While Nintendo has seen quite a bit of success with the launch of the Switch 2 earlier this year, it is no secret that the console launched with a sparse line-up of first party games. In an interview with The Game Business, former president and COO of Nintendo of America Reggie Fils-Aimé said that he found the lack of first-party titles to be a head scratcher.
While he admitted that he had underestimated the strong line-up already available through the existing offerings on from the original Switch, he did mention that he found himself scratching his head when he saw that the console would only launch with Mario Kart World, with Donkey Kong Bananza coming out shortly afterwards.
“From a business perspective, when I first saw that line-up, I scratched my head a little bit,” he said. “Certainly, what I underestimated was the enhanced Nintendo Switch 1 content, which I think has been compelling. The stuff that you get for free as part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription, I think that has helped drive some of the momentum. And then certainly, [Donkey Kong] Bananza was a key driver for them.”
It is worth noting that, since the release of the Switch 2, the rest of the year has seen quite a few releases, both from Nintendo itself, as well as third-party companies. The most recent of these releases were Pokémon Legends: Z-A and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, with other titles like Kirby Air Riders and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond also slated for release before the end of the year.
As for third-party game makers, Fils-Aimé expressed surprise at the fact that Xbox still hasn’t fully embraced the Nintendo Switch 2 as a viable platform for more of its games. He noted that the console is capable of running quite a few games, and it’s still surprising that Microsoft hasn’t yet announced any Switch 2 ports.
“I’m surprised that Xbox has not yet fully embraced Switch 2 from a software perspective,” he said. “Certainly some games could easily be ported over to Switch 2. And I’m surprised that we haven’t seen more of that. I thought there would be much more, especially during this timeframe leading into the Holiday.”
“All through the fall, I was fully expecting some dedicated announcement. And I’m surprised it hasn’t happened.”
When it comes to how Nintendo positions itself against competing companies Sony and Microsoft, Fils-Aimé has said that the company will never really position itself as a direct competitor to PlayStation.
“It’s not in their DNA. It’s not how they think about the business opportunity,” he explained. “However, would they welcome some of the latest core gamer-type of content, whether it’s the latest Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty, onto their platform? Absolutely. Do I think that there’s a player base there for those games? Absolutely. The key, and this is something that the team there thinks about every day, is making sure that third-party developers have the tool sets so that they have the full capability to bring the best of their games onto Switch 2.”
