There is now even more reason to believe that Fantasian is the Apple Arcade game that is about to leave Apple exclusivity, and come to PC, and at least one identified console.
As we reported yesterday, Fantasian is a real unicorn. An RPG from Mistwalker Studios, directed by Final Fantasy veteran Hironobu Sakaguchi. Since its release in 2021, Fantasian has only been playable on Apple devices. At least, Apple made sure to bring it to every OS they have, so not only is it on iPhones, Macs, and iPads, but its even on their Apple TV set top boxes and Apple Vision Pro.
But as many consumers are loyal Apple followers, there are only so many of them who are interested in video games. In spite of Sakaguchi’s reputation preceding him, it doesn’t seem to be likely that Fantasian made a lot of money, either as part of Apple’s now struggling Apple Arcade game subscription, or as part of the Apple Vision Pro game bundle.
In fact, if you ever hear about Fantasian, you will most likely hear fans say that it is the one Apple Arcade game they want to see leave the platform. No, they’re not talking about video game preservation. What they mean is that they would play it if it was on the platforms that gamers already play on, such as PCs, or consoles like the PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.
Responding to Midori’s rumor about an Apple Arcade game, another Twitter account that goes by the username LeakProximidad straightforwardly stated: “Fantasian, Nintendo Direct.” That got a response from Midori herself, but even her tweet isn’t important compared to what happened next.
Another Twitter user with the handle davoriram linked to a SteamDB entry for Fantasian. As we can see in the SteamDB page itself, the entry’s full name is actually FANTASIAN Playtest, and it was made last February 28, 2024. It also indicates some art assets have been uploaded for the entry, but no actual playable build or part of one has been added to it yet.
And just to remind everyone, SteamDB isn’t likely to share fake information. This website is literally a database of information that can be extracted from Steam’s servers. It is a reliable source of information for when games are entered into Steam, how many players play at any one time, etc, because Valve freely allows third parties to access that data.
We imagine many of you reading this still don’t know that Fantasian even exists, so let me sum it up. The newest game from the guy who designed the first Final Fantasy games was only on Apple devices before, and we might be getting it on other platforms very soon. Even if its long belated, Sakaguchi’s latest work might soon get the renown and acclaim that it deserves.
