When are we going to get some expansion news?

[Infindox]

Obviously the pandemic has thrown a huge spanner in the works. But if not for that we’d have had 2 fan fests already. Surely they had some plans on what they were going to reveal about the next expansion for those fan fests already planned out? By now we’d likely know the title of the next expansion and probably even have had the setting and one confirmed job.

I understand that things got delayed and cancelled but can’t they do a live stream or a live letter or something? I just thought we’d have had some kind of info by now about what’s to come.

In February we are getting a fairly big event and Live Letter, which everyone expects to be 6.0 news. I assume if COVID didn't happen we would of had it announced at the NA FanFest in November. There's a certain trademark that SE grabbed that people think is the name of 6.0 that happened not too long ago. I also think it's possible for the expansion to come out by the end of the year.

[Iscah]

There's a certain trademark that SE grabbed that people think is the name of 6.0 that happened not too long ago.

I heard that was officially denied by the devs, though.

[Gemina]

Patience my friend. You have acknowledged that we are in the middle of a pandemic, and it has caused difficulty and delays for the dev team. No need to pull a Cartman, and cryoprison yourself or anything. Though I will admit, the covidpocolypse is making such alternatives very attractive.

[Nezerius]

Previously with SB/SHB, how many months before release were the expansions usually announced? If it’s announced in February, is a release in 2021 still possible?

Both Stormblood and Shadowbringers were revealed at the first Fan Fest of their respective years. Stormblood at the 2016 Fan Fest in October, with more info at the JP one in December, and the EU one in February 2017. Shadowbringers at the 2018 NA Fan Fest, with more info at the EU one in February 2019, and the JP one in March 2019)

The fact that they haven't been able to reveal it yet probably won't have too much of an effect on their goal of releasing it in 2021.

[MrThinker]

I heard that was officially denied by the devs, though.

At this point, if 6.0 is indeed being announced in Feb, they SHOULD have already filed the trademark for the expansion's name so that Amano can do his artwork for the logo and the VisualWorks studio to incorporate said logo into their trailer. Though Yoshi may have denied the trademark in question, it is still the only one that "fits the bill" in it's naming convention as far as I'm aware.

Remember that Heavensward, Stormblood and Shadowbringers were trademarked over 4 months before they were officially announced in the NA fanfests, so even with the 2-month delay, we are still beyond where the trademark should have been made.

If it's the trademark that was denied, what can I say except: Yoshi lied.
If it isn't: The Team did a stellar job of hiding the actual title from those trademark hunters.

[Iscah]

If it isn't: The Team did a stellar job of hiding the actual title from those trademark hunters.

Yeah, I've been wondering that. Are they able to officially have the trademark kept secret until they are ready to announce it, or is it 100% going to be public as soon as they apply?

[Crushnight]

Yeah, I've been wondering that. Are they able to officially have the trademark kept secret until they are ready to announce it, or is it 100% going to be public as soon as they apply?

That'll entirely depend on how out there the name could be, if it is bonkers enough that no one would reasonably come up with it and trademark it themselves, it could be safe to just not trademark until just before announcement. Else trademark the moment you decided on name. Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, all have commonly used words meshed together so reasonable to assume others may come up with such names, but say Larboardhollow would be something you could leave untrademarked for longer because likelihood someone else would trademark that is exceptionally low.

[MrThinker]

...if it is bonkers enough that no one would reasonably come up with it and trademark it themselves, it could be safe to just not trademark until just before announcement. Else trademark the moment you decided on name.

This is the scenario I thought of, but dismissed because I really don't know if they'd be able to make an "out there" title work.

[Shougun]

Be right back, making a trademark for Larboardhollow.




:3


In other news, news of the expansion would be cool. I want to see what they decided to do from here, especially given their fairly successful launch of the last expansion. Also kind of hope they sneak in some of their new FF. Although given cyberpunk I'd prefer a better release than more hype, both being most preferable lol.

[Hycinthus]

That'll entirely depend on how out there the name could be, if it is bonkers enough that no one would reasonably come up with it and trademark it themselves, it could be safe to just not trademark until just before announcement. Else trademark the moment you decided on name. Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, all have commonly used words meshed together so reasonable to assume others may come up with such names, but say Larboardhollow would be something you could leave untrademarked for longer because likelihood someone else would trademark that is exceptionally low.

But isn’t it one of the marketing rule not to use names that have no meaning like that, “Larboardhollow”? , and lean towards commonly used inspiring names?