Square Enix’s upcoming (alleged) timed exclusive Final Fantasy 16 is apparently not as far away as people believe.
The news came from Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier who claimed on an episode of the Triple Click podcast (via VGC) that the upcoming JRPG will be released far sooner than many believe.
“I’ve heard from people who know the game, have worked on the game or are familiar with the game’s development that it’s actually been in development for at least four years in some capacity. So it’s coming sooner than people think,” Schreier said on the podcast.
Schreier explained that the recent reveal of the next-gen JRPG is to counter the belief that Final Fantasy games always take years to release after their reveal. With Final Fantasy 15 taking a decade to make after its reveal and Final Fantasy 7 Remake taking half of that, Final Fantasy 16 aims to break that mould.
“15 I think really set a terrible precedent. It was announced as Versus 13 in 2006 and then took ten years to make, so I think they want to shy away from that. It makes sense: 15 came out in 2016, so it’s already been four years since the last Final Fantasy game,” the reporter said.
FF16 was revealed as an exclusive title for the next-gen PlayStation 5 at the PlayStation 5 Showcase. However, shortly after the game’s reveal it was reported that the title actually has a six-month timed exclusivity period until the game would see a PC release with an Xbox release six months after that.
This would follow the same process as Final Fantasy 7 Remake, a title that has a one-year exclusivity deal on PlayStation 4.