Gabriel Stanford-ReisingerAs Final Fantasy fans are probably painfully aware, Final Fantasy XVI has been a rather quiet since its reveal during the September PS5 Showcase in 2020. Producer Naoki Yoshida addressed this, stemming it to the ongoing pandemic, the one that caused many studios to scramble to navigate the new environment.
According to Yoshida, the FFXVI team are behind in development from where they’d like. The producer said they’re a half a year behind schedule, but the reason behind the lacking news was them doing their best to play catch up throughout 2021 and amending communication issues.
Here is Yoshida’s full statement.
“When last we spoke, I promised I would have more information on FINAL FANTASY XVI sometime later in 2021. However, I regret to inform you that I will be unable to keep that promise as complications stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have delayed the game’s development by almost a half year.
As the latest addition to the FINAL FANTASY series being developed for the PlayStation 5, FINAL FANTASY XVI has amassed a sizeable team composed of talented creators from around the world. However, in an effort to offset the effects of COVID-19, we’ve had to decentralize that workforce by permitting staff to tackle their assignments from home. This has unfortunately hampered communication from the Tokyo office, which, in turn, has led to delays in—or in extreme cases, cancellations of—asset deliveries from our outsource partners.
That said, we have spent much of 2021 addressing this issue, and hope to see its impact to a minimum by the new year, allowing us to better focus on the tasks at hand: increasing graphic resource quality, refining combat mechanics, fleshing out individual battles, putting the finishing touches on cutscenes, and conducting overall graphical optimization. Our primary goal now is to be as hands on with the game as possible in order to see it fully polished.
So that leaves us with the question, when can we expect the next round of information? Well, I am happy to announce the current plan is to conduct our next big reveal in spring of 2022 as we seek to build excitement leading up to the game’s eventual release.
I deeply apologize to all those who have been looking forward to learning more about FINAL FANTASY XVI, and thank you for your continued patience while we focus our combined efforts on development.”
There was no timeline confirmed as to when the game would release, but they did start strong with showcasing four minutes of footage during its reveal, so at least fans have that.