Final Fantasy 7 The First Soldier Is Shutting Down

Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier is officially shutting down, Square Enix announced today. The free-to-play battle royale mobile game only launch in November 2021, meaning that the announcement of its shutdown occurred less than a year after launch. The video game will officially end service on January 11, 2023, but the in-app digital currency Shinra Credits have already been removed from the shop. The non-English versions of the game will also stop being translated beginning November 1st.

“It is with a heavy heart that we are announcing the end of service for FINAL FANTASY VII THE FIRST SOLDIER,” the announcement reads in part. “We will be ending service at 07:00 UTC on January 11, 2023.” You can check out the end of service notice straight from the official Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier Twitter account embedded below:

[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

“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 VII THE FIRST SOLDIER,” the notice continues. “We would like to thank you all for supporting us over the past year.”

Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier was a bit of an odd fit for the genre. While technically a battle royale video game, the narrative had players competing as SOLDIER candidates before the events of Final Fantasy VII Remake. Players are allowed to use weapons and magic both with various abilities associated with styles like Warrior, Sorcerer, Ninja, and so on. Also, they can use espers and materia and rideable chocobos and… they’re just a lot going on. And that’s before the cosmetic character customization.

As noted above, Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier will officially terminate service on January 11, 2023. For now, it remains available for mobile devices on both iOS and Android. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the free-to-play mobile battle royale game right here.

What do you think about Square Enix shutting down Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier early next year? Have you given it a shot as of yet? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things gaming!