Rumors have been circulating lately that the long-awaited next installment in the long running Final Fantasy series could be delayed, but now it has been confirmed. Final Fantasy XV will now see a global launch on November 29th. It’s original date was a little more than a month out, at September 30th. That makes the delay just about two months.
This comes as disappointing news for fans eagerly awaiting the game’s release; Final Fantasy XV was announced years ago. Officially it began development way back in 2006, but has only really shown footage for the past few years. Now it looks like fans will have to wait a bit longer to get their hands on it.
Via GameSpot, developer Square Enix released a statement and video explaining the decision to fans. Their new release date will “allow the development teams time to further polish and conduct quality testing so that the reality of the game can match the expectations of both the fans and the creative teams.” Here’s the video. It’s in Japanese, so English speakers will need to turn on Closed Captioning.
Game delays are a common occurrence in the industry, even this close to launch, and a two-month delay isn’t all that severe. Still, delays have been known to negatively impact sales of a product, especially when the game is relying on a certain release window, or a level of hype carefully built up prior to release. In the past, games that have been delayed for too long have seen mediocre releases, even when given largely positive reviews. It remains to be seen if that will be the case for Final Fantasy XV.
Game director Hajime Tabata was apologetic in his delivery of the news to fans.
“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 XV to achieve a level of perfection that our fans deserve. We kindly ask for your understanding.”
Final Fantasy XV will now release on November 29th, for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
