Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida says that the game's next big reveal will come in Spring 2022. Yoshida originally said that more information would come later this year, but due to complications around COVID-19, the game's development has been delayed by almost half a year.

The development team is comprised of employees across the world, and in order to offset the effects of COVID-19, the workforce had to decentralize and work from home. "This has unfortunately hampered communication from the Tokyo office, which, in turn, has led to delays in--or in extreme cases, cancellations of---asset deliveries from our outsource partners," Yoshida explained.

Despite these challenges, Yoshida hopes that they will have a minimal impact by the new year. The team is working on increasing graphic resource quality, refining combat mechanics, fleshing out individual battles, touching up cutscenes, and increasing overall graphical optimization.