With the release date for "Final Fantasy XV" reportedly set for 2016, director Hajime Tabata has asked the PR team to defer from making any announcement as they focus on finishing the western version of the game.

"Development update! The pre-beta version of #FFXV is complete. For the past 6 months we have focused on crossing this line," he wrote on Twitter, per Playstation Lifestyle

"At my request PR and publicity has been relatively quiet recently to allow us to focus on finishing this stage of #FFXV development. We're making great progress towards #FFXV and our big event next March will reveal lots more. Hope you're looking forward to it," Hajime added.

In an interview with Famitsu back in August, as shared by Siliconera, director Hajime Tabata said "Final Fantasy XV" was about 70% finished.

"We'd like to release the Western version as close as possible during the same period, and there's a lot more work than usual sandwiched between now and the release date," he said.

"We're working on debugs and also localizaton at the same time, so for that reason we're taking a little longer. With that in mind, I say 65 to 75%, but if we're talking development for the game itself, it's actually a little further than that."

It's been widely reported that localizing the game as well as working on some bugs have contributed to the delay.

But during that same interview, Hajime Tabata said that the release date for "Final Fantasy XV" won't stretch until 2017.

"It's an HD game, so we can't easily just go around making all kinds of new things for it, but we've been working with a schedule where things that we say 'let's do it' today will get implemented months later, but the planning is being managed properly," he added.

The release for "Final Fantasy XV" was reportedly set for 2016, although the final date will be announced at a special event scheduled in March.