Yoshi-P says discussions about FFXIV on Switch and Xbox One are "Positive"

[Cirgellon]

Can the Switch even handle this game? That thing has some low end specs to be playing games like FFXIV.

[Sebazy]

Can the Switch even handle this game? That thing has some low end specs to be playing games like FFXIV.

TLDR = Yes I'd be very surprised if it couldn't. This game is playable on a GT 730 which the Switch handily beats.

In all honesty, I'm surprised people seem to think that the Switch is so utterly incapable of handling this game. On the GPU side, the Tegra X1 in the switch sits roughly between the GTX 750 and the GT 730 (Which has a better core count, but also a significantly slower memory setup than even the Switch). The 730 struggles with certain sequences (HW's Alex transition is an easy example) due to it's slow memory but the 750 handles things very respectably on medium/high settings. With the inevitable axing of texture quality to get the storage requirements under control, 30 fps at 720-900p is well within grasp with the current game IMHO.

The PS3 client was memory limited from day one, remember how segments of the UI needed to be cut out to get the minimal TP bars in? PS3 memory limitation right there. Don't believe me? Note how we got all these new UI elements right as the PS3 support got cut. The CPU and GPU weren't an issue, it was entirely down to that trifling 256+256mb rambus ram configuration not playing nice in a game where you can't tightly control and predict assets.

Standing in Kugane by the market board at max settings sees my PC using just over 1GB of ram, lets be super crazy generous and set aside another 1GB for the GPU for this and we've still got at least another 1GB sat free on our imaginary Switch client.

[Cirgellon]

TLDR = Yes I'd be very surprised if it couldn't. This game is playable on a GT 730 which the Switch handily beats.

That is under the minimum requirements for processor and graphics. It's fine on ram.

[Sebazy]

Doesn't change the fact that it actually runs perfectly fine. As noted, the only significant slowdown I'm aware of is Alexander's lake animation which could be easily optimised with minimal work.

I personally ended up raiding for a month on a Thinkpad which had a GT 620M GPU in it (granted this was back during Midas), worse still compared to a desktop GT 730 and considerably slower than the Switch's Tegra X1.

Between the extra performance the Switch has coupled with the inevitable axing of visual quality to get the file size under control would make this a pretty straight forward port from a technical stand point. The legalities and network access side of things is almost certainly the bigger issue here though.

*edit* Just to add. I'm not blowing hot air here. I've got actual technical experience in this field. Probably the most relevant would be my work on the PS2 port of Quake III. We quite literally halved the requirements of that game through a combination of aggressive BSP optimisation and half sized textures. Until we started incorporating the Team Arena stuff we were even running at a stable 60 FPS on the dev kits. By comparison, an FFXIV port would be a piece of cake and frankly I wouldn't be surprised if it hasn't already been done quietly on one of the in-house dev kits.

[Maero]

I would not include Performance and Switch in the same sentence, lol

[Sebazy]

I would not include Performance and Switch in the same sentence, lol

You seem to be under the illusion that FFXIV is a demanding game.

[alimdia]

Well, Yoshida has finally mentioned Sony as one of the reasons https://kotaku.com/final-fantasy-xiv...ps4-1827024591

If I had to guess, they are waiting from Microsoft to waive the sub requirement, but despite what many naysayers said here, the situation with Sony blocking crossplay in Fortnite and other titles also affects FFXIV.

We’ve also run into an issue with Sony - being able to play cross-platform. That’s another issue that we’d have to take care of as well.

On whether Sony will allow Final Fantasy XIV to have cross-play with platforms beside PC

“We had discussions with Andrew House before, but with the transition to a new president I’m afraid we have not properly met them yet, had proper introductions, or sat down for a discussion,” Yoshida said. (Sony’s new president, Kenichiro Yoshida, started in April.)

“So unfortunately we don’t have any visibility on the current stance Sony is taking. We’re hoping that with the transition there may be some kind of shift but we have not had the opportunity to sit down and discuss.”

"B-but XI and PS2..." are literally irrelevant for this, that was a completely different generation of consoles for a completely different game, the only thing that matters right now is their current policy.

[Galaktica]

Good, I'm glad this is getting out in the open. First, it was Psyonix, developers of Rocket League. They stated the infrastructure for cross-platform play had already been completed, but they couldn't get the go ahead from Sony. Epic essentially said the same thing, then they accidentally enabled crossplay for about a day and no one at Sony or Microsoft even noticed until users started reporting it and Epic fixed the "problem." Then Microsoft says they're trying to work with Sony to make Minecraft cross-platform, but Sony responds with some bullshit statement about "protecting the kids." Then just last week, this topic comes roaring back into the news again because Switch owners discovered that linking your Epic account to PS4 locked your account to every other platform and Epic makes it very clear in their error message that it is not their fault and to not contact their support (i.e. the subtext there being, "be mad at Sony, not us).

Which brings us this. Yoshi-P and Square Enix finally speaking up. Although he doesn't necessarily level any harsh criticsm at Sony, he's making it very clear who is at fault.

I hope more developers and publishers come out the woodwork to lay into them. Gaming has changed. Locking 3rd-party games into these closed loops is an archaic process. Yes, I know, blahblahblah "but muh FPSes" blahblahblah shush. For the vast majority of games, crossplatform play just makes sense. FFXIV is one of those games.

The fact Sony is standing in the way of this should bother everyone especially because all the servers in cases like are run by each of those individual companies. Sony gets their cut of each copy sold and that should be enough for them. This whole thing makes them look weak.

[Kurando]

I'm not sure how Sony has anything to do with this entire situation. As previously stated many times FFXIV is not on Xbox because of Microsoft, they are the ones preventing it, after all we already have PC/PS4 cross play. Unlikely to ever see a Switch port mostly because of limitations, PS3 was dropped for that very reason.

[Addicted]

Back during the PS3 and 360 days it was Sony that wanted to implement crossplay with Microsoft refusing them. Now that the PS4 has the bigger pool of players, Microsoft obviously shifts their tone. It's nothing new, Microsoft and Nintendo aren't doing it out of the goodness of their hearts but out of pragmatism. As for Sony's stance, it's anti-consumerist, yes, but Sony has no reason to acquiesce. They'd just be adding value to titles on their competitors platforms while gaining nothing in return.