Final Fantasy 7: Revelation is on the horizon, but there’s a looming shadow—Sony’s recent mandate that there’ll be no disks in the publisher and console developer’s future, a move that’s been controversial, to say the least. It had multiple developers, including the minds behind Clair Obscur Expedition 33, mourning the loss of physical copies.
For FF7 remake director Naoki Hamaguchi, the shift away from physical editions in general means that Revelation’s own existence in meatspace is up in the air, speaking to our friends over at Gamesradar+: “I can’t say anything particularly definitive at this point in time. But I am working to make the arrangements to allow us to have some kind of physical edition.”
He’s absolutely noticed the way the wind is blowing, though even if discs are fading into the rear-view, he’d like a lot about the culture of real-world videogame enthusiasm to remain: “I do feel, as a developer and as a fan, that the general trend is for things to shift away from physical towards downloadable games.
“But that’s obviously talking about the trend. Personally, here at something like Fan Fest or at community events for games that I’ve worked on, I really think that people bringing up things, asking for autographs—I think that’s lovely. I think it’s a wonderful culture and it would be a shame to lose that. I want that to remain.”