Final Fantasy VII Remake Was In Development Before Final Fantasy VII Port, Says Nomura

The Final Fantasy VII Remake project was in development for PlayStation 4 before the port of the original Final Fantasy VII was announced, Square Enix claim in an interview with Eurogamer.

“When we announced the HD port, the PC port on the PS4, we weren’t sure when we wanted to announce the remake,” Final Fantasy VII Remake director Tetsuya Nomura said to the site. “The production was underway then, so there’s no real connection between the timing of the two FF7s coming to PS4. We’ve announced several different titles coming to the PlayStation 4 like World of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts 3.”

According to Nomura, the announcement was made in part as part of an effort to help boost sales of the PlayStation 4 in Japan, where the console market has shrunk considerably, and home console sales are at an all-time low.

“There’s more and more titles being introduced for the platform, and we’re hoping that announcing the remake of Final Fantasy VII, it’ll give a boost to people wanting to buy this current generation of console,” Nomura said.

“If we announced the remake after all those titles have been sold, it wouldn’t have created such an impact, so that’s why we decided on this timing. We wanted to reassure players that PlayStation 4 is coming out with great titles including Final Fantasy VII. That’s why we decided to announce the remake.”