It was long thought that Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi was planning to retire, but it turns out he's planning something else entirely.
Final Fantasy is getting a lot of attention these days: We had the Final Fantasy Remaster, which is still going, and a bunch of spin-offs, as well as recent rumors of a Final Fantasy 9 remaster. Truly, a franchise has never been named better, because this one is for all eternity. Now, the creator is open for new projects again... after he's done playing as much Final Fantasy 14 as possible:
They're still in the planning stages, where we're deciding on how the business will work and putting together contracts, so it's not as if we've started on actual development, but I do think I'll be working on something. Of course, the more concrete those plans start to look, the more I feel like I need to play FF14 while I still can.
Sakaguchi says that when he's working on a new project, he, unsurprisingly, has no time for gaming at all, so he's getting in the hours while he can. Aside from Final Fantasy 14, he's currently playing Horizon Forbidden West, and played Ghost of Tsushima before that, so maybe that's an indicator as to what game he will be working on next. Of course, that's just me wildly assuming, because he didn't mention who he's in talks with or what specifically he's talking to them about.
If it does turn out to be an open-world game like the ones he's currently playing, without the Final Fantasy name attached... that would certainly be a surprise and something to look forward to, coming from one of gaming's greatest.