Six years after its announcement, Square's Final Fantasy 11 mobile reboot is cancelled

Square Enix's long-in-the-works Final Fantasy 11 reboot for mobile devices has, six years after its initial announcement, been officially cancelled.

Final Fantasy 11 R - a mobile version of 2002's PlayStation 2, PC, and later Xbox 360 MMORPG Final Fantasy 11 Online - was originally unveiled back in March 2015 as a collaboration between Square Enix and online game specialist Nexon.

Leaked screenshots of the reboot emerged a year later, but the game sailed right through its originally planned 2016 release window with barely a peep. Since then, news on the project has been sparse, but now, some six years after the game's unveiling, Square and Nexon have finally confirmed what many had long suspected: development has officially ceased.

Nexon initially shared word of Final Fantasy 11 R's cancellation during an earnings call last month (following unverified reports of the game's demise toward the end of 2020), but the news only picked up steam after being highlighted by Social Game Info earlier this week.

Nexon elaborated on the cancellation in an English-language statement given to Kotaku. "In early February Nexon and Square Enix announced a mutual decision to cancel that project," the company wrote. "Together, we decided that the game was not showing the level of creative differentiation that players expect from the FF franchise."

"Rather than release a game that doesn't break new creative ground," the statement concluded, "we agreed to step away from the project."

Social Game Info reports development staff have now been moved to other projects.