Speaking of a leaked interview (or, at least a summary of that interview), an editor at Nova Crystallis (a center for Final Fantasy and related Square-Enix news) tweeted today that, “Square Enix President Yusuke Matsuda said in the upcoming issue of Famitsu that they will be able to talk the global release of FFXV ‘Soon.'” If you read Japanese, here is the summary of the Famitsu leaks this is based on.
Square-Enix has made it clear that they will be starting in earnest a campaign to put Final Fantasy XV in the spotlight at Gamescom, having held it back from E3 (this was made known in an Active Time Report from April). Their Gamescom lineup was recently announced, and with an updated demo, and “a number” of presentations and guests it would seem that Square-Enix will spare no expense.
So, if these Famitsu leaks are to be believed, our decade long wait may be over and a release window may finally be in sight for this project. Equally interesting is the wording, as “global release” tends to imply a simultaneous release in both the East and West. The last single player Final Fantasy title, Lightning Returns, still made North America wait a few months for localization, etc.
The final question, though, would be why Gamescom? Such a big announcement, one would think, would be better to save for the Tokyo Game Show in September rather than to deliver it in Germany next month. Then again, going back to the possibility of a “global release,” perhaps Square-Enix wants to show some support for its global audience, as many Japanese companies have started to do as the home market shrinks.
