Square Enix
Final Fantasy XVI will be banned in Saudi Arabia after Square Enix refused to make changes
Saudi Arabia announced that they would not allow the sale of Final Fantasy XVI unless certain elements were changed, but Square Enix is unwilling to bend.
Censorship It is something common when it comes to launching video games and it is not the first time —nor will it be the last— that we see how a game cancels its arrival in a certain territory. And the latest one to have problems being brought to markets is not just any one, but one of the biggest launches of 2023: Final Fantasy XVI, which has been banned in Saudi Arabia.
It was the General Commission for Audiovisual Media, the age classification body of the country, who announced it through its official channels. According to the organization,Square Enix has been asked to modify certain content and elements of the game, but the Japanese company has not even considered doing so: “For fans of Final Fantasy 16, we would like to clarify that it has not been released in the Kingdom, due to the publisher’s unwillingness to make the necessary modifications,” says the brief statement on twitter.
Square Enix is adamant about censorship
While the announcement of the CGMA does not reveal too many details about the resolution, one of the members of its board of directors, Hattan Tawili, previously revealed that they had spent up to 8 months having conversations with a developer’s “complete refusal to modify the content to suit the region,” never actuary mentioning the game’s title but hinting at it being “one of the most important and biggest games of the year.”
Final Fantasy XVI will arrive on June 22 exclusively for PS5 (This is a temporary agreement, although it is not known what other platforms it could reach in the future). At MeriStation we have already tried it and we believe that something big is coming: “a Game of the Year candidate”, We said at the beginning of our first impressions after playing several hours.
Source | CGMA; via VGC