Square Enix Comments Shut Down Hopes for Final Fantasy IX Remake

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Recently, Hamaguchi sat down with the team at GamesRadar+ to talk about the team’s future. He didn’t give any specifics, but did say, “I can’t say at this point what that’s going to be, whether it’s going to be a completely new game, completely new IP, whether it’s gonna be something new within the Final Fantasy series, but I’m really looking forward to it.”

What’s Next for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Team?

Clearly, Hamaguchi and the team aren’t ruling out anything at this stage. However, he does seem to be focused on something “new.” Could it be a new remake? Absolutely, but it sounds more like the team is looking at trying something different this time around. It’s also worth noting that a FF9 remake doesn’t necessarily have to come from this team. Square Enix could absolutely put another team on the project, though fans would be much more hyped if they learned the FF7 Remake team was behind anything Final Fantasy 9-related.

We shouldn’t rule anything out at this stage; however, Hamaguchi and crew are clearly leaving room on the docket for something totally different from the Remake trilogy. To some degree, you can’t blame the developers. They’ve been working on the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project for about a decade. That’s a long time to be working on one project, even if it’s technically three games. The good news is that the FF7 Remake team is planning to stay together.

Hamaguchi told GamesRadar, “We’ll definitely move on to something else, and it’d be great to see what that team that we’ve managed to build up together produces.” Again, he’s being appropriately coy with how he answers these questions, never giving too much away in his responses. All we really know is that the Final Fantasy 7 Remake team is going to stick together for its next project, which should help make development smoother than if Square broke them up.

It’s unlikely that we’ll learn much more any time soon. After all, the final game in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy doesn’t even have a release date at this point. We had to wait four years between Remake and Rebirth. If we assume a similar timeframe for the third game, don’t expect it before 2028. We can’t know exactly how long it will take, but it’s safe to assume we’ll start to hear and see from the third game in 2026, as Square looks to start building hype for the final game in the trilogy.

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