The Latest on FFIX Remake

Yesterday was the 25th Anniversary of Final Fantasy IX’s Release in Japan, and this celebration was met with a musical livestream and some merchandise on the official website. There was an incredible amount of buzz from the community who were expecting that Final Fantasy 9 Remake would be unveiled on this day, and of course, it didn’t happen. We wrote extensively about Final Fantasy IX Remake leaks while back, and especially the recent unveiling of Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster reinforces the famous Nvidia Leak theory, which spawned a lot of these theories.

So, Did FFIX Remake Get Cancelled?

In my previous video entry on the subject, I discussed that there are a couple of possible places where the remake could get unveiled – these being: Summer Game Fest, 25th Anniversary Date, Tokyo Game Show and the final entry of the year, which is the Game Awards 2025. From a marketing point of view, the biggest eyeballs would be at the Game Awards, but symbolically, the anniversary date was the place to unveil it, honestly.

Creators like Davidvinc made the case that Square wants Final Fantasy to be more of a yearly release thing, with Tactics remaster coming in 2025, Final Fantasy 9 Remake in 2026, and Final Fantasy 7 Part 3 would be dropping then in 2027. Releasing or marketing two games in the same year can create consumer fatigue, and evening out the releases per year, like Atlus with the Persona series or Namco Tales Studio with theirs, might be the path to go.

This may sound like copium/hopium to some, but until the year has come to an end, there is still hope that they will be unveiling Final Fantasy IX Remake to the masses. It would also be possible that they could unveil it at Q1 of 2026, but that would be highly unlikely in my opinion.

Data that Supports FFIX Remake Cancellation

Despite my thinking, there is plenty of evidence from multiple leakers and other sources that the game was in the making. I need to play the devil’s advocate here and look at some of the bad stuff here too, so let’s go point by point.

1. Earlier, when Square-Enix announced that they would be cancelling a lot of the projects, it might be possible that FFIX Remake was on that list. Prominent Leakers like NateTheHate have also made statements that this project potentially got shelved.
2. Also earlier this year we had the bankruptcy of Cyber Group Studios, which was working on FFIX Animated series that was a sequel that was focused on Vivi’s Kids known as “Final Fantasy IX: The Black Mages’ Legacy” and I always was saying that this was part of the cross promotion for the Remake, because they also did companion anime with FFXV when it came out. The series not being moved to another animation studio is a bad signal.
3. There are a lot of games being developed at Square, and given how they are already working on Final Fantasy VII Part 3, Kingdom Hearts 4, Final Fantasy 14 and other games, it might make sense on some level that they just didn’t have resources for this FFIX Remake. That being said, there were initial leaks that the game was initially being outsourced until it was brought in-house for development.

Then of course we have to realise that Square has never said anything that this game was in the making, but given the Nvidia Leak, they really didn’t have to, as everything on that list kinda proves that the game was in the making at some point, but when it

Hope Dies Last

I think most haters have to concede the fact that the game was at least in the making at some point, but then recently it was cancelled, or maybe it was cancelled earlier. Now, given all the information we have, there are only a few potential outcomes.

• A) The Game is fully cancelled
• B) FFIX Remake is complete, and they are just waiting for a good release window for the game
• C) The scope and the budget of the game got axed, and maybe they are looking for another development team to finish it (it was already initially leaked that it was going to be a Double-A release)
• D) FFIX Remake is currently on pause, and they might continue it later once the financial situation looks better

Ultimately, the biggest point of hope is that, given the Nvidia Leak was years ago, it would make sense that Square-Enix did indeed have the time to finish this game. I’m assuming that if they did actually cancel the game, it must’ve been at 85% to 95% completion here, which would sound extremely crazy to shelve at this point, since it’s a critically acclaimed game that would’ve sold very well.

At this point getting just a Final Fantasy IX Remaster would also be an improvement on the sluggish PC port that basically requires you to use mods, and if you happen to be interested,d we did create a list of Best Final Fantasy IX Mods you can get for your steam version, so make sure to check that one out.