Final Fantasy XVI (FFXVI) is the next major installment in Square Enix’s long-running, JRPG franchise, and 2021 was a very quiet year for the upcoming title. And it’s now clear that the COVID-19 pandemic is to blame for this silence, per an update posted on the FFXVI Twitter page earlier this morning.

The post is a memo from series producer Naoki Yoshida and lays out exactly how the pandemic has affected their development pipeline. The complications with working from home and establishing secure, effective communication with remote partners resulted in an almost six-month delay on the game’s development.

This posting comes in place of a news reveal about FFXVI that was promised from the studio in November of 2020. Yoshida directly referenced this promise in the post and apologized for the inability to deliver on it during 2021. On the positive side, Yoshida outlines how Square Enix has been adapting to the work-from-home structure, and that they “hope to see [the pandemic’s] impact to a minimum by the new year…”

Yoshida then writes that the news reveal will now come in Spring of 2022, which amounts to a delay of about six months. He closes the post with one final apology before thanking fans for their patience throughout the development process.

Final Fantasy XVI was originally announced back in September of 2020 at the PS5 Showcase alongside games like Hogwarts Legacy and God of War Ragnarök before it got its nifty subtitle. Square Enix hasn’t announced a released date or window for FFXVI, but it is confirmed to be a PlayStation 5 exclusive at launch.