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Final Fantasy VII: Remake could have come to Nintendo Switch via the cloud

But Square Enix ultimately decided against launching the product as such, and went a different way.
Ben Lyons Senior Editor 30 September 2025

Soon, Final Fantasy VII: Remake will be coming to Nintendo Switch 2 platforms in the form of a native edition that runs on the console itself. This will be a big moment as it will (alongside its Xbox Series X/S launch) be the first time the game has debuted on a console that isn't a PlayStation, but in an alternate reality this could have been a very different situation.

In an interview with Nintendo Everything, co-director Naoki Hamaguchi revealed that Square Enix was flirting with the idea of bringing Final Fantasy VII: Remake to the original Switch in the form of a cloud version. This was ultimately binned after Kingdom Hearts received this treatment, as the Japanese company decided it didn't feel right for the acclaimed remade RPG to arrive in the same way.

In full, Hamaguchi explains: "We've always maintained a very good relationship with Nintendo. With the original Switch, we experimented with cloud versions for titles like Kingdom Hearts, but that approach didn't feel right for Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Once we learned what the Switch 2 could do, it felt like a natural and positive opportunity."

Final Fantasy VII: Remake will launch on Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S on January 22, 2026.

Senior Editor Ben was a Senior Editor at Gamereactor UK. When he wasn’t writing, editing or filming for Gamereactor, he could usually be found playing an FPS or getting lost in a sprawling RPG.
Full profile Gamereactor author since October 2020 · 18,577 published articles
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