REPORT | Developers Are Struggling To Receive Switch 2 Dev Kits From Nintendo

As the newest platform in the console market, the Nintendo Switch 2 has launched with an equal measure of anticipation and apprehension. Some news that appears to be discouraging on the development front, developers can't seem to get their hands on Switch 2 dev kits. This news comes from Digital Foundry podcast DF Direct Weekly (episode 228), John Davison spoke about their experience with studios at last week's Gamescom showcase (topic begins at 8:18):

"Nintendo seems to be almost discouraging Switch 2 development to some degree, where I've spoken with plenty of developers where they were either 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."

Co-host Oliver followed up the questioning with not being sure of what Nintendo's strategy is with this. That paints a rather confusing picture for what is (or isn't) going on within the Mario developer's mission statement. The best one can surmise, perhaps for smaller/medium-sized projects, the company warrants it not imperative enough to send a Nintendo Switch 2 dev kit to a team that could likely produce said software on the Switch 1. Nintendo could then rely on backwards compatibility to run their game(s) on the Switch 2. It's something that has been done as recently as Capcom's porting of their Fighting Collection entries, which ran natively on the PS4 and Xbox One, but are forwards compatible.

The problem is, reports of the shortage of Nintendo Switch dev kits are far from a new topic. Are they really holding out their supply for major studios to take advantage of the new powerful processing and exclusive Switch 2 capabilities? It's one thing to showcase the technical prowess of your new hardware, but it makes the first year of the Switch 2's rollout a very dubious one. In the long run, hard to say if this impacts the brand's appeal any more than the choice to opt in for the key cards (those haven't been controversial), but stonewalling studios is a contrast, compared to the previous generation, where many as possible were greenlit to launch their games on the Switch 1.