Everything we know about the inevitable Final Fantasy 17

The biggest prank Hironobu Sakaguchi ever pulled was to name Square’s iconic video game series “Final Fantasy.” Because there will never be a final Final Fantasy. Final Fantasy XVI is on the distant horizon, but aside from a series of Final Fantasy VII Remake games, what comes after that? Here’s everything we don’t know about the inevitable Final Fantasy XVII (FF17), and plenty of speculation we can do about the seventeenth mainline entry’s release date, developers, and more.

Is Final Fantasy 17 confirmed?

As of August 2021, Final Fantasy 17 remains unconfirmed. There aren’t even any rumors swirling about it whatsoever.

When might Final Fantasy 17 be released?

FF17’s release will depend on a number of factors: What team will work on it? What other projects does that team have to complete first? Will Square Enix embark on another lengthy remake series for another beloved entry? Despite there being no answers to these questions, we can still speculate.

FF15 was released in November 2016, and as of August 2021, there’s still no word on when FF16 might be released. The gap between them will wind up being more than five years. The original Final Fantasy XIV was released in 2010 but was rebooted in 2013 as “A Realm Reborn.” So that’s another gap of more than half a decade. If anything, development on mainline Final Fantasy titles has only gotten longer. Many side projects, sequels, etc. pull development resources away.

Based on all of the above, a FF17 release by 2028 seems at least possible.

Is there a Final Fantasy 17 trailer?

No, there is no FF17 trailer just yet, but we can make an estimate about when one might be revealed.

The “Awakening” reveal trailer for FF16 was released during the Sony State of Play in September 2020. When all is said and done, FF16 may not be released until a full two years after that point — meaning fall 2022. If the trends remain consistent, then we may see an FF17 reveal trailer by 2026 or so. But that’s pure speculation.

Who is the Final Fantasy 17 developer and publisher?

One thing’s for certain here: Square Enix will be the publisher of every Final Fantasy game. And while it’ll also be credited as the primary developer in all likelihood, Square Enix’s business structure is a bit complicated. There are four “Creative Business Units” currently.

• Creative Business Unit 1 — Led by Yoshinori Kitase, this unit handles work on the FF7 Remake series, including The First Soldier battle royale and Ever Crisis spin-offs. But it also handles Kingdom Hearts as well.
• Creative Business Unit 2 — Yū Miyake leads this unit, which develops the Dragon Quest series — including the gritty Dragon Quest XI: Flames of Fate — along with the Bravely Default and Nier franchises.
• Creative Business Unit 3 — Both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn were made by this unit under the direction of Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida, but the same unit is also responsible for Final Fantasy XVI as well.
• Creative Business Unit 4 — Hirokazu Nishikado’s fourth unit focuses mostly on mobile and browser games like War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius.

In all likelihood, only Creative Business Unit 1 or 3 would make a mainline Final Fantasy game. But CBU1 has its hands full with FF7 Remake and Kingdom Hearts for at least the next five years or more. Motomu Toriyama also hinted in July 2021 that it was possible that the FF7 Remake team might make another Final Fantasy X game after they wrapped up Cloud’s story.

Over in CBU3, Yoshi-P still heads up ongoing support for FF14, but he’s also conspicuously only a producer on FF16. At least one redditor out there suspects that Yoshi-P could secretly be conceptualizing FF17.

What are the Final Fantasy 17 consoles?

This one’s easy: Final Fantasy 16 is a PlayStation 5 time exclusive, much like the Final Fantasy VII Remake series. It stands to reason that Sony and Square Enix’s cozy relationship will remain for the foreseeable future unless Microsoft outright buys Square Enix. So Final Fantasy 17 will probably also hit the PS5 first.

The game will in all likelihood be developed for this current generation of hardware, but depending on how quickly it’s made, it just might launch on the cusp of a new console generation.

In a December 2019 Game Informer interview, Sony's Executive VP of Hardware Engineering Masayasu Ito said that the PS5’s lifecycle is expected to last about six or seven years, which puts a PS6 launch somewhere around 2026. If that is indeed the case, then FF17 would probably launch for both PS5 and PS6.