The last couple of years have seen Final Fantasy reverting back to being exclusive to PlayStation (at least where its mainline games are concerned), and though Final Fantasy 7 Remake did eventually end up coming to PC, its sequel, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, is going to be exclusive to PlayStation again. However, where the majority of new releases are opting to take the cross-gen route, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will launch exclusively for the PS5- why is that?
Speaking recently to Gamer (translation via Gamatsu), when asked about the same, the game’s producer Yoshinori Kitase – who also co-directed its predecessor – explained that in addition to the game’s graphical fidelity, its “vast open world” is another reason for it skipping the PS4. In order to avoid the bottleneck the PS4’s hardware would have brought about and development complications it would have posed, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is being made exclusively for PS5. Kitase also mentioned the current-gen console’s SSD and the purpose it will serve.
“It’s exclusive to PlayStation 5 because of the graphical quality, of course, as well as SSD access speed,” Kitase said. “Since the adventure unfolds in a vast world after the escape from Midgar, loading stress is an extreme bottleneck. We felt we needed the specifications of PlayStation 5 to overcome that and travel the world comfortably.”
Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that the size of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth’s world has been brought up. Last year, director Naoki Hamaguchi that the game would allow players to “explore the world map” and feature gameplay that would “leverage the vastness of the world”. Whether that means it’ll be an open world game hasn’t been explicitly confirmed yet though- but it sure sounds like it. Either way, none of the locations from the original Final Fantasy 7 are going to be cut out or shortened, so fans don’t have to worry on that front.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth will launch for the PS5 in Winter 2023. Development on its sequel is also already underway.