Surprisingly, there’s apparently reason to believe that the long rumored remake of Final Fantasy 9 has been cancelled.
We traced rumors of a Final Fantasy 9 remake to 2023. More recently, Nate The Hate lend credence to a remake currently being in production to release next year. Expectations of this remake were bolstered by Square Enix recently working on remakes and rereleases of their key Final Fantasy franchise, and that did include an un-enhanced rerelease of Final Fantasy 9.
However, there’s reason to believe that Square Enix has been scaling back on these plans, and that they were willing to cut down even on Final Fantasy games. Alex Donaldson of VG24/7 said this in ResetERA all the way back in May:
They cancelled some pretty major stuff tbh – I know about some unannounced ones that died as part of all this that’d shock people, but this is what doing a reset is about; making some brutal decisions to get on track.
These decisions can be traced to their three year plan, which is itself part of their new direction to cut down the number of games they make, and to make more of them multiplatform, to maximize the potential profitability of all their upcoming titles. Fans welcomed this change initially, as it looked like Square Enix was finally giving up on PlayStation exclusivity and bring their games to where the gamers are moving forward.
But then, we started hearing rumors that Square Enix cancelled a Just Cause 5 in 2023. Subsequently, People Can Fly officially cancelled Project Gemini, their next game with Square Enix after the poorly received Outriders. This takes us to today, as fans started fretting that Square Enix was not going to announce a game or a remake for the Final Fantasy 9 on its 25 year anniversary, which happens to be today.
NateTheHate AKA NateDrake, posting on ResetERA, said this:
As of last check it remains in development, to my knowledge; but I need to a do a fresh check & see what a more current status is — as I did hear a month or so ago that it was in trouble & possibly cancelled. I only had one source on the cancellation possibility and need to verify the info further.
We may find out later that this rumor is for nothing, and Square Enix could be revealing that remake in a few hours. But if they cancelled their Final Fantasy 9 remake, they aren’t going to announce it, especially not now. We may have never found out they were planning a remake at all without this persistent rumor. Today could be a long one for fans of Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and friends.
