Burning off the coattails of other great games released in 2023, Final Fantasy 16 has made a massive splash on launch. The release saw millions of PS5 players, FF vets and a decent amount of newcomers alike, jump into the land of Valisthea with open eyes. And while the performance of the game has been a bit of a hot-topic since the game came out, people have still been meeting the game with fairly positive takeaways.
However, if you don’t own a PS5, trying out this new Action RPG won’t be possible for quite a while. Taking a look at the ASCII interview published at the end of May from producer Naoki Yoshida, he states that they “also plan to work on the development of the PC version carefully after release.” This has left players of last-gen PlayStation consoles to wonder: is Final Fantasy 16 coming to PS4?
Will Final Fantasy 16 Come to PlayStation 4?
While FF16 is currently a PlayStation 5 exclusive, it doesn’t seem like a PS4 release is in the cards. PlayStation was able to snag an exculsivity window for the games launch, with the ability to port it elsewhere only being available after the end of 2023. Unfortunately, while Yoshida has mentioned their plans for developing a version of the game for PC in a Japanese PlayStation blog post, no other platforms have been officially announced.
He goes on to state that they spent “a lot of time and money optimizing the PS5 platform to deliver the best gaming experience” and that “the PC version will not come out in half a year.” Players who own next-gen Xbox consoles can pray to Metia for a Final Fantasy 16 release, but given the fact that Final Fantasy 7 Remake still hasn’t made its way to Xbox consoles a whole 3 years after release, fans of Microsoft might be missing out entirely.
There has been a lot of positive reception on launch for Final Fantasy 16. However, not everything seems to be bathed in the light of the Mothercrystals. One technical aspect, was the fact that even while in performance mode, the game fails to hit 60 FPS in certain areas/fights. This, combined with the apparent console overheating issues players have been complaining about on social media, have led the community to believe that Final Fantasy 16 won’t be releasing on PS4.
The latest entry into the Final Fantasy franchise shows that Square Enix is pushing the limits of current-gen consoles like the PS5. And with the game featuring sprawling landscapes and Kaiju-esque boss fights, this one might truly leave PS4 owners in the past.
