Fans understandably had many questions following the recent reveal of Final Fantasy XVI. Announced during Sony’s latest PlayStation 5 showcase, the game looked notably polished, an oddity given that it’s the first we had ever seen (or heard) of the latest mainline title in the long-running series. Now, a new report has seemingly explained why Final Fantasy XVI looks so ‘complete,’ with an industry insider suggesting that the game has actually been in development for the last 4 years.

The report comes by way of Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who recently spoke on the Triple Click podcast (roughly 10 minutes in) regarding Final Fantasy XVI. According to Schreier, Square Enix had been working on the title over the last four years, which certainly helps to explain why so much initial footage was revealed. Schreier goes further to claim that the game will also be coming out sooner than expected, suggesting that the game won’t have a massive development window like, say, Final Fantasy XV or Kingdom Hearts III.

While there’s no concrete evidence to support what Schreier is saying, the insider tends to be fairly accurate with these kind of inside scoops. Four years ago Square Enix wouldn’t have had much of an inkling as to what the PlayStation 5 would be capable of, though that likely wouldn’t have stopped the Japanese Publisher from working on character and story concepts earlier on and then switching to gameplay development once Sony provided some inkling of what to expect from the PS5.

Final Fantasy XVI is currently in development, with the title presumed to be a timed console exclusive for the PlayStation 5.

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