BODY: Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis (FF7EC), the free-to-play mobile RPG that retold the entire FF7 saga in bite-sized chapters, will end service on October 7, 2026. The announcement, posted on July 8, closes the curtain on a title that launched in September 2023 — meaning it will have run for just over three years.
For fans, the most significant loss is the game's original storytelling. FF7EC was the home of "The First Soldier" arc, an original scenario depicting a young Sephiroth during his SOLDIER days, alongside recompiled versions of FF7, Crisis Core, and other entries in the Compilation of FF7. Much of this narrative content existed nowhere else, making its disappearance a genuine concern for series completists.
Square Enix has laid out a wind-down schedule typical for gacha titles. In-app purchases of the paid currency will halt ahead of the shutdown, and the company is expected to convert or refund remaining balances in line with Japanese platform rules. Players are being encouraged to enjoy remaining events before the servers go dark.
The closure continues a difficult stretch for Square Enix's live-service mobile efforts, which have seen several high-profile titles sunset in recent years despite strong source material.
The insider take
From Tokyo, FF7EC's ending fits a familiar pattern: even a beloved IP struggles to sustain a gacha model once the initial spending curve flattens. Industry watchers here have long noted that Square Enix over-extended into mobile live-service, and the company's recent "quality over quantity" pivot — emphasizing packaged titles like the FF7 Remake trilogy — makes standalone mobile spin-offs harder to justify internally. The real question fans are asking is whether the exclusive "young Sephiroth" story will be preserved or archived, since letting canonical Compilation material vanish entirely would be an unusual move for a publisher that guards FF7 lore carefully.
Originally reported by AUTOMATON (Japanese).