Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the upcoming reimagining of the iconic game in the longstanding video game franchise has been delayed by developer Square Enix. Originally, Final Fantasy 7 Remake was supposed to launch for the PlayStation 4 on March 3rd, but unfortunately, Square Enix announced that the game has been pushed back and will now launch on April 10th.
In a statement released this morning, Square Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase apologized to Final Fantasy 7 fans for the delay of the remake and explained that the team needed the extra weeks to put a final polish to the game. "We are making this tough decision in order to give ourselves a few extra weeks to apply final polish to the game and to deliver with you the best possible experience," says Kitase. "I, on behalf of the whole team, want to apologize to everyone, as I know this means waiting for the game just a little bit longer."
Of course, delays aren't unexpected in the video game industry, especially with massive games such as Final Fantasy. Just last year, The Last of Us developer Naughty Dog revealed that the highly-anticipated sequel The Last of Us 2 had been delayed to May of 2020. The game was supposed to release in February of 2020. Luckily for fans who have been waiting for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the game is only slightly delayed and will be released just a few weeks from the original release date.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake was first announced by Square Enix back at E3 2015, which brought excitement to longtime fans of the popular RPG series. Immediately after the initial announcement, several news outlets reported that Square Enix's stocks saw a significant increase, and rose by 2.9 percent to 2,956 yen, which is its highest since 2008. Of course, several years after the reveal, the development for the upcoming remake took longer than fans hoped for, with some speculating whether the project has been put on hold.
In a response to criticisms from fans regarding the long development phase of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Square Enix admitted back in 2018 that the game was announced too early and explained that the reason why the studio decided to jump the gun is due to the rumors of its existence that were quickly spreading online. "I am well aware of the fact that we announced it too early, but even in the industry, word was beginning to spread that we were working on the game, so we just decided not to keep it more secret and officially reveal it."
Final Fantasy 7 Remake is now set to release on April 10, 2020, exclusively for the PlayStation 4.