantasy 16, Forspoken, Final Fantasy 7 ReBirth and Foamstars as exclusives, but they couldn't give Astro Bot some cameos? 🤔

Seems to me they wanted a lot of money for that and Sony said no we've given you enough.

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• ear_wig
• 9:58am

Wasn’t best for the fans 😑 which seems to be the mantra for a lot of companies these days

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• naruball
• 10:07am

@UltimateOtaku91 excellent point.

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• Yousef-
• 10:34am

@PuppetMaster I guess this means no cloud PlayStation all stars 2

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• Rob_230
• 10:39am

Free promotion and advertising seems like a massive miss and an odd decision. Expect they wanted paying for the appearances. I also think the new CEO of Square doesn't seem to like Playstation- the relationship seems to have shifted when he came into post - of course Playstation bosses have also changed multiple times. Something is definitely up.

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• PuppetMaster
• 10:40am

@topher6490 dang you bought a lot of games bro 😮

@Yousef- No Cloud, Squall, Tidus, Yuna, Lightning, Sora, Noctis, Tifa, or any SE characters. Bummer but hey it's SE 🤷‍♂️

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• FreasurePlanten
• 10:40am

The very last paragraph of the news piece is misleading at best. The article linked comments on lower than expected profits which refer to the sales on PS5 as FF XVI had just been released on PC. And of course, FF VII Rebirth isn't available on PC...

You should fix that.

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• Elitepatriot
• 10:54am

Hopefully this means ff7 part 3 will come to PC day one. Probably about time I switch to PC gaming completely and put my ps5 to backlog mode.

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• Wiceheid
• 10:58am

When you look at the numbers FFXVI and FFVII rebirth did (and SE's earlier financial report that stated that FFXVI was profitable), I'm 100% convinced that the problem here is those expectations. SE need to revise their expectations for future projects and budget accordingly.
But I think the current AAA budgets are unsustainable and an evolutionary dead end for the industry. The amount of money AAA games cost to make is simply too much money to gamble with, and all innovation is a gamble. Therefore, AAA games are too expensive to be innovative and a part of the entertainment industry that doesn't innovate eventually dies.

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• Shepherd_Tallon
• 11:07am

@UltimateOtaku91 Oh fair point. I never considered this.

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• sikthvash
• 51m ago

@Areus Whilst Sony own the IP, it was made by Ninja Theory, who are now owned by Xbox, so maybe they don't want to go down that path shrugs

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• Titntin
• 46m ago

Just SE doing SE things. Anyway they can hurt buisness, they will.

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• Spedfrom
• 39m ago

This is an entirely stupid decision, likely spurred on by Square Enix's new president. While his business strategy is sound for what is a third party company, which is to expand their portfolio to other consoles and PC more consistently, avoiding character cameos in a single Sony game that attracts an audience of all ages does not and would not endanger that. For all its creativity, the business side of Square Enix keeps making unnecessary mistakes. Unrealistic sales expectations and poor business strategy has been historic, but we can now add marketing fumbles to that as well.

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• The_Wailing_Doom
• 13m ago

It's a bizarre choice for Square-Enix to turn down free advertising, but they are not known for making smart decisions.

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• Major_Player
• 11m ago

It's as simple as Square Enix didn't want to get involved with a franchise that it's not theirs.

Sometimes the truth is the most obvious one.

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