Japanese games giant Square Enix has confirmed that it is continuing to use Unreal Engine 4 rather than the newer Unreal Engine 5 for the upcoming third part in its Final Fantasy 7 Remake series.
Speaking to GameSpot, game director Naoki Hamaguchi said that the company had decided to stay with the same technology it used to make the first two entries in the trilogy due to the fact that the team was already very familiar with it, as well as the fact the developers had customised it a great deal.
Previously, Hamaguchi said that the development team was contemplating whether to switch to Unreal Engine 5 for the third part.
“We’ve been using Unreal Engine 4, but we’ve made a lot of modifications to fit our needs,” Hamaguchi said.
“It’s more beneficial to have something we’re already familiar with and have customised to fit our needs.”
The development veteran was also asked about AI in game creation; Hamaguchi said that while Square Enix doesn’t have any specific rules on the technology’s use, he personally doesn’t want to use it to make anything.
“ My stance hasn’t changed on depending on AI to produce something or to create something,” he said.
“ I don’t rely on AI to come up with ideas and things like that. That said, AI is a tool that I and other colleagues would utilise so that our tasks would become much smoother or some of the menial tasks are taken care of by AI. I think it’s becoming more and more necessary. I think the purpose of utilising these tools is so that creators will have a better environment so that they can work more efficiently and they can explore more creative options.”
The Final Fantasy 7 Remake team is not the only developer that is choosing to stick with Unreal Engine 4 rather than Epic’s newer model. Polish studio The Astronauts is using the technology for its upcoming RPG shooter Witchfire, saying that when work started, the engine was “simply not mature enough”.
Epic Games unveiled Unreal Engine 5 in 2020 before releasing the technology in 2022.
