Naoki Yoshida says Final Fantasy’s long gaps between new games are making it harder to reach younger players

Final Fantasy XIV producer and director Naoki Yoshida says one of the biggest problems facing the broader Final Fantasy series is simple: new mainline games take too long to come out.

In comments to Eurogamer’s interview, Yoshida said younger players have had less chance to build a connection with the franchise because releases are so spread out now. He also pointed to changing player tastes, saying newer audiences are more used to action combat and online competitive games than older Final Fantasy fans were.

That lines up with the series’ release history. Final Fantasy has been around since the late 1980s, but brand-new numbered entries have slowed down a lot over the years. Remasters, ports, and spin-offs still show up regularly, but that’s not the same thing as a steady run of new mainline games.

Yoshida’s comments weren’t specifically about Final Fantasy XIV, but they land at an interesting time for the MMO. XIV is still in its post-Dawntrail cycle, and Square Enix hasn’t announced the game’s next expansion yet. So while he was talking about the franchise as a whole, the point about long waits is going to sound familiar to MMO players too.

For now, there’s no new roadmap attached to the interview and no fresh announcement for either the next single-player Final Fantasy or XIV’s next expansion. The main takeaway is Square Enix leadership openly acknowledging that the series’ slower pace may be making it harder to pull in new fans.