It is no secret that fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake. The demo, which came out in early March, was wildly popular. Now Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy VII Remake is available for preloading on the PS4, enabling fans to start downloading the title now so it’s ready to play on release date, April 10.
Square Enix states that they have allowed the game to be available for preload due to concerns over potential bandwidth issues for customers. This is good news considering that PlayStation downloads have been intentionally slowed down in the United States and Europe by Sony, in order to cope with increased traffic due to the coronavirus.
Final Fantasy VII Remake has a huge file, roughly 80 GBs, so having the extra time to download means that players can get access to the game as soon as it is available, April 10 at 12:00 am EST. Hopefully, having an extra week to get the file downloaded will reduce the strain on both player’s bandwidth and on the servers.
Game producer, Yoshinori Kitase, gave a statement regarding the preload, “We know that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and many people having to stay at home, some of you may be experiencing extra pressure on your internet bandwidth. We wanted to give all our fans some extra time to download the game.”
Unfortunately, for those who pre-ordered physical copies of the game, Square Enix has previously cited difficulties with distribution and shipping due to COVID-19, so it is unknown if they will be playing the highly anticipated remake at the same time as those who opted for digital copies.
The preload announcement wasn’t the only thing Square Enix released today; they also dropped a new trailer. Developers state that this trailer has “a number of jaw-dropping reveals and glimpses at scenes from throughout the full game”.
