July 11, 2019 Square Enix has now clarified platform release plans for the remake.
Square Enix lifted the lid on the Final Fantasy VII remake at E3 last month, with a lengthy look at the game’s improved combat system. During the conference, fans learned that the game was set to debut on PlayStation 4, with a release date set for March 3, 2020. It appeared yesterday that the game might also be heading to the Xbox One on that date – however, now it looks like that probably won’t be the case. Developer Square Enix has said it doesn’t have plans for the other platforms.
In a statement to VGC, the studio has said “as previously announced, Final Fantasy VII Remake will be released for the PlayStation 4 on March 3 2020. We have no plans for other platforms”. This seems to dispel rumours about an Xbox One release, which arose partly following a video posted by Xbox Germany on its Facebook page yesterday, with a caption (translated via Google) that read “Final Fantasy VII remake from March 3, 2020 on Xbox One.” At time of writing, that video appears to have been taken down, but not before screenshots were captured and shared to social media (you can check them out further down this article).
While rumours of an Xbox release have been around, as mentioned above, the game was originally set to launch exclusively on PlayStation 4. According to Nibel on Twitter, while the game’s E3 trailer only featured a PS4 logo, it no longer features the “play it first on PlayStation 4 text” that accompanied the game’s 2015 reveal trailer, although a press release last month said that the game “will debut first on the PlayStation 4.”
Responding to the Facebook post, Xbox DACH marketing and social lead Maxi Graff said that the video was the result of “an internal mistake in the social team,” and that the video was taken down immediately after posting. Graff apologised for the error, and said that there was “no announcement” due from Xbox.
..so Xbox Germany apparently posted a video on their Facebook page, announcing Final Fantasy VII Remake for Xbox One on March 3, 2020 pic.twitter.com/W4CgqsOvC5
— Nibel (@Nibellion) July 10, 2019
While Xbox isn’t set to make an announcement, Graff did not say that the information included in the video was inaccurate. However, given Square Enix’s statement to VGC, it now looks like the game will be a Playstation 4-exclusive after all – sadly for fans hoping that a PC release might have materialised at some point.
Read more: The Game Critics Awards named the FF7 remake the best game of E3 2019
After this statement, it seems like a PlayStation 4 might be your best bet after all.