Final Fantasy XIV Hits Switch 2 on August 4, and I Can't Get Over Carrying a Whole MMO in My Bag

The idea of hauling all of Eorzea around in my bag still hasn't fully sunk in. Final Fantasy XIV - the sprawling, decade-plus MMO that people have poured thousands of hours into - lands on Switch 2 on August 4, and pre-orders are already live.

Honestly, this one got me. I grew up on Nintendo handhelds, and the thought of a world-spanning MMO running on the same little machine I take on the train would've sounded like a fever dream a few years ago. Square Enix even confirmed the Free Trial will be there on day one, so if you've been curious but never wanted to commit, you can wander into it for nothing and see if it clicks.

There's a lot to be excited about here. FFXIV is one of those games that's genuinely welcoming to newcomers now - the community is famously kind, and the free trial covers a huge chunk of content. If you're a lapsed Nintendo player who always bounced off the whole "MMO" idea, this is honestly one of the softest landings the genre has.

The catch worth knowing about

Here's where I have to be straight with you: the Switch 2 version needs its own subscription. Your existing sub from PC, PlayStation or Xbox doesn't carry over to the handheld. If you're already paying on PC or PlayStation, Square Enix is at least softening the blow with a 50% discount on the Switch 2 sub, and there's roughly a free first month at launch (they're framing it as a server-stability test). But I won't pretend a second, separate subscription isn't a bummer for people who just want to play their same character on the couch and on the go.

Pricing on the packages spans the usual range - a Starter Edition at $19.99 up to a Complete Collector's Edition, with pre-order discounts knocking a chunk off the bigger bundles. And fair warning: this is a full modern MMO, so clear some space first - reports peg the download at well over 100 GB.

Looking a little further out, the sixth expansion, Evercold, is set for January 2027, bringing a new job and a Final Fantasy VII-themed eight-player raid series called "Beyond the Lifestream." So the Switch 2 version isn't a leftover port - it's stepping onto the same road as everyone else.

Separate-sub gripes aside, I keep coming back to the simple thing: a whole living world, in my hands, on the couch or the train. That still feels a little bit magical.

Image: Crisco 1492 / CC BY-SA 4.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nintendo_Switch_2_in_Docking_Console.jpg