Capcom made a rather unexpected announcement earlier this morning that, at least in Japan for now, Resident Evil 7 Cloud Edition will be coming out for the Nintendo Switch this Thursday. This version will include the base game, plus all currently released DLC, however it will only be available to stream, rather than to own, meaning the download will only be 45MB. When downloading, users will be able to play the game for 15 minutes, and then they will be prompted to pay 2,000 Japanese Yen for a pass to be able to play it for 180 days.

This is a rather odd decision for a few reasons. Most importantly, it essentially ruins the whole point of being able to play the Nintendo Switch anytime and anywhere. You may be able to play it at home, but if you want to take the Switch with you, you’ll only be able to play when you are connected to the internet, and lets face it, most public WiFi hotspots don’t offer the greatest speeds… especially during peak hours. Additionally, it could probably be assumed, if other gaming streaming services are to go by, that you would need a speedy and stable connection to be able to enjoy the game fully. Action and stealth titles aren’t the best when lulled with lag.

Finally seeing the downgrades Resident Evil 7 has for PSVR makes it seem like the Switch could easily handle that sort of version, however there are some people who assume that because it is streaming from Capcom based high-end PCs, it will perform better than what it would on Switch normally, however, as I’m not that knowledgable on that front, it’s best if I don’t make assumptions with that myself. I suppose another benefit is also the fact that it is 45MB that than several GB.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you like a Western release of the Cloud Version, or would you rather just outright own the title?