Final Fantasy 16 won’t be on PC this year

The next game in the celebrated Final Fantasy series is set to launch on PS5 later this year, but its PC version won’t be released in 2023.

The producer of Final Fantasy 16, the next game in the celebrated RPG series, has said that the PC version of the game likely won’t be released this year.

Final Fantasy 16 is set to be released on June 22, 2023, and will be exclusive to the PlayStation 5 for at least six months. While many expected that the game would come to PC as soon as the exclusivity period ended, producer Naoki Yoshida says that it will probably take a lot more time.

Talking with the Japanese PlayStation Blog (translated via DeepL), producer Naoki Yoshida said that the money and resources required to optimise the game for the wide range of hardware on the PC platform means porting the game will take much longer than six months.

“I want to make it clear that the PC version will not be released in six months,” Yoshida said, “We have spent a lot of time and money optimising the PS5 platform in order to deliver the best gaming experience possible”.

He continued: “Of course, we would like to release a PC version at some point, so that as many people as possible can play the game. However, if we start optimising the PC version after the PS5 version is released, we won’t be able to optimise it in six months, so it won’t be released in a short span of six months. We would like to release it eventually, and I think we will, but right now we are not at a stage where we can say when”.

Final Fantasy 16 will let players fight against and summon gigantic creatures. Picture: Square Enix

The game is not expected to come to Xbox Series consoles, despite the PS5 exclusivity period ending after six months. Microsoft recently told the US Federal Trade Commission that PS5 exclusives won’t come to Xbox, saying that Sony required games like Final Fantasy 16 were part of agreements that explicitly required the exclusion of Xbox platforms for release.

Yoshida said that he doesn’t want players holding off for the PC version of the game, instead encouraging players to play the PS5 version when it releases in June.

“We have made the best game in the world, and I would be happy if you could play the PS5 version,” the producer said, “If the PC version comes out in half a year, I may quit the company [laughs]. I hope you will enjoy the PS5 version first, without saying ‘I won’t buy the PS5 version because the PC version will be released in half a year anyway’”.

The latest game in the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy 16 is said to be a much darker story than previous games. Picture: Square Enix

It was recently revealed that Forspoken developer Luminous Productions would be merged into Square Enix, which also develops and publishes the Final Fantasy series, following lacklustre reviews and sales for the high-profile title.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.