You might have noticed a certain trend across two of the “Big Three” video game publishers in our gaming world. That trend is that both Sony and Microsoft are open to having their big “exclusive titles” come out not only on their most recent systems, the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S but for their past ones on the PS4 and the Xbox One. It’s a curious choice but a logical one, given real-world circumstances. However, those who have played the “past-gen” versions know that the quality isn’t always there, which is why Final Fantasy XVI stuck with its next-gen version alone.
Granted, that wasn’t always the plan, and Final Fantasy XVI’s Producer, Naoki Yoshida, admitted in a special YouTube video about the game’s development that early on, there was supposed to be a PS4 and PS5 version of the game. They worked hard to complete that vision. However, as they progressed, they realized the problems with working both on the PS4 and the PS5 while maintaining the quality across both titles. In short, it was becoming impossible to do.
As Yoshida explains in the video, the problem was that they wanted the best graphical output possible and seamless gameplay that wouldn’t have any loading screens. That’s something the PS5 could handle, but not the PS4. When they tried to make the “no load screens” plan work on the past console, they kept hitting graphical issues. That was something the producer wasn’t happy about:
“Trying to eliminate the loading times on PS4, we were having to reduce graphical quality to a point lower than XV.”
Yeah, that would be bad on the grand scale. So they had to make a choice. Do we keep making the dual versions? Or do we focus on making the best version on the newest console? The answer was clear, especially when they realized it would take an extra year or two to get the PS4 version to work. The results were clear, as the PS5 version was incredible and nominated for many awards for its quality, storytelling, gameplay, and so on.
But you might be wondering, “Why would they want a PS4 version at all?” The answer is console numbers. Currently, the PS5 is doing well and is the best-selling console in many regions. However, thanks to the global pandemic, its numbers are still not as high as Sony wants them to be. So, games like this aren’t getting the sales numbers they wanted at times.
