Speaking during an interview with Final Fantasy Union, Naoki Yoshida, the producer behind Final Fantasy XVI, revealed that the upcoming RPG was originally planned for release on PS4 in addition to PS5.
Development quickly shifted to a PS5-only release, however, as the project would have required at least another year’s worth of production to meet a level of quality the team were happy with.
What I can say is that while developing, we originally had a plan to possibly release the game on the PlayStation 4. During development, we realised, that to get it to a level that we were gonna be proud of we would have needed at least one or two more years of development to do that. And so I had to make a decision at that time. It’s like, okay, we don’t want to extend it that long. Let’s go PS5 only.
Final Fantasy XVI is pencilled in for a June 22, 2023 for PS5. The development team recently revealed that the reason the game is sticking to a Sony platform in the first place is because the format holder made Square Enix the best offer.
As the team gears up for the game’s release next month, Square Enix revealed that it is not currently planning a Day One patch for Final Fantasy XVI.
[Source – Final Fantasy Union]