Final Fantasy 16's announcement at Sony's recent PlayStation 5 showcase shocked the industry. Not only will the game be a PS5 console exclusive, but the announcement trailer featured in-engine game footage including combat. Some speculated that this could mean Final Fantasy 16 is further along in development than expected, but no confirmation came. Now it's being reported that Final Fantasy 16 may be deep into development, and that it may be releasing sooner than thought, too.
The report comes from Bloomberg's Jason Schreier, who shared some insider information during the Triple Click podcast. Schreier says that he's heard Final Fantasy 16 has been in development at Square Enix longer than many might think. Specifically, he says that Square Enix has been working on Final Fantasy 16 in some capacity for at least four years. Further, Schreier says explicitly that Final Fantasy 16 will launch sooner than what people think.
Before any Final Fantasy fans jump to any conclusions, "sooner than expected" does not necessarily mean any time soon. Schreier saying "in some capacity" very likely means that some of the last four years were pre-production. As such, the game certainly still has plenty of work left to complete. Plus, development was far enough along for Square Enix to have a release date in mind, it probably would have shared it. That said, Final Fantasy 16 shouldn't be as far out as, say, Final Fantasy 15 was when it was first announced. That could change depending on development issues, but with luck, Square Enix's development of Final Fantasy 16 will continue smoothly.
Soon in Schreier's mind could, optimistically, mean a year or two, with 2022 seeming like an appropriate window. That would give Final Fantasy 16 a development time of 5 or 6 years, which would still be longer than average but might be fitting given how large the scope of modern Final Fantasy games is. A release window either earlier or later than 2022 is certainly possible, of course. It may also be true that Square Enix isn't certain of the game's release window yet.
If Final Fantasy 16 has been in development for at least four years, that would mean it's been worked on alongside Final Fantasy 14's most-recent expansion Shadowbringers. That seems notable in that the two project heads for Final Fantasy 16 are both leads on Final Fantasy 14, too. Also interesting is that Final Fantasy 15 launched around four years ago, which would seem to imply that the Final Fantasy 15 team is behind Final Fantasy 16. However, it's not, instead made by the Square Enix team responsible for Final Fantasy 11 and the Dragon Quest Builders series.
Going by what Schreier is reporting, Square Enix will be sharing more information relatively soon. Final Fantasy 16's producer previously confirmed that the next update for the game wouldn't come until 2021. By then, fans will almost certainly have a better awareness of just what Square Enix's release plans are for the highly anticipated JRPG.
Final Fantasy 16 is in development for PS5 and PC.
Source: Triple Click (via ResetEra)