Untold Games, the porting studio behind the Batman: Arkham Trilogy, It Takes Two and Split Fiction, believes there’s “a lot of life” left for the original Nintendo Switch.
While the Nintendo Switch 2 is now in the hands of millions, Nintendo’s prior handheld still receives a lot of ports. In fact, many games on the more powerful handheld are still seeing release on its 2017 predecessor.
Untold Games, the studio also behind the new survival game City 20, explained that the “loyal audience” for the original Nintendo Switch means that many publishers still want to squeeze their games onto the platform wherever possible.
“Switch has a remarkable ecosystem and a genuinely loyal audience, and that combination has a lot of life in it,” Untold Games co-founder and CEO Elisa Di Lorenzo told us. “The platform has proven that hardware power isn’t the only thing players care about, and that’s a lesson worth taking seriously”.
Di Lorenzo explained that the Switch’s continued lifespan in the AAA space likely relies on whether or not developers take the hardware into account during initial development. While ports can still come to the system, it’s always harder to port down to a system out of scope, and those ports take the most effort.
“Any platform is challenging if it isn’t considered from the beginning of development,” the CEO said. “The earlier platform-specific constraints are factored into a game’s architecture, the smoother the path to a port. When you’re working with a game that was build for different hardware, you’re often solving problems that were baked in long before you arrive.”
The CEO added that porting often means “you’re solving a specific technical problem for someone else’s game”, and that’s why porting studios have seen so much work nowadays. Nintendo Switch as a platform has proven more valuable than many expected, and games that were not designed for the hardware have still made their way to the system with smart cuts.
While the Nintendo Switch 2 will likely see the bulk of AAA releases and ports due to its additional power, it’s clear that developers are not done with its predecessor. New games and ports of older games are still coming all the time for the handheld, and will be for the foreseeable future.
It’s worth noting, as well, that the Nintendo Switch 2 is quickly becoming the hardware target for many games. Alongside Capcom’s support for the handheld, Square Enix has confirmed that the handheld is being used–alongside Steam Deck--as its target specification for titles such as Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Part 3, which could end up causing the older handheld to be left behind.
