‘Final Fantasy 16’ won’t launch on PC as soon as its PS5 exclusivity ends
Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida has confirmed that Square Enix‘s upcoming release of the role-playing game (RPG) is locked to six months of exclusivity for PS5 consoles, but fans shouldn’t expect a PC version to be ready as soon as that time is up.
Since it was announced in 2020, Final Fantasy 16‘s status as a PS5-exclusive game has been the subject of some confusion. While its first trailer originally claimed it was “also available on PC,” Square Enix later walked back its claim and denied reports of a PC version existing.
Since then, Sony has confirmed that Final Fantasy 16 will be exclusive to PS5 for six months. Although that means the game can’t launch on another platform within that time, fans have speculated that Final Fantasy 16 will come to PC as soon as its exclusivity runs out.
In a blog posted yesterday (February 28), Yoshida said that although he would like to “eventually” bring the game to PC, fans shouldn’t expect it to arrive as soon as those six months are up.
“First of all, it is true that Final Fantasy 16 is a six-month limited time exclusive on the PS5 platform,” wrote Yoshida. “However, it is a completely different story that the PC version will be released in half a year. I will make it clear, but the PC version will not come out in half a year.”
Yoshida continued: “This is because we spent a lot of time and money optimizing the PS5 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 optimizing the PC version after the PS5 version comes out, we won’t be able to optimize it in half a year, so it won’t come out in a short span of half a year.”
Yoshida added that he is “not at the stage” where he can discuss when Final Fantasy 16 will come to PC.
Ahead of its June launch, we got to preview Final Fantasy 16 and found a “strange and exciting new world” with hints of PlatinumGames‘ Bayonetta series.
In other news, Square Enix has announced that it is closing down the studio behind Forspoken, a game that launched to mixed reception in January.
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Andy Brown
NME
