PlayStation’s controversial announcement was two months ago, but the same concerns continue to plague every major game: Physical versions with actual discs or not? Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is one such title, and while it ships on a single disc compared to its predecessors, you need to download the rest on Xbox Series X/S and PS5.
Contrast that to its predecessors, which were perfectly playable offline, even if Rebirth shipped on multiple Blu-ray discs. However, the decision has less to do with cutting costs and more with not compromising on the game’s quality, per director Naoki Hamaguchi.
“First and foremost, personally, I’m very happy that we are able to release a physical disc version of FF7 Revelation considering how the entire gaming market, or the landscape, is veering towards the disc-less direction,” Hamaguchi told IGN in a new interview.
“And after we launched preorders, we did see some fans voicing their concerns and raising questions about the physical discs requiring some internet download. So I would like to address that.
“When we had an internal discussion with the development team about how we wanted to approach the physical discs and the physical releases of FF7 Revelation, initially there were conversations about using the same disc size as we did for, say, FF7 Rebirth,” he continued. “But if we were to do that, it would mean that we would have to make a compromise in terms of the fidelity and the quality of the game.”
“So as a development team, we didn’t want to do that. We didn’t want to make any compromises for the game. So realistically, the only choice that we had was to release this physical disc, but with certain sections of the game being a digital download format through the physical disc.”
You could argue this is to curtail spoilers, especially in this day and age where physical games breaking street date is all too common. However, it may also be a testament to the sheer size of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation. If the development team’s only recourse was to ship it on even more discs, which wouldn’t have made sense from a logistics perspective, then how much bigger is it than Rebirth?
Time will tell, but since this is the finale, Hamaguchi may feel this is the only way to properly convey the sheer scale and quality the team is aiming for. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation launches on April 8th, 2027, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2 – check out the latest trailer here.
