- Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Co-director Naoki Hamaguchi thinks Switch 2 game keycards are “a really fantastic idea for us developers.”
- Director believes cartridge loading issues stem from Switch 2 hardware
- He says Nintendo will put more effort into popularizing the new format instead of trying to improve cartridge loading speed.
Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Co-director Naoki Hamaguchi called the Switch 2’s controversial game keycards a “really amazing new idea” that can be useful to developers and believes Nintendo will try to make them more popular.
Speaking to Wccftech (via Stealth), Hamaguchi explained that the cartridges themselves create loading issues attributed to the Switch 2’s hardware and suggests that they are a better alternative for developers.
“Personally, I think the game cartridge loading speed issue has more to do with the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware specs,” Hamaguchi said. “I’m not at Nintendo, so I can’t really speak to that side of things. That said, I think the Game Key Card format that Nintendo created for the Nintendo Switch 2 is a really amazing new idea that they’ve brought to us.”
Game Keycards are a new form of physical Switch 2 games that contain a download key but do not feature full game data like other physical editions.
The cards are only available for a certain selection of games, but the division comes as fans fear the company is moving towards an all-digital release, while others suggest that since Game-Key Cards don’t contain all of the game’s data, players don’t have full ownership of their game after purchase.
Despite the controversy surrounding them, Hamaguchi believes that Nintendo will focus on popularizing game keycards instead of working on improving cartridge loading issues.
“Personally, I don’t see Nintendo putting any effort into improving cartridge loading speeds,” he said. “On the contrary, I think Nintendo will make more of an effort to popularize the Game Key Card format, which, again, is a really fantastic idea for us developers.
“We also hope that players become familiar with what it costs them. That’s obviously something we can help with, on the developer side as well. I think the collaborative effort between Nintendo and the publishers trying to promote the Game Key Card will be the best path forward for all players in the future.”
Hamaguchi has been making the rounds recently, and in a separate interview with ScreenRant, the director addressed the criticism leveled at the film. Final Fantasy 7 Remake The series has confronted and disagreed with the idea that “certain sections” of Renaissance were too long.
“Regarding time management in certain sections, particularly in FF7 RenaissanceHonestly, I don’t think they were any longer than necessary,” Hamaguchi said. “I feel like players today just have too much to do and too much to play; so they often feel the need to wrap something up quickly.”
Although he disagreed with this sentiment, he added that he was attentive to the criticism, saying: “As we work on the conclusion of the trilogy, we are striking a balance on how the story arcs are told and distributed to ensure that the game feels a little more concise.”
The third and final installment in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake series doesn’t have a release date yet, but we do know that development has officially begun in 2024.
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