Final Fantasy XVI game producer Naoki Yoshida posted a statement on the game's official Twitter account, stating that "complications arising from the COVID-19 pandemic have delayed the game's development by almost half a year."
While the team originally stated that Square Enix would reveal more information about the game in 2021, that is no longer the case. Instead, Square Enix will reveal more information about the game in Spring 2022.
Yoshida explained the issues surrounding the development in more detail, stating:
The latest addition to the FINAL FANTSY series in development for PlayStation 5, FINAL FANTASY XVI, has brought together a sizable team of talented creators from around the world. However, in an effort to offset the effects of COVID-19, we had to decentralize this workforce, allowing the team to work from home. Unfortunately, this hindered communication from the Tokyo office, which in turn led to delays—or, in extreme cases, cancellations—in asset deliveries from our third-party partners.
That said, we spent much of 2021 addressing this issue and hope to see its impact minimized in the coming year, allowing us to better focus on the tasks at hand: increasing the quality of graphical assets, refining combat mechanics, developing battles, putting the finishing touches on cutscenes, and driving overall graphical optimization. Our main goal now is to be as active as possible in the game to see it fully polished.
Final Fantasy XVI will be released PS5 exclusive. While an initial livestream trailer listed a PC release, the online version of the same trailer and the game's website did not list a PC version.
Source: ANN
