Final Fantasy 16 has been banned in Saudi Arabia according to a Twitter post by the country’s General Commission for Audiovisual Media on Wednesday. According to Video Games Chronicle (VGC), the tweet stated that game was banned due to it containing “unacceptable content” that Square Enix would not change. This news coincidences with a previous tweet earlier this week by the commission’s general supervisor Hattan Tawili that mentioned the upcoming ban.
“Unfortunately, after all our attempts over the past eight months without any success, one of the most important and biggest games of the year is on its way to being banned due to the company’s complete refusal to modify the content to suit the region,” said Tawili.
“Of course, it is clear to the company what happened, but they put it in abundance without reason and refuse to modify it. 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.”
It’s not clear what content the commission thought was unacceptable for the game to be banned. However, VGC noted three writers from the Saudi gaming website TrueGaming tweeting hints of LGBTQ+ content appearing in an upcoming game in February. Considering Saudi Arabia’s negative stance on LGBTQ+ issues, if they were referring to Final Fantasy 16, it would be unsurprising if that game got banned because of it.
Despite nothing being confirmed, most Final Fantasy fans were quick to praise Square Enix for not caving to Saudi Arabia’s demands. That said, with Saudi Arabia’s plans to gain more influence in the video game space, it’s likely that more of these conflicts will happen in the years to come.