It turns out Final Fantasy 16 will get a patch after all, following its development team saying they'd rather avoid such an update.
In a recent Japanese broadcast, Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida announced a launch update for Final Fantasy 16, while simultaneously apologizing for said update. The pre-launch update will chiefly focusing on fixing two relatively minor bugs in Final Fantasy 16, one of which blocks progression under specific circumstances, and the other of which causes the game to crash on rare occasions.
Yoshi-P says there will be a day one patch for FF16!He says sorry they said there would likely not be a day one patch but will release a patch to fix a a few bugs and performance issues for FF16. pic.twitter.com/wOczCOC7iSJune 17, 2023
The day one patch will also "fix some minor text errors," and "optimize performance in several places." So while the day one patch won't exactly overhaul the base game or change anything significant, it's still available to anyone who's playing Final Fantasy 16 at launch later this week on June 22.
This is a slight change in direction because Final Fantasy 16 director Hiroshi Takai said he wanted to avoid a day one patch. Just last month in May, Takai told Game Informer that there wouldn't be a day one update for Final Fantasy 16, simply because the team was that confident in the launch build of the game.
But look, this is game development we're talking about, where it's a miracle that any game launches in a remotely playable state, let alone flawless and without a single bug. Games are getting bigger and bigger, and with that expanded scope comes countless more issues to tackle and problems to overcome, and that's what Takai and his team are now running into, even after all that preparation.
It's all perfectly reasonable, to be honest, even if Yoshida apologized for the change in stance on a day one patch. Elsewhere, Final Fantasy 16 devs promised to fix demo issues, namely performance issues where a fair few characters were on screen at once. It's a relief that Square Enix has had time to react to feedback from the demo before launch this week.
Check out our Final Fantasy 16 pre-order guide if you're looking to get your hands on any special edition of the new game.
