Persona 3 for Nintendo Switch Isn't Totally Out of the Question, Says Director

22.01.2024 - 19:35 / ign.com / Rebekah Valentine / Takuya Yamaguchi / Nintendo

Nintendo fans have been spoiled in the last several years with love from the Persona series, which after a long history married to PlayStation consoles has finally been creeping onto the Switch, game by game. Which is why fans felt snubbed after Persona 3 Reload, a remake of Persona 3, was announced for basically every major platform except Switch. But while a Switch announcement still hasn't happened, the game's director and producer are hinting that the idea hasn't been fully abandoned.

Though the series has largely been the beloved child of PlayStation over the years, Persona 5 Royal made it to Switch in 2022, and Persona 4 Golden arrived this time last year. Nintendo players also got spinoffs Persona 5 Strikers back in 2020 and Persona 5 Tactica just this past November. Given that logic, it seemed that publisher Atlus and developer P-Studio was committed to the console, making it a bit of a surprise to fans that Persona 3 Reload was skipping it entirely.

The reasons for the snub still aren't fully clear, but Persona 3 Reload director Takuya Yamaguchi and producer Ryota Niitsuma addressed the situation in a recent interview with Spanish language website Atomix.vg (quote via Google Translate, translation verified by IGN), suggesting that a Switch port may be in the cards somewhere down the line:

"Since we began conceptualizing everything that would come 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."

That's not exactly an affirmative promise, but at least Yamaguchi and Niitsuma know the demand for a Switch version is there. It's also always possible that Atlus and P-Studio have a Nintendo console version of the port in mind not for Switch, but for its heavily-rumored successor that many believe is coming this year. We'll just have to wait and hope.

Persona 3 Reload is headed to basically every other major platform (PlayStation, Xbox, and PC) on February 2. We recently published our final preview of the game, asserting that it's far more than a basic remake: "Persona 3 Reload isn't a remake with a few alterations here and there; it's a sincerely thought-through updated game that can seemingly stand on its own two legs in the competitive Persona lineup."

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].