Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been delayed again, this time to April 2020, putting it firmly against CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077.
Today Square Enix confirmed Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been pushed back a few weeks past its original March 20 release date. The game will now launch on April 10, 2020 on PlayStation 4. The dev team simply wants more time to optimize the experience for the current PlayStation family of consoles.
"In order to ensure we deliver a game that is in-line with our vision, and the quality that our fans who have been waiting for deserve, we have decided to move the release date to April 10, 2020," FF7 Remake producer Yoshinori Kitase said in a recent update.
"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 you with the best possible experience. 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.
"Thank you for your patience and continued support."
An April 2020 launch will directly impact Square Enix's financial outlook. The game will no longer be a part of the company's FY2019 timeline, which ends on April 1, 2020, which isn't great news for the publisher and will lead to lowered expected earnings for the year.
Square Enix isn't in bad shape, but it could be doing better. Kingdom Hearts III was a big hit, and Final Fantasy XIV Online is still making strong revenues, but other endeavors like Shadow of the Tomb Raider missed expectations.
Going head-to-head with Cyberpunk 2077 will also be a bold move, but then again Final Fantasy 7 has a long-lasting legacy and it shouldn't be an issue. Gamers will likely buy both.