Final Fantasy 7 Remake co-director and Rebirth director Naoki Hamaguchi has said that the cloud versions of games on the original Switch weren't a good fit for Final Fantasy 7.
A few months shy of its sixth birthday, Final Fantasy 7 Remake is finally coming to non-PlayStation consoles in January 2026. While an Xbox edition felt like it should have been released years ago, a version for the original Nintendo Switch was a bit of a pipe dream at the time – with the Switch 2 being the first home it could realistically come to for Nintendo.
However, hardware struggles didn't stop some publishers, with the likes of Capcom, Ubisoft, and Square Enix experimenting with cloud versions of games on the platform. When Sora was announced for Smash Bros., fans were keen for the PS3 remaster of some PS2 games to come to the Switch, only to get cloud versions for every game in the Kingdom Hearts franchise instead. But despite going with a cloud version for those games, Cloud's game never got a cloud version.
Speaking to Nintendo Everything Final Fantasy 7 Remake lead Hamaguchi is asked about the origins of the JRPG's upcoming Switch 2 version, and whether the game was considered for the original Nintendo Switch. Hamaguchi says: "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."
However, he adds, "Once we learned what the Switch 2 could do, it felt like a natural and positive opportunity." And despite citing power consumption as the biggest issue facing the Switch 2 version, he believes "we were able to maintain very high-quality visuals that felt faithful to the PlayStation version."
