Witcher 3 Fandom Behind FF7 Revelation Is a Portable Promise
Naoki Hamaguchi has spent years saying The Witcher 3 is a major inspiration for the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy, and at Gamescom 2026, the feeling became mutual in public. When CD Projekt Red closed Opening Night Live with a Witcher 3 refresh and expansion, Hamaguchi tweeted that it was ‘a great honor’ to share the stage with ‘one of my favorite games of all time.’ Then CDPR’s joint CEO Michał Nowakowski visited Square Enix’s booth, and Witcher 4 lead level designer Miles Tost replied that FF7 holds a special place in his heart.
For handheld players, this isn’t just developer sweet-talk — it’s a rare case of two blockbuster franchises openly admitting they’re building on the same foundation, and both of those foundations are playable on portable hardware. The Witcher 3’s Switch port is still the benchmark for open-world ambition in a small package, and FF7 Revelation is being shaped by that same ambition.
Geralt’s Shadow on Midgar: Why the Inspiration Matters on Deck
Hamaguchi’s admission isn’t surprising to anyone who played Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, whose sprawling regions and activity-dense map design owe a visible debt to The Witcher 3’s approach. But for Steam Deck and Switch 2 owners, the more useful takeaway is what Hamaguchi didn’t cite: not cinematic scale or graphical spectacle, but a game with a famously demanding open world that nonetheless shipped on Nintendo Switch in 2019. That’s the bar Square Enix is aiming at.
No handheld performance targets for FF7 Revelation have been announced, and Square Enix’s PC ports have historically varied in their Steam Deck friendliness. But when a director names The Witcher 3 as a touchstone, it signals a team that values dense, quest-driven world design that works in short sessions — not just long console marathons. Expect a game that asks ‘one more marker’ rather than ‘one more hour.’
Two Dev Teams, One Portable Roster
The mutual admiration also points to a practical outcome: the franchises are increasingly occupying the same hardware. The Witcher 3’s newly announced Songs of the Past expansion is slated for 2027, and while CDPR hasn’t confirmed which platforms get the refresh, the series’ history on Switch and its proven track record on Steam Deck make a Switch 2 follow-up a reasonable hope. Meanwhile, FF7 Revelation is heading for a more mature age rating than Remake and Rebirth, and if prior entries’ PC releases are any guide, the Steam Deck will be the first place many portable players test it.
This is the rare Gamescom exchange that doesn’t dissolve into corporate pleasantries. Both sides are naming each other’s games as creative north stars, and both franchises already have proven portable footprints. The takeaway: if Revelation’s open zones carry even a hint of The Witcher 3’s ‘question mark’ density, handheld players are in for a generation-defining commute companion — just keep an eye on those battery estimates.