FF7R Part 2: You Can (Not) Release

[Karifean]

Sooo now that we've pretty much reached the point of the release of part 1 of the FF7 Remake, when do you all actually think the next part is going to be out? One year, two years, three?

Also, how many parts do you think will the remake have overall, and do you think the intervals between releases will be consistent?

Discuss.

[Fynn]

Five years at least, imo. I think Kitase has said several months ago that they hadn’t even started planning out part two yet. Of course, they might stick to the same engine, but chances are they’ll also make it completely from the ground up, especially since it’ll be coming to PS5 most likely. It’s more likely they’ll stick to this engine if they do a simultaneous PS4/5 thing so people who started on PS4 don’t miss out

[WarZidane]

Second half of 2023, after a delay from the first half of 2023.

Based on them managing to get part 1 done in 3 years after they ditched cyberconnect2 and started from not-quite-scratch, and the fact they now already have the basis to work with, even if they'll need new assets and such, and a plan on how to tackle the actual overworld.

[Levian]

Maybe in the same pace as FFXIII, FFXIII-2 and FFXIII-3, two years apart.

[Aulayna]

My optimistic estimate is first half of 2023. My more realistic estimate is latter half of 2023. My cynical estimate is it'll get cancelled.

[Lord Golbez]

I don't think it will be canceled. I think part 3 will be canceled.

[Fynn]

Nah, I think they’ll finish it. It’s a pretty safe bet.

[Wolf Kanno]

They confirmed back in November that they had already started work on Part 2, though no real details. Assuming they use the same engine and assuming they toss the world map idea, I can see Part 2 coming out in 2022 optimistically, and 2023 realistically. I feel the biggest hurdle will be the transition to the next console generation, so I can see them delaying the PS4 version so they can finish the PS5 one (more realistically, they would make Part 2 for the PS5 and simply scale it down for PS4) and have them release at the same time.

[Psychotic]

I don't think you can make an accurate prediction to the cancellation of the other part(s) until you see how well Part 1 sells. I have a feeling it's going to make a lot of money.

[Lord Golbez]

They've probably had PS5 development kits for pretty much the entire time they've been working on part 2, so the scaling down a PS5 game seems pretty likely to me.

A prediction on cancellation is binary. A reliable prediction? Maybe not. An accurate prediction? Either the people who have predicted cancellation or the people who have predicted completion already have made one.

[Shiva95]

I think it would be similar to FFXIII trilogy, so approximately two years between each part. However, the planning of part 2 has already started, so we could hope for more quickly :P

[Aulayna]

I don't think you can make an accurate prediction to the cancellation of the other part(s) until you see how well Part 1 sells. I have a feeling it's going to make a lot of money.

TBF this is Square Enix we're talking about, ANYTHING is possible lol

[Psychotic]

Do Square have a history of cancelling major titles? Even KH3 and the Versus/XV shambles saw the light of day eventually!

[Aulayna]

Do Square have a history of cancelling major titles? Even KH3 and the Versus/XV shambles saw the light of day eventually!

Purely playing devils advocate here:

Not in the past 5 years or so, but they cancelled a couple of titles in the early 2010s. Plus they are also the same company that:

- Were disappointed with the Tomb Raider reboot selling "only" 3.4 million copies in its first month on sale.
- Scrapped the second season of DLC for FFXV despite the game being profitable from its first day on sale (and being the 4th highest selling title behind VII, XIV, and X), relegated said DLCs to a book that hasn't even been released in the West yet.
- Don't exactly have a track record of direct "sequels" selling as well as the original title.
- Go quick buck chasing in the mobile space.
- Shown with FFXIII and Fabula Nova Crystallis, by extension FFXV, the original FFXIV release, and KH3 that they sometimes have too grand a vision and stuff gets bogged down in development hell, or has to be re-scoped so much that the quality ends up getting sacrificed.

If VIIRP2 doesn't sell as well as they'd hope, I don't see it outside the realm of possibility that could drop the rest of the project entirely, put it on ice for 5-10 years, scope change it, or made it a low priority in favour of allocating resources elsewhere. They could even just decide that the quality bar they'd need to hit is too high, and postpone indefinitely to avoid a massive backlash on a product so much of their reputation rides on. Or heck they get a change of direction at the higher levels internally who think another goose is more golden and worth chasing - and that a gargantuan resource project like VIIR isn't worth the investment anymore, especially when much of their key talent is tied up in it.

I mean I've worked in the industry for 12 years and know that nothing is certain even when something seems like a guaranteed gold mine and I've seen sound decisions get overturned by dubious executive calls. People come. People go. Shareholders exert pressure. Bad decisions get made. Good decisions don't pan out etc. Some new tech makes pursuing a different path seem more lucrative than something else. Quite a lot of the SQEX board of directors are coming up to the retirement age in Japan too, and having witnessed first-hand the stark change in direction that can happen at a company when it's core directors retire... nothing is beyond the realm of possibility.

So yeah, while I think the likelihood of VIIRP2 being cancelled at this point is almost non-existent (hence why I said it was my cynical estimate), it's not impossible. Heck, despite all those words I think a general cancellation of the whole project is very unlikely - but nothing should be taken for granted.

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I think the biggest question mark in terms of time between releases will be the PS5 and whether or not they decide to go for a World Map. Part of me expects we'll see an "Enhanced" version of P1 on the PS5 - maybe as a standalone release before P2, maybe bundled with P2, as I'm fairly sure Sony are going to have some eggs in this basket with a view to use VIIR as a system seller for PS5.

[Loony BoB]

FFVII Remake is being talked about by everyone and I'm not even in the FF community circles anymore. And so far everyone I know that has played it has enjoyed it, and those that have seen stuff are excited. I don't think it'll get any cancellations because as far as I can see it's going to be a commercial and critical success.

As for when the next part is released, I agree with Lev, I'm hoping for two years at most between them. I think now that they have the battle system, engine, etc. down and they even know that people enjoy what they're getting, they have no reason to really delay other than the padding of the story etc. Even with XIII series, they changed battle system and the entire 'style' of gameplay each time. This time they don't have to worry about that. It's more like Tomb Raider games, but even then they have less work to do because in Tomb Raider they had to write up the next story from scratch each time, and most of this stuff is already done for FFVII. TR games took about two years to release. They probably had to wait a little to start the next games each time, too, I imagine. In this case I expect the work - regardless of what Kitase says - is already at least somewhat underway for episode 2.

Porting to PS5 might make it trickier, but my understanding of PS4/PS5 is that they are both far more user friendly than the PS2/3 were when it comes to porting and engines etc.