It’s Time for Final Fantasy VII Remake on Xbox

Final Fantasy VII Remake came to Steam last night. It’s been on PC via the Epic Game Store for six months, and was on PlayStation platforms for 18 months before that. It’s time, Square Enix – bring it to Xbox.

I’m the biggest fan of these games. We shelled out on the special edition of the Remake, and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. I loved the DLC too.

With its availability slowly expanding, it doesn’t seem like there’s much excuse to keep it away from Xbox players now. You can argue for and against exclusives, and doubly so for third-party exclusives. But enough is enough.

Crisis Core on Xbox

This is highlighted by the bizarre decision to bring the new edition of Crisis Core to Xbox Series consoles. The remake/remaster of the PSP classic was a surprising part of the Final Fantasy VII stream last night. And it’ll be available on everything.

It feels like the re-release is probably for a reason: Zack’s role in the next game (now titled Rebirth and coming to PlayStation 5 next winter) will be bigger.

But what good does that do to Xbox players? And if it’s a case of “might as well”, why not have the same attitude towards the remake itself?

It doesn’t make any sense. Outside of the general feel of PlayStation being the home of Final Fantasy, bringing a two-year-old game to Xbox is not going to hurt Sony in the slightest. PlayStation isn’t the singular home of Final Fantasy. When the pixel remakes haven’t hit console, and ‘inspired by’ titles like Octopath Traveller and Triangle Strategy are skipping PlayStation too, it seems like a hollow victory. It’s effectively just “this franchise doesn’t come to Xbox consistently”.

If anything, all this says is the best place to play Final Fantasy games is on PC. And it’s hard to argue with that. So long as you don’t have day one FOMO, PC is the best place to play the Final Fantasy series. Sony are sometimes just the first.

Final Fantasy VII Remake

There’s no doubt that Square and Sony have a good relationship. Rumours never seem to stop about what’s going to happen with them next.

That’s fine. Companies can work together. Bethesda and Xbox were close before the purchase. This isn’t an equal opportunities situation. Sometimes players on one console are going to miss out.

But then sometimes there are situations that just feel like they’re spiting the players. The benefits of any deal are watered down to the point where you’re just following a piece of paper. The customer, wherever they play, cease to benefit. Often they never did in the first place.

I’m not saying a port of Final Fantasy VII Remake would be simple. It would be as complicated and as easy as any piece of game development is.

But at this point, not doing it just seems odd. And at the very least, if it isn’t coming, put the fans out of their misery. Announce exactly what the deal is so that those that want to play it on their console of choice can make other plans.