Final Fantasy XVI development delayed by almost half a year

The big picture: Don’t look now but yet another highly anticipated game has been impacted by the ongoing pandemic, resulting in a delay of roughly six months. In fact, it’s the second Final Fantasy game that has been affected by the pandemic in as many weeks.

Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida recalled on Twitter that in his last communication, he promised more information on Final Fantasy XVI in late 2021. Specifics weren’t mentioned but reading between the lines, it seemed as though Square Enix had a big announcement planned for the end of the year.

Whatever the case, it’s no longer happening as Yoshida said complications stemming from the ongoing pandemic have delayed the game’s development by almost half a year.

Elaborating further, Yoshida said that like many others, they had to move to a work-from-home model to keep the wheels rolling. This slowed communication from the Tokyo office and in some extreme situations, led to outright cancellations of asset deliveries from third parties.

The project is now well behind schedule, but still on track. Square Enix now aims for its next big reveal to take place in the spring of 2022. Yoshida apologized for the delay, and thanked fans for their continued patience.

Final Fantasy XVI was revealed in 2020 and will be a PlayStation 5 exclusive. It’s not to be confused with Final Fantasy XIV, sales of which were suspended earlier this month due to extreme server congestion. As of this writing, there is no update on that matter.