Final Fantasy XVI (PC/PS5) - June 22, 2023

[Greedouw]

I'm a few hours into the PC version and its pretty awesome... runs pretty well for me.

[Madeline]

weird stuttering since 1.01 for me

ran fine before

[Krandor]

Ok so it wasn't just me, thought it was stuttering more after not playing for a few days.

[BWYuko]

So the result of releasing a super basic port 15 months after the PS5 release with no marketing strategy translated to only 289K total Steam purchases worldwide since launch. Fancy that.

[Takiwaki]

I mean the game was pretty mid though tbh.

[Madeline]

It was hype dead af on PC release.

Waited way too long, and yeah the game's kinda just a pretty movie with some button inputs.

[Kaisha]

I think the other issue is what, roughly 8% of Steam users have a GPU adequate enough to even run the game at satisfactory performance?

[Tyrath]

It was hype dead af on PC release.

Waited way too long, and yeah the game's kinda just a pretty movie with some button inputs.

With a few of the best boss battles I have ever played. The game's highs are high as fuck.

[Lucavi]

So the result of releasing a super basic port 15 months after the PS5 release with no marketing strategy translated to only 289K total Steam purchases worldwide since launch. Fancy that.

Its a single player hallway simulator with 0 branching sidepaths, no replayability aside from a hard mode. The story is great, the music is stellar and the boss fights are apocalyptic... but once you've seen everything that first time, that's it. Anyone who watched a playthrough on twitch or a commentary-free longplay literally saw the entire game. There's no need for them to buy it themselves. FF7R is much the same.

Its why these staggered releases are stupid. I'd have bought both games day one had they came out on PC. I wasn't going to hide in a fucking attic doing radio-silence for 15 months until it graced the PC; nor was I going to buy a console for 2 games and 2 games alone. I have a PC. Put it there - day 1 - and you have my money. Don't, and there's absolutely no guarantee I'll still be interested a year later.

Fucking simple as.

[Tyrath]

It's definitely not a hallway simulator lol It's light on sidequests but it doesn't mean you're on rails the whole time.

And calling FF7R a hallway simulator is even more insane. Has the phrase lost all meaning?

[Lucavi]

Naw, 7R ain't even close, and when I speak of XIV I'm talking mostly for specific locations: castle forts/caves/forests.

[BWYuko]

I mean they already fixed this; they're foregoing exclusivity for future AAA. But shit like this hasn't helped their revenue. And what's their next actual AAA title, DQ12/KH4? Could both be 2026-2027 releases. Production on FF17 is probably in its infancy. FF7R3 probs 2028. FF14 remains a cash cow but it's gonna run out of steam over the next 4-5 years. Why can't this company hire great financial strategists that know how to work with production and marketing teams? They're a pillar of the gaming industry in Japan. S'just weird.

[Mayareira]

XVI is good, PC is just not the best platform for the game. Also it did not help to release the game so late, with high system requirements.

Xbox and next-gen Nintendo expansion would seriously boost sales, look at XV, it may not be the most popular but it is one of the top selling modern FF’s(about 10mil units)

[Krandor]

How is PC not the best platform?

Yes the system requirements are high but it is far and away the best experience with the game if your computer is up to snuff

[Mayareira]

How is PC not the best platform?

Yes the system requirements are high but it is far and away the best experience with the game if your computer is up to snuff

Oh I agree with a good PC you may indeed get the best experience. Its just that financially, FF games always did better on consoles(except for MMORPGs).

SE should continue releasing games on PC, ideally on Day 1. They can even explore the Mac market now with Capcom and CDRed are also releasing their games there. but console exclusivity + PC doesn’t seem to be enough for them financially. They need to go truly multiplatform with xbox and Nintendo.

[Lucavi]

Both games should have released on everything save for the shitty portable Xbox and possibly the switch (if downscaling took either too much work or severely compromised the game quality if they insisted on parity between consoles). PSX/Xbox/PC should have been a mandate at launch, and while I understand that it'll probably be this way going forward, this nonsense should have been done and dusted years ago.

SE should have read the tea leaves when Capcom had their great (stupid) awakening and realized that Japan couldn't keep the fucking lights on catering their fighting games only to their own. SE should have realized the same damned thing regarding mainline FF titles and the PSX exclusivity, but they were too busy raking in that fat MMO lucre and shitting away their profits on gacha garbage.

This is a mess of their own making, and now the wind is firmly OUT of FFXIV's sails. They'd better right the ship, and fast.

I really am rooting for the Switch 2 to be powerful enough to at least not require a significant amount of effort to port things to it. Companies like SE need that fat install base.

[Mayareira]

XVI and remake as launch titles for Switch successor would be massive financial boosts for SE. They’d literally print money.

[Lucavi]

And I feel like from what we know, the Switch 2 can handle it. Make it happen, SE. Ya'll need the wins right now. You've fucked around too much in the last decade.

And where the HELL is our FFT Remake?

[Tyrath]

Waiting for that FF9 remake

[Anoat]

And I feel like from what we know, the Switch 2 can handle it. Make it happen, SE. Ya'll need the wins right now. You've fucked around too much in the last decade.

And where the HELL is our FFT Remake?

It’s kinda baffling the FFT Remake is taking this long because the Tactics Ogre Reborn was essentially a test run to see if people would like it and it sold very well, surprisingly well iirc