by
William D’Angelo
, posted 16 hours ago / 1,456 Views
John Linneman and Oliver Mackenzie on the latest DF Direct Weekly podcast have reported they were told by a number of third-party developers that they are still unable to get Nintendo Switch 2 dev-kits.
Linneman stated Nintendo told developers to instead make games for the Switch 1 for now as they would be backwards compatible on the Switch 2.
“There’s been a lot of talk about this lately, that Nintendo seems to be almost discouraging Switch 2 development to some degree,” said Linneman (via VideoGamesChronicle). “I’ve spoken with plenty of developers where they were told that their game, they should just ship it on Switch 1 and rely on backwards compatibility.
“There’s a lot of developers that are unable to get Switch 2 dev kits. We 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.”
Mackenzie added, “I think they should [get more devkits out there], but I don’t really know what Nintendo’s mindset was with these sets of decisions. So I don’t really understand the strategy because, like you said, even now developers are struggling to get systems.
“And I know that some months ago when we were hearing things through the grapevine and talking to people, there were some weird exclusions with some big developers struggling to get kits for games. And there were some kind of weird inclusions as well. Some indies were included, which is nice to see.
“But there’s that campfire game, you know, the camera campfire game, and they’re getting kits. And some big developers, on the other hand, who developed AAA stuff, aren’t necessarily in the pipeline there for kits.”
The two added that Nintendo telling developers to release games on the Switch 1 and relying on backwards compatibility isn’t helpful for games that push the limits of the Switch 1.
“Considering the sales volume of Switch 2, it’s not like developers would be in a position where they didn’t want to support the new hardware,” said Mackenzie. “I think broadly speaking, developers do want to support the new hardware.
“But the thing that’s really stark to me too is, at this point, we’ve seen very few proper Switch 2 Editions post-launch. I don’t think we’ve seen any hardly at all, really, from third-party developers in particular. Obviously we saw No Man’s Sky, I think one or two other games in the mix there. But really, it’s been a very slow trickle of titles earning that Switch 2 Edition badge. So, yeah, I really want to see more movement on that front.
“I hope it’s a temporary thing. I hope that in a year or two, we’re looking back and we’re like, that was a really weird decision, but it was fixed in time. I hope that’s what we’re looking at in a little while.”
A life-long and avid gamer, William D’Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.