COVID continues to cause problems for the creative industries, with another cultural titan suffering a pandemic-related delay. While Square Enix has never publicly given Final Fantasy XVI a release window, the game will be coming later than many fans might have been hoping for. In a message posted to the game’s official Twitter account, Producer Naoki Yoshida revealed that setbacks related to COVID working conditions have caused Final Fantasy XVI a delay of “almost a half year.”
Like many other companies, the development team has allowed members to work from home, but that has come at the cost of communication, causing delays and cancellations throughout the production pipeline. Encouragingly, Yoshida stated that the team has implemented measures to address the issue to allow a greater focus on the nuts and bolts of development. What it means for fans is that further updates on the game won’t be available for quite some time, with Yoshida indicating that the next information blowout is currently planned for sometime in spring 2022, putting more than a year and half between major info drops.
Despite the Final Fantasy XVI development delay, fans of Square Enix action RPGs won’t have to wait all that long for something to play. Forspoken is slated to arrive on PC and PlayStation 5 in May, while Team Ninja’s Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is scheduled for March 18, 2022.
A message from Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida. #FF16 #FFXVI pic.twitter.com/qtfJUUp6LA
— FINAL FANTASY XVI (@finalfantasyxvi) December 27, 2021
