After a wild weekend of rumors and speculation about the potential delay of Final Fantasy XV, we finally have confirmation from the studio itself that the game is being delayed. In a press release, as well as a video by Hajime Tabata, they officially announced that the new release date for Final Fantasy XV will be November 29th, 2016.
In his video, Tabata explains that while they had finished a master version of the game and were working on a Day 1 Patch they were not satisfied with the way it would work for players who play without connecting their consoles to the internet. They also saw several things they could further work on and add new content to the game, and as they wanted to create the best version of Final Fantasy XV, they reluctantly decided to delay it.
“From the moment we joined this project, our vision was to create a level of freedom and realism previously unseen in the series. Regrettably, we need a little bit more time to deliver on this vision and are confident that this new release date will help us achieve this. As the director and lead of this project, I wish to personally apologize for the additional wait. As a team, we want Final Fantasy XVto achieve a level of perfection that our fans deserve. We kindly ask for your understanding.” - Hajime Tabata, Final Fantasy XV game director
The video has Tabata addressing in Japanese, but was released with closed captioning for English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean. This long list of languages shows the wide range of areas that Final Fantasy XV is aiming to hit on launch date, each with their own economic and social situations that can cause worries, perhaps notably with the fledgling Chinese console market.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wepgwx_9kto&feature=youtu.be
In their press release, Square Enix says that the digital version of Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, the film set in the same universe, will still release on August 30th. At this time, Square Enix isn't prepared to say if the disc version of Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, and Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV will be changed or not and will provide more information on that in the future.
Talk has also emerged that the delay may be related to the close release date in Japan of Persona 5, the newest release in the popular Shin Megami Tensei Persona spinoff series. This is in part due to a survey Square Enix apparently sent out in Japan, which included a question about whether you'd prefer to buy Persona 5 or Final Fantasy XV, and a follow up one asking why if your choice was Persona 5. Whether or not this impacted the decision in any way is tough to say, because this is relatively normal market research overall, and we will never likely have an answer to that question. We also don't know the result of the question, which could have been resoundingly in favor of Final Fantasy XV as well.
https://twitter.com/ThisIsUMR/status/765171655165353984
We will keep you up to date on the situation regarding Final Fantasy XV if more emerges.
What do you think of the delay? What do you think the reason for it is? Do you think that Square was frightened off by competing with Persona 5 in the same weekend? Share your thoughts in the comments below!