Windows 11 has been out for over a couple of weeks now and if you’re a long-time player of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV, you may be wondering whether the popular MMORPG game would run natively on the latest version of Microsoft’s desktop platform. With the release of the game’s fourth expansion pack “Endwalker” just weeks away, there have been many concerns on if the game will be officially supported on Windows 11, which launched earlier last month.
In this post, we’ll explain in its entirety if or not you can play Final Fantasy XIV on Windows 11, the compatibility of the current version on it, and how the game works on the new platform.
Will Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn be supported on Windows 11?
Yes. Final Fantasy XIV will be officially supported on Microsoft’s newest Windows 11 platform but the final version of the game built for Windows 11 machines is yet to be released. Square Enix, the game’s developer revealed last month in a statement that the team is performing “operation verifications” for the game to work on the latest build of Windows.
The company also stated that this verification process will be time-consuming and you may have to wait for some more time until the game gets ported officially to Windows 11. Since it has been close to two months when Square Enix made this last announcement, we can expect the team to deliver the good news soon, in time for the release of the game’s fourth expansion pack “Endwalker” that is scheduled for launch on December 7, 2021.
Can you run the Windows 10 version of Final Fantasy XIV on Windows 11?
Although the stable version of Windows 11 only started rolling out on October 4, 2021, several Windows Insiders have been testing the firmware since its initial preview release that went out in late June 2021.
Among these insiders, there are fans of Final Fantasy XIV who have been able to play the existing version of the game on Windows 11 beta, and based on user feedback submitted over the past few months, we can say that the current version of Final Fantasy XIV available for Windows 10 also works on Windows 11.
Microsoft has been known to make apps and games developed for previous versions of Windows backward compatible. If the same kind of compatibility is anything to go by, you may be able to install and run a copy of Final Fantasy XIV ported from Windows 10 on the new Windows 11 platform.
System Requirements for Final Fantasy XIV on Windows
Since we’re still awaiting an official announcement on an officially supported Windows 11 version of Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix hasn’t yet revealed the system requirements that you may need to run the game on Windows 11. However, we can expect these requirements to be identical to those provided by the developers for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 versions of the game.
If you’re looking forward to installing the current or future version of Final Fantasy XIV on Windows 11, then you may need to match these minimum requirements to be able to play the game without hiccups. These requirements may change once Square Enix releases the game officially with different prerequisites; so make sure you’re a step ahead of these minimum requirements to be on the safe side.
- CPU: Intel Core i5 2.4GHz or higher (recommended: Intel Core i7 3GHz or higher)
- Memory: 4GB or higher (recommended: 8GB or higher)
- Available storage space: 80GB or more
- GPU: NVIDIA Geforce GTX750 (recommended: NVIDIA Geforce GTX970) or higher; AMD Radeon R7 260X (recommended: AMD Radeon RX 480) or higher
- Display resolution: 1280×720 (recommended: 1920×1080)
- Other requirements: Broadband internet, DirectSound sound card, DirectX 11.
How does Final Fantasy XIV perform on Windows 11?
At the time of writing, Final Fantasy XIV is officially supported only on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. However, many users have been able to install the game and run the game’s current version on several Windows 11 builds, both on stable and beta channels. For the most part, users were able to run existing versions of Final Fantasy XIV on Windows 11 for a while without experiencing any issues. Early adopters (1,2,3,4) of Windows 11 were unable to find any noticeable difference in performance when upgrading from Windows 10.
Some users have pointed out that even the game’s AutoHDR is functional on the newer platform and works as intended. A handful of users also say that the game’s load times have improved since switching to Windows 11 and a noticeable upgrade in frame rate can also be seen. In fact, the only gripe users have had when trying to upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 is the limitations (1,2) imposed by Microsoft for the upgrade process to go through.
However, upgrading to Windows 11 hasn’t been blissful for a handful of Final Fantasy XIV players as some are experiencing a significant drop in frame rate compared to that on Windows 10.
Likewise, some users (1,2) are unable to run the game on DirectX 11 or on non-fullscreen modes on their computers.
If you’re planning to upgrade to Windows 11 as a Final Fantasy XIV player, your mileage may vary, depending on your PC’s configuration and the features you have enabled on Windows 11. To be on the safe side, it’ll be best to wait for Square Enix to release the official version of Final Fantasy XIV for Windows 11, in our opinion. But if you’re eagerly looking to upgrade to the latest Windows platform, things look pretty positive and in case you run into an issue, you can always switch back to Windows 10 with ease.
That’s all you need to know about Final Fantasy XIV’s support on Windows 11.
