Final Fantasy 16 is finally coming to PC in September, and a demo is available right now
After nearly a year of waiting, the PC version of Final Fantasy 16 has a release date. It's not doing a surprise launch at Gamescom, as a recent Nvidia driver update led some to expect, but it is coming soon—on September 17—and a demo is available right now.
The PC release of Final Fantasy 16 is available in two editions, the standard release and a "complete edition" that includes The Rising Tide and Echoes of the Fallen DLCs. As is often the case, pre-purchasing will also net you some extra stuff: The Cait Sith's Charm accessory, the Sixteen Bells Orchestrion Roll, and the Brave Blade weapon.
The demo, which you can jump into right now, includes "the opening section" of Final Fantasy 16 as well as an "Eikonic Challenge" mode made specifically for the demo, designed to showcase the game's mechanics and combat through a dungeon quest and boss fight. Save data from the demo (minus the Eikonic Challenge, which is an entirely standalone thing) will carry over to the full game, so if you don't want to replay the demo area again when the full game comes out you won't have to.
Courtesy of the store pages, we also have system requirements:
Minimum:
- OS: Windows® 10 / 11 64-bit
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1600 / Intel Core i5-8400
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5700 / Intel Arc A580 / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 170GB available space
- Additional Notes: 30FPS at 720p expected. SSD required. VRAM 8GB or above.
Recommended:
- OS: Windows® 10 / 11 64-bit
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5700X / Intel Core i7-10700
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT / Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 170GB available space
- Additional Notes: 60FPS at 1080p expected. SSD required. VRAM 8GB or above.
It's been almost a year since a PC version of Final Fantasy 16 was confirmed, and while we haven't heard much about it since then, Square Enix did say earlier this year that it intends to "aggressively pursue a multiplatform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox, and PCs," suggesting it wants to move away from its traditional prioritization of Sony platforms. Hopefully that means the end to (or at least a reduction of) year-plus waits for Sony-exclusive games to come our way.
Final Fantasy 16 for PC is available for pre-purchase now on Steam and the Epic Games Store. Links to the demo are available through the store pages.