Final Fantasy 7’s Success in the West Is Credited to PlayStation Tech

gamerant.com:

Final Fantasy 7's creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, recently said he believes the game's success was thanks to PlayStation's technology. Sakaguchi recently took part in a panel at Monaco Anime Game International Conferences 2023 and reflected on how Japanese creators had to adapt to the standards of the west and how that affected the creative process of Final Fantasy 7.

Final Fantasy 7 was released on the PlayStation in 1997. The previous games were pixel animated, but Final Fantasy 7 introduced CG animation. Yusuke Naora, who worked as a designer on Final Fantasy 6 as well, said he needed to relearn drawing, as 3D suddenly required a very different approach compared to 2D. It was considered an enormous undertaking at the time, but the efforts of the developers paid off in the end. Final Fantasy 7 was highly regarded by most critics upon release. In North America, during its release week, it sold over 1.5 million copies and grossed more than most Hollywood blockbusters. The remake of Final Fantasy 7 was released in 2020 and enjoyed a similar success with 3.5 million copies sold in its first 3 days.

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Hironobu Sakaguchi said the reason for this level of success in the west was due to the introduction of CG animation to the Final Fantasy series. He reasoned «at the time, people in the West saw pixel art and three-heads-high characters as something for children.» Square Enix wanted to expand its market and hoped by changing the animation style the games could achieve recognition in the west. For a long time, the only Japanese gaming brand that was considered a success among western audiences was Nintendo. Sakaguchi added, the fact that the PlayStation