What Square Enix Is Doing Differently When Launching Final Fantasy XVI on PC

Just over a year after its release on PlayStation 5, Square Enix is bringing Final Fantasy XVI to PC, but this time without store exclusivity, at a lower price, and hopefully with a better technical port thanks to a previous demo.

Square Enix chose the beginning of this year's gamescom week to announce the PC version of Final Fantasy XVI. This is exactly what the publisher had done before, with the Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition, which was also unveiled at the trade show in Cologne in 2017. This is not surprising, as Germany is still a country where the PC plays an important role among gaming platforms.

Final Fantasy XVI will be released digitally on 17 September 2024 on PC via the Epic Games Store and Steam. The last FF game, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, was released exclusively on the Epic Games Store. This time, the two leading digital distribution platforms on the PC will be served together. Nevertheless, the release date is a bit unfortunate, because just two days later, on 19 September 2024, Sony Interactive Entertainment's God of War: Ragnarök will be released on PC. And the first game, which was ported to PC by Jetpack Interactive (as is the case this time), was very well received by PC gamers and sold very well.

At least the Japanese publisher released a demo immediately after the announcement, partly to get gamers interested in the RPG and partly to get technical feedback on the port. After all, PC gamers are very demanding in this area, and Square Enix has often been criticised for the quality of its PC ports, especially since the PC version of Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade suffered from stuttering. The FFXVI demo was also criticised for cutscenes that locked at 30fps, lack of widescreen support and stuttering. That's why Square Enix released two updates for the demo after its release. The first improved the upscaling technologies (DLSS, FSR and XeSS) and fixed bugs. The second update should fix the stuttering. By the way, features like raytracing are not supported.

Square Enix has also taken a different approach to pricing. While Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade still sells for almost 80 Euros on PC, the Standard Edition of Final Fantasy XVI costs around 50 Euros, while the package with the Season Pass and the two expansions The Rising Tide and Echoes of the Fallen costs 70 Euros, which is still cheaper than the first part of the FF7 remake.

Final Fantasy XVI was released on 22 June 2023, exclusively for PlayStation 5. The game sold over three million copies on the console in its first week, but the publisher has not released any further sales figures. Behind the scenes, however, there is speculation that Square Enix would have liked to see higher sales for the new game in the main series. It was not until mid-May 2024 that the publisher confirmed that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI and Foamstars had failed to meet its expectations. Although Final Fantasy XVI tells a dark fantasy story, Square Enix describes the game as an action RPG, not just a role-playing game.

The first fully fledged Action RPG in the mainline Final Fantasy series. An epic dark fantasy world where the fate of the land is decided by the mighty Eikons and the Dominants who wield them. This is the tale of Clive Rosfield, a warrior granted the title "First Shield of Rosaria" and sworn to protect his younger brother Joshua, the dominant of the Phoenix. Before long, Clive will be caught up in a great tragedy and swear revenge on the Dark Eikon Ifrit, a mysterious entity that brings calamity in its wake. - Square Enix

Square Enix has a busy second half of the year with a strong but (perhaps too) tight pipeline. Action RPG Vision of Mana (a new game in the Mana franchise like Trials of Mana or Secrets of Mana) was released at the end of August, followed by the Steam release of Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince on 11 September, and now Final Fantasy XVI. October sees the remake of the non-linear JRPG Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven (24 Oct) and the story adventure Life is Strange: Double Exposure (29 Oct). On 14 November, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake will be released, as the name suggests, with updated HD-2D graphics. The start of the Erdrick trilogy is intended to attract not only JPG fans, but also new players to the RPG series. Square Enix calls it a revamp for a "broader audience". Last but not least, Fantasian Neo Dimension will be released in the fourth quarter of 2024, by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of Final Fantasy, with music by Nobuo Uematsu. Fantasian Neo Dimension is an expanded version of Fantasian, which first appeared on Apple Arcade in 2021, with English and Japanese voice acting and an additional difficulty level. Finally, 2025 will see the release of Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, a package of two remastered, turn-based RPG classics in one.