Nintendo Switch has been celebrating great success since it's launch earlier this year, as well as a well-received E3 presentation. The console is quickly filling up with anticipated titles, including the official announcement of Skyrim for Switch (which now has a rumored release date). But what doesn't Nintendo Switch have in their salvo of scheduled games? An MMORPG. But there's someone who'd like to change that.
Naoki Yoshida, the producer credited with taking Final Fantasy XIV from a disaster pile into the successful MMORPG that it is now with A Realm Reborn, sat down with Kotaku to talk about the future of the game.
Final Fantasy XIV has been having some ups and downs this week. They've recently launched the early access of their newest expansion, Stormblood. A day later, they were under a constant DDOS attack that their team has been working nonstop to curb. But that hasn't stopped Yoshida from keeping high spirits about their game.
“Because we’re under maintenance right now, any sort of issues that happen at this timing could potentially delay the start of early access,” Yoshida said to Kotaku, “If my response is not fast enough, that could delay the opening of the service to players.” Then he laughed. “And plus for myself, I’m downloading the patch.”
Despite the rocky start and server issues, fans seem to be enjoying Stormblood, and Yoshida remains optimistic in his role. “I haven’t gotten sick of it yet,” He said. “There’s still a lot of things I want to accomplish inside of Final Fantasy XIV. Also, I’m not making the game for myself. It’s not like this is a project that I’m doing for my own ego. It’s more about: how do we satisfy our customers, our players, who have paid to play this game, and that payment is actually going into my salary.”
The interview carries on, talking about Yoshida's relationship with Square Enix, comparing their game development to World of Warcraft, and even what his favorite class is (which is Black Mage, by the way.)
The interview took an interesting turn when he was asked about bringing Final Fantasy XIV to Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. At first, his answer was tame, simply stating that he'd like to bring the game to as many players as possible. But then he explained that conversations have been ha with the two consoles' management.
"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.
[…]
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."
Basically, Yoshida would like to have the title on other consoles and has, in fact, started some legwork to make it happen, but cross-platform play is integral to the success of the potential launches. Something Yoshida and Tim Sweeney of Epic Games would agree on.
If Final Fantasy XIV actually comes to Xbox One, it could greatly expand the player base. If it launches on Nintendo Switch, it could set the precedent of MMOs on Nintendo Switch, which would be new ground to break on a Nintendo console.
Read the full interview at Kotaku.
