Hajime Tabata, the director behind the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy XV, has confirmed that the release date for the hotly anticipated PlayStation 4 and Xbox One JRPG will be unveiled at an event in March.
Speaking to the latest issue of Japan’s Famitsu magazine, Tabata-san confirmed that Final Fantasy XV will be showcased in all its glory during the event in just two month’s time, where the release date will finally be announced. The news comes following Square Enix’s assurance that the game will definitely be released in 2016.
"This year is the year we’ll release Final Fantasy XV," Tabata-san told the publication in a special New Year’s message. "Currently, we’ve decided on all of its specifications and the beta version is under production so we can shift into the debug phase.
"We’ll show the real XV during the release date announcement this March."
While we’ll have to wait until March to find out when the game will be released, it has been suggested during a recent survey by Square Enix that the publishing giant is targeting a summer 2016 launch for Final Fantasy XV. What is known, however, is that the game will receive a simultaneous global release unlike the majority of previous Final Fantasy games.
Square Enix’s Yoshinori Kitase recently said that the game’s storytelling will be similar to that of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, possibly hinting at a change of direction for the franchise. In addition, the company said that Final Fantasy XV is now playable from start to finish, and that it may offer airships as free downloadable content post-launch. Final Fantasy XV started development around three years ago when its original incarnation, the PS3-exclusive Final Fantasy Versus XIII, was around 25 percent complete.
Check out the latest screenshots of Final Fantasy XV to see how it’s shaping up.