Final Fantasy 16 Officially Delayed By Half a Year

Final Fantasy fans have been waiting for FF16 producer Naoki Yoshida to dish on the status of this upcoming game. Now, sadly, he has confirmed that its release has been delayed by half a year due to COVID-19.

The bad news comes to us courtesy of Twitter. There, Yoshida offered both an apology and context for the delay of this highly-anticipated game: “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.”

Honestly, the update was a lot of “good news, bad news.” The bad news, of course, is that having to work from home due to COVID concerns has led to this annoying delay. But the good news is that Yoshida promises that gamers are going to get a better and more polished final game.

“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,” Yoshida wrote. “Our primary goal is now to be as hands on with the game as possible in order to see it fully polished.”

He claims we should see footage of the game sometime in Spring 2022. Gamers can be cautiously optimistic that there will be no further delays: Yoshida previously said that the game’s main scenario is complete, so the team may now be focused on delivering the best possible final product.

And if the final product is anywhere near as engaging and immersive as Final Fantasy XIV has become, then it will definitely be worth waiting for.