Final Fantasy 16 Was Planned for PS5 and PS4, But the Last-Gen Version Would Have Taken Too Long

Smart move. They can’t hold on to PS4 forever.

tbh, if I still didn't have a PS5 until now, I would have been salty about this news lol. Well, I'm glad that it's full PS5 now so there's nothing holding this game back.

This is good.
We don't want another XV fiasco here.
I loved XV, but the development of that game certainly took a massive toll on the developers and Square Enix; not helped by Square Enix being obsessed with recapturing the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII's success in building an expanded universe.
First, it was Fabula Nova Crystallis, which required reading a creation myth that tied XIII and two different scenarios for XIII (Agito XIII which became Type-0, and Versus XIII which became XV). And that wasn't enough, since XIII was built to have two sequels while XV required an anime miniseries, a movie, and an audio drama before playing to understand the story, and then you had to play standalone DLC stories for each of Noctis' friends and Ardyn, and read a novel detailing the stories of the cancelled DLC. And free updates were made to patch together the unfinished story even after it was released 10 years in the making.

I don't count the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X-2, since those were afterthoughts. And Final Fantasy XII taking place in the same world as Tactics and Vagrant Story was a creative decision from Yasumi Matsuno, and not the higher-ups at Square Enix.

Even Deus Ex was plagued with this, with Square Enix pushing a Deus Ex Universe after the success of Human Revolution. With tons of tie-in comics and novels, a mobile spinoff, and splitting the sequel Mankind Divided into two parts. And then they cancelled Mankind Divided: Part Two when the first half didn't meet their ridiculous expectations, and Eidos Montreal was instead turned into the Marvel Mines before Embracer Group bought Eidos and decided to revive Deus Ex.

At this point, it's a miracle XVI's development went by really smoothly even with COVID.
And it's a miracle it doesn't have Square Enix's expanded universe obsession. For now, at least.

Whilst this is the correct choice didn't they say that FF16 was only possible on PS5

Explains why many aspects of the visuals are absolutely last gen quality.

@Rob_230
The way it is now, yes. You cant do those visuals on PS4. I imagine a PS4 version would have been very compromised visually if not in other ways.

@KundaliniRising333 I was going to say the exact same thing. Lmao

@PegasusActual93 i dont think it was the graphics. They made a big point about the speed of the SSD being crucial and the game being impossible on another system. As you say, i guess they could have made cuts to fit it elsewhere if they wanted to. Im glad they were bold and went current gen only though

There's no way the PS4 could handle that much Clive!

@practicein2021 They're already making us spend 70$ on the current gen version so SE is getting more money anyhow.

@practicein2021 As soon as they release one that fits under my TV I'm in.

I also wonder if this explains the lack of an Xbox version? The Series S is a punchy console but maybe Square didn't want to have to scale it back to fit it on the little box that could?

@RadioHedgeFund they already stated the console exclusivity is based on them taking a deal from Sony, and Yoshi P basically said that’s how all console exclusivities are handled inside SE.

They approach platform owners with the premise of the game, listen to offers, and take the most appealing offer.

@Rob_230
Well if you reread the article they stated they were planning a PS4 version but that idea was scrapped early in development. Alot changes in development. They probably had a roadmap with PS4 in mind and then after that version was cut they rewrote that map to fully take advantage of the hardware. Thats how that usually goes.

@Ashina Tbf since the stock situation's improved now and that the prices have returned to normal, and if you still can't afford to buy a current gen system in the third year of the generation, you probably have other matters in your life that need working on if you can't afford to save 500 bucks over an entire console generation and more.

Back to the topic, I think this is a very wise move and unless your game's not visuals-heavy, you shouldn't worry much about legacy systems from now on.

It's time to put PS4 to bed.

It's not even about PS4 or PS5 or that it still looks like PS4 graphics. The biggest games of recent aren't using the strongest of horsepower - Elden Ring, Zelda TotK. It's about the game, is it going to be as good as FF7, 10, 12...I miss being hyped for FF.

@KundaliniRising333 agree, besides Res and framerate, this looks last gen.
FF7 remake looks better and more stylised (except that infamous door texture)

There is a big difference between ps5 and ps4 in how games are made, so I understand this. It isn’t just about textures and draw distance, it’s about being able to stream so much information so quickly. A PS5 can handle it with the huge I/0 throughput and SSD, the PS4 would need to be completely redesigned in how things are stored and released, and the game would likely have had to be chopped up in multiple ways.

As he said, the changes are significant enough that it would have added years to the development potentially. In two years time or close, surely most people who are still on PS4 today would have moved to PS5 if they care so much. And if not those people would also be less likely to buy the game at release anyway, so they are not as profitable.

It just makes sense. Especially when the tactic seems to be to offer exclusivity and take payment upfront then get games out fast. I imagine heads rolled after the FFXV development farce and this is the new strategy.

@Nepp67 it's currently £54.95 at thegamecollection.net

Good, it's time to move on from ps4/old gen. Besides, most of day one buyer for new games already move on to ps5, most of ps4 users aren't the one who buy new games on release day.

Some people think the only difference between PS4 and PS5 is graphics lol.

Glad they dropped the PS4 version. It sounds like they might’ve had trouble with performance even on the ps5. I’ve seen multiple people that did the hands-on preview say the game ran in 30 fps when roaming around the world and jumped to 60 when combat started, which is strange and really not ideal. Hoping the frame rate weirdness is rectified in the final version.

As we hit year 3 of the PS5 generation, the console is trending up against PS4 on every key metric including gameplay hours for the first time. There is at least 30million PS5 owners so the market is hitting active player saturation.

By late 2024/early 2025 PS5 might have even sold enough consoles to justify a GTA 6 PS5 only release! (That game will easily ship 20-30 million copies in year 1)

This is the year where dropping PS4 on AAA titles makes not only development sense but finally business sense.

@KundaliniRising333 @AverageGamer haha was exactly my thought when I read the headline of this article..

golden rule: dont release your game the same month as a Blizzard game.
i will let FF16 mature and get patched up. Also a golden rule, especially when you see how FF15 changed in the course of its first year of launch.

@Samholy FF16 is so done for the programmers that it is shipping without a day one patch. So my really safe prediction is that Diablo IV will need a hella lot more of patching that FFXVI.
SE titles tend to be perfectly playable and polished at launch. FFXV had none of the game breaking bugs many open world-ish titles have for the first few months.

@Feena yeah well, of course it had no game breaking bug. the main problem is how the game experience is different and much more polished after 6 months or a year.
i mean, they added a flying vehicle midway, all characters are now playable, some ease of life arrangements, even some story fixes regarding a confusing chapter that leads to the ending.
Also, the DLCs were mostly all released and i personally felt they should have been part of the main game. What they added story/character wise was too important to be left out.
but man, i cant wait to try FF16. just not at launch

@Samholy the (slightly useless but very cool) flying Regalia was there all along but I totally get what you mean. On top of that it had a gaas approach with times missions etc. I really don’t think this will be the case with XVI. Maybe we get a one off expansion like 7 Remake, next year.

I am really looking forward to play Diablo too btw! Maybe July-ish, hoping to play with some fellows from Pushsquare 😙

i also doubt they will make the same mistakes with FF16.
especially when you can see how well done FF7 remake was.

there is just too much games to try for my busy life schedule. Gotta make choices

Didn't the same guys told us in previous interview that FF16 was only possible with the power of ps5 hardware? Now they telling us they could make a ps4 ver but it would take more time and they cancel it? really now?
Final Fantasy 16 Wouldn't Be Possible Without PS5
https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/03/final-fantasy-16-wouldnt-be-possible-without-ps5

i don't mind that they developed the game with ps5 in mind, first and foremost... that was the right call. but it would be neat if 12 months after release they could port it to the ps4, limitations and all, for those who can't get their hands on a ps5. at least that way, they work backwards and don't hinder the ps5 version's vision... sort of like how they ported ps4 games to the switch. likely not viable depending on the complications and resources involved to get it done, but who knows. s-e has done weirder things in the past such as that horrific ff xv demake (pocket edition) haha.

@Porco We're 3 years in on the current gen, if you can't get a ps5 that's on you.

@Ashina this is exactly what I was gonna say. Perfectly put. I wanna see Sony do this more too so they can really wring the most out of the system.

@Hydra_Spectre man do I really want a new Deus Ex. Like a nice new Cyberpunkian beautiful looking game like human revolution

@siofwolves I actually paid £40 for it I believe there as they keep offering £10 credit when you buy a game

@siofwolves Depends on where you live really. If you include shipping, I cannot find FF16 less that 70 euros.

@practicein2021 Same excuse people said last time with ps4, just because people can't afford it does not mean new games should stay on the older platform. We are three years in and ps5s are available like candy now. I disagree that Sony isn't giving players enough reason to upgrade. 60fps, faster loadtimes for games, Dualsense features, upgrades for older titles, and ps5 games.

@Kidfried it appears that this discussion is from my original comment so i will chime in. what was your source for the god of war sales breakdown by platform? 84% of sales on ps5 sounds overly optimisitc to me. that means 9,240,000 copies were sold on ps5. since there are roughly 38m ps5s sold, that would mean that the game has a 25% attach rate amonst ps5 owners? highly unlikely but i'm open to a reliable source that says otherwise. i would not easily dismiss 120m ps4s and its potential software sales over the next 2 to 3 years. i feel like a ps4 port of ff xvi would sell well enough to be profitable for s-e at the end of the day, otherwise we wouldn't be getting so many cross gen games going forward.

don't get me wrong, i would like to see the ps5 generation take off as i want the hardware to meet its potential — i was merely making a hypothetical in that it would be interesting if developers (on a game by game basis) worked backwards and attempted to port a high profile ps5 game to ps4 AFTER the game releases so that the ps5 port is not held back by the older tech. it would be no different than the myriad of switch ports that got released over the years. some porting houses would be more than happy to take on that challenge.

@Kidfried no worries. that info only applied to UK physical sales and is not representative of global sales. furthermore, "12% of PS5 God of War Ragnarok sales come from the official PS5 bundle" which further discredits the true number of copies sold on ps5. but yea, if someone told me 50% of all copies were sold on ps5, that would sound a lot more believable.

@Ryne-Gaia Yeah. With the upgraded technology, we could have a new Deus Ex that would give Cyberpunk 2077 a run for its money in the eye candy department.

But what I mostly want is a satisfying finale to the Adam Jensen Prequel Trilogy, since Mankind Divided ended in a cliffhanger. It was supposed to be one game but they split it into two because of Square Enix's executive meddling, and the second half was put on hold until now.
Mankind Divided was basically The Empire Strikes Back of this trilogy, but imagine if we never got Return of the Jedi.
That's basically where Deus Ex is at now, until DX5 comes out.

Definitely don’t wait for PS4. Even though I am a PS4 Pro owner as well as PS5 (Disv and Digital version). If PS4 was created, there might be an issue like the Resident Evil 4 (Remake) or Cyberpunk 2077 where PS4 users complaint on the loading or graphic issues. Which isn’t good… Even PS4 version was created, players will like to enjoy it more on PS5, and PS5 is now easy to gets, even directly from Sony without waiting right now. I got Sony to match price with Big W or Amazon and approved last week to get my 2nd one.