Final Fantasy XVI launched as a PlayStation 5 exclusive last year on June 22, 2023. Since then, the game has gone on to receive commercial and critical acclaim, garnering a Metacritic score of 8.1 (out of 10) and 87, respectively. There was a little discourse surrounding the game as it marked a huge departure from the typical design conventions that were synonymous with the Final Fantasy IP, with WellPlayed stating in their review “whether this mass appeal will appease rusted-on FF fans remains to be seen, and all things considered, it’s likely this game was perhaps not made to contend with their established favourites.” Popular Australian YouTube game critic, Skill Up, also was not really jiving with the game as much as one might have hoped.
Regardless, after a while, it was clear that the low adoption rate of the PS5 was holding the game’s commercial success back. This is not to say that it was a flop or a failure, but rather that when the game made its way to PC, Square Enix would undoubtedly see more profit from the game rather than just recuperating the cost of the game’s development.
In an interview with Game Informer, producer Naoki Yoshida shed a few minor details regarding the game’s PC version. The PC version was confirmed to be in development in September 2023, less than a month after the game had already been released for the PS5. Since then, the development of the PC version has been pretty quiet. Yoshida (affectionately referred to as Yoshi-P by Final Fantasy XIV fans), briefly spoke about how development on the PC version has progressed, stating that the PC version is in its final stages of optimisation.
“While Yoshida is unable to share when the PC version of FFXVI will be released, he says the team is in the last stages of optimization.” – Wesley LeBlanc via Game Informer
Yoshida doesn’t provide too much more detail about the PC version’s development progress, but he does state that a release date is still yet to be determined but the PC specification requirements are looking to be quite high – pretty normal for modern Final Fantasy. It will still be a while before the game is ready to launch on PC, but Yoshi-P mentions that they are aiming to release a demo prior to the full game’s launch on PC so people can get an idea of how their PCs will handle the latest entry into Square Enix’s insanely popular JRPG series.
