Final Fantasy 16 – good thing PS5s are easier to find nowadays (pic: Square Enix)
PC players will have to wait a very long time for Final Fantasy 16 and not just because of Sony’s console exclusivity deal.
There’s been confusion surrounding Final Fantasy 16’s PC release ever since the game was first announced. Despite the announcement mentioning that the game was in development for both PC and PlayStation 5, Square Enix has never confirmed exactly when the PC version is due out.
Producer Naoki Yoshida at one point seemed to deny a PC version was even happening, saying ‘Nobody said a word about a PC version releasing,’ and advising fans to buy a PlayStation 5 instead.
Earlier today, he was a little more forthcoming, confirming that, yes, Final Fantasy 16 will come to PC. Just not until at least six months after the game’s June launch.
While it was pretty apparent already, Yoshida states that Final Fantasy 16 has a six-month exclusivity deal with PlayStation.
However, he suggests that even if this weren’t the case, the PC version still wouldn’t launch alongside the PlayStation 5 version.
‘I will make it clear, but the PC version will not come out in half a year,’ he says on the Japanese PlayStation Blog (as translated by Twitter user Wario64).
‘This is because we spent a lot of time and money optimising the PlayStation 5 platform to deliver the best gaming experience. Of course, I would like to release a PC version at some point so that everyone can play as many games as possible.
‘However, even if we start optimising the PC version after the PlayStation 5 version comes out, we won’t be able to optimise it in half a year, so it won’t come out in a short span of half a year.’
Given his refusal to provide any sort of launch window for it, it sounds like you shouldn’t expect the PC version to drop the moment the exclusivity ends in January 2024.
Yoshida would also prefer it if people didn’t wait for the PC version, adding: ‘I would be happy if you could play the PlayStation 5 version, which I made with the thought of being the best game in the world.’
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If you’re still on the fence about picking up Final Fantasy 16 you’ll be pleased to learn that Square Enix is releasing a demo for it.
In a separate interview with Famitsu (translated by Twitter user Genki), Yoshida says that it will arrive two weeks before the game’s launch and will let players carry over their save data to the full game.
Final Fantasy 16 launches for PlayStation 5 on June 22.
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PC players will have to wait a very long time for Final Fantasy 16 and not just because of Sony’s console exclusivity deal.
