Final Fantasy XV May See 2016 Western Release If PlayStation 4 Sells Well In Japan

Final Fantasy XV (previously known as Final Fantasy Versus XIII) is an upcoming new Final Fantasy title for the next-generation consoles; the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One. Originally intended to be released exclusively for the PlayStation 3 system before moving on to next-generation consoles with a title change, Final Fantasy XV has been in development since 2006. Final Fantasy Versus XIII was the most hyped title between gamers as it moves away from traditional role-playing titles in the Final Fantasy series and introduces Action role-playing genre to the series.

[Eonjay]

There is 0% chance that this will be Japan only.

[vishmarx]

1.ps4 and xb1
already have more than 2 million preorders .bad sales out of question
2.SE isnt going broke anytime soon.
theres no reason why theyd keep the most hyped and delayed title of the last 8 years in japan only.
3.when has a console ff never made west
how does such a doubt even arise?

[andrewsqual]

With every passing month since 2006 this game lost more hype. Dark Souls 2 is a more hyped up game then this train wreck. A lot of people wouldn't even care if they cancelled this game tomorrow.

[TristanPR77]

Sony said they have more than one million pre orders but Microsoft has never said anything about their pre orders numbers.

[deep_fried_bum_cake]

andrewsqual

Don't state your false opinion as if it's fact.

[Army_of_Darkness]

A 2016 release?!? Are u fu@*ing me!?!

[FamilyGuy]

Article /opinion piece, says nothing about it being japan exclusive so what are you guys going on about?
If anything it's just trying to claim that the release date will be reliant on japans install base of PS4s. It's ridiculous in all capacities either way.

It's not "baseless" just a hair-brained theory as SE never claimed to wait on install base growth. On top of that there's the fact that FF is a "system seller" so fans would be picking it up regardless, even if they're picking the system at the same time.

[guitarded77]

They announced it at E3... it will be available in the West. NO QUESTION ABOUT IT.

As for an all regions simultaneous release... probably not.

[mrbojingles]

Yes but every console starts hot out of the gate. Wii U grabbed 1 million in its first two months and was sold out for a while. Things change. Vita too. I'm not saying, by any means, that Xbox One or PS4 will fail or sell all that badly. I just would be prepared for sub-100k sales in America from January-August 2014 because the facts are that both consoles have clear dry spell of software in the early months of the year. There's like InFamous for PS4 in Feb, then Destiny/TitanFall/Watch Dogs in spring but those three games are coming to PS3/360 (TitanFall on 360) so I don't think as many people will upgrade until we get a flood of next-gen exclusives in late 2014 or 2015.

[kupomogli]

@deep_fried_bum_cake

Actually he's not. With quality of Final Fantasy becoming worse and the long delay of Final Fantasy Versus 13, a lot of people have become disinterested in it.

"A lot" doesn't amount to "all" so while there are a lot of people who are really interested in getting the game still, there are a lot of others who are no longer interested, or at the very least, much less interested than they were when it was initially announced.

Also, there's really no need to make the opinion/fact statement. He's just giving his opinion as how he sees it, and according to how many agrees there are, those people agree with his view. Currently 33% agree with his opinion. 67% disagree.

There are so many people who take other opinions to heart, that any time you say something unsatisfactory towards a subject they favor, they throw the opinion/fact comment out there when you're displaying your opinion. It's really annoying because half of the time, the person is being attacked by stating his opinion as fact when comments are nothing more than opinion. It's just an opinion that people happen not to like.

[levian]

Edit

[Deadpoolio]

Yeah um No way does Microsoft have a million pre-orders....Wishful thinking though

[mikeslemonade]

People in Japan need to be smack upside the head. Stop buying 3DS and PSP1 games. Those things are lame..

[Saviour]

There's no reason ps4 not doing well in japan, This will sell like hot cakes in westren too.

[Tetsujin]

"If" and I mean a big "if" this is true, there will be other games by then I'll enjoy and play, skipping over this entirely. My hype for this died the moment it changed to 15, and still no ETA on release. Ten years (roughly) for a game to come out is way too long for development, and almost not worth even mentioning.

Unless a reasonable ETA is mentioned I don't even want to hear about this game anymore.

[Tetsujin]

With Duke Nukem there was issues that required time and legal battles, so I understood the situation, and it was something that wasn't brought up over and over again. I personally liked Duke Nukem for the 90s references; however the other 98% of the internet hated the game for whatever reason (to each their own I say).

With 15 I'm sick of the hype they keep putting out just to find out later it's pushed back even further, no ETA, and the only saving grace currently is Wada dropped from SE as CEO so hopefully this new guy actually forces something positive out.

[DOMination-]

2016 is a long time to wait for a game that currently looks pretty crappy. Nobody asked for crappy looking real time action battles. Most people who like FF now is because of the pre-FF11 era and want games like that. Typical jap devs not listening to what people want.

[ritsuka666]

People think PS4 will sell well in japan are delusional. Btw, Final fantasy franchise are no more popular in japan.

[vishmarx]

lol.
ignorant.

[Pintheshadows]

Take a long hard look at yourself before you start calling people delusional.

[AbortMission]

"People think PS4 will sell well in japan are delusional."

"X from monolith soft will kick ass of Final Fantasy. just mark my words."

The only person here delusional is you Lmao.

[3-4-5]

o wow 2016. I was hoping for 2015.

Square! Stop showing your games off 3 years in advance.

It's just going to annoy people.

How haven't you learned this by now ?

[Ol_G]

three years? they announced it way back in 2006 if i'm not mistaken thats 10 years in advance .
I was planning to buy a Ps4 when this came out but 2016 !!!

[adorie]

I don't think so. I think this game is getting full on development and will be out in Japan/West in 2015 at the latest.

[Magicite]

I hope FF15 comes out next year.

[Sideras]

It's Square Enix we are talking about here, not the brightest company around.

[Lboogieskells]

This game will definitely Drop early 2015.

:)

[colonel179]

Agree! This article is rubbish!

[My_Name_BTW_Is_Dante]

There is a 0% chance that FF Type 0 will be Japan only.

PSP probably didn't sell well in Japan.

[Abriael]

Completely baseless speculation, especially considering that SE's new president clearly said in several occasions that they want to radically speed up releases.

Just because something is said on Neogaf, it doesn't mean it's true or grounded in reality.

[DarkLordMalik]

Not completely baseless. They did say something similar regarding FF XIII even though it might as well be related to its troubled development.

At best, i expect a late 2014 release for FF XV and at worse, sometimes in 2015 for Japan and 2016 for West unless they launch it Worldwide simultaneously.

Remember, even FF XV is using an engine which is in development just like FF XIII. Luminous Engine is not ready yet and is still being worked on.

[torchic]

nothing concrete has been said about the engine in Final Fantasy XV. Versus XIII was using Crystal Tools and then Luminous for lighting.

haven't heard anything about Luminous not being ready as well, have a link?

this is how misinformation spreads.

[DarkLordMalik]

@Torchic:
“Yes, I think I can tell you that we’ve already entered that phase,” Hashimoto says. “However, the engine itself is not yet fully finished, so we’re not working on anything full-time. Right now arrangements are being made as we prepare to work using the real thing.”
http://www.edge-online.com/...

This is from November 2012 BTW.

Again, i am not wishing for a 2016 release and i would really love to have a 2014 release but it is pretty hard to see it happening.

If FF XV is playable at E3 2014, we can definitely expect a 2014 release.

[Abriael]

New president. New policies. This one didn't say "something similar". He said explicitly that releases will be much faster in several occasions, even in the official annual report for shareholders.

By the way "luminous engine is not ready yet" is inaccurate. There's no recent mention on the state of readyness of the engine. As a matter of fact calling an engine "ready" is inaccurate in itself, as engines, especially proprietary ones, are ever-evolving entities, and their state is not communicated to the public.

A 2016 release is a ridiculous notion, even if only for the west.

Edit below: so five months ago? Yeah. That's not what I'd call recent or anything to base speculation on.

[DarkLordMalik]

For their sake, i hope they release it soon and i personally can't wait that long.

As for the Luminous Engine part, i distinctly remember it being mentioned in one of the interviews with either Shinji Hashimoto or Nomura after E3.

Back during FF XIII, they were developing Crystal Tools and FF XIII simultaneously hence the prolonged development cycle for that game.

Edit: Just curious, when do you expect it to release? Next year? Can you give an expected date?

[DragonKnight]

@DarkLordMalik: Crystal Tools was just a re-tooled White Engine made to be multiplatform. The reason the development was prolonged was the deal Microsoft made with SE, not the engine development. The PS3 version was complete one month after the E3 announcement that FFXIII would go multi, but MS paid SE to keep the PS3 version unreleased until the Xbox 360 version was complete for a simultaneous global release. Microsoft was the reason for the prolonged development, not an engine.

[maniacmayhem]

"MS paid SE to keep the PS3 version unreleased until the Xbox 360 version was complete for a simultaneous global release. Microsoft was the reason for the prolonged development, not an engine."

Whoa, do you have any proof of this claim Dragon? And from credible sources not speculation or opinions from a journalist.

Development was delayed because FF 13 was originally a PS2 title and the whole production was scrapped and moved to Sony's next gen console when PS3 was announced.

[N4GDgAPc]

If there doing the same thing as FFvs13 it was going to be a world wide release. I'm still hoping they do the same thing for FF15.

[gameseveryday]

ye sure, a game that gets heavily shown off at E3, a western expo, will be released in 2016. Ye sure.

[MajorAly]

Versus XIII was also showed at E3 2006. Where did it end up? Skipped a whole generation.

[gameseveryday]

That is one weird comparison. Your article is about release date not 'release date delay'. Besides that this article is making assumptions on weird facts.

[MajorAly]

Does the article say anywhere that it is confirmed?

The speculation is based on the install base of the consoles, Japan is seeing the launch of PS4 and Xbox One later than NA and EU release.

FF titles have always landed in Japan first. And with the data collected, FF titles have landed on a good install base.

Square Enix COULD change their strategies but based on what is known so far, this speculation was based upon the previous history.

[DragonKnight]

The speculation is ridiculous. Never has a Final Fantasy Western release been dependent on Japanese sales figures. Ironic to mention history when it's completely ignored in the most basic sense.

[MajorAly]

@DragonKnight

FF has always been released first in Japan. The games released were on on good install base.

For example:

FF7:
JP January 31, 1997
NA September 7, 1997

Hence that is what is being said in that sense. What is being said is that the consoles which saw the FF release had a good install base of over 4 million.

[DragonKnight]

And that's meaningless. The fact that they were always released first in Japan is because that's how all Japanese games are released. The fact that they were later released in the West had nothing to do with Japanese sales, at least for FF. Name one main FF game on consoles that didn't release in the West due to Japanese sales. The answer is none, because Japanese sales have nothing to do with it at all and never have.

[Irishguy95]

No one seems to know this, the trailer at sony's Ps4 conference was NOT in game. It was a target render. The gameplay trailer shown after was in game. The reason the showed the leviathan battle with a target render is because the in game version is not even lose to that, Nomura said that's what he imagines the battle will be like.

I was initially confused as to why the two 'gamaeplay' trailers featured such different effects on Noctis abilities, then I found out that one of them wasn't gameplay at all. Nomura came out and stated this almost immediately but the media skipped over it for some reason. FFXV is not nearly as far along in development as the reveal trailer led to believe.

[DragonKnight]

I'm sure you have proof of this to link to. Otherwise you're asking people to take your word for it, and no one will.

[EXVirtual]

Please. The game will be out by 2015 latest.

[Double_Oh_Snap]

2016? lol... Probably true ;_;

[Dark11]

Early 2016 makes sense.

[Inception]

I think they will release XV in the end of 2014. Western release in early 2015.

[ZHZ90]

Same to me as well.

[Inception]

And i don't understand why i got two disagrees for saying that. N4G is a strange site indeed.

[shooter1]

By 2016!! I will be expecting Kingdom Hearts 3 to be getting ready to come out by then.

[AnnaDea]

The game went in to full production over 2 years ago (september 2011) for this generations consoles.

I bet we will see this game at around Christmas next year.

[thejigisup]

2016 ?Unnaceppptttaaabbbrrruuuuuuuu

[Arcanine]

This game better be over 100 hours long story alone!

[Viking_Socrates]

2016? I'd better be good if that's true, but I expect 2015.

[ScamperCamper]

Guys, I think this story is waaaay off. The game is already up for pre order at Amazon.com etc. If that's for preorder now, a year at the most I would say: http://www.ps4accessories.c...

[ritsuka666]

X from monolith soft will kick ass of Final Fantasy. just mark my words.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

sorry but Probably not. Final fantasy a has pretty strong Legacy and FFXV is YEARS in the making.

[ritsuka666]

Are you living in the rock? Final Fantasy games are declining year a year and for sure X will be better game.

[ZHZ90]

I don't think this will happen at all.

@DEATHxTHExKIDx, agreed.

[noxeven]

First they failed to bring agito over here and now they don't wanna do ffxv which people have been promised since its original announcement. You what se you can keep it just pull this shit with KH3 and I look forward to the riot afterwards.

[EXVirtual]

Bro, calm down. This article is way off. 2016 would be too long. Q4 2015 latest. What Abrieal said above was correct.

[arbitor365]

2016. there is no way it will take that long. im guessing summer of 2015 along with kingdom hearts 3.

[EXVirtual]

They're not going to release simultaneously. SE has already said that before. KH3 is going to come out after FFXV anyway.

[Gamer-40]

2016? LoL..

[jc48573]

lol, I have another 3 years for this game?

[Goku781]

This is a dangerous game they are playing. Do they wanna be the next Capcom?

[OmniSlashPT]

So is Square really making us wait a whole decade for this game? I mean, they re-announced it this year so I was expecting it to come out next year in Japan/2015 in Europe/NA...but 2016? thats pushing it a bit too much.

[smashman98]

No this game will be out late 2014 Japan early 2015 America Ur on crack if u think it has another 3 years in the oven. And anybody who doesn't believe me I implore you to book mark this page and attack me when my prediction doesn't come true

[AceBlazer13]

kingdom hearts just began development and is probably at the same stage as this 10 year game.

[goldwyncq]

At this rate, KH3 wouldn't be probably released until the next decade.

[LEOPARD1030]

yawn...2016....too late... for 2016 I'll be playing a new Elders Scroll game. I hope a launch would be Christmas 2015.

However FFXV looks amazing.

[tetsuhana]

Why does no one want to read the articles....

[LoneWolf019]

Kingdom Hearts 3 2020

[BigDollarZoe954]

lol

[USMC43]

And Square wonders why their company is in disarray. Idiots can't make a goddamn game in seven years when studios like Naughty Dog pump out 4 AAA games in the same amount of time. No excuses, Square, you're a FU****G JOKE.

[tigertron]

2016? then it would be 10 years since the first trailer.

My bet is out Spring 2015. Though who knows?

[SaulGoodman]

Really? 2016. It better be mind melting if I have to wait another 2 years for it. I'm sad now that I know I have to wait that long.

[feraldrgn]

I & most will probably have forgotten about it by then & moved on to better RPG's from other companies.

Seriously 2016 is unacceptable, that would mean 10 frigging years in development.

[MrZweistein]

Is this article real? Speculation based on what?

[mediate-this]

Japan is dead when it comes to console gaming. They are stagnant, non progressive.

[fsfsxii]

Good stuff you're smoking there buddy, keep up!

[STEWIE_PLAY_PS4]

Remember back to about 1990-1995 FINAL FANTASY IV-V were games in Japan.

[tiffac008]

You expect FFXV not to sell in Japan? Even the worse FF (main title) sold in the millions in Japan and on one console alone. This is a moot speculation at best.

The 2016 date is sad though but maybe accurate. -_-

[XishikiX]

This is an interesting concept. And fairly well thought out.

However it's making a few huge assumption's without taking other factors into account. The huge assumption is that SE is eyeing the release date in Japan based on install base of PS4 in Japan. While the home console market in japan is shrinking.

The other thing is, those previous games were released on consoles with a 4 million install base. But there's no data saying what would happen if you released a game before that install base got to that number.

[JasonXS12]

A game 10 years in the making, better not turn out like Duke Nukem Forever...

[Elda]

Late 2014 in Japan,early 2015 in the west.

[90Supra]

After all this waiting and hearing nothing but "...its still in developement" every once in a while, they still end up bullshitting and going multi-plat...smh

They won't be getting any of my money......no matter when its released

[Ingram]

They just started making the game in 2011, after half a decade of teasing, they then have the nerve of not having a release date in 2013.

After what they did with 13, and what they're doing with this, most of us already took a decision.

I at least won't be buying this, there's no excuse, there's no game good enough in the universe to justify this preposterous and disrespectful SCAM, because that's what it is, they weren't working on it, they broke their word, they shifted resources towards making ridiculous 13 follow ups.

Squeenix can rot in the deepest pit of hell for all I care, them and their yes men army made up of executives, marketing operatives and billions of frivolous clothing designers

[Donnywho]

I remember reading the double preview in Gameinformer for FF13 and FFVs13. I think that was 8 years ago.

[Kalebninja]

how can people say the quality of ff is getting worse?the last bad one i played was 12 after that i played some crystal chronicles,crisis core,the ds remakes,and the 13 series and they were all good i dnt care if someone didnt like the game i doesnt mean the quality is..and how can anyone say that after seeing 15 and lightning returns?...sound like those 1st pokemon gen only people

[leahcim]

good luck with that squenix
now you really does not exist for me!

[barb_wire]

All speculation.. but for arguments sake let's say it's true and FF XV is released 2016.

Where does that leave Kingdoms Hearts III?, 2017, 2018?

[snarls200]

FF VI was the first to have a western release close to the Japan release. FF II took 15 years to come to the west

[chrispseuphoria]

Ridiculous.