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Final Fantasy 14 Xbox launch may wait till Endwalker & PS5 launches are 'settled'

Final Fantasy 14 Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida shared that an Xbox launch would split resources away from priorities that the team cannot currently handle simultaneously.

TJ Denzer

February 18, 2021 12:54 PM

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The story of Final Fantasy 14 has been a rollercoaster of both misfortune and glory, and now it’s hard to imagine there was ever a time the game wasn’t a regular part of conversation in the MMO genre. The game continues to move forward towards both new content with Endwalker and a next-gen platform launch. That said, the conversation about its complete absence from Xbox platforms is never quite far away. Unfortunately, it would also seem it’s not in the cards anytime soon. The game’s director recently shared that it will be quite difficult to handle until matters with the Endwalker content and PS5 launches are settled.

Final Fantasy 14 Director and Producer Naoki Yoshida shared his thoughts on the foreseeable future of an Xbox launch in a recent interview with VG247. During the conversation, when asked about the Xbox, Yoshida shared that the resources necessary to make it happen are a huge obstacle to approaching the matter at this time.

“The sole factors are the workload and the order of steps. Now when it comes to the Xbox version, there’s unfortunately not much I can say presently but just that we cannot work on all the steps simultaneously and need to follow the order for proceeding with these things,” Yoshida explained. “Since we’re currently involved in the development of Endwalker and preparing the PS5 version to follow on from the title’s service on PS4, it’d be appreciated if we can return to touch upon the Xbox version once things have settled!”

That is to say, it would appear that Square Enix and Yoshida have their priorities set as to what to focus on at the moment. That being the case, an Xbox launch doesn’t quite seem so feasible while Final Fantasy 14’s team is putting its attention on launches of both the PlayStation 5 version of the game and the Endwalker content.

Currently, there is a beta for Final Fantasy 14 set for PS5 in April and Endwalker is slated for a launch sometime in Fall 2021. With this in mind, it seems likely that we shouldn’t expect Final Fantasy 14 on Xbox to be a real possibility before that Fall milestone later this year. Stay tuned as we continue to follow further updates and details on Final Fantasy 14, including concrete launch dates of FF14’s PS5 edition and the Endwalker expansion.

TJ Denzer

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.