Final Fantasy XV is one of the most demanding console games of the generation. There are few games that can stress our PS4s and Xbox Ones quite like FFXV, and Square Enix is interested in finding a way to bring the full FFXV experience to the Nintendo Switch. This is amazing, considering the the Switch is about 1/7 the size of a standard PS4. Nintendo crammed in a mind-boggling amount of impressive technology into a tiny package, but could it possibly handle the full version of FFXV? Square Enix is doing everything it can to figure that out right now.
At first it was popularly speculated that Square Enix wanted to bring Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition to the Switch, but speaking to Eurogamer, FFXV director Hajime Tabata confirmed that that’s not the case. “We’re actually doing very specific technical investigations into what’s possible at the moment,” he said. “Where we are at the moment – we’ve completed those tests and have worked out where the ground lies. We’re currently in the middle of the discussion and debate about what we should be doing, and how to realize that on the Switch.
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“The other thing – you see the mobile version, the PC version, one thing we value is to optimise the way the game plays and the experience for the individual hardware it’s on rather than a one-size fits all approach. We can’t currently announce anything – we haven’t come to a full decision on the best way to do it yet. We’re having very open, frank discussions with Nintendo at the moment about what they think is the best thing to do. It’s all under investigation.”
They’re serious, guys. They’re spending research and development dollars on making this happen. If you ever doubted Square Enix’s commitment to the Nintendo Switch, this project and Octopath Traveler should ease your mind. In fact, Square Enix is so determined to get their flagship RPG running on the Switch, they may even port it over to a brand new engine.
Could Square Enix Port This All to Unreal Engine?!
Tabata revealed that Square Enix is willing to go the extra mile, potentially porting the entire game to a new engine to make scale more readily to the new hardware spec.
“Honestly, when we did the technical test to see if we could use the same native engine we used on other console versions on the Switch, we tried to run it there, the results weren’t satisfactory,” said Tabata. “It wasn’t what you’d want from a final game. It doesn’t mean that’s the end of that – we’re looking at the options, like the customisation of the engine.
“To give you an example how open those discussions are – we’re talking to Epic at the moment, about maybe what we could possibly do there, and if we did a Switch version maybe we’d be able to partner and do something there. Their Unreal environment is just amazing, and will be very useful. You have to have all those options on the table – without that it’d be impossible to make a decision about what we can do on that platform.”
It’s unprecedented, really, and it goes to show just how successful the Switch is in Japan. If Square Enix can pull this off, it will send a signal to other big third-party developers and publishers in Japan. No doubt Tabata’s transparency in this effort is already sending out a message loudly and clearly.
