Nintendo Switch users horrified as eShop removes exclusive RPG

One of the Nintendo Switch’s best RPGs (and one of its best exclusives) was just removed from the Nintendo eShop - and there currently isn’t any official explanation as to why.

Triangle Strategy was released back in 2022 to critical acclaim, earning itself a very respectable score of 83/100 over on Metacritic.

It was co-developed by both Square Enix and Artdink, but its publishing rights are a little muddier. Whilst Triangle Strategy was published by Square Enix in Japan, it was published internationally by Nintendo.

Random aside but if you haven’t heard of Artdink, you should rectify that immediately. They are one of the weirdest, most wonderful developers out there. Shout out to Dungeon Chill over on YouTube for their one-hour deep dive on the developer, well worth a watch.

Now, for some currently undetermined reason, Triangle Strategy just disappeared from the Nintendo eShop. Weirder still, Square Enix has actually commented on its removal on Twitter - but hasn’t specified the reason.

Take a look at the game in action below.

“Triangle Strategy is temporarily unavailable to purchase on Nintendo Switch eShop. Those who have already bought the game will be able to download it,” Square Enix stated.

“We are working on this and will update when the game is able to be purchased again.”

All a bit vague, unfortunately. However, one commenter does have a pretty good theory about its removal.

“They did the same thing with Octopath,” commented YouTuber @EndymionYT, “They transferred the publisher from Nintendo to Square Enix, then coincidentally after this happened, Octopath 1/2 came to other platforms.”

“TLDR: Expect a Triangle Strategy announcement in 2025 for the game to hit PS4/5, Xbox etc.”

And Endymion is right on the money. Octopath Traveller was a Nintendo Switch exclusive that was published by Nintendo outside of Japan, up until December 2023.

Although Octopath Traveller landed on Xbox and Windows prior to this change in publisher, it did only find its way onto PS4 and PS5 in 2024.

Hopefully, this is the reason behind Triangle Strategy’s removal from the eShop, because that would be the best possible outcome of all this.