If Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth wasn't a PS5 exclusive, it wouldn't have a "seamless" open world and may have been a much simpler JRPG, producer says

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth producer Yoshinori Kitase says there would be crucial differences in the newly released sequel had it not been developed exclusively for PS5.

"Had it not been on a single platform, the world map would not be seamless, and game design may have had to regress significantly," Kitase said via interpreter in an interview with The Washington Post.

Kitase also credited worker retention for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's relatively short development cycle, saying more than 80% of the development team behind 2020's Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth stayed on for the sequel. That allowed the developers to skirt "time-wasting" tasks like hiring and retraining new developers.

"By carrying over the bonds we created with teammates from the first installment, we could avoid any time-wasting detours that would come with assembling a totally new team," Kitase said.

Square Enix has a console exclusivity deal with Sony that means games in the series will launch on PlayStation platforms first, with the potential release on "other formats" later down the line. Final Fantasy 7 Remake hit PC via Windows in 2021 and Steam the following year, but an Xbox release is yet to be confirmed. 

With Square Enix now billing the Remake trilogy specifically as a "console exclusive," it's very unlikely we'll see Remake or Rebirth release on Xbox any time in the near future, but with Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 likely around four years from launch, there's plenty of time for the situation to change in that regard.

In the wake of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's success, what can we expect from the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy part 3?