A demo of the highly awaited Final Fantasy VII Remake is now listed on the PlayStation Network. The news was picked up by Gamstat , a tracker site that trawls the PlayStation Network’s API for any changes.
The info suggests a demo will land on the PlayStation Store at some point in the future. It also suggests Square Enix will release the demo in the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Japan regions. The listing also contains art assets with clear ‘demo’ labeling.
An accompanying tweet reveals the demo file size is 10.2 GB.
The leak comes from a source with a reputable track-record of revealing projects ahead of time. Most recently, Gamstat picked up on some Resident Evil 3 Remake art lurking on the PlayStation Network days before Capcom officially unveiled the game at The Game Awards earlier this month.
With that in mind and taking into account the fact the listing comes from data managed and published by PlayStation, a demo Final Fantasy VII Remake is more or less guaranteed.
Square Enix has penciled in Final Fantasy VII Remake for release on March 20 next year, which would align with putting in the prep work for a demo launch sometimes in the next three months. Given that listings tend to appear shortly before an announcement or release, we shouldn’t have too long to wait.
Demos are somewhat of a vestige of a bygone era in gaming where publishers would regularly hawk trial versions of their upcoming games. Gamers of a certain age will fondly remember a time when you’d look forward to picking up the latest issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine. It invariably included a disc with an odd dozen demos for the hottest future releases.
The original Final Fantasy VII had its own share of demos in the lead up to release, which makes all this rather fitting.