Square Enix reveals the secret of agile development

The current market has grown accustomed to drawn-out production cycles, where major blockbusters routinely demand more than four or five years of gestation. Breaking this rigid dynamic, Square Enix is set to complete the ambitious project of revisiting one of its biggest classics by delivering three massive games within a total span of just seven years. The journey began with Final Fantasy 7 Remake in April 2020, moved forward with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in February 2024, and is slated to conclude in the early months of 2027 with the newly announced Final Fantasy 7 Revelation.

Maintaining such consistency in high-budget productions is a rarity worth highlighting. While most publishers get lost in confused planning and chronic delays, the Japanese company proves that good organizational structure can meet goals without sacrificing the schedule.

To understand the rarity of this release pace, just look at the Western competitors. In a similar seven-year span, Sucker Punch only delivered Ghost of Tsushima and the upcoming Ghost of Yotei. The reputable Naughty Dog brought to market only The Last of Us: Part 2, Bethesda Game Studios focused its efforts on Starfield, and BioWare took nearly a decade to finish Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Even The Coalition, managed by Microsoft, is preparing to release just Gears of War: E-Day in November, illustrating how the traditional development model has become slow and bureaucratic.

The main engine for this unusual speed was revealed by the trilogy's director, Naoki Hamaguchi, in an interview with journalist Jason Schreier from Bloomberg. The secret lies in the aggressive retention of the workforce between projects.

"Over 80% of the staff who worked on Remake stayed with the team to continue working on Rebirth, while more than 95% of the team that produced Rebirth remained to work on Revelation," detailed the journalist in a supplementary material shared on his channel.

The director himself acknowledged that this level of professional loyalty is a striking exception, even within the standards of the Japanese software house. The industry standard procedure involves disbanding teams as soon as a title hits stores, reallocating professionals to different departments or allowing them to seek new career paths. However, by shielding the creative core and maintaining the same base of developers since 2020, the publisher eliminated the time wasted on lengthy hiring processes and training for new tools.

This appreciation of human capital is the company's best achievement in recent years. Avoiding chronic staff turnover not only accelerates the workflow but preserves the artistic identity of the project. The result is a noticeable technical maturation with each chapter, demonstrating that treating developers as valuable assets — rather than disposable parts of a corporate machine — is the true formula for delivering major blockbusters efficiently and consistently.