Final Fantasy 14 director does his best to assuage dooming around the next expansion's release date with another hint of shaking up its usually rigid timeline: 'You won't have to wait long'

A lalafell looks to the camera with an almost menacing grin.

Earlier this week, Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki Yoshida unveiled the three Fan Fest dates for 2026: April for North America, July for Europe, and October for Japan.

Those dates put the playerbase in a little bit of a tizzy—traditionally a new expansion comes around six months after the final Fan Fest, which left number-crunchers ballparking a March 2027 release at the very earliest. That's the longest we've ever had to wait between expansions, which understandably had Warriors of Light worried we'd be spending the majority of next year twiddling our thumbs in Limsa Lominsa while waiting for a new big bad to wail on.