Nobody wants to deal with the long wait between sequels, especially in video games where the wait can be especially longer. Two big game publishers are especially guilty of making their fans wait a long time, and of course that’s not a bad thing. Rockstar Games and Square Enix are generally known for putting out great games in their respective gaming circles. Now, in 2020, two games in particular are emphasizing a similar problem for both publishers:Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2, andGrand Theft Auto 6.
Both fanbases have entered a holding pattern as they wait for more news on upcoming games, and it may be a while. Square Enix and Rockstar Games have very long development cycles for the respective games that each publisher currently has in development. However, this time things are a little different from both publishers, for different reasons. Both are potentially taking an incremental development approach this time around forGrand Theft Auto 6andFinal Fantasy 7 Remake’s second episode. Both have varying degrees of experience in episodic video game development, and both have their own degrees of marketing silence before release.
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A Very Different Development Plan For Both Studios
What’s particularly interesting about the development of these two games is they’re both relatively new ventures for both franchises.Grand Theft Auto 6is reportedly taking an incremental approachto the game’s development, meaning the game will release “moderately sized” and expand with later updates.Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2isn’t just a sequel, rather it’s adapting the original game’s story and taking it further. Neither publishers or their respective development studios have any kind of extensive experience with episodic release methods, so this is new territory for Rockstar Games and Square Enix.
Grand Theft Autohas had singleplayer expansion DLCs before (see:Episodes from Liberty CityfromGrand Theft Auto 4), but these were standalone narratives, never on the level of episodic updates/releases from modern games.Final Fantasy 13had a few sequels, but they’re not quite the sameas splitting apartFinal Fantasy 7 Remakeinto separate episodes. Square Enix themselves were the producers forLife is Strange, an episodic narrative adventure game, but the development team Dontnod was not an in-house studio.Grand Theft Auto 6andFinal Fantasy 7 Remakeare experimenting with very different styles of an incremental development plan, but both studios don’t have much experience with that method.
Info Droughts Will Be Especially Painful
Because of this, the lack of information from both publishers is especially hard to stomach for fans. Rockstar Games and Square Enix are both infamous for making their fans wait a long time between trailers and reveals. Rockstar Games first announcedGrand Theft Auto 5back in 2011, and didn’t receive another official trailer for two years before the story trailer was unveiled in 2013. Even worse was Square Enix’s deafening silence on theKingdom Heartsfranchise, which was also partially due to the franchise’s development plans as well. Not counting the various spin-offs in the series,fans waited almost an entire decade forKingdom Hearts 3,which was just as long as the wait forFinal Fantasy 15’s release as well.
Luckily forFinal Fantasyfans in general, the wait hasn’t been as bad in 2020.Final Fantasy 16was recently announced for PS5, so they at least have a completely new entry to look forward to soon. However, the bigFinal Fantasy 7fans are going to be waitinga long time forFinal Fantasy 7 Remake’s next episodeto be announced. As recently as May of 2020,Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s second episode was reportedly still in the planning stage of development. As forGrand Theft Auto 6, Rockstar Games seemingly made it clear with the next-genGrand Theft Auto 5announcement that the newest entry still has plenty of development time left. As unfortunate as it is, both fanbases are used to the long droughts of information between official game reveals.
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Both Franchises Experimenting in Game Development Methods
For now, the fanbases forFinal FantasyandGrand Theft Autofind themselves in a much more vague grey area than ever before. Fans knew what to expect in the jump betweenGrand Theft Auto 4to5; a larger scale and greater graphical fidelity, alongside more ambitious set pieces and narrative storytelling. Now, with all the news about Rockstar Games' response to crunch and how it’s changed the publisher’s development plans,Grand Theft Auto 6could release in a very different state.Final Fantasy7fans find themselves in a similar boat, albeit for very different reasons.Final Fantasy 7 Remakewent above and beyond expectations with the reimagining of the classic game, which means there’s an equal lack of understanding on what to expect on the next episode.
These games are going to be far different from any previous development efforts by Square Enix and Rockstar Games prior. That’s absolutely a good thing, to be fair. Developers on both games are going to flex and change their development styles in interesting ways, and while Rockstar Games is doing it out of respect for its employees, Square Enix is doing so to create a very different type ofFinal Fantasygame. Hopefully, in the coming years,fans will get a better understanding ofGrand Theft Auto 6andFinal Fantasy 7 Remake’s next episode. At least they’ll be able to garner some kind of idea on what to expect from these games.
Grand Theft Auto 6andFinal Fantasy 7 Remake Part 2are in development.
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