Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the conclusion to the remake trilogy, will launch in spring 2027. That is just three years after the second game, Rebirth. By modern AAA standards, where five years or longer is typical, that is fast.

Director Naoki Hamaguchi told Bloomberg the reason is simple: 95% of the development team stayed together from Rebirth. “The big benefit of the Final Fantasy VII Remake series is that we never had to go through that process, so the transition was extremely quick,” he said.

The industry norm is to disband teams after each release, then spend months reassembling for the next project. New people need new roles, new trust, new workflows. Hamaguchi avoided all of it by starting Revelation’s design a year before Rebirth shipped, then moving the same team straight into production.

The results show in the numbers. Remake took years of pre-production. Rebirth took four years. Revelation took three. Each game shipped faster than the last with the same people doing the work. Hamaguchi and Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki Yoshida are the only two leaders at Square Enix who maintain persistent teams across projects. Both run the company’s most successful franchises.

“I think it’s something that we should be mindful of as a company,” Hamaguchi said. “Because this did bring out a really huge benefit in terms of speeding up and having an efficient development timeline.”

The lesson arrives at a brutal moment. Xbox is planning major layoffs in July under new CEO Asha Sharma. Microsoft and Meta have cut tens of thousands of jobs this year while redirecting spending to AI. The gaming industry lost 11% of developers in 2024 according to GDC’s annual survey, with 41% affected directly or through their teams.

Hamaguchi’s interview also revealed design decisions shaped by player feedback. Mini-game rewards in Revelation will be purely cosmetic, not tied to combat strategy as they were in Rebirth. The Highwind airship will let players fly around the entire world with no invisible walls, a feature Hamaguchi pushed through despite engineering objections. A new job system called FITS offers four unique classes per character, each with deep skill-tree progression.

Only four or five people at Square Enix knew the title “Revelation” before it was announced. Hundreds of developers learned the name at the same time as the public.

After Revelation ships, Hamaguchi said his next project will not be a remake. He is considering a AA title, a new Final Fantasy, or an original AAA franchise. He would love to keep the team together but acknowledged the tension: holding talent in two persistent teams “staggers and hinders the growth of the company.” Tech companies keep cutting teams and wondering why the next thing takes so long. Hamaguchi proved what happens when you don’t.

Google has been unusually quiet about its Gemini-powered Home Speaker ever since announcing it in October 2025. I was expecting the device to make an appearance at the I/O 2026, but that didn’t happen either. 

Now, a product page on Best Buy Canada just casually posted (read leaked) a release date, suggesting the wait is almost over.

What does the leak suggest?

As per the Best Buy page, the Home Speaker might be released on June 25, 2026 (via 9To5Google). The page has since been updated, and the launch date has been removed, which is the kind of thing that usually happens with real release dates rather than placeholders.

So, how do we know about the release date? Several outlets captured screenshots before the date was removed. Even though Google hasn’t confirmed the Home Speaker’s launch date yet, June 25 is just four days after spring officially ends on June 21, which adds more credibility to it. 

In my opinion, the delay is intentional. Google had to finish rolling out Gemini for Home to existing hardware before introducing new devices, and that rollout has been active since October 2025, with updates arriving three to four times per month since March 2026. 

What does the Google Home Speaker actually offer?

The device wraps a 360-degree fabric design around everything except the base, which houses a microphone mute switch and a ring of status lights, which glow dynamically when the speaker is listening, thinking, or responding. Some features, including brainstorming, require a Gemini subscription

You can also pair two speakers with the Google TV Streamer for a home cinema setup, and stereo pairing with existing Nest Audio speakers enables multi-room audio throughout the house. 

Google’s Gemini AI assistant enables natural language conversation, along with smart home control and automation. Priced at $99.99 in the US, it will be available in four colors: Berry, Hazel, Jade, and Porcelain. Availability is confirmed for 19 countries including the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Ireland, and Japan.