Former head of Microsoft's publishing division, Ed Fries, said that the company wanted to get more Japanese exclusives for the first Xbox, but faced resistance from the industry.
According to him, one of the main failures was the absence of the Final Fantasy series on the platform. In negotiations with Square Enix, the situation was complicated: the publisher, on the one hand, wanted competition for Sony, but on the other hand, was afraid to openly support Xbox because of its close ties with PlayStation.
Fries noted that in the early 2000s, the market was heavily dependent on these relationships, and any decision could affect business partners. Therefore, possible support for Xbox required caution and compromise.
As a result, Microsoft was unable to get Final Fantasy on its platform at a key moment. According to Fries, this could seriously affect the position of the first Xbox, especially in Japan, where the series was one of the main factors in the success of PlayStation.
Now the situation has changed, and Square Enix games are often released on multiple platforms simultaneously. However, as Fries notes, in those years the industry could have taken a completely different path.
An interesting example of that time is Tecmo, which released Dead or Alive exclusively for Xbox to increase competition in the market.
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