It’s been a tough day for game shutdowns. First, we learned that Nintendo is putting an end to Mario Kart Tour this September. Now, Square Enix has confirmed that yet another one of its mobile games is headed for end of service. Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis, which released for mobile and PC via Steam back in 2023, will shut down on October 6th. And it’s already being delisted from Steam as of July 7th at 9 PM ET.
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Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis was an interesting experiment even among Square Enix mobile games. It re-told the story of FF7 with a focus on young Sephiroth’s journey, while also including crossover content from the FF7 remake trilogy. Despite some frustrations about the monetization, the game has proved pretty popular with the Final Fantasy community. Yet despite relatively high player counts, the team has determined it can no longer sustain the game. New content will be released over the next few months up until the October 6th shutdown. Here’s what we know.
Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis Closes Its Doors this October
As of July 7th, Ever Crisis has been delisted from Steam, according to the initial social media post. At the time I’m writing this, the game is still showing as available, but the changes are set to take effect in the next day or so. When they do, new downloads will no longer be available, though you can still play the game if it’s already in your library. At this time, the mobile version does appear to still be available in the Apple App Store. But after October 6th, the game will be unplayable on all platforms.
Square Enix has a bit of a reputation for shutting down its mobile games not long after they begin. But from the sound of it, Final Fantasy 7 Ever Crisis is a bit of a unique situation. In a lengthy letter from the development team, Square Enix breaks down why it’s stopping development on the free-to-play Final Fantasy title.
Ever Crisis first arrived on mobile, with a Steam PC version to follow a few months later. The PC port has mixed reviews, but the mobile game remains popular with its dedicated fanbase. However, the team behind the game has now “determined that it would be challenging to maintain a level of service that is expected of a game with the Final Fantasy VII name in its title.” Several key factors led the game to be too unwieldy to support long-term.
At the end of the day, it sounds like the game was just too expensive to keep going at its current level of quality. The shutdown post cites challenges with balancing production costs with new, high-quality character weapons, gear, and costumes. This led to the decision to shut down the live service game rather than churn out lower-quality content to keep the game running. Of course, reading between the lines, it’s also possible that microtransactions weren’t generating the kind of revenue needed to earn back production costs. At any rate, Ever Crisis will soon shut down entirely.
Until October 6th, Ever Crisis will continue to get new content to take players through to the end. The full roadmap for the final season is available via the announcement post from @FFVII_EC_EN on X. In addition, past content will be coming back to the game so players can enjoy the full experience ahead of the end-of-service.
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