Naoki Yoshida has reiterated Square Enix’s commitment to porting Final Fantasy XVI to the PC.
As reported by PC Gamer, the producer explained that they are still working on the load times for the PC version. While Square Enix’s Creative Unit 3 was successful in making transition between cut scenes to action seamless in the PlayStation 5 version of Final Fantasy XVI, it’s a considerably bigger challenge to make that happen on the PC platform.
Of course, Creative Unit 3 will now have to look at all the different potential computer configurations and setups possible. It is likely that they will require players to use SSD and abandon HDD memory for storage for this game. They won’t be able to replicate what they have stated are the PlayStation 5’s most impressive and unique features otherwise.
Outside of this, Square is staring at four relevant different CPU socket standards; AM4 and AM5 from AMD, and LGA 1151 and LGA 1200 from Intel. Of all these four, AM4 in particular is the one that gamers are likely using the most, thanks to several years of popularity of AMD’s Zen processors.
AM4, however, is already a seven year old standard, and likely won’t be as optimal as experience as is possible in newer CPUs incompatible with it.
And then there is the matter of the GPUs, between AMD, Nvidia, and new player Intel. While Intel’s Arc GPUs have yet to see wide adoption, they have the potential for a cheaper upgrade path for gamers than what the competition offers. Square would be wise to do the work necessary to optimize Final Fantasy XVI with Intel Arc. The alternative of gamers sticking to their older AMD and Nvidia GPUs, instead of upgrading to any GPU from any brand, will not lead to a good experience for this game.
Square’s dilemma will be that most gamers will still try to avoid upgrading their PCs as much as possible, but that will lead to them having possibly even lower performance metrics than the PlayStation 5 gets. If they can make Final Fantasy XVI such a compelling experience on PC that fans will willingly upgrade, they could make it a true generational leap of a game.
With all that in mind, it makes sense that Square Enix still does not even have a release window announced for Final Fantasy XVI on PC. To quote Yoshida again; “We will be sharing more about the PC version when the time is right, please look forward to it.”
Final Fantasy XVI has just released exclusively on the PlayStation 5. Square Enix has revealed that there is at least a six month exclusivity window before it can come to PC.
