It was only a matter of a time, but it’s finally come to pass: Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy XVI is officially headed to PC.
The upcoming PC release of the Final Fantasy franchise’s latest mainline entry was officially announced by the publisher on August 19th by way of a new trailer, titled Deliverance, uploaded to their official YouTube channel.
Therein, following a montage of Clive Rosfield’s adventures across Valisthea, Square Enix revealed that not only is the game headed to Windows via the Steam and Epic Games stores, but that it will make its landing on September 17th, 2024.
In addition to the game’s release date, the new promo trailer ends with the reveal that, as of the trailer’s premiere, a demo of the game is now available on both of the aforementioned storefronts.
At current, Square Enix has yet to provide any details regarding either the price point for the PC port of Final Fantasy XVI, whether or not its standard release will include the Echoes of the Fallen and Rising Tides DLC packs, nor just what system requirements the game will need to run.
However, given the relatively moderate specs needed to play the PC release of Final Fantasy VII Remake/Intergrade – roughly 100 GB of storage space, 8 GB of RAM, and a moderate video card at base settings – compared to PC releases seen from Square Enix’s Western peers, it’s unlikely that players will need to break the bank in order to play FFXVI.
Notably, while PC players have long been waiting for this news, it’s likely that Square Enix has been waiting for it far longer, as releasing the game to arguably the biggest potential player base in the market is sure to help boost the less-than-stellar sales of its original PlayStation 5 release, which the developer argued was due to the generally low adoption rate of the hard-to-find-and-even-harder-to-justify-purchasing console itself.
Speaking to the matter in a statement issued to IGN in July 2023, the developer asserted, “With 38 million PS5 consoles shipped globally (as of March 31, 2023), sales of Final Fantasy 16 surpassed three million units worldwide several days after its release on June 22, 2023.”
“Taking into consideration the sales figures of the acclaimed Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the difference in size of the install base of the PlayStation 4 at the time of this title’s release, we can see that the attach rate of Final Fantasy 16 is considerably high, given the PS5 install base,” they added. “Square Enix considers the initial sales results of Final Fantasy 16 to be extremely strong, and we will continue to carry out a wide range of initiatives to encourage even more people to play the game.”
Now, with that all said and done: Can we also get the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth PC release confirmation? (Please?)
