With the Switch 2 unveiling happening in just mere days, it seems likely that developers would already be creating games for Nintendo’s upcoming platform. Nintendo obviously wants people to upgrade ASAP, so why would it hold back dev kits? A rumor last week (from Insider Gaming) stated that Nintendo is planning a three-phase launch for its console, with indie and smaller developers getting dev kits after launch. While that seemed highly unlikely, a new statement from Digital Foundry’s John Linneman may have given legitimacy to the claim.
In the latest episode of Digital Foundry’s podcast, Linneman was discussing the upcoming Switch 2, and the conversation shifted to this year’s GDC. While Linneman wasn’t directly talking about the conference in that moment, he said, “Based on a lot of the things I’ve heard, it also seems like many many many many developers are still without kit. So they are very slow at rolling this out to a lot of developers.” That certainly tracks with what Insider Gaming claimed.
Linneman stated that while he believes third-party games will clearly be ready for launch, there seems to be a more selective process going on this time. “I think there will be third-party games early on, of course, it just seems like a lot of medium to small developers still do not have access to development hardware. So Nintendo has been very selective with who they allow to do it.”
While Nintendo used to have a rocky relationship with third-party developers for its other consoles (the Wii somewhat bucked that trend), the Switch smashed the doors wide open. We’ve seen all manner of “impossible ports” to the platform that have sold incredibly well. Limiting who gets access to Switch 2 SDKs so early s
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
