Final Fantasy XIV Lands on Switch 2 August 4, and Evercold's New Tank Job Steals the Show

Fourteen years after A Realm Reborn saved the game, Final Fantasy XIV is finally coming to a Nintendo console. During Saturday's Fan Festival 2026 keynote in Berlin, Square Enix confirmed the Switch 2 version launches on August 4, 2026, with pre-orders open on the eShop right now. For a game that has lived on PlayStation and PC for over a decade, seeing Eorzea run on a Nintendo handheld still feels a little surreal to us.

Video: Nintendo of America on YouTube

Editions, pricing and the subscription question

The Starter Edition costs 19.99 dollars and covers the base game plus the earlier expansions, which is a lot of MMO for the price of a lunch out. The Complete Edition, which includes everything through Dawntrail, runs 59.99 dollars but drops to 41.99 dollars if you pre-order before August 13. A Collector's Edition sits at the top at 139.99 dollars, also discounted during the pre-order window, and every edition includes 30 days of game time.

Two details matter before you buy. First, Square Enix is treating roughly the first month after launch as a stability period, so you will not need a subscription while the servers settle in, and official service starts after that. Second, veterans should know the Switch 2 release is a separate purchase with its own subscription. The softener is that anyone with active game time on another platform gets the Switch 2 subscription at half price. No Nintendo Switch Online membership is required at any point, and the free trial, the one that famously includes hundreds of hours of content, hits Switch 2 the same day. Just clear some space: the download weighs about 117 gigabytes, so a decent microSD Express card is basically mandatory.

Evercold gets real: Bastion, the Fourth, and a Final Fantasy VII crossover

The same keynote fleshed out Evercold, the 8.0 expansion arriving in January 2027. The story continues the Godless Realms Saga and sends the Warrior of Light to the Fourth, a reflection of the world that is slowly being swallowed by ice. The headline reveal was Bastion, a new tank job that fights with a pair of greatshields, and the crowd reaction told you everything about how starved tank players have been for something new.

Square Enix also announced a crossover raid series built around Final Fantasy VII Remake, plus structural changes that let players tackle main scenario zones in a more flexible order, with enemy difficulty scaling to match. That is a bigger shake-up to the classic FFXIV formula than it sounds.

Our take

The price of entry is genuinely fair, and the half price subscription discount shows Square Enix knows most Switch 2 buyers will be existing players adding a portable option. Our only real caution is that 117 gigabyte install and the unanswered question of how the game performs in handheld mode over a long session. If the trailer's performance holds up on real hardware, this could quietly become the default way to run daily roulettes from the couch. August 4 is close enough that we will find out soon.