'Final Fantasy VII Remake' release date news: First episode to be released late next year?

Final Fantasy VII Remake gameplay Youtube screenshot via Playstation

While Square Enix has yet to come out with a release date for its upcoming title "Final Fantasy VII Remake," speculations suggest that it will roll out its first episode in the latter months of next year.

According to Yibada, the latest earnings call of Square Enix did not list "Final Fantasy VII Remake" among its upcoming titles, meaning fans will need to wait a bit longer for the game. In addition, the industry follower believes that Square Enix will be giving priority to another franchise installment, "Final Fantasy XV." The new sequel is due for release on Sept. 30 this year.

Meanwhile, although rumors say that "Final Fantasy VII Remake" may come out as early as 2017, the observer surmised that the studio will be focusing first on another big-name project, the third installment of the "Kingdom Hearts" series. It is said that "Kingdom Hearts 3" may come out in the early months next year. This will set back the release of "Final Fantasy VII Remake" to the latter months next year, perhaps even as far back as 2018.

Should a release date be finally announced for "Final Fantasy VII Remake," the roll out will not be a full version at launch. It is already confirmed that the remastered version will be episodic, and Square Enix believes that this will be the best scenario for the game (another studio release, the new "Hitman" game, is also released by episodes). This means that fans will be given the first episode first, before the succeeding roll outs continue the story.

However, instead of a DLC-like approach to these episodes, Square Enix revealed that each episode will not be treated as expansion content but rather as continuation. This means that each episode "... will essentially be a full scale game for each part of the multi-part series [...] if we're just looking at each of these parts, one part should be on par with the scale of one Final Fantasy XIII game," according to producer Yoshinori Kitase.

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