Final Fantasy XV Director Clarifies Nintendo Switch Tease; Team Is Looking into the Platform

Giuseppe Nelva September 2, 2017 3:56 PM EST

Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata clarifies the tease about a possible Nintendo Switch version he delivered at Gamescom.

A few days ago, during a livestream from Gamescom, Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata teased what appeared to be a possible Nintendo Switch version of the game. Since the tease was rather vague, and quite a bit tongue-in-cheek, DualShockers asked Tabata-san to clarify whether a port is actually coming or not during an interview today at PAX West.

Tabata-san explained that nothing has been decided yet. The development team is testing out what kind of specs the Switch can provide. They tried to test the Luminous Engine (which is the engine powering the game on PS4 and Xbox One) on the platform, and they figured out that at this point in time the team can’t “bring out the most of the engine” on the Switch.

For the time being they stopped there, but they’re still looking into the Switch, to see what they can do on it.

Tabata-san then clarified that this isn’t to say anything negative about the Switch, as the team did not do any specific optimization to the Liminous Engine for Nintendo’s console. They simply loaded it in to see how it would perform. They also made tests on Unity and Unreal Engine 4, and they noticed that those ran well on Switch.

The team is at a point in which they understand the technical specifications of the Switch, and they will continue to look into what they can do for the platform. Like with therecently announced Windows Edition and the Pocket Edition, if they’re going to release something for Nintendo’s hybrid console, they want to make sure that they’ll capitalize on the platform’s characteristics, bringing out the most of it.

In the meanwhile, Square Enix is continuing to update Final Fantasy XV for PS4 and Xbox One, and they recently released update 1.15 and the Assassin’s Festival crossover event with the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

[Original interview: Jordan Loeffler]