As part of its recent earnings report, Square Enix has said that its efforts to enhance its development pipelines have continued. Through these efforts, on which there has been “steady progress”, the company hopes to establish a framework with which it can release major entries in its bigger franchises on a more regular basis. This would be in contrast to its current release schedule, which revolves around a host of smaller-scaled games, remasters, and remakes in between the 6 to 7 years it takes to release a major new entry.
For example, the latest mainline entry in the Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy 16, was released in 2023 (around 7 years after Final Fantasy 15), and the company has yet to make any announcement about a potential Final Fantasy 17. Similarly, while the Dragon Quest franchise has seen remakes in the form of Dragon Quest 1 & 2 HD-2D Remake and Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, there has been no release date for Dragon Quest 12: The Flame of Fate, despite Dragon Quest 11 having come out all the way back in 2017.
The enhancements made to its development pipelines have been part of Square Enix’s medium- to long-term plans, with the main goal being to “achieve the shift ‘from quantity to quality,’ while completing the transition of major titles to a multi-platform strategy.”
Looking to the future, both the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy franchises have releases in the works, with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth coming to Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S on June 3rd, Final Fantasy 14: Evercold coming out in January 2027, and Dragon Quest 10‘s Expansion 8.0 coming out on June 25th, 2026.
Dragon Quest fans might have more to look forward to, however. Earlier this week, series creator and director of Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate, Yuji Horii, announced that there will be a livestream on May 27th that will revolve around the “next game” in the franchise. While Horii didn’t go into too many details, he said that there will be “various other things” for fans to look forward to.
Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate was announced all the way back in May 2021. No release window or platforms were announced at the time, and since then, Square Enix has stayed largely silent about it. In the meantime, however, Horii has reassured fans of the series that the RPG is still in the works. Development, however, seems to have been tumultuous, with lead series producer Yu Miyake having stepped down from his position in April 2025, as well as the project itself seeing quite a few delays.
It is likely that, since Square Enix wants its games to be multi-platform, Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate will come to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. In May 2025, Horii had also discussed the idea of bringing it to the Nintendo Switch 2. Since Nintendo’s console wasn’t out at the time yet, Horii noted that he couldn’t reveal too many details about such a port. “Yes, I believe it could be compatible with Switch 2 as well,” he said, without going into further detail.
