There's no pulling punches on this piece of news: Final Fantasy XV will be delayed until the holiday season.
In a message posted on the official Final Fantasy XV Facebook Page, Director Tabata addresses the FF Universe in what is a mixed-bag of information. The video itself is in Japanese, but we have some translations available for you if you don't want to use the closed captioning and watch the six minute video, though we stress that you should as it is a very sincere and heartfelt message.
Tabata makes it clear that the master copy of FFXV is actually complete. There will be a 30 minute gameplay trailer available August 16 and a playable version at Gamescom. This is the good news as we were rapidly approaching launch day and still haven't managed to get hands-on time.
The bad news is what everyone feared, unfortunately. Tabata stresses again that the game is complete, but that a patch is going to be necessary because the quality as it stands is great, but the development team feels it needs a bit more time to make it far better. Normally, this would be implemented in a "day one patch" that we've gotten used to in the connected age of gaming. However, while Japan is one of the most connected nations in the world, Tabata addresses the fact that not everyone has a high speed connection (i.e. rural United States) and that this would not suffice.
Final Fantasy XV has officially been pushed back to November 29, 2016, which means instead of about six weeks of waiting, we're back up to fourteen. If it means a better polished game with far less issues at launch, then it's not a bad thing in the long run. It just means an agonizing wait until the holidays.
