Sony has been no stranger to timed exclusivity deals for major third party releases these past few years, and among the many games it has nabbed as exclusives for PlayStation consoles of late, one that has grabbed most of the headlines is Final Fantasy 16. Interestingly, speaking recently with 4Gamer (translated by @Genki_JPN on Twitter), producer Naoki Yoshida has shed more light on why Square Enix ended up signing an exclusivity deal with Sony in the first place.
Unsurprisingly, Yoshida has revealed that Final Fantasy 16 received development support from Sony, with PlayStation engineers providing “generous support” when it came to optimizing the game for the PS5’s hardware. That, as per Yoshida, was a “big factor” in Square Enix signing the exclusivity deal, while he also remarked that Sony’s support also helped the development team focus more on the game’s production and optimization.
“I think there is also that kind of intention on the hardware manufacturer’s part,” Yoshida said. “However, from our point of view, the technical support we receive from the hardware manufacturer is a big factor to signing some contracts. This time, there was a portion where we were developing together with SIE engineers who know the hardware thoroughly down to the core, and we received generous support in optimization that we could not manage on our own and so on. Also, by not developing on the premise of multiple platforms, we could invest more man hours into things such as building the game and optimization.”
Final Fantasy 16’s timed exclusivity period for the PS5 lasts six months, but recently, Yoshida also clarified that that doesn’t mean the game will be launching for PC once those six months are up. Even though a PC version is something Square Enix intends to eventually release, optimizing it will take much longer than that.
Recently, the highly anticipated RPG’s developers also explained why the game wasn’t developed as a cross-gen title. Read more on that through here.
Final Fantasy 16 is due out on June 22. It will also receive a demo roughly a couple of weeks before launch.
Final Fantasy XVI Producer Naoki Yoshida on why they signed a PS5 timed exclusive contract with SIE! via 4Gamer #FF16 pic.twitter.com/OJPJMzovGu
— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) March 1, 2023
