Final Fantasy is about to be all but purged from the PlayStation Plus library, with more than a half-dozen titles from the franchise being scrapped from the subscription package in May—and sagging playing numbers may well be to blame.
According to a post from Genki, a gaming news content creator, on X (formerly Twitter), on April 16, seven Final Fantasy titles, including FF7, FF8, FF9, FFX/X-2, FF12, FF15, and World of Final Fantasy, will be removed from the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium library, alongside Jotun, Abzu, and many others on May 21.
Typically, games are rotated through the PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium library to keep it fresh and to let players try newer games without paying full price. Although this may be the case with the Final Fantasy game purge from the library, it’s possible that they’re being removed because of the series’ lackluster sales.
Despite it being one of the most highly anticipated FF games of 2024, the latest installment in the series, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, has only sold about half the copies FF7 Remake had in the same time, according to Daniel Ahmad, a gaming insights content creator. Christopher Dring, the head of GamesIndustry.biz, also weighed in on FF7 Rebirth’s sales figures, claiming the box sales were down 30 percent compared to FF7 Remake.
While we won’t know the full extent of FF7 Rebirth’s sales and how they compare to previous titles until Square Enix officially releases them, these claims may have merit, seeing as seven FF titles are soon leaving PlayStation Plus libraries. Then again, it could just be they’ve served their time or weren’t performing as well as other titles in Extra and Premium, and will be replaced with more promising games.
Unfortunately, if you downloaded any of these games from the Extra and Premium libraries, you’ll need to buy the full titles to keep playing after May 21. This is because once a title leaves PlayStation Plus you can no longer access them.
