Rumor has it that the next installment in Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series will be unveiled at Wednesday’s PlayStation 5 event as a timed exclusive. We’ve been hearing rumblings about this for a while, but these reports seem to have picked up pace recently, with insiders chiming in to suggest that this is one of those surprise exclusivity deals Sony reportedly struck behind the scenes.
Folks over at TwistedVoxel compiled these reports over the weekend, highlighting that a mysterious Final Fantasy XVI Twitter account, apparently registered to Square Enix, recently popped up and is currently set to private. Similar discoveries, like the Prince of Persia Twitter account, actually did lead us somewhere so it’s worth taking into consideration. Interestingly, Square Enix’s Shinji Hashimoto retweeted PlayStation’s tweet about the upcoming event and later deleted it, sparking speculations.
Over on ResetEra, several verified insiders confirmed the existence of Final Fantasy XVI and suggested an exclusivity deal, but there seems to be some debate over when Sony actually planned to unveil it. According to Navtra and Kagari, the announcement was originally set for PlayStation’s June showcase. However, Niko Partners’ senior analyst Daniel Ahmad disputed this (see threadmarks in the source link below).
Elsewhere, Kinda Funny’s Imran Khan – who was the first to openly talk about Sony’s mysterious third-party deals – said that Wednesday’s showcase would be “a good time” to unveil Final Fantasy XVI. It’s unclear if Khan is hinting at something or simply making a suggestion.
Seems like it would be a good time for it, yeah.
— Imran Khan (@imranzomg) September 12, 2020
As usual, take all of this with a grain of salt until we have official confirmation. Don’t forget to tune in on September 16th.
[Source: TwistedVoxel, ResetEra]
(Note: The screenshot above is from Final Fantasy XV)