Well, that’s not much of a surprise.
Square Enix is really taking it on the chin with their live service games. And now, less than a year after its launch, they’ve announced plans to shutter FINAL FANTASY VII THE FIRST SOLDIER. The game, which launched in November of 2021, will be shut down entirely on January 11th, 2023.
The news comes lagging on the heels of their cancellation of Babylon’s Fall, a live service game they made in collaboration with Platinum Games. Not to mention the failure of their live service game Marvel’s Avengers (sensing a theme, here?); which, in turn, led to Square Enix divesting themselves of a number of their Western dev studios (notably Eidos) to “avoid cannibalization” of their Japanese-made game sales. One might well wonder what a bit of introspection might do for this company.
Nonetheless, some might be surprised to find that they were shutting down their Final Fantasy VII-based battle royale game so soon. Until you realize that Square Enix, in their infinite wisdom, decided that this should be a mobile-only title, further cutting the potential playerbase down. Most of these types of games target multiple platforms, since most people don’t really enjoy playing a sweaty-ass battle royale game using a touchscreen. Go figure.
Anyway, they have stated that they will continue to release planned content for the game up until its closure three months from now. And, naturally, thanked those that are playing it. Who, temselves, seem to have a number of thoughts on why this happened. Though the best are those pointing out that relegating it to mobile platforms probably only strangled its potential.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
About Author
