Square Enix Assumes Full Development of Final Fantasy VII Remake

Square Enix is taking over the development of the much-anticipated remake of Final Fantasy VII, instead of sharing duties with third party companies. During a live stream over the weekend, Naoki Hamaguchi, project leader of the mobile game Mobius Final Fantasy, commented that he had assumed the same position over the development of Final Fantasy VII, since the project was now being completely developed within Square Enix, instead of relying on third-party collaborators.

Until now, Square Enix was developing Final Fantasy VII Remake with the help of other companies like CyberConnect2, which were in charge of some of the gameplay aspects of the title. But undisclosed reasons have made Square Enix want to have total control over quality levels and timeframes, which is why their internal workforce is assuming the full development of the project.

This is how Hamaguchi explained the situation: “Development was moving forward with external cooperation, but the company has decided to shift to an internal setup, including mass production and quality, because we want to control everything, including quality, on a stable schedule.”

The news fit with the previous information that Square Enix was posting new job openings for developers to work on Final Fantasy VII Remake, including battle planners, level planners, and BG designer. At the time it seemed confusing that they were only looking to fill those positions now, but it makes sense given that the game was in development before; it was just being done by another company.

It is unclear whether this shift in the development means that the game will skip the upcoming E3 later in June, but we certainly hope that is not the case.