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Final Fantasy VII Remake shifts to internal dev under Mobius project leader

Link.

Square Enix is shifting development of Final Fantasy VII Remake in-house. According to several comments made during a special broadcast, it was revealed Naoki Hamaguchi, who was previously in charge of the development for Mobius Final Fantasy, will be taking on a top developmental role for the highly-anticipated remake. He made the following comments during the show:

”So far, development (for FFVIIR) has been carried out mainly with the support of external partners. However, in view of factors such as improving quality when the product goes into mass production in the future, the company has decided to shift the developmental system back to within the company, so as to maintain a stable schedule and have control over factors such as quality. We will be forming a robust system within the company to properly carry out the development."

It seems Naoki Hamaguchi will be focusing his attention on Final Fantasy VII Remake. It's currently unknown what this means for Square Enix's previous collaboration with outsourcing companies such as CyberConnect2.

Gematsu version.

Last week, news surfaced that Square Enix is recruiting core staff for Final Fantasy VII Remake and that Naoki Hamaguchi, the main programmer of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and project lead on Mobius Final Fantasy, is project lead on the remake.

...

”The information is already available online, but I've taken charge on the development side for Final Fantasy VII Remake," Hamaguchi said. ”As for the whole story, (it's a sensitive topic, but) until now, 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. (I won't be leaving Mobius Final Fantasy.)"

Lock if old.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Possible development trouble? Meh, either way, this isn't coming out for a long time. Stop doing this Square Enix, please.

If they're pulling development in-house for quality and scheduling reasons, they presumably were unhappy with the current quality and development schedule.
 

Pooya

Member
Mobius you say? With recent comments and the initial reveal that it's in episodic format of some sort, I'm thinking this is probably going to be GaaS.

They just releases bits of FF7 every year as paid content and in between you will have other distractions to spend money on.
 

Fredrik

Member
Sounds like a positive thing to me. They take it seriously and they want even higher quality. Sounds like it's years away though.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
This is why you don't announce games early and then they come out in 2025 for real.

I imagine they're doing this because they don't want to have literally zero major titles out of Japan announced.

Like by modern Western game standards, Kingdom Hearts 3 and Final Fantasy VII shouldn't have been announced until 6-10 months before launch, but you can imagine the riots that would be going on after years of having no major PS4 games announced out of Square Enix.
 

wmlk

Member
So 100%, it's development hell. Come on, man.

And yes, Nomura is also to blame for this. Upper management and 1st Production as a whole. Maybe understand what you're dealing with in shipping out development for their most important game?
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
Wait so CC2 is out? Did they only use them for asset and animation creation or what?

This might even take longer than I expected.
 

Slater

Banned
Ay member when everyone pointed to Cyber Connect and there experience as a major reason this whole thing would work out?
 

Squire

Banned
If they're pulling development in-house for quality and scheduling reasons, they presumably were unhappy with the current quality and development schedule.

Didn't they just say they want to make things like this in-house and get third-parties for smaller projects?

Weird to shift a project in flux though, either way. This explains the three year wait.

KH3 is probably just in dev hell.
 

Einhander

Member
At this point, can Square go back to making 16-bit and 32-bit style JRPGs? I'd gladly take a FFXVI in either of those styles if it meant that it'd be out a lot sooner, and arguably more enjoyable than FFXV. It's clear that HD development isn't working out well for them.
 
Naoki Hamaguchi, the main programmer of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII and project lead on Mobius Final Fantasy, is project lead on the remake.
Time to mass panic. Another Nomura project bites the dust. RIP.
 
If they're pulling development in-house for quality and scheduling reasons, they presumably were unhappy with the current quality and development schedule.

I'm not convinced internal development will be any quicker, given how slow they've been with previous games, so CC2 must have been doing a pretty bad job. Not the most promising news to wake up to.

Wait so CC2 is out? Did they only use them for asset and animation creation or what?

This might even take longer than I expected.

Exactly why I find this so concerning.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Did they just say they want to make things like this in-house and get third-parties for smaller projects?

Weird to shift a project in flux though, either way. This explains the three year wait.

KH3 is probably just dev hell.
Yes. I imagine this experience is part of why they're doing this.

So what about Nomura?
He's maintaining his role. This guy is likely more the day to day manager. Think the role Tabata had prior to Nomura leaving Final Fantasy XV, or how Tai Yasue is helming Kingdom Hearts 3 and meets with the official director (Nomura) once a week.
 

Bebpo

Banned
Weird. CC2 usually does a good job. I hope they don't get screwed over by this. They can't keep making Naruro games forever.
 

wmlk

Member
Didn't they just say they want to make things like this in-house and get third-parties for smaller projects?

Weird to shift a project in flux though, either way. This explains the three year wait.

KH3 is probably just in dev hell.

This thing was supposed to be in active development (whatever that means with SE) for two years. If that's how long they had to wait to see there were clear issues, then I have no idea what to even think anymore.
 

Tagg9

Member
Seriously? I assumed literally any external development would be better than Square-Enix's inefficient internal pipeline.
 
I'm actually really interested in what provoked this change.

CC2 should be more than capable of this kind of project. I wonder if Square-Enix's timeline was unrealistic, or if there were mismanagement issues.
 

Jigorath

Banned
He is still the director. Mobius guy is the development leader in the team.

Until Nomura gets fully replaced like with FFXV to focus solely on Kingdom Hearts III. Then later on Nomura will be confirmed as the director for the Final Fantasy VI Remake. Until he gets replaced once again to focus solely on Kingdom Hearts III. And then maybe one day Nomura will actually finish Kingdom Hearts III.
 

Sesha

Member
Uh oh. This will be vindication for the "CC2 will ruin this" folks. If they're taking development away from CC2, I hope cutscenes and stuff like summons will still be handled by them.
 

jett

D-Member
However, in view of factors such as improving quality when the product goes into mass production in the future

It's literally been two years since it was announced.

Good fucking lord.

I made this thread based on information that was parodying an old FFXXIII Versus interview with Nomura, but it turned out to be completely true regardless LOL.

What is this shitshow. Shitcan Nomura. Good for nothing motherfucker.
 

_Nemo

Member
At this point, can Square go back to making 16-bit and 32-bit style JRPGs? I'd gladly take a FFXVI in either of those styles if it meant that it'd be out a lot sooner, and arguably more enjoyable than FFXV. It's clear that HD development isn't working out well for them.

Yeah I mean at this point it wouldn't be too crazy to suggest that they just go back to making PS2 engine games and then outsource to a 3rd party for HD remastering.

Or, just get their shit together already.
 

Neonep

Member
Ya'll remember that other thread recently that also sounded worrying and there were people that were real quick to defend Square Enix. Lol.... They all look real stupid.
 
I see this as nothing but good news, honestly. Having one of the main programmers from the 13 trilogy in charge of the development seems like it would speed things along.
 
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