Highlights

  • Persona 3 Reload will skip the Switch at launch, but may still reach Nintendo's console in the future.
  • The game's director, Takuya Yamaguchi, said that the Switch port of the RPG is "a matter of discussing it with the team."
  • Yamaguchi also revealed that Atlus decided Persona 3 Reload will skip the Switch at launch early on during its development.

Atlus has at last respondend to the questions about a potential Persona 3 Reload Switch port by suggesting that a version of the game for Nintendo's hybrid console is not outside the realm of possibility. Its comments on the matter emerged mere weeks ahead of Persona 3 Reload's global release, which is scheduled for February 2.

First unveiled in mid-2023, the remake of the third entry in the Persona franchise will be skipping Nintendo's hit handheld console at launch. Shortly following its unveiling, a well-known Atlus insider reported that no publishing deal has been struck for bringing the game to the Nintendo ecosystem, indicating that Persona 3 Reload won't reach the Switch anytime soon.

Persona 3 Reload cover artwork day one DLC tagline edit
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Persona 3 Reload Day One DLC Revealed

Atlus reveals that Persona 3 Reload will have quite a bit of day-one DLC, but the good news is that fans probably won't feel pressured to buy it.

Be that as it may, a Switch port of the game is not completely off the table, according to Persona 3 Reload Director Takuya Yamaguchi. In a recent interview with the Spanish-language outlet Atomix, Yamaguchi revealed that Atlus's P-Studio decided "there would be no version [of the game] for the Nintendo Switch" fairly early on during the remake's development, while the project was still in a concept phase. But it would appear that the company remains open to the idea of a Switch port, with Yamaguchi explaining that such an undertaking is simply a matter of "discussing it with the team and seeing what they think," according to a machine translation of the interview.

Persona 3 Reload Key art

Since we started conceptualizing everything that was coming in Persona 3 Reload, we decided that there would be no version for the Nintendo Switch. Of course, the idea is there, but it's a matter of discussing it with the team and seeing what they think about it, and we'll see what happens.

The industry veteran's remarks arrived just ahead of the one-year release anniversary of the Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden Switch ports. The widely celebrated fifth entry in the franchise was also brought to Nintendo's hybrid console back in October 2022 simultaneously with its PC, PS5, and Xbox console ports. The reason why Reload will break with that pattern of all-inclusive multi-platform releases hasn't been made clear by Yamaguchi. But it possibly has something to do with the fact that Atlus found Persona 3 Portable and P4G ports to be difficult and even "painstaking" to complete.

Persona 3 Reload Could Be Waiting for Nintendo Switch 2

Another potential explanation for why Reload is skipping Nintendo's ecosystem at launch has to do with the very timing of its release. Specifically, there has recently been an influx of evidence suggesting that the Switch 2 is on the horizon, with many industry watchers agreeing that Nintendo's next console will likely hit the market in the second half of 2024.

Assuming that forecast is accurate, it stands to reason that Atlus would be aware of the console's planned release window, not least because it would already be in possession of the Switch 2 dev kits at this time. The studio could hence simply be waiting for Nintendo to release more powerful hardware that would have a much easier time of running Persona 3 Reload, which is shaping up to be the most graphically intensive entry in the franchise to date.