LogInAlthough both FF16 and FF7 Rebirth failed to meet Square Enix's expectations.
Square Enix
Yesterday, Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XVI (FF16), the latest title in the Final Fantasy franchise, will be coming to PC this September. Originally launched on PlayStation 5 in June last year, it took the game a year and three months to come to PC.
In an email communication with Edwin Evans-Thirlwell from Rock Paper Shotgun, FF16 director Hiroshi Takai shared some insights on why it was not possible for the developers to work on PC and PS5 versions simultaneously:
"The reasons vary for each title, but in the case of FFXVI, it primarily comes down to the original game being tailored for the PS5 in a lot of different ways, and it was impossible to do this at the same time as all the optimization work that was needed for the PC version.”
Square Enix
According to Takai, the development team behind FF16’s PC port is the same team working on the original PS5 version. The reason behind FF16 being made available on PC is no different from other titles in the franchise: to reach “a broader audience of gamers with the PC version.”
We don’t have official sales numbers for Final Fantasy 16 or the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. But what is known is that, despite a strong initial sales performance of selling three million copies within the first week, FF 16, along with some other titles like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Foamstars, didn’t meet Square Enix’s high expectations for sales. Hiroshi Takai also talked about his opinion on the future of the franchise:
"While it's always important to balance development costs with sales, I don't think there's any kind of existential risk for the series. As developers, we just need to keep creating what we think is fun - and if players think to themselves, 'they went in a new direction this time, but it was still fun', then maybe that's all the dramatic change we need."
You can read Edwin Evans-Thirlwell's article about this topic here and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.
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