Square Enix today announced that the Japanese release of Final Fantasy XII will be postponed from Summer 2004 to between Winter 2004 and Spring 2005. During this extension, Square Enix claims they will be improving the product's quality to meet a higher satisfaction by its consumers.

This news might not come as a suprise to many as its director, Yasumi Matsuno, and his Product Development Division 4 is a group of dedicated perfectionists. Despite Square Enix's polite appology in the press release, some users in Japan are showing signs of diappointment to this delay. Some maniacs are even suggesting that the cause of this delay is because the developers are experiencing some difficulties in some areas of its developement. RUMOR has it that the problem lies in the seamless battle system where errors are supposedly occuring frequently. They may be considering a new battle system.

It is probable that this delay will also affect the users in US as the release date that seemed already a far away dream is yet again pulled back probably a good 6 months or so, which means its now in the 4th quarter of 2005 dragging its way to 2006, originally rumored as mid 2005.

Despite all the bad news, the E3 press conference is just 4 days away. According to the coverages by Japanese magazines, the conference will release a whole chunk of Final Fantasy XII details. More news coming soon.