Update: Final Fantasy 15 release date confirmed for September 30th, along with a ton of other surprises

Updated 3/30/2016:

Final Fantasy 15 is getting very real, very fast. After ten years in development, tonight's hour-long event revealed a September 30th release date in the next entry in the Final Fantasy franchise. While the date was leaked earlier today (along with the existence of a free demo, available tonight), it wasn't the only bit of info revealed at the event. Here's a breakdown of what we learned:

1) Florence and the Machine are performing the theme song for Final Fantasy 15, which is a special cover of Ben E. King's 'Stand By Me'. It's a little weird to hear an actual pop song in a Final Fantasy game, but considering its blend of cars and chocobos, it makes perfect sense. Plus, incorporating the Final Fantasy theme with the tune is an inspired choice.

2) You can listen to classic Final Fantasy songs on your in-game vehicle's radio station.

3) You can stop to help people on the side of the road for additional experience points and rewards.

4) There's a five episode anime series explaining the origin stories of the four main characters coming for free to YouTube. It's called Brotherhood: Final Fantasy 15, and you can watch episode one tonight, with the other four to be released in the months leading up to the release date.

5) Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy 15 is a feature-length CGI prequel film, which will explore the backstories of King Regis, Noctis' father and Lunafreya, Noctis' betrothed, played by Game of Thrones actors Sean Bean and Lena Heady, respectively. Aaron Paul will play the protagonist, Nyx, who is Glaive (aka knight) responsible for protecting the king. It's been in the works for three years now, and it'll be available to download and stream sometime before release this year.

6) Justice Monster V is a pinball-themed minigame in Final Fantasy 15, but it will also be coming to iOS and Android phones and the PC, available before the game's release.

7) The Platinum Demo is a free side story which follows young Noctis in a dream world. You can control monsters, wield a bunch of toy weapons, and beating the demo will give you access to Carbuncle in Final Fantasy 15 proper. It's available tonight.

8) There are two special editions coming. The Deluxe Edition includes a steelbook containing the game and Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy 15 on Blu-Ray, in addition to exclusive DLC for $89.99. The Ultimate Edition includes a Blu-Ray soundtrack disc for the game, Kingsglaive, and Brotherhood, a Brotherhood Blu-Ray disc with an exclusive sixth episode, hardcover artbook and Kai Arts Noctis figure. There are only 30,000 being made, and they're only available on the Square Enix store for $269.99. Get on it while you can.

9) Oh, and your car can fly.

I'm so ready.

Original story:

A special Final Fantasy 15 event is scheduled to begin tonight at 7pm Pacific/10pm Eastern, and while it will likely have plenty of information for fans to savor, arguably the most-anticipated piece has apparently leaked: the release date.

According to a GameSpot promo video (which has since been made private), Final Fantasy 15 will be available on September 30. To tide you over until then, Square Enix will be releasing a new demo featuring a younger version of hero Noctis. According to the video, it should be available later tonight.

Like I said, I expect there will still be plenty of news coming out of the event, so if you're a Final Fantasy fan, I wouldn't write the whole affair off because of these leaks. We'll be in attendance and keep you in the loop of anything else that is unveiled. The event will also be streamed on Twitch, which I've embedded below so you can watch the whole affair.