Final Fantasy XVI is the next mainline entry for Square Enix’s flagship series. The upcoming game is highly anticipated since it’s been six years since the previous Final Fantasy game came out. Final Fantasy XVI was announced during the PS5 showcase in September 2020. According to the developers, the game will be a timed exclusive release on the PS5. Earlier this year, the studio revealed FF16 will be out next year. Now, new reports suggest that we’ll get the release date for Final Fantasy XVI at The Game Awards on December 8. According to the rumors, pre-orders for Final Fantasy XVI will go live on either December 7 or December 8. This would coincide with the announcement of the release date. There have been several reports that the release date will be announced before the year ends. Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida teased fans that the game’s release date will be announced before the end of 2022. The Game Awards would serve as the best venue for such an announcement as it is the last big gaming event of the year. The Square Enix development team shared earlier this month that the game is “about 95%” done. The team is currently tweaking some of the gameplay and polishing up its performance flaws. Naoki Yoshida also revealed that “almost all programmers are fiddling with code to fix bugs.” Yoshida also mentioned that he doesn’t “think it’s going to be over the summer,” referring to the release of Final Fantasy XVI. This implies that the game may release in the second quarter of 2023 which is earlier than expected. With the updates from Square Enix, it should be expected that the game will come as soon as Q2 2023, rather than around the end of Q3. And if the rumors are true, we may be getting confirmation of that in the next couple of weeks. Final Fantasy XVI is not the only game that is rumored to make an announcement around The Game Awards. There are reports that Blizzard’s Diablo 4 will have a release date reveal and pre-order announcement at the awards show. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor may also be a game featured at the annual awards.
