Final Fantasy VII: Remake director offers some hope for Xbox gamers

Although 2024 started off shaky for Xbox after layoffs, talk of exclusives heading to competing formats, and very few first-party games - there's no doubt that Microsoft is ending the year in style.

Late October saw Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 included with Game Pass, and just last week both Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl were released - with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle waiting just around the corner. In addition, there are currently great sales on Xbox consoles in several Black Friday campaigns.

Another thing we have definitely noticed this year is an increased focus on Xbox from Japanese developers, perhaps especially from Square Enix. They have released several highly anticipated titles for Microsoft's consoles in recent months, and have flagged that they will focus on multiformat in the future.

And in an interview with GamesRadar, Naoki Hamaguchi, game director of Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, offers some hope for Xbox gamers who are particularly keen on the Final Fantasy VII: Remake:

"In terms of Final Fantasy VII, there's nothing really we can say at the moment, but certainly I do want to bring Final Fantasy VII and the Remake series to as many players out there as possible. So we want to create that situation, that environment, where more players can play the games in future, and we want to look in that direction."

Hamaguchi also says that he plays Xbox himself and likes the console, when commenting on why Square Enix has gone all-in for multiformat:

"This is just a personal opinion now, but I've got an Xbox myself. I think it's a great hardware platform. I do like Xbox."

This autumn we've seen both Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster and Metaphor: ReFantazio rank high on the sales charts for Xbox, so it seems that there is indeed interest. However, whether the Final Fantasy VII: Remake series will actually make it to Microsoft's consoles remains to be seen, because it's not just a matter of Square Enix's good will, but also depends on the agreement they have with Sony (who bought exclusivity).