Today Square Enix and the developers behind Final Fantasy VII Remake announced that the game is being shipped early to Australia and Europe ahead of its global release date of April 10. As with most things happening in the world right now, the early shipping of the game is due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Director Tetsuya Nomura released a statement about why Final Fantasy VII Remake is getting shipped early.

An important message from the #FinalFantasy VII Remake development team. #FF7R pic.twitter.com/UwBMNaIaXX

— FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (@finalfantasyvii) March 30, 2020

The developers said that the main reason is so that everyone gets the opportunity to play the game at launch. “We had some hard decisions to make during the final few weeks before launch due to disruption to distribution channels caused by the spread of the COVID-19. These unique circumstances have made it very difficult to align timing of our global shipping. Our highest priority is that all of you, including those who live in countries currently facing the biggest disruption, can play the game at launch, so we made the decision to ship the game far earlier than usual to Europe and Australia.”

Two weeks ago, the developers announced that due to the change in distribution from retailers like Amazon having to prioritize essential items, physical game copies may not get to customers the day a game gets released. Shipping to Europe and Australia is happening this week so that means some people may get the game earlier than others and the developers have asked for people who get the game early to refrain from spoiling the game for others.

Kitase and Nomura said: “If you get the game early, please think of others and don’t spoil it for them. We know there are potential spoilers that have been out there for over two decades as the original FINAL FANTASY VII was released in 1997. But FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE is a new game that still has many surprises for everyone. All our fans and players deserve to experience the game for themselves, and we ask for the support of our dedicated community around the world to ensure that.”