Former Eidos Montréal art director confirmed that the studio once worked on a "really, really cool" version of Final Fantasy XV before the project was taken back to the Japanese division of Square Enix.
Former Eidos Montréal art director, Jonathan Jacque-Belletête, who contributed to such titles as Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy recently revealed that he also worked on Final Fantasy XV for a while.
Speaking to TrueAchievements, the art director shared that his team was making a "really, really cool" version of the game but later Square Enix decided to bring it back to Japan which Jacque-Belletête considers "a big mistake".
Jacque-Belletête, however, didn't explain what made Eidos's Final Fantasy XV stand out from the game that was eventually released by the Japanese division of Square Enix, nor did he mention when or how long Eidos Montréal was working on the game.
There has been speculation for several years that the studio at one point led the development of the project. In 2018, for example, YouTuber Super Bunnyhop reported on the existence of the project saying that the Montréal studio wanted to make a "space opera RPG" with Final Fantasy elements. He also stated that Eidos Montréal had "some basic art" and "some basic game design".
Deus Ex: Human Revolution was released in 2011, and Mankind Divided was launched in 2016, the same year that Final Fantasy 15 was released. According to Jacque-Belletête, the studio worked on Final Fantasy after these two titles, so most likely, it was just an early conceptual stage.
In early May, Square Enix decided to sell Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, and Square Enix Montréal to Embracer Group. The deal is expected to close between July and September.
You can find the original interview with Jonathan Jacque-Belletête here. Also, don't forget to join our new Reddit page, our new Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram and Twitter, where we are sharing breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.