Last week Final Fantasy XV launched an in-game collaboration with Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise. Players continue to fight as Noctis and friends, but the missions they are given are heavily based on the Assassin’s mythos and world. After speaking with Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata at PAX West this weekend, it appears there are other crossover collaborations he’s interested in pursuing.
“One thing I wish, looking back that I could have done, is establish the character of Gladio as a big basketball fan or avid basketball fan,” Tabata explained. “I could have done something maybe with NBA, but… It would just be adding that onto the game.”
Tabata went on to add that an NFL collaboration would also work (a skin for Madden, perhaps?) that would have Gladio playing football. Seeing as Gladio is “a physical specimen, so it’d be a perfect,” Tabata explained that some kind of sports game debut for the character is not out of the realm of possibility.
Assassin’s Creed isn’t the first collaboration with another game franchise that we’ve seen with Final Fantasy XV. Earlier this summer, Forza Horizon 3 added the Regalia — Noctis’ car that the boys drive throughout the game — to its stable of vehicles.
“Basically, with Final Fantasy XV, we open up a lot of different channels with various teams, various partners,” Tabata said. “A lot of things that seemed unlikely in the past are maybe more possible than before.”
As for what could be next? “So, maybe some kind of Mario Kart thing. I don’t know. Maybe it’s not too crazy…” he said.
The Assassin’s Festival in Final Fantasy XV began on August 31 and will run until January 31, 2018.
