In light of the recent announcement that apple has increased the App Store file limit to 4gb....what do you think the liklihood is that we will finally see a port of final fantasy VII? Square Enix has always cited the file size restrictions as a reason for why the port hasn't happened yet, this no longer appears to be an issue as the pc port they did recently only weighs in at 3gb. Also, back in October the touch Arcade site did an article about a "Dive In" app that was available for IOS in Japan which could run this game...so it appears the port has been completed for some time, minus the localization? Thoughts? What percentage would you put to the possibility that we get an announcement soon? Also, what do you guys think the time frame would be for a release based on the information about the proposed port mentioned above?
I'd be surprised if they didn't. Square enix likes to make money and a re-release of FF7 would bring them quite a bit. Android phones have been able to run emulators and FF7 as a result for sometime. Given that, I would say it's just a matter of time really.
Square is so weird about FF VII. I think they would rather go bankrupt then create new IP for it. So to get to your question most if not all of Square IOS ports are based on existing mobile versions. Since their isn't a mobile version of FF VII I think it's unlikely we'll see it on IOS anytime soon.
The Dive In app in Japan was a mobile version I believe....it was just subscription based as opposed to being able to purchase the game outright.
Which means, if they have already recoded it for mobiles, then maybe... But if they haven't, and that was just a straight port, then I bet they would want to update it before a release on iOS.
I think you guys are talking about DiveIn, Square's Japan-only streaming service. It's subscription-based, and it's not running the games on your device. Instead, the games are being played on SE's servers, with your inputs and a video stream of the game being communicated between the servers and your device. What runs on there has no bearing on potential actual ports. As for FF7, I could see iOS getting the PC port now. Square guards the concept of an FF7 remake fiercely, but they seem to have no problems reissuing the original game if it's cheap/easy enough. With the cap raised, they can now more or less do quick and dirty ports for that and FF8, I think. Maybe after they run out of DQ games and/or DiveIn dies.
I figured Shaun would know this answer, I would throw so much money at square to have this on air 2!!
Given enough time, I'd put the likelihood at close to 100%. They have an updated codebase with the PC version, there's nothing technically stopping them, and they have the previous 6 games already done. I'm a little surprised it isn't here already. I'd be surprised if it was due to the file size restriction; they could have gotten around that before. They seem to have some policy about not porting FFVII. It almost feels like they want to do a full remaster, so they don't want to port the existing game, but then they also can't justify the cost and time of a remaster job. So we're in limbo...
SE is not allergic to money. I echo Shaun; I think the PC version of VII will come over. I doubt it'll be soon though, I can't imagine SE has that large a mobile game division and I'm reasonably confident in saying they have full plates for the foreseeable future.