Cloud Versions of Kingdom Hearts games coming to Switch

[9-Volt]

Not really. They're still 20gbs each, so about 40 for 1.5 + 2.5. And then you have no choice for 2.8 and 3+ReMind since those are current-gen only.

20 GB per game. That's not unusual, literally half of my SD card is occupied with games over 18gb. And they sold really good, Mortal Kombat 11 constantly visits the eShop top sellers list.

 

[Kano]

20 GB per game. That's not unusual, literally half of my SD card is occupied with games over 18gb. And they sold really good, Mortal Kombat 11 constantly visits the eShop top sellers list.

Real talk: would you buy separately 1.5 and then 2.5 and then all the other games? The collection of both of those games are available for mere dollars on the other platforms, Square would never sell these separately at full price, it'd be highway robbery lol.

This is late ports we're talking about, a shit ton of work to sell some late copies to the few who still haven't played these.

 

[Tlozbj]

Why would they port the PS4 versions of the games? PS3 versions of 1.5 + 2.5 are much smaller.

Bingo. KH 1.5 is 22 GB and KH 2.5 is 20GB, it is feasible to get them below 16GB to fit.

Not really. They're still 20gbs each, so about 40 for 1.5 + 2.5. And then you have no choice for 2.8 and 3+ReMind since those are current-gen only.

Two 16GB cartridges, 1 for 1.5 and 1 for 2.5. Only have the playable games in the cartridges, do some compressing and it should be feasible. Even more if you make the 358/2 Days and Re:Coded movies a digital download. Include the two in the same box like the NMH example.

 

[AquaWateria]

Square has to be the biggest cheapest Japanese publisher I have ever seen.

Like they cheapen out far too often for how big they are that it's honestly laughable.

 

[Kano]

Bingo. KH 1.5 is 22 GB and KH 2.5 is 20GB, it is feasible to get them below 16GB to fit.

Two 16GB cartridges, 1 for 1.5 and 1 for 2.5. Only have the playable games in the cartridges, do some compressing and it should be feasible. Even more if you make the 358/2 Days and Re:Coded movies a digital download. Include the two in the same box like the NMH example.

a HUNDRED dollars for a two-games collection that is available for five dollars on PS4? guys, get serious. It is unfeasible to port these games as they are on the Switch. The fact that you have to think of extremely convoluted and absurd workarounds shows it already.

Switch has limitations, it's how it is.

 

[Fuffelpups]

Real talk: would you buy separately 1.5 and then 2.5 and then all the other games? The collection of both of those games are available for mere dollars on the other platforms, Square would never sell these separately at full price, it'd be highway robbery lol.

They don‘t need to sell the games seperate but they can make each game it’s own application, for users with smaller SD cards. Like i think Bioshock does it with the three Bioshock games.

 

[Kano]

They don‘t need to sell the games seperate but they can make each game it’s own application, for users with smaller SD cards. Like i think Bioshock does it with the three Bioshock games.

Bioshock sells these separately still, and it's nothing close to the same file size.

 

[9-Volt]

Real talk: would you buy separately 1.5 and then 2.5 and then all the other games? The collection of both of those games are available for mere dollars on the other platforms, Square would never sell these separately at full price, it'd be highway robbery lol.

This is late ports we're talking about, a shit ton of work to sell some late copies to the few who still haven't played these.

Other platforms? This is the first time the full series appearing on a handheld. Don't underestimate the power of playing the games on the go.

I'd gladly pay $60 for just Kingdom Hearts 1 alone.

 

[Kano]

Other platforms? This is the first time the full series appearing on a handheld. Don't underestimate the power of playing the games on the go.

I'd gladly pay $60 for just Kingdom Hearts 1 alone.

perhaps you would, but sorry to say that most people wouldn't lol

 

[Dakhil]

Other platforms? This is the first time the full series appearing on a handheld. Don't underestimate the power of playing the games on the go.

I'd gladly pay $60 for just Kingdom Hearts 1 alone.

The handheld experience is going to be quite limited since a Wi-Fi connection is needed.

 

[Yoshifan31]

Real talk: would you buy separately 1.5 and then 2.5 and then all the other games? The collection of both of those games are available for mere dollars on the other platforms, Square would never sell these separately at full price, it'd be highway robbery lol.

This is late ports we're talking about, a shit ton of work to sell some late copies to the few who still haven't played these.

You greatly underestimate the sales potential this has. Between late adopters, double dippers, Smash fans and kids that don’t have other platforms, this could easily sell millions

They have already released their collections in an overpriced way on PC, it would probably sell a lot more on Switch even with a similar price point because some people just want to play those on Switch over other platforms

 

[Tlozbj]

a HUNDRED dollars for a two-games collection that is available for five dollars on PS4? guys, get serious. It is unfeasible to port these games as they are on the Switch. The fact that you have to think of extremely convoluted and absurd workarounds shows it already.

Switch has limitations, it's how it is.

The NMH collection costs 9,800 yen, close to 89.99, 90 to round it, when you convert it to USD. If you want to split, 50 for the new game and 40 for NMH1 + NMH2. A pack of KH 1.5 + 2.5 for $39.99 - $49.99 is feasible and is the original price tag for KH1.5 + 2.5 Remix on PS4.

It is not unfeasible to run PS2 and PSP games in HD on Switch, nor is the cartridge-download suggestion an absurd workaround since Square Enix themselves have done it in the past. They went cheap on the western version of the FFX duology and used just a 16GB cartridge. FFX was in cartridge and FFX-2 was a download. There is precedent.

 

[Kano]

I'm done with the convo since people are impossible to reason with, but you are not smarter than developers at Square Enix that have deemed it impossible to bring the games to switch lol. A retail release would require no less than five 32gbs cartridges, which are all already extremely expensive to boot, meaning the collection would cost 5*60 = 300 dollars. Go ahead and argue with me that anyone would buy 300 dollars of KH late ports at retail.

Pretty disappointing to see that at the first occasion here too, people will immediately jump to shit on a developer before understanding how game development really works.

 

[9-Volt]

The handheld experience is going to be quite limited since a Wi-Fi connection is needed.

I was talking about a hypothetical native release. Maybe we'll complain enough they might reconsider this whole thing. Knowing KH fans, it wouldn't be that hard.

 

[Dakhil]

I was talking about a hypothetical native release. Maybe we'll complain enough they might reconsider this whole thing. Knowing KH fans, it wouldn't be that hard.

Fair enough. I hope enough Kingdom Hearts fans are complaining. I'm not willing to spend money on cloud versions of games in general.

 

[Coco]

Square Enix is not gonna change the release model for these. This is the only feasible way to release the whole franchise, unless y'all only want the 1.5 + 2.5, don't care about the rest, and want a sizable chunk of that collection to be download only. Because, I'm telling you, 2.8 and 3 won't run on Switch considering how they run on base last-gen consoles.

 

[9-Volt]

Fair enough. I hope enough Kingdom Hearts fans are complaining. I'm not willing to spend money on cloud versions of games in general.

Oh, they ARE complaining. Checking every news site, I see nothing but hundreds of furious comments. Too bad Square is not particular a listening company. But nothing is impossible, especially on Switch...

 

[Sadist]

A shame for everyone interested in the series on Switch

I won’t share my thoughts on the games here now, but the collections could have been native versions for sure.

 

[Tlozbj]

I'm done with the convo since people are impossible to reasonate, but you are not smarter than developers at Square Enix that have deemed it impossible to bring the games to switch lol. A retail release would require no less than five 32gbs cartridges, which are all already extremely expensive to boot, meaning the collection would cost 5*60 = 300 dollars. Go ahead and argue with me that anyone would buy 300 dollars of KH late ports at retail.

Pretty disappointing to see that at the first occasion here too, people will immediately jump to shit on a developer before understanding how game development really works.

Who ever said we expected all 3 games natively and on cartridge? Both conversations are focused on the collections. Since I'm pretty sure we all agree that KH3 is natively impossible. However, the collections are feasible with a stunt that Square Enix has already pulled in the past. It is not wanting to know more than the developers, but to look at precedent and how they have already done this before. A collection of PS2 games, with similar file size from their OG PS3-PS4 HD version, that is splitted in a way to make it possible.

Oh, they ARE complaining. Checking every news site, I see nothing but hundreds of furious comments. Too bad Square is not particular a listening company. But nothing is impossible, especially on Switch...

Well true, like the SE's digital only collections... that end up getting a physical release some months down the line, specially the Mana one :v

 

[Pokemaniac]

I'm done with the convo since people are impossible to reason with, but you are not smarter than developers at Square Enix that have deemed it impossible to bring the games to switch lol. A retail release would require no less than five 32gbs cartridges, which are all already extremely expensive to boot, meaning the collection would cost 5*60 = 300 dollars. Go ahead and argue with me that anyone would buy 300 dollars of KH late ports at retail.

Pretty disappointing to see that at the first occasion here too, people will immediately jump to shit on a developer before understanding how game development really works.

They've got plenty of room to have their retail release without putting literally everything on carts, especially because my understanding is a bunch of this is just video versions of several of the games. Publishers have found ways to split their games up into downloadable chunks before on Switch.


Also I highly doubt it's the developers at Square that deemed it impossible.

 

[Dakhil]

Oh, they ARE complaining. Checking every news site, I see nothing but hundreds of furious comments. Too bad Square is not particular a listening company. But nothing is impossible, especially on Switch...

That's why I said 'enough'. The number of people complaining on social media may not be enough for Square Enix to care.

 

[Kano]

Also I highly doubt it's the developers at Square that deemed it impossible.

Tetsuya Nomura says Square Enix considered Kingdom Hearts ports for Switch, but was technologically difficult

Square Enix will finally be bringing a Kingdom Hearts game to Switch this year, but perhaps not in the way that fans had hoped. Rather than releasing one of the core past titles, we’re instead getting Melody of Memory – a rhythm action spinoff. Unfortunately, Square Enix isn’t planning any other...

nintendoeverything.com

Unfortunately, Square Enix isn’t planning any other Kingdom Hearts games for Switch at the moment. Franchise director Tetsuya Nomura told Nintendo Enthusiast that the company considered porting other entries in the series, but found things to be technologically difficult.

 

[Dakhil]

Tetsuya Nomura says Square Enix considered Kingdom Hearts ports for Switch, but was technologically difficult

Square Enix will finally be bringing a Kingdom Hearts game to Switch this year, but perhaps not in the way that fans had hoped. Rather than releasing one of the core past titles, we’re instead getting Melody of Memory – a rhythm action spinoff. Unfortunately, Square Enix isn’t planning any other...

nintendoeverything.com

My response to Square Enix:

 

[Imitatio]

I'm ultimately happy for those folks who get to play the games on Switch now, even if it's "only" via streaming. I won't lie, though, I'm pretty disappointed by this treatment. It _feels_ like S-E don't want to bother. Which probably isn't true, but who knows (for sure) at the end of the day other than them.
It sadly fits a general trend over these past few years, where I've grown more and more frustrated with S-E on the whole, and this is another one of those situations adding on top. My irritation right now thus stems more from my general frustration with S-E than this sole announcement. It certainly doesn't help matters.

 

[Tlozbj]

They've got plenty of room to have their retail release without putting literally everything on carts, especially because my understanding is a bunch of this is just video versions of several of the games. Publishers have found ways to split their games up into downloadable chunks before on Switch.


Also I highly doubt it's the developers at Square that deemed it impossible.

Correct, the collections include:

Kingdom Hearts 1.5:
- Kingdom Hearts 1 Final Mix(PS2)
- Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories (PS2)
- Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days Movie* (DS)

Kingdom Hearts 2.5:
- Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix (PS2)
- Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Final Mix (PSP)
- Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded Movie* (DS)

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Final Chapter Prologue
- Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance (3DS)
- Kingdom Hearts 0.2** (PS4)
- Kingdom Hearts Union Cross Movie (Mobile)

* The games were originally released for DS, and like Square Enix couldn't recreate the touch screen dependent gameplay on PS3, they found this workaround. Though it is more of a visual novel + HD version of the DS cutscenes

** A 5 - 10 hour short story about Aqua in the Dark World, which was meant to be part of the KH3 prologue/opening.

Tetsuya Nomura says Square Enix considered Kingdom Hearts ports for Switch, but was technologically difficult

Square Enix will finally be bringing a Kingdom Hearts game to Switch this year, but perhaps not in the way that fans had hoped. Rather than releasing one of the core past titles, we’re instead getting Melody of Memory – a rhythm action spinoff. Unfortunately, Square Enix isn’t planning any other...

nintendoeverything.com

Difficult =/= impossible, specially for the company that already ported their other PS2 remasters to Switch without much issue.

 

[Ahmed]

I was really happy when Sakurai announced the games coming to Switch until I read the word "cloud" lol.

Yeah, i don't see much reason to make all games cloud only, when 1.5 & 2.5 are PS3 games.

I'd rather have them digital only, since I can imagine they don't fit on a (reasonably priced) cart. And KH3 would always be cloud only.

I never played any game in the series and wanted to get into it, and was waiting for the pc versions to release, despite the high price. This hasn't changed my mind, but I really want to play these types of games on the go.

 

[Pokemaniac]

Tetsuya Nomura says Square Enix considered Kingdom Hearts ports for Switch, but was technologically difficult

Square Enix will finally be bringing a Kingdom Hearts game to Switch this year, but perhaps not in the way that fans had hoped. Rather than releasing one of the core past titles, we’re instead getting Melody of Memory – a rhythm action spinoff. Unfortunately, Square Enix isn’t planning any other...

nintendoeverything.com

There's a pretty wide gap between "technologically difficult" and "impossible". I also strongly suspect that aside from 3, the amount of content those technological challenges apply to is pretty small given the platforms this has been released on in the past.

 

[OTBWY]

As someone who collects physical games, I am gonna have to pass.

 

[DecoReturns]

I would’ve taken at least the original Chain of Memories.

Re-Release that please

The 3D version is terrible.

 

[Dakhil]

 

[Coco]

What Nate and MVG are talking about is true. It's not just "Well they are PS3 games!", there's a lot of work there involved. People can point fingers at each other all they want, but the truth is that the cloud versions are the most feasible way to bring the entire franchise to the Switch. It was already hard enough for Square to port the games to PS4 / One, let alone a Switch that has a ton of size issues and, basically, a mobile CPU.

 

[Yzz]

Sorry if it looked like we were calling the devs lazy, I assure you nobody here believes that. It's just that with how the whole pc port situation unfolded, it's really hard to give S-E executives the benefit of the doubt. The situation is confusing because this is the same company that did the excellent DQXI port, which was a ps4 game.

 

[Azuran]

Square Enix is never gonna separate all of these games ever again and because Switch can't run KH3, that means everything became a cloud version instead of individual releases like in the other system.

 

[9-Volt]

What Nate and MVG are talking about is true. It's not just "Well they are PS3 games!", there's a lot of work there involved. People can point fingers at each other all they want, but the truth is that the cloud versions are the most feasible way to bring the entire franchise to the Switch. It was already hard enough for Square to port the games to PS4 / One, let alone a Switch that has a ton of size issues and, basically, a mobile CPU.

No doubt about how hard can be the porting process but I really don't think it was the main reason for Square to go with Cloud here. They are currently downporting Life is Strange 3, if they're undertaking such big action just for that series, they could have done much bigger for KH.

I'm thinking these situations:

• This was a sudden decision by Square, they probably decided to bring Sora to Smash but as the development of the Sora DLC getting closer to be finished Square made a sudden decision to cash in on the hype by instantly releasing the games on Cloud. There are no release date on cloud games, so they can drop any moment.
• Ubitus's cloud games are based on PC versions of the game that don't require extra age rating, which also must mean Square doesn't need to pay for insane amount of royalties again.
• Square must be testing waters. Seeing how the cloud gaming fare on Switch by launching one of their biggest series on it. Probably not a gamble, they also could prepare a native version of older games for a later date. We do not have solid data on Ubitus's sales on Switch, but we can tell that it's not hot among big publishers since nobody but Square and smaller independent devs (Remedy, Techland, IO and Asobo) are using it. We've yet to have anything from Ubisoft or Capcom on Ubitus in west, two publishers who used the service in Japan.

One thing is for sure, there's still chance for native versions of older KH games. Square knows in the first hand how crazy their games sell on Switch, even on full price, they'd want that if the Ubitus versions fail, which i think they'll most likely.

Another sure thing is Nintendo won't allow their only system to descend into being Cloud only system. We already have 3 games this year, let's hope sales performance of the games make the devs abadon it. Switch literally is the last system you should cloud game on.

 

[Belinda Blumenthal]

kh3 ran at 720p on a base xbox one. the other games could definitely run but the amount of effort required for kh3 would be something akin to DQXIS, and maybe not even then. the levels in kh3 tend to be larger than DQXIS’s.

 

[bellydrum]

Pretty disappointing to see that at the first occasion here too, people will immediately jump to shit on a developer before understanding how game development really works.

I agree it's best to step away from the thread if you're feeling this heated about it.

I completely agree with you, though. It's grating to hear people immediately jump to "lazy" and "cheap". Like, come on. You don't know what goes on behind the scenes. All you see is the final product. Language like that just makes the atmosphere toxic.

 

[DecoReturns]

We should really be asking the important questions.


What will it take to let us pay money for the GBA version of chain of Memories

 

[Clix]

Let's.... ease up on calling devs lazy.
The devs are almost certainly not the people making the decision to bring a Cloud version vs. a native version.

I could see this as Square Enix being cheap.
SE also made a statement that porting the games to the Switch would be too technologically difficult, and they may not want to pay for the time it would take to solve it.
It could also be Disney's fault, as @Yoshifan31 suggested.

There is a variety of valid ways this could be the case, but calling devs "lazy" is borne from ignorance about the work that goes into development and just comes across as wanting to insult someone.

To be fair, unless I misread, I think the lazy comment is towards SE the company, and not the actual devs. SE the company cares about the bottom line, while I’m sure if they and their way the devs would love to see their games on as many platforms as possible.

As for Disney? Are they just notoriously difficult? If so, I just don’t get it. I’m excited for Sora and the final smash is cool, but what a missed opportunity to have Mickey and friends be part of the Smash or even background extras. I feel Disney is their worst own enemy when it comes to creative collaborations.

 

[Coco]

To be fair, unless I misread, I think the lazy comment is towards SE the company, and not the actual devs. SE the company cares about the bottom line, while I’m sure if they and their way the devs would love to see their games on as many platforms as possible.

As for Disney? Are they just notoriously difficult? If so, I just don’t get it. I’m excited for Sora and the final smash is cool, but what a missed opportunity to have Mickey and friends be part of the Smash or even background extras. I feel Disney is their worst own enemy when it comes to creative collaborations.

Disney is extremely difficult to work with, to the point Yoshi-P, FFXIV producer, wants nothing to do with KH so he doesn't have to deal with them.

 

[Mori Medinayo]

I'm done with the convo since people are impossible to reason with, but you are not smarter than developers at Square Enix that have deemed it impossible to bring the games to switch lol. A retail release would require no less than five 32gbs cartridges, which are all already extremely expensive to boot, meaning the collection would cost 5*60 = 300 dollars. Go ahead and argue with me that anyone would buy 300 dollars of KH late ports at retail.

Pretty disappointing to see that at the first occasion here too, people will immediately jump to shit on a developer before understanding how game development really works.

Yeah they are smart enough to not have my money. And from a lot others.

 

[CyberWolfJV]

@[email protected] literally more than half of those games are PS2 titles and they pull that off.. oof...

Which reminds me... did the collections ever came to Xbox like normal purchasable games or just on Gamepass? Because on PC is also locken behind Epic Game Store.. another hardly ideal way to get them :|

 

[9-Volt]

@[email protected] literally more than half of those games are PS2 titles and they pull that off.. oof...

Which reminds me... did the collections ever came to Xbox like normal purchasable games or just on Gamepass? Because on PC is also locken behind Epic Game Store.. another hardly ideal way to get them :|

They are purchasable on XBL. There's no such thing as being on Game Pass but not on XBL Store.

 

[Tanooki]

I’ve been dreaming of the day that the core KH games come to Switch, and I’ll be purchasing the collection day one. But it is definitely disheartening to have it only available through a cloud service. As someone who is constantly travelling internationally for work and doesn’t have a stable internet connection (if any) most of the time, I won’t be able to play these games as often as I’d like to - which really sucks because KH is probably my biggest comfort game & I would have loved to have that comfort be easily accessible while I’m away from home.

I really wish they would have at least made the first game have a proper retail release, even if it was digital-only. Surely there is a profit to be made there, it’s such a big nostalgia title for so many people.

Oh well. My excitement is a little stifled, but I’m still happy that the option to play KH on my Switch will still be there to some extent.

 

[Noise]

CLOUD GAMING.

CLOUD. GAMING.

CLOUD GAMING.

 

[LoneRanger]

FFXII Zodiac Age PS4 file size is over 40GB. Thats a PS2 game that got ported to Switch and get their file reduced enough to be on a 16GB cart.

What was the problem with 1.5 and 2.5 HD collections ?

Whats next? Nier automata/replicant cloud versions?

 

[Mori Medinayo]

FFXII Zodiac Age PS4 file size is over 40GB. Thats a PS2 game that got ported to Switch and get their file reduced enough to be on a 16GB cart.

What was the problem with 1.5 and 2.5 HD collections ?

Whats next? Nier automata/replicant cloud versions?

Don't give them ideas...

 

[9-Volt]

Don't give them ideas...

Nier Replicant getting a native port leaked within the game's code so we're safe here. But still. We're getting Nier Replicant native but KH1 on cloud lol

 

[HockeyBird]

I may have triple dipped for I + II collection if they were native ports but gonna get cloud versions when I have the PS4 version.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Dark Cloud version

 

[Mori Medinayo]

Nier Replicant getting a native port leaked within the game's code so we're safe here. But still. We're getting Nier Replicant native but KH1 on cloud lol

Well that leaked code meant it was in developement at some point, but doesn't confirm it will finally arrive, does it? I wish we had the two NieRs.