Final Fantasy 16 is coming out on the Xbox Series S/X sometime in the future. This is confirmed now after Square Enix gushed about its newest partnership with Sony’s chief rival. But the way that the Japanese gaming giant talks about releasing FF16 on Xbox would make you think that it’s a move that could move the financial needle for the company, which probably isn’t the case after looking at the player count of FF16 on PC.
As per SteamDB, FF16, which only just launched on the platform, has a 24-hour peak of 16,947 players—a far cry from the 3 million copies that it sold on the PlayStation 5 in its launch week. Even if you take into account that launched in the middle of a workday, the future isn’t about to get brighter for the First Shield of Rosaria and Ifrit. The last AAA Final Fantasy installment to launch on PC, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, posted even worse numbers at 13,803 players.
As a matter of fact, Square Enix’s games very rarely do well on PC, except maybe for a few lone exceptions, such as Outriders, but even with its numbers, Square Enix considered it a disappointment.
Make no mistake. Releasing on multiple platforms will help Final Fantasy. Square Enix’s best-selling JRPG series peaked a long time ago and it’s only going to get harder for incoming games to reach out to a new market. The best way to guarantee sales is to make each entry available on as many platforms as possible. Putting Final Fantasy 17 on Xbox on top of its expected PlayStation release will bode well for its sales. After all, Final Fantasy 15 is still the fastest-selling entry in the franchise and it had a simultaneous launch on Xbox and PlayStation—with a PC version that ranks among the largest ever in terms of file size.
From a marketing standpoint, putting a product in front of as many eyes as possible is always a good idea, especially at launch. Most games don’t carry enough weight and momentum to see its initial wave of sales last longer than a week. In fact, this rarely happens, with titles like Black Myth: Wukong serving as one of the few sole exceptions this year after it helped break records on Steam over a week after it first came out. However, expecting a late release on a separate platform that itself has been struggling to keep up with competition is questionable, to say the least.
We don’t know what Square Enix is expecting from releasing more Final Fantasy on Xbox this late but if it’s disappointed with how well FF16 sold on PS5 last year, even after all the accolades, nominations, and praises, it wouldn’t surprise us if it isn’t too pleased with what’s happening.
Unless, of course, Square Enix’s decision to slowly step away from PlayStation brand is more than just about sales numbers.
Given that FF16 is expected to require some serious optimization work on the Xbox Series S, which may or may not be the reason why Black Myth: Wukong isn’t on Xbox yet, the game’s arrival on Xbox should be one to watch.
Speaking of PC ports of PlayStation exclusives, God of War: Ragnarok is headed to Steam and the Epic Games Store on September 19. Be sure to check out our guide if you’re having trouble deciding between which of these two games you should buy and play over the weekend.
