Nintendo is reportedly advising some studios to release games on the original Switch rather than developing Switch 2-only versions, after developers told Digital Foundry they still can’t get hold of Switch 2 development kits months after launch. That advice raises practical questions about performance and image quality for demanding titles.
On Digital Foundry’s DF Direct Weekly podcast, hosts John Linneman and Oliver Mackenzie said they spoke to numerous developers who were unable to secure a Switch 2 dev kit. Mackenzie and Linneman explained that some teams were told to ship a version on the older hardware and rely on backwards compatibility for Switch 2 owners instead.
The podcast mentioned that some developers were being advised to target the original Switch first, and only later look at Switch 2-specific builds. Linneman said many studios they met at Gamescom reported similar problems getting kits, and Mackenzie questioned Nintendo’s selection of who received hardware.
Mackenzie singled out the indie title Chillin’ by the Fire, published by Oink Games, as an odd example of a more minor team that obtained a kit even while some larger studios were still waiting. He said he didn’t fully understand the rationale behind the distribution decisions and hoped the situation was temporary.
“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.”
The hosts also noted that telling studios to rely on backwards compatibility isn’t a clean solution for games that already push the original Switch to its limits. Switch outputs 1080p docked and 720p handheld, while Switch 2 can output 4K docked and 1080p handheld, so a straight back-port may look less sharp on the new hardware, even before you factor in performance differences.
There have been very few third-party “Switch 2 Edition” releases so far. Mackenzie mentioned No Man’s Sky as one of the examples of an upgraded release, but he said the number of proper Switch 2 editions remains small and the rollout has been slow.
I listened to the DF episode to hear their full conversation and found the whole situation a bit puzzling… who knew distribution of dev kits would still be this messy months after a launch?
For context, Digital Foundry’s episode is available as a video, and you can watch it here:
If Nintendo is prioritising backwards compatibility while some developers wait for hardware, that may deliver short-term availability for consumers but could hold back titles that would genuinely benefit from Switch 2-native builds. Ah, I do hope the bottleneck eases and more studios get access soon.
