Following the surprise announcement that Final Fantasy XVI is happening, fans quickly assumed the game will be years off from release, like its predecessor.
Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida talked up the game’s reveal at this year’s Tokyo Game Show (via Games Jouhou), noting the team wanted to avoid just throwing a pre-rendered CG trailer out there, leaving fans to speculate a release is far off.
“We worked very hard. I didn’t want to just release a movie or pre-rendered footage and bam, the logo!”, Yoshida said. “I really wanted to show real-time, in-game footage but the gameplay hasn’t been optimized and fine-tuned. Producing the trailer was exhausting during this time of the game’s development.”
He added, “But if we released a pre-rendered trailer, fans would say ‘See you in 2035!’ or something. I’ve seen those comments from America and elsewhere. We really wanted to actually show something in-game.”
During the broadcast Yoshida noted that he is currently focusing on the development of Final Fantasy XVI, and that its next big reveal is planned for 2021. He also noted they’re set to launch the teaser website for the game, sometime later next month.
Final Fantasy XVI is currently in development for PlayStation 5.
