The Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier battle royale is being shut down in January, a little more than a year after its original release on mobile platforms.
[End of Service Notice]
We are regretful to announce that we will be ending service for FINAL FANTASY VII THE FIRST SOLDIER at 07:00 UTC on January 11, 2023.
We would like to thank you all for all your support over the past year.https://t.co/XvNOVv2EVs#FF7FS pic.twitter.com/aNVI4iHle4
— FINAL FANTASY VII THE FIRST SOLDIER_EN｜FF7FS (@FFVII_FS_EN) October 12, 2022
While the Twitter JPG message is most commonly used for video game delays, the server shutdown was announced via this medium, the team writing: “Despite all our efforts to bring you regular updates with fresh and exciting content, we haven’t been able to deliver the experience that we were hoping to, and that you all deserve, so we have made the extremely tough decision to end service for Final Fantasy 7 The First Soldier.”
In-game Shinra Credits have now been removed from the shop, so more microtransactions cannot be made, but anything already purchased can be used until the game is shut down.
Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier is set decades before the original game players join Shinra’s enhanced ranks of military fighters and hop into matchmaking for solos or trios, before battling through familiar locales from the Final Fantasy 7 Remake.
It’s a not entirely surprising turn of events for the game. While the battle royale has been a popular genre, it’s been dominated by only a handful of big games, sucking the air out of the atmosphere for many other competitors. Final Fantasy 7: The First Soldier also won’t have really been helped by the perception that Square Enix were simply trying to milk one of their most marketable games and brands for all its worth.
Square Enix has really sought to make the most out of Final Fantasy 7 in recent years, from the three-part Final Fantasy 7 Remake saga, which will continue next year with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, to the remake of Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, and an upcoming retelling of the original story in the mobile game Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis. While The First Soldier wasn’t necessarily a bad game, it’s fair to say that the heart of this franchise, the reason why people engage with it and love it so, is for the RPG battling and the narrative that it can tell. You don’t get any of that in a battle royale.
Source: Twitter
