A demo is also expected to drop ahead of release.
The main protagonist in Final Fantasy 16.

In speaking with Game Informer, Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida says that the PC release of the game is in its "final stages of optimization." This is undoubtedly great news for those who have been waiting for the PC release of the game. Unfortunately, you may need some rather beefy hardware to run the game.

Despite the game being in these final optimization steps, there was no release date offered by Yoshida. What Yoshida did share was that the system requirements to going to be "somewhat high" and that there will be a demo version out ahead of the game's release on PC.

"In terms of where we are in development currently, we're trying to figure out the final stages of optimization right now," Yoshida tells me through a translator. "When we can release the PC version might be dependent on that – the system requirements and specifications for PC that players will need, so we're trying to figure that out. Naturally, [the PC specifications] are looking to be somewhat high."

"And to do that, we're looking to release a demo for the PC version as well," he adds. "Again, we can't really talk about too much in terms of details of when it's going to come out – I think in a little bit more time we'll be in a better place to announce things. But one thing's for sure: It won't be too distant in the future; it won't be a year, it won't be two years, it will probably be shorter than that, so stay tuned."
The exact system specifications still aren't yet known either. That's where the aforementioned demo will come into play. You will be able to try out the game ahead of its actual release to see if your PC can even handle it or not. Given that we don't yet know the exact requirements, we also aren't privy to details on if there will be upscaling technologies included (DLSS, FSR, XeSS). Final Fantasy 16 did struggle to run at a locked 60FPS on PlayStation 5, even when using the game's Performance mode offering.

Another detail we don't yet know is if Final Fantasy 16 on PC will be yet another timed Epic Games Store exclusive. In recent years especially, Square Enix has demonstrated that they are huge fans of timed exclusive releases for mainline Final Fantasy titles.