Octopath Traveler’s Switch eShop Delisting is Temporary – Square Enix

RPG Maker is a franchise that's largely steered clear of PlayStation consoles, but that trend is set to change with the release of RPG Maker WITH. Published by NIS America, it's headed to PC and Switch at some point in the autumn / fall, while PS5 and PS4 versions are locked in for 2025.

There’s a lot to love about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and its open world setting is surely high on that list. On top of being massive and incredibly varied across its many different regions, the entire map is also entirely seamless, which means you’re never hit with a loading screen when traveling from one area to the next (unless, of course, you’re fast traveling). Interestingly, however, according to producer Yoshinori Kitase, the game’s open world design wouldn’t have been quite so impressive if it hadn’t been developed as a platform-exclusive title.

A week after JRPG fans noted that Octopath Traveler was no longer available on the Nintendo Switch eShop, Square Enix says it's working on a fix.

Square Enix's RPG Octopath Traveler has been delisted — temporarily, at least — from the Nintendo eShop.

Octopath Traveler has seen an unexpected change to the game's listing on the Nintendo Switch's eShop, currently showing the beloved RPG as «Not Available.» First debuting in 2018 from Final Fantasy developer Square-Enix, the RPG saw critical acclaim following its debut for the interweaving of its eight different stories and its «HD-2D» graphics. The game was first released as a Switch exclusive, later being brought to PC and Xbox and even receiving a sequel in Octopath Traveler 2 last year. Now, however, fans are noticing an odd change to the game's Switch listing.

Popular RPG Octopath Traveler has been delisted on the Nintendo eShop.

The gaming industry is an ever-shifting place, meaning that something you would “expect to be around forever” might not be there tomorrow. Fans of Octopath Traveler found that out the “hard way” today when they went to the Nintendo eShop page for the game and found that it’s “not available” anymore. Now, don’t panic; that doesn’t mean the game has been erased, or you can’t redownload it if you’ve already purchased the title; it just means it’s not available for a new purchase via the eShop. Over on Reddit, fans were speculating about why this would be the case at all, given that it was originally an exclusive for the Nintendo Switch in 2018.

Fans of Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line on the Nintendo Switch are finding themselves unable to play the popular Switch rhythm game for an odd reason. The Final Fantasy rhythm game spinoff series has received multiple iterations since the original game debuted on the 3DS in 2012, allowing players to play along with their favorite Final Fantasy tunes. The series saw multiple releases on 3DS and recently welcomed its first console launch with last year's Theatrhythm: Final Bar Line on PS4 and Switch. Now, fans are finding themselves unable to log into the game for a curious reason.

As the release of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth began worldwide, Square Enix announced that some copies of the game sold in Japan and Asia were mislabeled, with the Data Disc and the Play Disc having their labeling switched during manufacturing. Square Enix posted a notice on social media and gave affected Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth players instructions on how to get around the issue.

The developers behind the Life is Strange remaster, spin-offs Before the Storm and True Colors, and The Expanse: A Telltale Series, Deck Nine, have laid off 20% of the studio’s staff due to “the game industry’s worsening market conditions”. The latest job losses are the second wave of layoffs at the company in the last 12 months.

Deck Nine Games, the studio behind Life is Strange: True Colours and last year's The Expanse: A Telltale Series, has announced it's laying off approximately 20 percent of its total workforce, blaming «the game industry's worsening market conditions».

In the video game industry, many people stick around with the company they’re attached to for quite a while for multiple reasons. They might just like the company they work at. Or, they might be trying to gain “higher ranks” there. Another reason might be they know that their talents or ideas might be more appreciated at that particular company because they’ve worked there for so long. But, on the other side of things, people sometimes depart gaming companies somewhat randomly, including because they want to “move on to a new challenge,” which is what the creator of Final Fantasy did after a while at Square before it became Square Enix.