Late last year, Square Enix unveiled Visions of Mana—the Japanese publisher stated that they had set a general 2024 launch window for their colorful action role-playing sequel, with a planned release across PC, plus current and past generation console platforms. Microsoft's recent Xbox Developer_Direct presentation included a prominent slot for Visions of Mana and its development team—many news outlets started to speculate about the ongoing relationship between Square Enix and Xbox Game Studios. The game appears to be scheduled for a "Summer 2024" launch, although some leaked material alludes to a "Day One" release on the Xbox and PC Game Pass subscription service.

Square Enix is perceived—by the wider gaming community—to have close ties to the Sony PlayStation ecosystem, due to a regular rollout of exclusive titles. For example, the Final Fantasy franchise back catalog is not well represented on Xbox systems—this could change in 2024 and beyond; a port of Final Fantasy XIV Online was announced by Phil Spencer last year at a Fan Fest event. The embracing of Xbox platforms is certainly a novel concept at this point in time, but Microsoft's gaming division has been fighting hard to form new allegiances. Eurogamer has reported that references that tie Visions of Mana to a "Day One Game Pass launch" have been scrubbed from the internet: "There's no longer any mention of Game Pass when searching for the game and its entry on the Xbox website simply states "coming summer 2024" on both console and PC. As such, this could be a mistake. But many fans are hopeful of its Game Pass arrival."A Microsoft spokesperson informed Eurogamer about the confusion surrounding Vision of Mana's launch day prospects: "We're aware that Xbox.com included language that indicated Visions of Mana was coming to Xbox Game Pass and can confirm this was an error...While we are always updating the library and looking for new ways to provide members with value and choice, we do not have plans to bring Visions of Mana to Game Pass at this time."

Take a sneak peek at a brand new world of Mana with Mana Series Producer, Masaru Oyamada, and Mana Series Creator, Koichi Ishii.


Wishlist Visions of Mana today on PS5, PS4 consoles, Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC and Steam. Visions of Mana will be launching in Summer 2024.