Last month, Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata teased a version of his game for the Nintendo Switch. But when I asked him about that port to Nintendo’s hot new console, he wanted me to share a different message: He can’t actually find one.
“I want you to make the headline, ‘Tabata has not been able to purchase the Switch,’” he told me in Seattle last weekend, speaking through a translator.
Tabata had mentioned, before we even started chatting, that someone from Nintendo called him up after his Switch teases at Gamescom. Although he kept quiet about what Nintendo actually said—“I can’t say,” he laughed—Tabata did try to walk back his comments that he and his team were looking to bring Final Fantasy XV to “a console that sounds like Twitch.”
“It was just kind of a joke response,” said Tabata. “That said, we aren’t dismissing the hardware in any way. We believe it’s a great platform, and we’re open to looking for opportunities. And if the opportunity presents itself, and there’s something we can do on that given platform, we’d like to do it.”
Sadly, Tabata hasn’t had the time to wait in one of Japan’s hellish lines to get his hands on a Switch, which he really wanted Kotaku readers to know. He’s been checking sites like Amazon frequently, but every time he looks, Nintendo’s Switch is sold out. “I’ve already purchased all this software,” he said. “I have Zelda, Mario Kart, and Splatoon. I just haven’t been able to purchase the hardware.”
But wait a minute, I said. He’d just said that Nintendo gave him a call. Why not ask his contacts over there to hook him up?
“Because then I’d owe them, and I’ll have to support Nintendo,” Tabata said, laughing. “I want to have a neutral standing.”
Tabata quickly added that this was a joke—presumably to avoid more angry phone calls—but he did really want Kotaku readers to know even he can’t get his hands on a Switch. “The headline I’m very serious about,” he said. “The joke part is the fact that I can’t request it from Nintendo.”
“If we make that the headline,” I said, “maybe someone will feel bad and send you one.”
“I’ll do my best until I can purchase it,” Tabata said. “Keep on trying.”