The Kingdom Hearts series is coming to Nintendo Switch, but there's a catch: the beloved games will only be available on Nintendo's hybrid console through cloud versions. Now, we're learning why Square Enix hasn't committed to full downloadable versions on Switch.
Speaking to Nintendo Life, series producer Ichiro Hazama said the decision to make cloud versions of Kingdom Hearts was due to the Switch's storage capacity.
"For some time, our director Tetsuya Nomura had expressed his desire to deliver the Kingdom Hearts series to Nintendo Switch players, him having seen and heard the demand, and so a great deal of consideration went into this internally," Hazama said. "Bringing these titles to Nintendo Switch proved to be quite difficult for various reasons, including the storage capacity of the hardware, but we’re excited that we were able to make it happen for the first time ever by utilizing the Cloud service."
Kingdom Hearts III, for example, needed a lot of storage space to install on PS4 and Xbox One, a feat that may not be easy to pull off on Switch. However, Hazama also said they haven't completely ruled out production for native versions of some of the Kingdom Hearts games on Switch.
"At this moment in time, the production of a native version is undecided," Hazama said. "We believe that the Cloud version is currently the best way to deliver the Kingdom Hearts series to Nintendo Switch players, but we are always excited to hear to feedback from our fans and want to thank them for all their support."
The Kingdom Hearts cloud versions were originally announced earlier this month, as part of the final Sakurai Presents event. In that video, we also learned Sora is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's final DLC fighter. Sora releases today as part of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's Version 13 update.
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.