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While 2016 brought the high profile arrival of Final Fantasy XV, its predecessor is still very much in progress and relevant to series fans. The MMO has, like so many online games in its genre, spanned across multiple console generations; it was only this week that the Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood expansion launched.

It's one of the longer-term titles at the heart of Switch speculation too, going back to the NX days. With the game very much back in the spotlight thanks to the Stormblood release, Kotaku caught up with producer Naoki Yoshida to talk about the game. When asked about versions for Nintendo Switch and Xbox One, he stated that they're still on the agenda, but that he needs a 'handshake' on infrastructure to support the online title's requirements, not only in terms of cross-platform play but in broader terms.

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.

It'd be interesting to see this on Switch, but clearly key agreements are still needed before it can make progress; would you be keen to dive into its world?

With thanks to SLIGEACH_EIRE for the heads up.

[source kotaku.com]