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Final Fantasy 7 Revelation director says Square Enix would have to compromise “the quality of the final chapter” to ship the game fully on disc
Square Enix has confirmed that physical editions of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the final instalment in the Remake trilogy, will still require an additional data download rather than shipping fully on disc. Series director Naoki Hamaguchi explained that fitting the entire game onto a single disc would have meant compromising the quality of the concluding chapter, a trade-off the team felt was not in fans' best interests, even as physical media becomes rarer across the industry.
Physical copies on PS5 and Xbox Series X will each contain one disc, while Nintendo Switch 2 versions will use a Game-Key card, and all three require an internet connection to complete installation. Some fans have pointed out that the two previous instalments, Remake and Rebirth, managed to fit onto two physical discs each, questioning why a similar approach couldn't be used again. The announcement lands amid wider unease over the future of physical games, following Sony's confirmation that it will stop manufacturing PlayStation discs from 2028.
In short
- FF7 Revelation ships on disc but still needs a download
- Director says full disc release would hurt game quality
- Comes amid wider industry shift away from physical media
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Prioritising the game’s quality may be reasonable if fitting it on disc would require cuts to content or presentation in the final chapter. A download can let the developers deliver the experience they intended, while a single-disc edition may also help manage production and distribution costs.
The case against
Physical buyers can reasonably expect the disc to contain a playable, complete game, especially when earlier entries in the trilogy shipped across two discs. Requiring a download makes ownership depend on internet access and the continued availability of installation data, weakening the preservation and convenience that physical editions are meant to offer.
Explained simply
Final Fantasy 7 is a role-playing game series from Square Enix, a Japanese games company. The Remake trilogy retells and expands the story of the 1997 game, with Revelation planned as its final instalment.
Naoki Hamaguchi directs the series, and Square Enix decides how the game is released. Physical games usually store their data on discs or cards, while a download can supply data that is not included on the physical copy.
The issue matters to players who want to own and play games without relying on an internet connection, and to a wider debate about the future of physical games. The previous two trilogy games came on two discs, while Revelation’s planned formats use one disc on PS5 and Xbox Series X or a Game-Key card on Switch 2.
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