Final Fantasy XVI development about “95 percent” complete; release date to be announced by end of 2022

Final Fantasy XVI is about “95 percent” complete, director Hiroshi Takai told Famitsu in a newly published interview.

“Currently, we’re playing through the game day after day, ironing out any rough patches, and brushing up some performance and rendering issues,” Takai said. “After that comes bug fixes.”

Final Fantasy XVI is currently announced for a summer 2023 release. When asked when a specific release date would be announced, producer Naoki Yoshida said Square Enix will share that information very soon.

“We’re planning to put out even more information before the end of the year, so I think we’ll be able to tell you [a release date] at that time,” Yoshida said. “It won’t be any later than summer, so don’t worry. (Laughs.)”

Yoshida was more specific when speaking to 4Gamer.net, stating that a new trailer would be released by the end of 2022, and that they should also be able to share a release date at that time.

Back to Famitsu, Yoshida continued, “Since I’ve grown so accustomed to the development environment of online games over these past few years, I was a little surprised at how quickly we had to go gold. (Laughs.) If you consider the production of physical discs, shipping them worldwide… all of that takes several months of physical time after going gold. So when we say development is 95 percent complete, some might say, ‘well then release it immediately,’ but that’s the reality of the situation…”

Yoshida also told Dengeki that a demo is planned.

Final Fantasy XVI is in development for PlayStation 5. Watch the latest trailer here.