Square Enix is more heavily invested in Final Fantasy than it has ever been, with several different games underway even after excluding the Pixel Remasters - at the top, of course, is Final Fantasy 16. Yet despite previously announcements, including a full-length trailer, the title was mysteriously absent from Square's E3 2021 livestream. There are a few likely reasons why, which may also offer hope for seeing more soon.
FF16's new setting is Valisthea, a world where the residents depend on mountains of crystal called the Mothercrystals. The world is divided in to six factions, with threats including a spreading Blight and the Eikons, creatures either manifested or controlled by humans known as Dominants. Notably the title is the first announced Final Fantasy game to be a PS5 exclusive, although FF7 Remake Part 2 will likely follow suit.
On Square Enix's website, producer Naoki Yoshida promises that FF16 will get its "next big information reveal" sometime in 2021. That offers a lot of flexibility, not the least because in the broadband era, companies can release trailers whenever they feel like it, rather than depending on expos such as E3. Square probably recognized that games like Guardians of the Galaxy and Stranger of Paradise were both further along and more newsworthy, whereas FF16 was shown as recently as September 2020 and doesn't even have a firm launch year, never mind a month or day. There may have been little new content to show during E3, even if the project is believed to be well into development.
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If Square does intend to link more FF16 footage to an event, there are at least two possibilities for the remainder of 2021. The first is the next Sony State of Play - while nothing has been confirmed, there's a strong chance it will host another one this summer or fall to drum up publicity, with or without FF16. The Tokyo Game Show is meanwhile primed to run September 30 through October 3, which could be ideal timing at just a little over a year since the first trailer.
There's much gamers don't know about Final Fantasy 16. Beyond story and mechanics details, it's unclear if a previously expected PC version is happening at all. It so far seems like it will, just delayed several months (or longer) to encourage people to buy a PS5. This would be in keeping with with a recently-announced Sony policy that could see some PC ports delayed by years - so Windows gamers may have to wait even longer to learn their own release date.
Source: Square Enix