Despite Square Enix only publicly announcing it a little over half a year ago, Final Fantasy 16 is a lot further along in development than it seems. Back in October 2020, the game's developer Square Enix posted a recruitment page that, when roughly translated, said Final Fantasy 16 already completed its basic development. More time has passed since then, so it's believable to think that Square Enix is gearing up to announce the game's release date.

This implication comes from the PlayStation Store, as it recently changed the release date set for Final Fantasy 16. Before the start of this week, the store listed Final Fantasy 16's launch as "TBC," meaning "to be confirmed," but now the Final Fantasy 16 page states the game's release date is "coming soon." Exactly when remains as big a mystery as ever, but if players add FF16 to their wishlist, it'll notify them of such details as they happen.

RELATED: Final Fantasy 16 Producer Explains Why Updates Are Scarce

The official PlayStation site still hasn't updated Final Fantasy 16's release date, but that doesn't detract from the PlayStation Store doing it. Unlike the PlayStation Store, the PlayStation site only updates release dates when, at the very least, developers have announced a timetable, such as a year. Otherwise, the date stays as TBC. The store likely changes it because players interact more with games there than they do on the site.

FF16's release date will likely happen at the next Square Enix Presents scheduled for this summer. It's the most recent event Square Enix has planned, so if the release date is coming soon it may be the best place for the developer to announce it. Square Enix could — and likely will — use the event as a platform for the big 2021 Final Fantasy 16 announcement that producer Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida claimed would be happening this year, pairing the release date up with a trailer and other new details.

It's important to note that even if Square announces the game's release date soon, the launch of Final Fnatasy 16 is still probably a long way off. An expected release would be sometime in mid 2022, at the earliest. At least, it would certainly be surprising if the game came out any earlier than that, since it was in development while the coronavirus pandemic was at its worse. If it does release sooner, that would be a testament to how long Square Enix has really had it in development.

Final Fnatasy 16 is in development for PS5.

MORE: Final Fantasy 16 Needs These Iconic Franchise-Defining Monsters

Source: Twisted Voxel