Final Fantasy XIV producer once again says a Switch version is a possibility
Final Fantasy XIV possibly coming to Switch is something that producer Naoki Yoshida has commented on fairly regularly. We’ve heard him weigh in on things as early as August 2015, back when Nintendo’s console was known as NX.
Kotaku once again asked Yoshida about Final Fantasy XIV on Switch in a recent interview. He unsurprisingly said that he’s still very much open the idea. However, he also stressed the importance of having cross-play.
Yoshida’s latest comments are as follows:
Yoshida: I’ve said this on several occasions, but it hasn’t changed. We would love for as many players to be on FFXIV as possible.
Conversations have been had with Mr. Phil Spencer of Microsoft, and the upper management teams of Nintendo. But I have proposed a condition every time I speak with any platform manufacturers. It’s that the game has to have the capability of cross-platform play.
Of course with an MMORPG, once it launches and starts going into live services and operations, there will be a community. No matter how small it dwindles down to, we have to be responsible for taking care of those communities. It would become an obstacle if the first-party or manufacturer changed how patches are being implemented or online regulations. Some of our external parties’ regulations don’t have MMORPGs in mind in terms of how they’re regulating their online activities. Those can become a hurdle when we consider operating FFXIV for an extended period of time, and so when I talk to those first-party companies, I ask them, ‘Do you have the capability to prepare for that, do you have the resolve that you’re going to make sure to take responsibility and take care of those, do you have that willingness?’
If we are able to come to some sort of agreement, a handshake so to speak, or if it does end up being that unfortunately we can’t do a handshake with Final Fantasy XIV, either way we’ll make sure to communicate with our players. But we have been tenacious—we’ve been trying to keep at it and be persistent about our conversations.
We do know that Nintendo is taking a more open stance with cross-play. Last week, Minecraft and Rocket League were announced as two Switch games that will allow for the feature.
