Sony’s Next State Of Play Could Show Final Fantasy XVI, Maybe, Probably Not

Sony’s next State of Play livestream showcasing games for the PlayStation 5 will take place Wednesday, March 9, the company announced today. It didn’t say what will be shown, but Sony did tease new reveals and updates from “beloved Japanese publishers.” Are we finally getting a release date for Final Fantasy XVI?

The latest Nintendo Direct-style State of Play will go live at 5 p.m. ET and will run for approximately 20 minutes. It will also have a “special focus on highlighting great games coming from some of our beloved Japanese publishers,” as well as a “few updates from other developers located around the world,” Sony wrote in a PlayStation Blog post.

That certainly makes it sound like the perfect time for Square Enix to provide us with a more in-depth look at the next mainline Final Fantasy game. When PS5-exclusive Final Fantasy XVI was first revealed at a September 2020 PS5 event, former Kotaku editor Jason Schreier reported on the Triple Click podcast that the game had already been in development for roughly four years.

We’ve only seen the original action-heavy announcement trailer in the years since, but director Naoki Yoshida later confirmed the game would have a focus on story that fans have come to expect as well. And despite a six-month delay due to covid-19, Yoshida confirmed last December that the game’s next big reveal would be in “spring 2022.”

As Schreier pointed out last month, however, Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit III, which oversees FFXIV, is in charge of the game. With the massive Endwalker expansion having recently launched after several delays, it’s possible a FFXVI release date could still be farther out than some hope. If it comes out sometime in 2023 or beyond, it would be the longest gap between new entries in the series’ history.

What else could we end up seeing at Wednesday’s State of Play then? Here are some other more speculative possibilities in order of increasing nonsense:

• Forspoken – Square Enix’s third-person action fantasy game was just delayed to October and got a big Game Informer cover story.
• Street Fighter 6 – Capcom just announced the new game, but we still don’t have a trailer or release date.
• Final Fantasy VII Remake 2 – Producer Yoshinori Kitase said more information would be shared this year.
• Resident Evil 4 Remake – Reports of the remake have been swirling for years, so it could be time for an official reveal.
• Konami revival – VGC reported last October that the publisher was quietly reviving Metal Gear, Castlevania, and Silent Hill (LOL!)
• Sega Super Game – The Sonic maker is reportedly working on a Big New Game that will Blow You Away.

Sony showing anything related to any of the projects mentioned above would make this week’s State of Play a much bigger event than other recent livestreams. Recent shows delved into Gran Turismo 7 and GhostWire: Tokyo, known quantities that were first revealed years ago. A Final Fantasy XVI release date would be great, but we’ll probably get more trailers for GhostWire: Tokyo and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin instead.