FF14 director says there's no firm release date for new expansion because he wants to avoid another Endwalker-style delay

Final Fantasy 14 producer Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida has said that the reason there's no firmer release date for expansion Dawntrail than summer 2024 is because he would rather not give one than give one that has to be delayed. Fans were expecting a release date at the Japanese Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest 2024 this weekend, as has become tradition.

"Given that this is ... Fan Fest, you're probably expecting us to announce the release date of Dawntrail," said Yoshida on a livestream. "Unfortunately, though we do have an internal date that we are targeting we are adjusting the schedule on making sure it's fine-tuned as much as it possibly can be before announcing so we will not be sharing that today."

"If you're wondering why, well, it's because as you know, for Endwalker for the very first time in my career we had to delay the release. We don't want that to happen again even if it's just a few weeks. So we are taking great care to make sure our schedule is on track before announcing, but we will get you that info as soon as we can," he continued.

"It will be summer," he said, before clarifying that the release window was a direct, firm one—not a looser Square Enix Time akin to the legendary Valve Time. "We said in [Final Fantasy] 16 we were gonna release it in summer and it came out in June. We will not be releasing on Square Enix time, we will be releasing on 14 time which means properly in summer."

Yoshida made the statements during the Final Fantasy Fan Fest 2024 livestream on January 6th.

Final Fantasy 14 development director Yoshida, known by much of the community as his screen name Yoshi-P, has long been the face of Square Enix when it comes to the MMO.

Final Fantasy 14 Fan Fest 2024 featured the debut of a new trailer for Dawntrail, and the confirmation that playable Hrothgar women were coming with it—alongside the new paint-based pictomancer class.