Xbox Series S surprises Square Enix by optimizing Final Fantasy 7 Remake for it

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade on Xbox: Naoki Hamaguchi explains the optimization process.

More stories in the category Consoles

• Congratulations, Xbox Series! Five years of power and evolution
• Everything we know about the new Xbox console: date, compatibility, AI and more
• This is the new full screen experience of Xbox on the ROG Ally

Next January will mark a new milestone for Xbox players: Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade will debut on Xbox Series X and Series S on January 22, 2026. The arrival of this highly anticipated game puts an end to years of exclusivity, and it will also come with a bonus for those who pre-order the game on the Xbox Store, as they will also receive the original Final Fantasy 7 as a special bonus.

To coincide with this release, Windows Central has published an interview with Naoki Hamaguchi, the remake’s director, in which he details how the team tackled the challenge of bringing the full experience to both Microsoft’s most powerful console and the most accessible one in the family, the Xbox Series S.

Xbox Series S still delivers

Hamaguchi was clear in stating that the Xbox Series S has good hardware, capable of offering good processing results. However, he admitted that the main challenge has been in memory management, an aspect that other studios have already pointed out in the past.

• The director explained that much of the optimization work on the Xbox version was based on the experience gained on PC, where the team developed its own solutions inspired by Unreal Engine 5 technologies, such as Nanite, but adapted to the Unreal Engine 4 engine that the game runs on. Thanks to this, they were able to guarantee stable performance even on less powerful configurations, which also reflected in the game’s validation on Steam Deck.

Square Enix bets on Xbox

Beyond the technical aspect, Hamaguchi emphasized that Square Enix is strengthening its multi-platform approach, with the intention of bringing more of the company’s titles to Xbox consoles. This represents a change in strategy compared to previous stages, in which many key releases were left out of the Microsoft ecosystem.

With this step, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade not only joins the Xbox catalog, but also marks a new commitment from Square Enix to the Xbox community, paving the way for future releases to also have a guaranteed place on the platform.