Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi is helping lead Square Enix developers in working on multiple platform versions of Part 3 at the same time. It's a lot of fingers in a lot of pies, sure, but it's going smoothly other than a frustrating Xbox issue developers seem to keep bringing up.
"The development for both Nintendo Switch 2 Rebirth" – an upcoming port of the second Remake installment, initially released in 2024 – "and the third installment are going very smoothly," Hamaguchi says in a new interview with Easy Allies. "As for the Xbox version, like many other publishers, I think we did see some issues with the lack of memory compared to other platforms."
EA technical director Christian Buhl recently made a similar comment about Battlefield 6 on the Xbox Series S, which he said had even "less memory than even our mid-spec PC." I can't imagine this is what Microsoft wants right now, two high-profile development teams publicly noting how much more difficult it is to work with its hardware compared to another company's; Xbox is already receiving a roundhouse kick of shame from people who can't believe it would raise its subscription prices for both Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass to what they now are – $30 and $17, respectively. You could instead use that money to buy Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth for PS5.
Anyway, about Part 3, Hamaguchi emphasizes that "we do have designated teams working on each platform, so that our multiplatform approach won't impact the development whatsoever." At the moment, "the main dev team" is working "really hard" on Rebirth's Switch 2 port," which the director seems glad about,
"When we look at the specs for the Nintendo Switch 2 and Steam Deck," says Hamaguchi, "it's really getting comparable to the PS5 and Xbox consoles.
"We do want to keep a focus on the consoles as well, but we also want to keep the handheld devices and their audiences in mind."
