Final Fantasy XIV’s Naoki Yoshida answers questions about Switch 2, Evolved Mode, Evercold’s themes and more

Key Points:

• Square Enix revealed the sixth expansion for Final Fantasy XIV, titled Evercold, at the North American Fan Festival in Anaheim, featuring a journey to a frozen world called “The Fourth” threatened by ice and arcane beasts.
• The Nintendo Switch 2 version will support built-in mouse controls, with optimization efforts ongoing to ensure stable performance across platforms, while PS4 support continues despite hardware limitations encouraging a gradual transition to PS5.
• Two original jobs were introduced for Evercold following a pitching process prioritizing unique gameplay experiences, separate from the game’s evolving theme, and a new “Evolved Mode” battle system is being developed alongside the current system to avoid alienating long-time players.
• Regional player matching is now possible due to incremental infrastructure improvements over years, enabling cross-region play for the first time since the game’s launch.
• Producer Naoki Yoshida expressed interest in potential Final Fantasy XIV spinoffs or single-player versions but emphasized the current team’s focus on the online game, and sees the game continuing well beyond the next decade with new story climaxes planned.