Nintendo Switch 2 – Smaller Developers Are Still Waiting for Development Kits

During its recent Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo revealed that the console will have strong support from third-party studios by giving us a look at the massive number of third-party games that will be coming to the platform. According to a recent report by The Game Business, however, it looks like many studios are still waiting to get their hands on a Switch 2 development kit.

As the report notes, Nintendo was primarily focused on bigger publishers and developers, even in the indie space, to showcase the third-party support for the Switch 2. This has left smaller developers scrambling in the dust, however. This has left some studios frustrated because Nintendo has also been generally slow in responding tot hem.

“New console audiences are often willing to try new things at the start, so we were desperate to get our hands on dev kits early,” said a AA development studio co-founder to The Game Business. “Nintendo has finally responded to us, but we still don’t think we’ll get anything for a few months.”

According to the report, while developers are excited to have a new major platform to make games for, they are still not quite sure that they will see an increase in game sales. This comes down to the fact that the Switch 2 offers backwards compatibility for titles that were originally released on the Switch.

An analysis by data firm Ampere indicates that third-party games have done quite well on the original Switch, with the US eShop data showing games like Minecraft and Hogwarts Legacy competing with Mario’s own first-party games like the incredibly popular Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Of the 20 games in the top 20 sellers list on the US eShop, 10 were first-party Nintendo titles, with the others being a mix of AAA and indie titles by third-party developers and publishers.

“For the average console, every ten units of software that are purchased, only one is made by the platform themselves,” said video game analyst and advisor Matthew Ball. “In the case of Nintendo, it’s nearly six in every 10 is made by Nintendo.”

Ball also brings up the fact that Nintendo’s strength as a platform has traditionally relied on the quality of its first-party output. Franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Mario have tended to be some of the most popular games of their respective genres, and Ball brings up that this is why many tend to buy a Nintendo console, regardless of whether they want a handheld gaming system.

“[People] are mostly buying [Switch] because Nintendo has made some of the best titles of all time, and you can only get them on the device and the device is affordable,” explained Ball. “It’s not clear how many people are saying I want a portable games device or how many people are saying that I’m looking to play multi-platform or cross platform titles, and the Switch is the device that I’d like to do it on.”

“We should not think of the fact that Nintendo Switch 2 can run most third-party titles sufficiently as this massive new blue ocean opportunity for publishers. At the same time, nearly all of the most popular titles globally have not been available on the Nintendo Switch for the last eight years. That means that many of the highest spending, highest engagement, youngest, and therefore lifetime brand-building consumers have been inaccessible. And so that’s definitely a meaningful increase opportunity for publishers. And yet at the same time, it’s going to be available to all of them. So it’s now going to be a new hotly contested platform.”

The Nintendo Switch 2 will be hitting store shelves on June 5. It will be accompanied by a host of launch-day games, including Mario Kart World and Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition.