It’s common knowledge among Final Fantasy fans that the series tends to favor PlayStation systems, a tendency that has culminated in the long-awaited Final Fantasy 16 being announced as a PS5 exclusive. That will no doubt be a tough blow for non-PlayStation fans who’ve been looking forward to the franchise’s next mainline entry for years now, but a look at the fine print makes it pretty clear that this PlayStation deal won’t last forever.
This is hardly the most surprising possibility, as rumors have been circulating for weeks suggesting that Final Fantasy 16 will merely be a timed console exclusive. These have actually gained some traction with the debut of FF16’s announcement trailer, thanks to a key line that appears at the bottom of the screen at the very end: “Not available on other platforms for a limited time after release on PS5.”
Besides that, though, it’d be hard to tell from Square Enix’s announcement that it’s considering bringing the game to any platform other than the PS5, and it looks like that’s how Square wants it to be for the time being. In the wake of the PS5 showcase, the publisher’s spokespeople have reached out to publications like Kotaku to clarify that it has “only announced that Final Fantasy 16 is coming to PlayStation 5.”
This is in seeming contradiction to the trailer itself, as it clearly states that its gameplay and cinematic footage is running on a PC, implying that the game will be launching for PC alongside PS5. However, when asked about this discrepancy, a spokesperson simply told Kotaku, “We have no further information on if Final Fantasy 16 will be released on platforms other than the PS5.”
So, going off of that, it’s safe to assume that the game will probably come to PC (and maybe Xbox systems) one day, but for the foreseeable future, the PS5 is Square’s sole focus. The situation is not unlike what’s going on right now with Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the PS4. It’s been known that that FF7 Remake will only be exclusive to the PS4 for a full year, and yet, despite that, Square hasn’t really expressed any plans for additional platforms beyond that point.
It could be that Square is holding off on divulging those plans until FF7’s exclusivity deal with Sony ends, at which time it will start opening up. Should that be the case, chances are the publisher intends to maintain a similar silence ahead of Final Fantasy 16’s launch and during its exclusivity period on the PS5. Unfortunately, there’s no clue as of now how long that might last.
Final Fantasy 16 is in development for PS5.
Source: Kotaku