NVIDIA CEO believes porting games to Switch will be relatively simple

One of the main issues that plagued the Wii U throughout its life-cycle was a lack of third party content. While there was parity at the start of the console’s life with the PS3 and Xbox 360, the introduction of the PS4 and Xbox One meant a leap in graphical and technical prowess the Wii U just couldn’t equate to.

Of course now the question is whether or not the upcoming Switch will be able to hold its own. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang certainly seems to think so. Check out his comments from a recent financial briefing:

The quality of games has grown significantly, and one of the factors of production value of games that has been possible is because the PC and the two game consoles, Xbox and PlayStation, and — in the near-future — the Nintendo Switch, all of these architectures are common in the sense that they all use modern GPUs, they all use programmable shading, and they all have basically similar features.

As a result of that, game developers can target a much larger installed base with one common code base and, as a result, they can increase the production quality, production value of the games.

Being the CEO of the company that is partnering with Nintendo for the Switch it’s only natural Huang sings its praises, but there is truth to what he’s saying. While the previous generation of consoles had pretty large quirks that differentiated them, whether it be the PS3’s CELL Processor or the Wii U’s GamePad, this generation is proving to be a lot more standardized. Even the Switch, which has its removable Joy-Con controllers and a portable aspect, still features the same range of control options as its competitors in its most heavily advertised form.

We’ll just have to wait and see if third party developers take advantage and puts games out across these various architectures. Chances are NVIDIA will be present at the Nintendo Switch event on January 12th too, where we’re sure to hear more.

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