If I were a betting man, I would’ve put down everything I had on the Nintendo Switch 2 being a smash hit. It doesn’t take an industry analyst to make that call so I don’t give myself too much credit, but seeing it break all these early sales numbers has still been a bit of a shock. While I personally wish that Nintendo had done a bit more to make this console launch feel more special, it was clearly the safe move to make as direct an upgrade as possible over the wildly popular Switch to ride that wave.
Last generation, third parties were far more hesitant to support the Switch right out of the gate. Nintendo was at its lowest point in history, coming off the debacle that was the Wii U, so it made sense to take a more wait-and-see approach to Nintendo’s next console. Once it became clear that this little hybrid system had struck gold, we started seeing all these “impossible” ports hitting the console to capitalize. We’re already seeing that the industry at large — with the notable exceptions of Xbox and PlayStation — doesn’t intend to make the same mistake twice. But that may have rippling consequences for everyone, not just Switch 2 players.
Adjusting the bar
Game development is complicated. If there’s one thing that must be stressed upfront, it’s that. I don’t pretend to know the intricacies and discussions that happen behind the scenes, and fully recognize that development and porting processes are different from studio to studio and game to game. This article is mainly me ruminating on different ways I predict the Switch 2’s success could impact games moving forward.
What set off this entire thought process for me was wondering how different the rest of this generation will look compared to the last when more studios will opt to develop their games with the Switch 2 hardware in mind. There were plenty of games that came out cross-platform right away on Switch and PS5, but a wide swath either started on Switch and later came to other platforms or vice versa. From what I understand, and how it appears from the outside, porting a game is a very different process than developing it from the ground up with that platform in mind.
If more teams are looking to get in on the runaway success that is the Switch 2, then it would make sense to launch on that platform simultaneously with the others if possible. It might seem like a purely negative situation for devs to build games with weaker hardware in mind, but I disagree. In fact, I think we saw just the opposite for the majority of the PS5 generation thus far. Much to the chagrin of a certain segment of the fanbase, most of PlayStation’s first party games have been available on PS4 and PS5, including God of War: Ragnarok and Horizon: Forbidden West. I have no proof to back this up, but I think that it is because these games were developed with the PS4 in mind that they played so smoothly on PS5. The latter had the option to run at 4K 30 or a dynamic 1800p at 60, while the former had similar settings plus a 120Hz mode.
I’m clearly cherry-picking here since Sony’s first party teams clearly have a deeper knowledge of the hardware, plus don’t have to worry about porting to completely different systems. Add in other variables like game engines, budgets, and time, and this is by no means a sure thing. All I mean to show is that there is evidence to suggest that a lower-powered SKU can have a positive impact on games also available on stronger systems.
There’s also the dream of the Switch 2 being the universal console handheld. We’ve seen plenty of other handhelds enter the space since the first Switch, with Xbox partnering with ROG to release one later this year and rumors of a PlayStation handheld coinciding with the PS6 also on the table, but the market is still niche for everyone but Nintendo. If everyone jumps aboard the Switch 2 train, it could become the default portable system for everything but exclusives, which are already on their way to going extinct.
I promised that there was a negative to all this by calling it a double-edged sword, so it’s time to take off my optimistic goggles for a minute. The easiest stone to throw at my prior argument is that teams could treat the Switch 2 similarly to the Switch 1 and worry about crunching down their game after the fact to fit on the hardware. As impressive as some ports like Doom, The Witcher 3, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance are to even exist on the Switch, they came at the cost of some massive concessions. There are even worse examples like Mortal Kombat 1 that really drive this point home.
Besides just looking and playing worse than its console counterparts, we’ve also seen Switch games lack features compared to the other versions. In Civilization VII, for example, the Switch version could only play with four players in the Antiquity & Exploration Ages, or six in the Modern Age, as opposed to other platforms supporting five and eight players respectively. Scope and mechanical concessions are much harder pills to swallow compared to graphics of frame rates because the game is, objectively, lesser than the other versions. That is another possibility we could see taken with the Switch 2.
So, which way will the dominoes end up falling? I think the only safe assumption I can make here is that we will see plenty of examples of both scenarios. It all comes down to the individual teams and dozens of factors we players may never be privy to on how development shakes out. I only hope that we see more end up on the positive side of things than the negative.
