The untitled third entry in the Final Fantasy VII Remake project, following Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is currently about nine months into development, according to director Naoki Hamaguchi.
“Regarding the third game, we started working on it immediately after finishing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth—around March or April 2024—so we’ve already been in development for about nine months,” Hamaguchi told 4Gamer.net in an interview for the release of the PC version of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. “Our goal for 2024 was to solidify the gameplay experience we were aiming for with the third entry of the Remake project, and we put together a great build that aligns with the team’s overall direction and vision.
“Starting in 2025, we’ve entered the phase of building and refining the game based on the plan we’ve established, and development is progressing smoothly and at a good pace, following the schedule I initially laid out. I can’t say when I’ll be able to share more information, but please stay tuned.”
Producer Yoshinori Kitase added, “When it comes to large, story-driven RPG projects, the pace of development depends heavily on whether the story itself is fully locked in. For the third game’s story, after I received the scenario from [scenario write Kazushige] Nojima, I asked him to give it a greater sense of completeness since this is the final game. We just wrapped that up a few days ago, so I feel that things are progressing smoothly.”
While Final Fantasy VII Remake originally released on PlayStation 4, sequel Final Fantasy VII Rebirth released on PlayStation 5 without a PlayStation 4 version. Asked whether users can expect the third game to follow the trend of only being available on the next generation of consoles, Kitase laughed and said, “No, no, don’t worry about that next time.”
Earlier in the interview, 4Gamer.net asked Hamaguchi why the Final Fantasy VII Remake games have had staggered releases on PC, rather than launching day and date with their PlayStation versions.
Hamaguchi explained, “First off, the Final Fantasy brand and franchise, and by extension, Square Enix, have built a very strong partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment. I strongly hope this continues going forward. However, it’s also true that we are no longer in an era where limiting the hardware on which you can play offers only substantial benefits. In fact, we’ve been seeing more and more cases where [Sony Interactive Entertainment]’s titles are being released for PC in addition to PlayStation 5.
“Through this Remake project, we also realized this shift, and have announced as a company that we will be gearing towards multiplatform development. New [intellectual property] will be developed along these lines, so I personally believe it to be inevitable that console and PC versions will be released at the same time, or extremely close to each other, going forward.”
Later on in the interview, after Kitase’s comment about the third game not being exclusive to the next generation of consoles, Hamaguchi said,. “As I said earlier, going forward, [Square Enix] plans to release titles across a wide range of platforms so that more people can enjoy them. While I can’t make any promises at this point, we want our games to be played by as many people as possible, so we’ll do our best.”
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth first launched for PlayStation 5 on February 29, 2024. The PC version launched via Steam and Epic Games Store today.