Naoki Yoshida announced in a tweet that due to COVID-19 meddling Final Fantasy XVI development was pushed 6 months behind schedule. But on the bright side of the announcement, we might have figured the Final Fantasy XVI release date out!
Yoshi-P, as he is sometimes referred to, offered his sincerest apologies for this grim announcement. Previously he promised to share some news about XVI near the end of 2021. But we will have to wait until Spring 2022 to hear details about the upcoming entry into the Final Fantasy franchise. Here is the full statement from the projects official Twitter:
The response from various fans of the franchise over on Twitter is heartwarming. Many naturally quoted Shigeru Miyamoto of Mario and The Legend of Zelda fame. “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad”, said Miyamoto once upon a time. And Final Fantasy fans agree! They are happy to wait another 6 months so that their game gets all the love it needs.
But the interesting thing about the delay of Final Fantasy XVI is that we might roughly guess its release date! Yoshida in the past expressed that he wants the next big showing of FF XVI to be a big, detailed one. And in the interview with Washington Post, he shed some light on his reasons for being so “secretive”.
Yoshi-P basically wants hype to build near the launch of the game, not before. As we witnessed in years prior, and even in 2021. Building hype for years tends to blow up in the face of developers. Because at that point expectations are so great they are unattainable. So with this design philosophy in mind, we can probably guess when FF XVI releases.
Since spring 2022 will be that “big and detailed showing” of FFXVI, then it’s pretty much confirmed to be a 2022 game. And I can comfortably say it will not be a winter game unless something goes wrong and another delay is issued. My best guess would be Fall 2022. But do keep in mind this is pure speculation. Granted, it is speculation based on Yoshida’s words. And he seems like the honest type of director. One of the few ones.
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