Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis Faces Its Final Day Before Square Enix Pulls the Plug

Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis reaches the end of the road today. Square Enix will shut down the free-to-play RPG at 11pm Pacific Time on October 6, which translates to October 7 in Europe and Asia, ending just over three years of service. Ever Crisis launched on iOS and Android in September 2023 before expanding to Steam that December, attempting the mildly heroic task of retelling material from across the enormous Final Fantasy VII universe inside one mobile-friendly package.

It covered stories involving Cloud, Zack and Sephiroth while adding original material and, inevitably, a substantial collection of weapons and costumes. Square Enix stopped selling paid Red Crystals when it announced the closure in July, although existing currency remained usable until shutdown. The company says account information will ultimately be deleted after the necessary end-of-service procedures are completed, with specific refund arrangements for eligible Taiwan residents.

Ever Crisis becomes another reminder of the uncomfortable preservation problem surrounding live-service mobile games. A traditional Final Fantasy cartridge can survive forgotten in a cupboard for thirty years. A server-dependent game can contain years of artwork, writing and development and then simply cease functioning when the backend disappears. Midgar has survived meteorites, monsters and questionable urban planning. It turns out server operating costs were the real superboss.