Final Fantasy XVI’s Dev Team Has Broken Up And Is Moving On

Naoko Yoshida has revealed that there won’t be a Final Fantasy XVI sequel.

As reported by GamesRadar, this is what he told Famitsu in a recent interview:

“The development team for has been disbanded apart from the main DLC team, so at the least, we are not expecting to make a sequel or spin-off.”

GamesRadar presumably translated the Famitsu interview quotes, but did not disclose if they had a human or machine automation do the translation.

Yoshida also went on to explain that the team built from Square Enix’s Creative Business Unit 3 learned a lot from making Final Fantasy XVI. However, they want to take what they learned into making new games instead of putting it back into the game.

At least, Yoshida leaves a window open for something to happen down the line:

“If you ask me if there will be anything related to FF16 in the future, I don’t know. Since I don’t know what will happen, I’d rather not say anything definite.”

Final Fantasy XVI sold three million units after its launch. While the game definitely turned in a profit, Square Enix admitted that it did not meet the high end of the company’s expectations.

Controversially, a former executive at Square Enix criticized the company’s choice to make the title a PlayStation 5 exclusive. This presumably limited the game’s prospects for success.

Is that criticism accurate or fair? Square Enix would have the data to corroborate that, but what we do know is three months after the title’s release, the company lost $ 2 billion in market value.

Most recently, the company revealed that they intend to play it safe in the coming months and years. This will likely be great news for Final Fantasy VII fans, but it also means an end for Square Enix in putting their money into new IPs and projects with third party developers.

Is it enough if fans get the recursive Final Fantasy remake and remaster content they have been getting for years? While questions have to be raised about Square allowing themselves to stagnate creatively, there is certainly a more immediate concern to keeping the company profitable.

While there is an upside to risking it on a new IP that can be a potential new success, Square Enix is not in the position to do that right now. At least, as far as we know, they aren’t planning any layoffs anytime soon.