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Final Fantasy VII Remake's Tokyo Train Event Canceled Due to COVID-19 Coronavirus

Square Enix announced on Wednesday that it is canceling Saturday's "Battle Train Final Fantasy VII Remake Another Story" event due to the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

The free "real-world treasure hunt" would have had 280 players on an one-hour mission on Yamanote, the busy train artery line that loops around Tokyo's central area, at midday on Saturday. The participants, who take on their mission through their smartphones, would have received a present after the event.

The Taipei Game Show organizers postponed the video game convention, originally planned from February 6 to 9, to this summer due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Nintendo confirmed that the outbreak is delaying Nintendo Switch units and accessories destined for Japan, and Bloomberg reported that the disease is "likely" to affect similar shipments destined for the United States and Europe in April.

Singer and voice actress Miku Itō postponed the three-city February 11 event for the Plunderer opening theme song due to COVID-19, although the single stil debuted a day later. Voice actress and singer Yui Ogura's "Valentine Day Party" event on February 15 required attendees to use masks, disinfectant, and special food-handling procedures. The Petit Asobi event on February 15 to 16 asked attendees to take countermeasures such as wearing masks and washing hands.

Bushiroad is canceling or delaying its sponsored events until March 19 due to the developing situation with the COVID-19 coronavirus disease. The Animax Musix organizers also announced that they are canceling the February 22 Animax Musix Nextage event due to COVID-19. Osaka's Nippombashi Street Festa, billed as "Japan's biggest cosplay event," will not be held on March 15 due to the outbreak.

The A3! Season Spring & Summer anime's production committee cited COVID-19 on February 13 as exacerbating its existing scheduling issues that led to the remaining episodes being delayed to April or later. A Certain Scientific Railgun T anime staff has delayed episode 7 from February 21 to a later date due to the outbreak. The Infinite Dendrogram anime staff delayed episode 7 from February 20 due to the effects of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak as well as production issues.

The Asteroid in Love anime delayed episode 7's February 14 airing to February 21 and replaced it with a recap "episode 6.5." Asteroid in Love manga creator Quro had posted, "I hate the virus..." on Twitter on February 7, but the anime's production committee did not directly cite the COVID-19 coronavirus as the reason for episode 7's delay.

Square Enix announced last month that the Final Fantasy VII Remake PlayStation 4 game has been delayed from March 3 to April 10. The game wil be a PlayStation exclusive until April 10, 2021.

The game will have Deluxe, Digital Deluxe, and 1st Class Editions. The Deluxe Edition contains an art book, a mini-soundtrack CD, and a DLC Materia for Cactuar. The Digital Deluxe Edition contains a digital art book, a digital mini-soundtrack CD, and a DLC Materia for Carbuncle and Cactuar. The 1st Class Edition includes all the content from the Deluxe Edition, a DLC Materia for Carbuncle, as well as a Play Arts Kai figure named "Cloud Strife and Hardy Daytona." People who pre-order the game will receive a DLC Materia for Chocobo Chick. Digital pre-orders will also include a theme for the PS4 menu.

Tetsuya Nomura confirmed in an interview in November 2018 that the remake was the next PR priority for Square Enix after the release of Kingdom Hearts III this past January. Nomura is returning to the remake game as its director after serving as the character designer for the original game, and Kazushige Nojima is also returning to write the scenario.

Square Enix stated in a Japanese news post for the game in May, "production is underway on the work as multiple parts."

Source: Square Enix via Hachima Kikō

Update: The first reported cases of the COVD-19 coronavirus occurred in Wuhan, China in December, and then began to spread in varying rates and intensities across many parts of the globe through incubation in human hosts. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a world health emergency on January 30. As of Wednesday, the WHO reported that there are 75,204 infected individuals worldwide, with 74,280 in them in China and 73 official cases in Japan proper. (The Diamond Princess, a cruise ship docked in Yokohama, has an additional 542 infected individuals, but they are under quarantine aboard the ship.) 2,006 individuals have died from the disease in China. The WHO had reported only one death in Japan on Wednesday, but as of Thursday morning, two individuals who were aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship have died in Japanese hospitals, bringing the total to three.

Update 2: Wuhan's spelling correct. Thanks, megazero.