Final Fantasy 7 Remake street date broken in Australia

Retailers including EB Games and JB Hi-Fi have broken the Final Fantasy VII Remake street date in Australia.

Both companies began selling the title on April 1 – nine days ahead of its official launch date.

The decision to break the street date follows publisher Square Enix’s move to ship physical copies of the title early in Europe and Australia in a bid to combat delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We had some hard decisions to make during the final few weeks before launches due to disruption to distribution channels caused by the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” the company said last Thursday in a statement credited to director Tetsuya Nomura and producer Yoshinori Kitase.

“Our highest priority is that all of you, including those who live in countries currently facing the biggest disruption, can play the game at launch, so we made the decision to ship the game far earlier than usual to Europe and Australia.

“As a result, there is a greater chance that some of you in these regions will now get a copy of the game prior to the worldwide release date of April 10.”

Square Enix also asked those who receive copies of the game early not to spoil it for others, a message echoed by EB Games and JB Hi-Fi, which requested players avoid sharing content online until April 10.

The Final Fantasy VII Remake release date was previously scheduled for early March but in January it was delayed by approximately one month in order to polish the game.

Final Fantasy VII Remake will be exclusive to PlayStation platforms for one year.

A Final Fantasy VII Remake demo released in March lets players sample the game’s opening chapter, the Mako Reactor 1 bombing mission.