Square Enix Canceling Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 PS-Exclusivity Deal?

Final Fantasy VII Remake will be available on Xbox in 2025, while Final Fantasy VII Rebirth will be released on Xbox in 2026. So, supposedly, Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 will eventually be available on platforms or consoles other than PlayStation. Fans are still debating what will happen with it since Square Enix no longer wants exclusivity for Part 3. However, the agreement with Sony was made a long time ago, and Part 3 will probably remain a PlayStation exclusive.

While Microsoft has already confirmed that Xbox-exclusive games will be released on PlayStation, reports about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Gears of War, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection are both set to be released on PlayStation in 2025 and probably on Nintendo Switch 2. Perhaps this list, based on rumors and assumptions, will get longer in the coming days until we finally see Xbox-exclusive games landing on PlayStation. While we know that this will happen today or tomorrow, we're highly skeptical that PlayStation first-party games, such as God of War and Horizons, will ever be released on Xbox.

Naoki Hamaguchi, director of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, stressed that the team would continue to try to reach as many fans as possible by 2025. Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are currently the two major PlayStation titles rumored to be coming to Xbox in 2025. However, these are still considered rumors since neither Square Enix nor Xbox has made any official announcement about them.

I believe Sony is intentionally blocking off potential markets for Square Enix by not letting them release their games on Xbox. This exact thought was hinted at by SHIFT UP last year when they expressed their disappointment with the game's sales and missing out on potential gamers by not being able to release Stellar Blade on PC and Xbox.

The video game industry's recent shape, with studio acquisitions and takeovers by Sony and Microsoft, is actually hurting third-party publishers on a larger scale. That's how these two gaming giants have been operating for the past so many years, trying to market their exclusivity portfolio. But I will say that this so-called console war is potentially putting the gaming industry at risk.

Companies that were acquired are now delivering games that are not close to the quality they developed while independent. They are all under tremendous pressure to meet a corporate goal. Image FromSoftware releasing Dark Souls 4 on PlayStation only. Think of Tango Gameworks, Firewalk Studios, and many other studios that were initially acquired and then shut down by these giants. If they had remained independent, we would've had a few good games from these studios.

Anyway, if we consider Square Enix and their plans for Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3, the exclusivity deal with PlayStation might just end soon. Last year, Square Enix shelved more than $140 million in games, and with only two major games scheduled to be published in 2025, the company may face difficulties due to the absence of major new titles. Even though Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is being released on PC this month, it may not be enough to back the company's enormous expenditure for ongoing projects. Since Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 is probably going to be released in 2027, there's still plenty of time for Square Enix to cancel the exclusivity deal with PlayStation and market the game for all the platforms.

Imagine Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth on Xbox Game Pass? This will not only boost the sale of the game but also revive the Xbox Game Pass, which has been struggling for a while. So, if Microsoft and even Nintendo help Square Enix to buy out their way of exclusivity deal with Sony, Final Fantasy VII games Xbox and Switch could make a huge difference.

I'm not an Xbox fan, but Game Pass is undoubtedly better than PlayStation Plus. The sheer number of free games you can play makes Game Pass fantastic. I use it for that, and I believe I will continue to use it. However, given the current economic situation, buying games on multiple platforms has been extremely difficult for me or many others that I know. And I'm not the only person who has this complaint.

If only a handful of gamers buy games that are exclusive to different platforms, it's only going to hurt the studios behind those games, and we'll eventually see them shutting their doors or getting acquired by either of the giants sooner or later. Perhaps we'll hear more about this during the Square Enix Presents in February 2025.