Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata Is “Enormously” Interested in Nintendo Switch

Nintendo showed off some pretty interesting things about its upcoming Switch console last week, and a few more bits and pieces have dribbled out in the time since. One thing we really don’t know much about, however, is what games will be on the thing.

Nintendo released a list of development partners, but — save for Just Dance 2017 from Ubisoft — none of them have confirmed a single piece of software. Bethesda actually refused to confirm The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim would be coming to the Nintendo Switch, despite Nintendo ostensibly showing footage of the game running on the hardware.

And yet, Nintendo’s little tablet console has everyone buzzing — including game developers. One such dev is Hajime Tabata, director of the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy XV. Though Tabata hasn’t announced any Square Enix projects for Nintendo Switch, he is excited about Switch both personally and as a games developer.

“It is a machine that interests me enormously! As a player, but also as a developer,” he told French site Gameblog, according to a rough translation via Google. “Nintendo Switch [which] can turn into [a] joystick, which can be put in a [dock], which can move, on which one can replace elements. It’s been a while since I [thought I would] like to make games on a Nintendo machine, so if Nintendo Switch can be the opportunity, I will be delighted!”

This is far from the Final Fantasy XV to Nintendo Switch confirmation that most fans would surely love to get, but Tabata was reportedly very enthusiastic about the Switch and unable to hide a smile when asked about it. That being said, he previously estimated it would take more than a year to port Final Fantasy XV to PC, so fans probably shouldn’t get too excited about the game coming to Nintendo’s next console, at least not anytime soon.

The Nintendo Switch is scheduled to launch in March 2017. Final Fantasy XV will release on November 29 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

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