Sleeping just around three hours a day to work on the much-awaited Final Fantasy XV, Director Hajime Tabata assured fans of the Final Fantasy franchise that the game would be worth the wait.
In an article published by polygon.com, Tabata said that being sleep deprived is taking its toll on him every day.
"There is a sense that this is shortening my lifespan," said the director.
"But it's all worth it," he added.
"In terms of the franchise as a whole, there is no directive or a clear direction that we're moving towards for this generation," said Tabata. "We want to ensure that we're able to deliver the experience to them properly."
"With 15, we're looking even further ahead and really want to make an evolved version of Final Fantasy," he added.
Aside from sleep, the Final Fantasy XV Director is also sacrificing time with his family as he works on the game. According to the article, Tabata spends only the weekends to play with his daughter and eat with his wife. "His own alone time is nearly non-existent, pushed back into the hours he spends in the car on the way to work."
In his New Year's message published at na.square-enix.com, Tabata announced that the game release would be this year and not on 2017.
"We will finally release FFXV this year, in 2016!" said the director. "We will do everything we can do to finish FFXV to create an experience we are incredibly proud of and one that you will enjoy and treasure."
"I vow to you all that every member of the team will do their best to the very last possible moment taking responsibility and pride in their craft," Tabata added.
Wired.com reported that the announcement of the game's date of release would be on March of this year.
The long-awaited 15th installment of the Final Fantasy franchise has been in development since 2005.