Final Fantasy 16 Was Meant To Release On PS4 But The Console Couldn’t Handle It

Final Fantasy 16 was one of 2023’s most popular releases for featuring a darker story with mesmerizing visuals that attracted swaths of new players to the franchise. However, it could have picked up an even bigger number with a PlayStation 4 release. As initially spotted by Genki on Twitter, the plans for a cross-gen launch were initially considered by Naoki Yoshida and his team, but PS4 could not handle the game well enough.

Yoshi-P revealed the info in an interview with the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (around 43:47 time) while talking about the game development. Final Fantasy 16 could achieve the visual fidelity of PS5, but loading times made it impossible, which was a big caveat in the port’s development. 

Originally, we were expecting to have a multi-platform release on PlayStation 4 as well. And to some extent, the assets were pushing the PlayStation 4 to its absolute limits,” said Yoshi-P.

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The visuals had to be reduced even below the FF15 level at a few points. It would have been a disastrous port for the RPG, so it was abandoned. There was no way to make a PS4 version of Final Fantasy 16 work while keeping next to no loading times for which FF16 is often credited. The entry has been a staggering success despite only releasing on PS5. It was the most-played game on the PlayStation 5 in Japan during its launch month.

And when we tried to eliminate basically all loading on the PS4 version, there were certain parts where we were having to reduce the quality to a point lower than [Final Fantasy] XV.”

Final Fantasy 16 came out on June 22, 2023, for only the PlayStation 5. A PC release is still to be announced in the future. eXputer’s Moiz Banoori reviewed the game with an ideal score of 5/5, praising the RPG for a darker narrative with compelling combat and enthralling visuals that stood out against other games last year. Before jumping right into FF16, we suggest checking out our Eikon tier list guide to have the most fun in combat.