Something to look forward to: No one likely thought Final Fantasy XVI would remain exclusive to the PlayStation 5 forever. Initial rumors suggested that it would come to the PC sometime after the console launch, like other entries in the series. Obviously, that didn’t pan out. However, Square Enix has unambiguously confirmed that it is working on a PC port.
Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida has confirmed to Ascii that development on the PC version of the game will begin after the PlayStation 5 version’s June 22 launch. The title has long been understood to be a PS5 exclusive, but Square Enix and Sony haven’t said much about how long that exclusivity will last.
Although Final Fantasy has been known as a flagship for console RPGs for decades, all mainline entries have received PC ports in the last few years. Most recently, the pixel remaster set brought the first six games to PC for the first time.
The only hint as to when Final Fantasy XVI might arrive on non-PlayStation platforms briefly appeared in a November 2022 sizzle reel of PlayStation games. The footage includes a clip from the title lasting only a few seconds with fine print at the bottom of the screen mentioning six months of PS5 exclusivity, with no official word on the subject since.
If the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot accurately describes an exclusivity deal between Sony and Square Enix, then any other versions would arrive no earlier than December 2023. Given Yoshida-san’s statement of when development would begin, it would be a realistic but tight timeframe. Other Final Fantasy titles took notably longer to migrate from console to PC.
Final Fantasy XV arrived on PC in 2018, two years after its original 2016 launch on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The Final Fantasy VII remake launched on the Epic Games Store in December 2021 – a year and a half after its April 2020 release on PS4. It more recently joined Steam.
Although Final Fantasy games are known for adopting drastically different storylines and gameplay with each new title, the latest entry is possibly the most significant departure for the series yet. While most games in the franchise have players controlling multiple characters in a command-based combat system like traditional RPGs, Final Fantasy XVI features an action-based system designed by Ryota Suzuki, who worked on Devil May Cry 5. Producer Yoshida has also avoided using “JRPG” to describe Final Fantasy XVI.
