Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 has already been in development for around nine months, according to game director Naoki Hamaguchi, and series producer Yoshinori Kitase. The confirmation arrives courtesy of a discussion with Japanese website 4Gamer (via VGC), which inquired about the modern Final Fantasy 7 finale potentially being exclusive to the future “PS6.”
In response, Kitase reassured the publication that keen players have nothing to worry about. “No, you can rest assured about that one,” he reportedly said.
In response to another question, director Naoki Hamaguchi claimed that work on the new game had begun, “right after Rebirth ended, in March-April 2024, so we’ve been developing it for about nine months already.”
“Our goal for 2024 was to solidify the game experience we were aiming for in the final title of the Remake Project trilogy, and we were able to unify the will and vision of the entire team,” Hamaguchi said (via Google Translate, which can be finicky). “From 2025, we will enter a phase where we will steadily create the entire game under a solid policy, and development is progressing at a good pace in line with the schedule I set for myself at the beginning.”
That bodes well for the game launching within this console generation – as while we’re already four years into the launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, it’s expected these consoles will have more longevity than their predecessors. The reality is we’re at a point where technology can’t be significantly improved upon yet, in a way that would warrant a proper generational leap.
With nine months of development under its belt, the Square Enix team appears certain the next chapter in the modern Final Fantasy 7 story will be ready for this console generation, regardless of the years of development ahead.
Read: Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth – Review
While an alternate reading of the interview is that the game won’t be “exclusive” to PS6, in that it may arrive to multiple platforms and consoles, Kitase’s reassurance, in context, related directly to concerns the game would be for the next console generation – to which he reportedly laughed.
At this stage, it’s not clear how long the next Final Fantasy 7 game will take in development, but if we look to past games for some clues, we know Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth was in development for around four years. We anticipate the series finale will be just as big and impressive as its predecessor, so there’s likely still at least three years in development to go, if not more.
Should that be the case, we anticipate seeing the next game around 2028 – but of course, only Square Enix knows when it will release, for now. It’s very possible we’ll still be using the PS5/Xbox Series generation by 2028, so Kitase and Hamaguchi’s confidence isn’t unwarranted.
Of course, plans could still change – but for now, it does appear Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 will be coming to current generation consoles, sometime in the distant future. Stay tuned for more.
