Nintendo's Switch 2 Dev Kit Strategy Leaves Game Developers Frustrated And Baffled
During the most recent episode of Digital Foundry’s DF Direct Weekly podcast, hosts John Linneman and Oliver Mackenzie learned of the lack of development kits during their trip to this year’s Gamescom. Linneman says they "talked to a lot of devs at Gamescom this year, and so many of them said the same things. They want to ship on Switch 2. They would love to do Switch 2 versions. They can’t get the hardware. It’s really difficult right now.”
Surprisingly, Nintendo appears to be nudging developers to eschew a native Switch 2 version of their games and instead focus on making titles playable on the original Switch. Developers are reportedly being told by Nintendo that “they should just ship it on Switch 1 and rely on backwards compatibility.” It’s a difficult situation for developers who want to release games that push beyond what the original Switch is capable of.
The distribution of the development kits is another puzzling aspect. Several large AAA developers seem to be in the same boat as smaller indie developers. However, Mckenzie does point to games such as Chillin’ by the Fire, which comes from a small team that was able to get their hands on a development kit. Ultimately, it looks a bit chaotic with no rhyme or reason dictating who gets the hardware they need to get their Switch 2 project out the door.
Despite the company’s successes, Nintendo has always made odd choices in how it operates. This might just be another one of those weird decisions. Hopefully as the supply improves and buyers can easily pick one up at retail, it means that the hardware will be easier to come by for developers.
