Few game announcements were surrounded by more excitement than 2015’s reveal of the Final Fantasy 7 remake. Even if the game is 20 years old, the adventures of Cloud and co. are still beloved, so gamers want to put the Buster Sword firmly back in their grasp and experience an FF7 for the next generation. Sadly, it seems like the next generation is when we’ll actually see the next-generation remake. Grab your Game of Thrones meme generator — like winter, delays are coming.
It’s years into the development of the game, and with each passing month, the rumblings of quality concerns have grown stronger. This has led to CyberConnect2, the third party team tasked with (re)making FF7 seemingly being canned, and SE’s internal developers taking over. Why Square Enix thought it was a good idea to put what is probably their most valuable game in their most valuable IP in the hands of the developers behind the Naruto and the .Hack games (nothing against them, but cmon), is beyond me. Now we’re here.
Square Enix dev Naoki Hamaguchi thought it was a good idea to let this information fly during a Mobius: Final Fantasy stream (via Kotaku)
“I’ve taken over the development side of the <em>Final Fantasy 7 Remake</em>,” Hamaguchi said. “Up until now, development has progressed by receiving external collaboration, but from here on out, with production and quality in mind, we’re shifting to our in-house organization. This company decision was made wanting to control quality as well as keeping the schedule stable.”
Considering the game was already feeling fan pushback from its episodic release schedule and new battle system, one has to wonder how much is getting scrapped here. The first episode of FF7 was rumored to be out either in the fall of 2017 or early 2018. Will it get pushed back? If it does, it’ll certainly be for the better, but then it might miss the shiny 20th-anniversary mark. Maybe we should try for the 25th anniversary?
(Via Kotaku)