Sony?

Final Fantasy is owned by Square Enix.

I suspect Sony pays them very little for the timed exclusivity, still that does help.

But the mismanagement I’m referring to is less to do with the platform availability (though that doesn’t help) as it is with Squenixes habit of consistently over-estimating final sales, and thereby overspending on development and scope.

Squenix did it with Tomb Raider, they did it with Deux Ex, and then axed the franchises entirely because they “failed to meet sales projections”. They still sold like hell, but “underperformed” because Squenix had completely bonkers expectations, and thereby also spent way more than warranted.

The marketing budget for Shadow of the Tomb Raider was apparently more than a third of what they paid for development, and even the development cost was questionable.

The exact same pattern is happening with Final Fantasy, where they try to fix waning sales by going bigger and bigger, instead of more efficient and consistent. I hope they wise up before they axe FF, too.