Final Fantasy 16 PS5 PlayStation 5 Square Enix 1
Image: Push Square

The irony of the State of Play format is that generally it’s been better suited to single game showcases. Obviously, we know there have been some pretty good multigame broadcasts, but when Sony has used the structure to show off individual games like Horizon Forbidden West or Gran Turismo 7, the reception has typically been better.

That was true of the recent Final Fantasy 16 livestream, which sent sales of the action RPG rocketing up the charts and was slapped with at least a Very Good rating by over 80 per cent of you in our post-show poll. And now it’s probably worth pointing out that the 4K upload of the 25 minute presentation has attracted over one million views.

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It should be noted that these numbers exclude the over 550k people who tuned in to the live broadcast, and any mirrors uploaded elsewhere around YouTube in general. All in all, Square Enix will be supremely satisfied with these kind of numbers: that’s a lot of eyeballs on the game, and it’s had the desired reaction judging by the swell in pre-orders.

We’d also perhaps like to make a point that this, in addition to truckloads of cash, is one of the reasons Sony gets so many third-party marketing contracts. The reality is that it’s able to successfully elevate interest in a lot of the series it teams up with, as we’ve already seen a couple of times this year with Hogwarts Legacy and Resident Evil 4.

[source youtube.com]