At the last PlayStation 5 event, the next main installment of the Final Fantasy series was finally presented. It is led by Naoki Yoshida, the director of Final Fantasy XIV. Some fans wondered what impact it might have on their favorite MMORPG.
What was announced in the Sony stream? Fans of Square Enix were quite astonished when Final Fantasy XVI was announced during the PS5 stream on Wednesday, September 16.
The next main installment of the FF series took the stage as always with a stylish trailer that provided the first look at the setting, the main character, and the combat system.
Moreover, the trailer revealed quite a bit about the team working on FFXVI. The game is developed by Creative Business Unit III, which is primarily responsible for the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV.
Main installments of the Final Fantasy series are always huge projects for Square Enix, consuming a lot of money and resources. They are the crown jewels of the company, and only the most experienced developers are allowed to work on these games.
It is therefore no surprise that the head of FFXIV, Naoki Yoshida, has been confirmed as the producer for FFXVI. After all, he and his team have turned the initially failed MMORPG into one of the strongest titles on the market.
Are more FFXIV developers working on FFXVI? After Yoshida announced on Twitter that he is working as a producer on FFXVI, Hiroshi Takai was also confirmed as a developer. He is the director of the game.
Takai also comes from the FFXIV team. He was the Assistant Director during the development of A Realm Reborn and Development Supervisor for Stormblood. However, his experience goes back to Final Fantasy V.
Attentive players from the community suspect that several other FFXIV developers are also involved in the game. The character design of the new Final Fantasy looks like that of FFXIV.
This was noted in numerous comments on Reddit and social media, leading to the conclusion that some people from the design team of FFXIV were shifted over to the new game.
Graphically from the cutscenes, I thought it was a new FFXIV expansion. […]
Reddit user istartedafireee
The music from the first FFXVI trailer also suspiciously sounds like Masayoshi Soken, the composer of FFXIV. This also caught the attention of observant fans immediately.
Yoshi-P appears to be the producer for the game, and this music really sounds a lot like Soken. […]
Reddit user Gance-Davin-Gance
The involvement of additional FFXIV developers in the new flagship game from SE has not been officially confirmed yet.
Spoiler: FFXVI has already “influenced” the development of FFXIV
The development of two massive AAA games, one of them next-gen, with huge budgets and great resource consumption is not an easy task for a single department.
The question of whether FFXIV will suffer under the new prestigious project FFXVI is therefore quite justified.
Should we be worried? The answer is simple: Not currently. On the contrary. The time when we could have felt any changes has long passed.
The development of FFXVI did not start just a few weeks ago. The project was already announced 1.5 years ago in a statement to Square Enix investors.
By that time, it had already been in development for a while and was already under Yoshida and Takai. The statement mentioned that the project had already left the “Early Development” phase in April 2019.
This means the devs have been working on FFXVI long before the Shadowbringers expansion was released. Therefore, if there were changes to FFXIV due to the shift of developers to FFXVI, we have not noticed them or they were at least not drastically negative:
- Shadowbringers was released on time,
- it had a smooth Early Access and launch
- and it is no secret how well the addon was received by fans and critics.
- The new content patches also came in the rhythm that FFXIV players are used to: every 3.5-4 months.
But whether this will actually happen remains to be seen.
Final Fantasy XIV is currently just too strong:
I was quite skeptical about the rumors regarding the announcement of FFXVI during the Sony conference but was still pleased about it. Also, about the fact that it is being developed by the third Creative Division under Yoshida.
My personal assessment is that Yoshida would not let FFXIV take a back seat, even if he is working on such a large prestigious project like FFXVI.
The MMORPG simply brings him and Square Enix too much money to be neglected. It is currently jumping from one record year to the next, and the numbers of active players are increasing according to financial reports to investors.
Therefore, I think that FFXIV players do not need to worry too much that the content could now come in larger intervals because the head is sidetracked with another game.
Generally, the impression I got from browsing the posts on Reddit, social media in the official forums is that players trust their “Yoshi-P” and the team. They have earned this through strong communication with the community.
Irina Moritz
Community Manager at MeinMMO
The only exception was the delay of Patch 5.3, which was caused by the Corona lockdown in Japan.
What changes might be possible? However, it cannot be ruled out that some setbacks for FFXIV could be felt in later phases of FFXVI development.
In the past, Square Enix has repeatedly pulled developers from one project to help with another. A prime example of this is Final Fantasy XIII, which consumed the resources of FF Versus XIII.
Therefore, it is quite possible that other developers from Yoshida’s department may also be brought in to assist with FFXVI when it enters the intense final phase before release.
But whether this will actually happen remains to be seen.
Final Fantasy XIV is currently just too strong:
I was quite skeptical about the rumors regarding the announcement of FFXVI during the Sony conference but was still pleased about it. Also, about the fact that it is being developed by the third Creative Division under Yoshida.
My personal assessment is that Yoshida would not let FFXIV take a back seat, even if he is working on such a large prestigious project like FFXVI.
The MMORPG simply brings him and Square Enix too much money to be neglected. It is currently jumping from one record year to the next, and the numbers of active players are increasing according to financial reports to investors.
Therefore, I think that FFXIV players do not need to worry too much that the content could now come in larger intervals because the head is sidetracked with another game.
Generally, the impression I got from browsing the posts on Reddit, social media in the official forums is that players trust their “Yoshi-P” and the team. They have earned this through strong communication with the community.
Irina Moritz
Community Manager at MeinMMO
