The release date for the upcoming Final Fantasy 16 may have just been leaked. It's just that the way the leak came out is out of the ordinary.

From the two recent trailers for FF16, Dominance and Ambition, we received a general idea of when the game will come out. Both trailers said that the release date for the game is in the Summer of 2023. That puts the release date to be around mid-June to mid-September. There is still no exact date as two when the game comes out, although an interview that Famitsu did with Naoki Yoshida, the game's producer, mentioned that the game's development was almost done.

That is until a leaker on Twitter supposedly leaked FF16's release date. I say supposedly not because the information came from a leaker, although you still should take this kind of information with a grain of salt. I say it because the way he said it was very cryptic and roundabout. The leaker, only known as The Snitch, uploaded a cryptic poem on Twitter.

in the loneliness of the night
a light blinded my eyes
twenty two grains of sand
and a crystal that protected me
six nations divided
a common language

At first glance, this does not seem to mean anything. It doesn't even mention the game. However, taking a closer look at the poem's contents sheds some light. For starters, let's look at the line “and a crystal that protected me.” Crystals have always been a recurring theme in Final Fantasy games, and FF 16 is no exception. We know about the existence of Mothercrystals in the world of Valisthea, so that's already a huge hint. Not only that, but the line “six nations divide” also points towards FF16, as Valisthea has six realms:

  • The Grand Duchy of Rosaria
  • The Holy Empire of Sanbreque
  • The Kingdom of Waloed
  • The Dhalmekian Republic
  • The Iron Kingdom
  • The Crystalline Dominion

That's already two lines that hint toward FF16. To my knowledge, there are no other games that have six nations and crystals as part of their setting. At this point, it's safe to assume that the poem is about FF16. Now, you may be wondering, what about the release date? While there may not be any outright mention of a release date, two lines in the poem contain numbers. These two lines are “twenty two grains of sand” and “six nations divided”, giving us six and twenty-two. Since there are only twelve months in a year, we can only put six as the month, and twenty-two as the day.

To summarize, the poem seems to leak that FF16's release date will be on June 22, 2023. This release date would make sense, as that is within the Summer 2023 window that they have given us. While all this makes sense, as I usually remind people when reading my leak articles, do take this information with a grain of salt. Although The Snitch's leak about the Monster Hunter Rise console port turned out to be true, it's still that at the end of the day: a leak. Until Square Enix or Creative Business Unit III releases FF16's release date, we should not treat this leak as fact. Thankfully, we might not have to wait long.

RECOMMENDED (Article Continues Below)
ffxiv yokai, ffxiv yokai watch, ffxiv collab, ffxiv event, ffxiv, an ingame screenshot from ffxiv with the yokai watch logo on one side and the event title below it

Jesseyriche Cortez ·

ff16 aquamarine, ff16 aquamarine locations, ff16 aquamarine mysidia, ff16 the rising tide, ff16, an ingame screenshot from ff16 with the aquamarine tooltip on one side and the words all aquamarine locations under it

Jesseyriche Cortez ·

f16 eludium, ff16 flawless eludium, ff16 rising tide, ff16 eludium locations, f116 flawless eludium locations, an ingame screenshot of the blacksmith in Haven with the eludium tooltip on one side and the words all eludium and flawless eludium locations under it

Jesseyriche Cortez ·

The Game Awards recently announced that Yoshida would make an appearance during The Game Awards. According to them, he would be making a very special live presentation. Because of the focus on his role as FF16's producer, it's safe to assume that his presentation will be about the said game. While no details about what he will talk about are available, we can assume that he will be announcing the game's official release date. This actually fits in perfectly with Insider Gaming's post from last month, which said that FF16 pre-orders will go live on December 7 or 8. December 8 is when The Game Awards will happen, so it will likely happen then.

Once again, I would like to remind players to take all of this information with a grain of salt. Not only is this a release date leak, but it was also done in a roundabout way. The interpretation of this leak is not to be taken as truth, as it is just my interpretation, as well as other fans'. Let's just wait for the official announcement from Yoshida next week, if he'll announce it at all.

That's all the information we have about the leaked Final Fantasy 16 potential release date. Rest assured that you will hear from us once the game's official release date comes out. In the meantime, you can check out our gaming news articles to get updated on the latest gaming news.