An end-of-service notice has been issued for Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier. The free-to-play battle royale game set as a prequel of sorts to Final Fantasy VII is going permanently offline just a little over a year after its initial launch. Originally released on mobile platforms in November 2021, the game will be shutting down for good on January 11, 2023. According to Square Enix, the reasoning behind this decision is that they "haven't been able to deliver the experience that we were hoping to, and that you all deserve".

In-game purchases have been removed from FF VII: The First Soldier's storefront, but the game will still get regular updates until it shuts down. Support for non-English languages will end on November 1st.

Source

 

[sombrerosonic]

This existed? Thats News to me

 

[AkiraKurusu]

Didn't even know this was a thing, but "mobile" and "live service" are kinda ruinous descriptors, so...maybe don't make them anymore?

 

[TheGodMauro]

Killed sooner than what I expected. I played it with some friends close to launch and it was pretty meh, I guess most the playerbase must've left soon after.

 

[Rudy69]

I'm sure the dozens of people playing it will be real sad. The rest of the world will move on

 

[jt_1258]

waited for a pc release since controller support on mobile is jank af and it never came. not everyone wants to only play games on a phone or tablet with jank ass touchscreen controls. no wonder it died

 

[Marc_LFD]

I don't understand why you would only release something like this on smart devices only. If it was on pc/console and had a bit better marketing it might have survived longer.

Tell that to Nintendo.

They've got Mario Kart Tour on Android/iOS and wouldn't hurt if they'd release it on the Switch. Same goes for Mario Run.

 

[Thejax]

I played it a few times then accidentally deleted it and forgot to reinstall.

It really wasn’t for me but the concept was awesome concept I didn’t get far in.


Had a focus on magic powers and attack you collected throughout the match

 

[KingVamp]

I also forgot this was a thing.

 

[Chelsea_Fantasy]

Did this game exists? What a news...

 

[Kitocco]

And this is why I refuse to get into their live service or cloud-based games that they push out. You literally can't trust that they won't shut down the service or stop supporting it in a year or two.

Dead-on. I dropped their Mana F2P mobile game as soon as I saw “Free” & “Paid” currency. That and the rail-grinding hand-holding tutorial was just too much.

I couldn’t even laugh this time; I’m just annoyed. It’s like the MMO gold-rush of the PS3/X360 era, but at least like… most MMOs are allowed a year of service before shutdown?

 

[Jayro]

This is exactly why 'mobile gaming' is a joke.

 

[hyprskllz]

"we haven’t been able to milk more money out of you guys deliver the experience that we were hoping to"

we already knew this game would fail hard, the reactions from the very first announcement tell it all.

 

[yoyoyo69]

Squeenix management/headless chicken

^spot the difference^

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Where's the calls for preservation of these mobile games?

So many will be lost to time permanently.

 

[Ligeia]

Good. All these gacha games should be banned

 

[ZachariasBarnham]

I never even knew this game was out. I could've sworn that there was an FF7-related mobile game soon to be released so I guess nothing of value was lost.

 

[seseiSeki]

Wait, it already released?

 

[guisadop]

that's why I never bother with always-online games. except for metal gear survive, that one was pretty fun

 

[DaniPoo]

I knew this existed but I am not interested in playing this on my phone. For handheld gaming I use a handheld console. And most of the people who are playing on mobile won't play this because there is already way bigger titles in the same genre to play. And also, SE did a pretty poor job at marketing this for their target audience. (Which is probably your average teenage boy)

Perhaps if SquareEnix actually listened then they could have ported those Pixel remasters to console and got way more happy gamers. but I guess that would have been too easy money or something..

 

[HarveyHouston]

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(crickets chirping)