Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth might be selling below expectations but fans and critics alike are adoring it, making it an easy GOTY candidate, with Square Enix revealing the final part of the Remake trilogy might come sooner than anticipated.
Soon after the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Ultimania released, a massive encyclopedia that includes game walkthroughs, hindsight into the development of the game, and interviews, an excellent translated by content creator Audrey revealed that creative producer Tetsuya Nomura stated that the main story for the third game is completed and that Square Enix could be moving to voice recording soon.
The development cycles for both FF7 Remake and Rebirth have been vastly different behind the scenes. Remake was first announced in 2015, with Square Enix initially handing parts of the development to external studios like CyberConnect2.
In 2017, it was revealed that Square Enix was taking full control of the project and developing it internally in order to ensure better quality control over Remake, with Naoki Hamaguchi taking a more hands-on approach. The game eventually released in April 2020.
Soon after Remake was released, PS5-exclusive DLC InterMISSION, featuring Yuffie Kisaragi launched in 2021. Many fans had assumed that another lengthy wait was due for the second part and that the expansion was a way to mitigate the wait, however, due to Square maintaining the core development team Rebirth came out just four years after Remake, an impressive feat considering how much bigger the project is.
Producer Yoshinori Kitase mentioned that the actual development cycle for Rebirth was three years, as the team dedicated some time to the DLC. For Part 3, according to an Ultimania section translated by Audrey, he expects to "deliver an amazing product without having to sacrifice quality over time," while targetting a similar development cycle as the team has once again managed to retain key members of the staff.
That means that if everything goes as planned, the final part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy could launch in 2027, as the team has hinted at no DLC this time around to speed the process up. It would be the perfect year to cap things off, as it's going to be the 30th anniversary of the original FF7.