“You might be familiar with the fact that for a previous game that I did, we had a specification that we called ‘Transfarring’ where you could take the saved data from the PS Vita and move it over to the PS3 and back and forth like that,” said Kojima. “I believe [Switch] is an extension of that idea. The fact you can play something at home and take it outside, this is the gamer’s dream. The Switch is an evolution of that.”
Transfarring was a term coined by Kojima that married the words transferring and sharing. The idea was that gamers playing Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection on PlayStation 3 could move their save files and pick up the game on PlayStation Portable or PlayStation Vita.
“For example, often when you buy a Blu-Ray disc, it’ll have a code on the inside for a digital version, so in the same respect you can watch it at home and then take it on the go on your tablet and smartphone,” said Kojima. “This is how movies and TV are moving, and this is how games should go.”
Kojima does see the Switch as the impetus to a future in which gamers will be able to play their games on any device. “I feel like cloud technology is what everything will eventually move to,” he said. “It’s further behind right now than I think where people thought it would be at this point, but I think it will go there, and when the infrastructure is ready, you’ll be able to play everything, on every device, anywhere. The Switch is the predecessor to this step.”
Kojima is currently working on Death Stranding, starring Guillermo Del Toro and Mads Mikkelsen. The Nintendo Switch is set to launch on March 3.
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