The Final Fantasy 16 release date is coming up fast, but it seems the upcoming RPG won’t be launching in Saudi Arabia. The Public Authority for Media – Saudi Arabia’s version of the ESRB – announced on Twitter that the publisher “refused to make the necessary modifications” (thanks, Eurogamer).
The board didn’t elaborate on what those modifications were, so fans are speculating to fill the gap. A game being banned in Saudi Arabia is a fairly common occurrence, with the authority usually citing violence, nudity, or sexual content as the reasons. Same-sex relationships prompt the ban sometimes, as with The Last of Us Part 2, and some fans think Final Fantasy 16’s ban might suggest some kind of LGBTQ+ representation in the game.
Bans for violence or same-sex relationships in other countries are less common in the past decade, though the United Arab Emirates often bans the same games as Saudi Arabia, and games with LGBTQ+ themes are often banned or released selectively in other nations, including Russia and Turkey. Tell Me Why was made unavailable in several countries, for example, because one of its twin protagonists is openly transgender.
While it’s certainly possible FF16 will feature – Final Fantasy XIV skirts around it with two “very good friends” in Futures Rewritten and lets player characters of the same gender get married – Final Fantasy 16 will reportedly tick nearly every other box that gets games banned in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Early ratings descriptions say the RPG will have torture, violence, suicide, sexual themes of some kind, possibly even a sexual encounter or two – and that’s before getting into other sensitive themes producer Naoki Yoshida likes to explore, including religious conflict.
Square Enix has occasionally altered games for release in different markets with slightly changed appearances for certain characters and enemies and even temporarily removed a scene in Final Fantasy 12 where a young woman was abducted and held hostage. The incident mirrored a similar string of real-world crimes that happened in Japan at the time, though it was re-added in later versions of the game.
Whether the Final Fantasy 16 ban is a permanent one remains to be seen, as the authority has repealed some game bans in the past.
Elsewhere, Final Fantasy 16 will launch on June 22, 2023, for PS5, with a PC version potentially planned for quite a while later.
Written by Josh Broadwell on behalf of GLHF
