http://www.dualshockers.com/2016/02/02/final-fantasy-xv-on-pc-hold-your-horses-you-wont-read-it-on-a-websites-source-code/
Final Fantasy XV on PC? Hold Your Horses; You Won’t Read it on a Website’s Source Code
Today it was reported on NeoGAF that source code in a Javascript file in the website of Final Fantasy XV’s March Event included mentions of PC and Steam.
Of course, since articles about a console exclusive game ending up on PC (or a game for any platform being ported to another, really) tend to be very popular, the “news” bounced on several websites in the span of a few hours, most of the times with no real thought on whether the mention in a Javascript file has any meaning or not.
The problem is that it doesn’t.
That kind of code is not meant to be the source of customer-facing information, so those who create websites simply don’t bother to rewrite it every single time. Why would they? Most of that code is the same for every site, so they either copy and paste entire blocks, or they simply use the same template file and change a few things in it. Which is why the same code can be found on the sites of other games by Square Enix.
Does it indicate or even hint to the possibility of the game coming to PC? Not really. It most probably indicates that some coder in some office somewhere copied and pasted the content of a file, or picked up a file from a template folder, made some amends to it, and then uploaded it without thinking twice about the parts that didn’t really apply to Final Fantasy XV. Recycling assets that are pretty much ready to use to optimize production times is a standard in web design, like in any industry (including the gaming industry).
Of course, you won’t read this in most of the articles that sold you the “hint to a PC version” as news, because it’s in their best interest for you to read and be hyped. Incidentally, the author of the post on NeoGAF did notice, and edited his post adding this detail (after finding out that the page of Rise of the Tomb Raider includes exactly the same code), but by then it was too late. Most of this kind of “news” posts tend to be “fire and forget” and most of the times the author doesn’t really go back to check the source to see if there’s new information.
The “smoking gun” (which wasn’t really a smoking gun) has also been removed from the Final Fantasy XV website’s code.
This doesn’t mean that Final Fantasy XV won’t ever come to PC. If I was a betting men, I’d put a solid sum on the fact that it will. Game Director Hajime Tabata told DualShockers back at Gamescom that a PC version might be considered after launch, and the game is being developed on PC (like most games), so the possibility isn’t exactly new.
But the problem isn’t whether Final Fantasy XV has a possibility to be released on PC or not. It surely does. The problem is that source code in a partly recycled Javascript file isn’t in any shape or form an indication that it will happen.
For now, the real hint to a possible PC version down the line is what Tabata-san told us months ago:
“We’re actually aiming for the final version for the moment, and we’re in a process of adusting and fine tuning to get it to work on the sort of setup that you get at home with a TV and a console in the living room. That requires a very specific kind of technical work.”
“We’re obviously making technical demos, and showing pieces like the Witch trailer, which is very important for the company, but in regards to XV, people have waited for a very very long time now, so we really are feeling that it’s very important to get that out as soon as we can. But yeah, once we got the console version out, then we do want to think about our next step, what we’ll do after that, so yeah, we’re looking into that too.”
“I’m looking at Steam at the moment, it’s a very interesting way. I think that with Steam you’ve got a great opportunity to reach out to a lot of different people, and a very different audience than the console audience. Obviously you have to localize it into different languages to do that properly, but it’s got great potential, and I’m looking at making an opportunity to utilize Steam at some point in the future.”
That’s pretty much all there’s to it. Could it come to PC? Sure. Square Enix likes money like everyone else, and there certainly is money to grab with a PC version of Final Fantasy XV.
Would I absolutely love to play it on my gaming PC, with all the bells and whistles that consoles can’t run? Oh my God, yes.
But is code in a Javascript file a hint that Square Enix has it in the works? No. It isn’t.
