Final Fantasy 7 remake development to be in-house from now on
By Tom Sykes 33 minutes ago
Mobius Final Fantasy lead now in charge of the project.

We know what we want from the Final Fantasy 7 remake, with the main thing being that it releases at all—much more likely now that we live in a post-Final Fantasy 15 world. Of course *cough* Kingdom Hearts 3, but unlike with that long-long-long-gestating sequel, some FF7 remake news has just appeared out of Japan. In a recent Japanese YouTube broadcast, Mobius Final Fantasy lead Naoki Hamaguchi announced that he was a) now also in charge of Final Fantasy 7 remake development, and that b) creation of the game has been moved in-house. (Until this point, the remake was being developed externally by CyberConnect2.)

"So far, development has been carried out mainly with the support of external partners," Hamaguchi explained in the YouTube broadcast. "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."

This announcement comes after the Square Enix-published Nier: Automata did unexpectedly well, leading Square Enix to state in a financial briefing that, going forward, the company's major franchises would now be developed in-house, while outsourcing smaller properties to other studios.

It's a big developmental change, and one that will hopefully speed up development somewhat, as—depending on who you ask—the Final Fantasy 7 remake won't be with us until at least 2018, possibly even 2020.