The highly-anticipated PC release of Final Fantasy XVI has finally arrived, roughly 15 months following its initial debut on PS5. The PC version of the game landed on Tuesday, available for purchase on both Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Despite modest expectations, the game’s reception has been surprisingly underwhelming, even by the standards set by its predecessor, Final Fantasy XV, which at least managed to garner some attention through its initial release on Steam.
At its debut, the highly anticipated Ultimate Fantasy 16 game reached a modest peak of 16,947 simultaneous players on Steam, according to SteamDB statistics – a relatively underwhelming response considering the title’s prestige. The growth started slowly, but accelerated significantly over several hours before eventually stabilizing at a plateau. As our conversation unfolds, potential growth is likely to emerge over the weekend, yet a slow start inherently constrains the extent of what can be anticipated.
The latest installment in the beloved Final Fantasy series, now available on Windows – what Square Enix has done with the home port is nothing short of remarkable? When Enix launched the game on Steam in March 2018, it reached a peak of 29,498 concurrent players. While going under 30,000 is no great accomplishment, it’s still a notable feat, given that it almost doubles the performance achieved by Ultimate Fantasy 16.
Although both titles are found in a comparable range of countries, Final Fantasy XV slightly edges out its competitor in terms of global reach. While it’s worth noting that Final Fantasy XVI is also available on the Epic Games Store, this fact may skew Steam’s sales figures to some extent, as not all players will register their copies with Valve’s platform.
Ultimate Fantasy XV debuted on PC before the Epic Games Store’s launch, allowing for a more focused audience. Despite this, the handwriting was clearly on the wall: the absence of Final Fantasy 16 from Steam’s list of top-selling international games, featuring 100 titles, signaled an unsettling reality.
It’s clear that writer Sq. will inevitably experience profound disillusionment. However, the Enix debacle does not portend well for the impending release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The corporation has recently announced its decision to abandon platform exclusives and instead focus on releasing its video games across multiple platforms. While Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 16 had already underperformed on PS5, its PC release still failed to generate significant buzz.
Person evaluations suggest that gamers are largely satisfied with the port, at least; however, it’s unclear if the relatively small audience is sufficient to support the unconventional modifications the game’s developer cautioned against existing.
