Final Fantasy 14’s producer and director Naoki Yoshida has said that as long as he’s in good health, he intends to continue working on the game for the next decade.
He made the comment during the Final Fantasy 14 mahjong tournament live stream, which was loosely translated over on Reddit. He already mentioned in a November 2021 Famitsu column that he was making preparations for the next 10 years of the MMO, and it looks like he intends to remain at the helm for its entire duration. He added that looking to the future has left him pretty busy, so much so he hasn’t had a chance to try the new raids that landed at the end of December.
Yoshida also announced that a “special edition” Letter from the Producer—livestreams that go over upcoming patches, expansions and game changes—will broadcast sometime in February. It looks like it’ll be going over the roadmap for future patches in Endwalker, and the direction of the game now it wrapped up an 11-year story. A preview for Patch 6.1 will land in March which should provide an in-depth look into major changes, main story quests and new raids.
There’s a good chance Final Fantasy 14 wouldn’t have been so successful without Yoshida, and it’s nice to see that he doesn’t intend to leave the game behind any time soon. It seems like he’s got his hands pretty full right now—critically-acclaimed MMOs aside, he’s also producing Final Fantasy 16 which was recently revealed to be around six months behind development.