This allowed users to play the "Windows Edition" content before the official street date, though early reports indicated that some DLC gear and pre-order bonuses were initially inaccessible in this version.

The Windows Edition is the definitive version of the game, equivalent to the console "Royal Edition". It packs a massive amount of content:

The release of was a significant event in PC gaming history, famously occurring just days before the game's official global launch on March 6, 2018. This "3DM" version refers to a specific release by the Chinese cracking collective 3DM, which circumvented the game's security measures using a unique oversight in the pre-loading process. The Story Behind "3DM" and the Pre-Launch "Crack"

3DM discovered that the unencrypted executable from the FFXV standalone demo—which did not contain Denuvo anti-tamper technology—could be used to launch and play the full game files from the Origin pre-load.