It might be easier to score tickets to a Sabrina Carpenter concert than it is to obtain Switch 2 development kits. Almost 12 weeks after the console’s launch, developers–big and small–are reportedly still struggling to get them.
Digital Foundry discussed the Switch 2 dev kit situation on its weekly podcast (via Insider Gaming). “Nintendo seems to be almost discouraging Switch 2 development to some degree, where I’ve spoken with plenty of developers where they were either told that their game, they should just ship it on Switch 1 and rely on backwards compatibility,” said John Linneman, a senior staff writer for Digital Foundry. “There’s a lot of developers that are unable to get Switch 2 dev kits. We talked to a lot of devs at Gamescom this year and so many of them said the same things.” GameSpot has reached out to Nintendo for comment.
This has been an ongoing story surrounding Switch 2 from before launch and even as recently as last month. In April, a report surfaced stating that small developers were struggling to get their hands on dev kits for the hybrid system. But it’s not just indie teams, as a July report pointed to some AAA studios having a hard time acquiring them, too. This could be why there haven’t been a slew of major third-party releases, or announcements, for the system lately.
Oliver Mackenzie, a contributor at Digital Foundry, touched on AAA studios possibly still not getting Switch 2 dev kits. “But like there’s that campfire game, you know the kind of camera campfire game, and they’re getting kits, and some big developers on the other hand, who developed like AAA stuff, aren’t necessarily in the pipeline there for kits,” said Mackenzie. Chillin by the Fire is the game that Mackenzie is referencing, and it launched right after the Nintendo Direct in July.
Meanwhile, Switch 2 has broken home console sales records since launching June 5. In fact, at the start of this month, Nintendo revealed that Switch 2 has already sold 6 million units. Looking ahead, there are rumblings about a possible Nintendo Direct set for mid-September. For more, check out GameSpot’s Switch 2 review.
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