The director of Final Fantasy VII Remake is clear: young people do not connect with Final Fantasy

At Square Enix, they have a problem: Final Fantasy no longer connects with young people. A franchise historically known for connecting with teenagers and young adults is struggling to reach its target audience.

Something that is demonstrated by the latest data from Circana, which states that 70% of players who bought Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in the United States were over 30 years old.

Naoki Hamaguchi, the game director, claims to be “very aware of the need to consider how we can expand the potential of the Final Fantasy franchise as a whole for the next generation” and that at Square Enix, when they finish the trilogy of Final Fantasy VII remakes, they want to “think about that expansion towards new audiences“.

On the other hand, this is not a new occurrence among the important leaders in the company. The director of Final Fantasy XIV and producer of Final Fantasy XVI, Naoki Yoshida, has also said something similar in the past. Stating that “the release intervals have stretched so much that some players simply have not had the chance to connect with the series as veteran fans did,” he believes that one of the reasons younger audiences connected with Final Fantasy was its fast release pace.

The numbers fit and do not add up

The data holds up. Between Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy X, the peak of the franchise’s popularity, seven years passed. Between Final Fantasy XII, XIII, XV, and XVI, seventeen years have passed. A whole lifetime for any child, teenager, or young adult.

For this reason, while it is impossible to prove that this is the cause of the franchise’s lack of popularity among young people, it seems to be a likely cause. Whether Square Enix will intervene on this, making more games faster or in another way, remains to be seen. Especially when Final Fantasy XVI, the latest game in the franchise, is from 2023 and a new installment has not yet been announced.

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