Longest development period for an RPG videogame

Originally incepted in May 2006 as a spin-off title called Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Square Enix's Final Fantasy XV would take approximately 10 years 6 months to finally hit shops on 29 November 2016. The game was officially announced and reinvented as a standalone main series title at the E3 games event on 10 June 2013. However, even then it was still mooted for a 2014 release but would take more than a further three years to develop.

Diablo III is another RPG that reportedly took around 11 years of production time, having rumoured to have first entered development in 2001 before releasing in May 2012. However, its original studio Blizzard North closed in 2003 and the game was not officially announced until June 2008. Some experts speculate that if any conceptual work had been undertaken before 2003, it would have been scrapped and development started from scratch at a later date.