Fresh off its failure with the Wii U, Nintendo began promising better third-party support with its succeeding console. Now passing its two-year anniversary, the Switch has earned praise from the industry for delivering, with Devolver Digital highlighting the improvement in Nintendo’s communication during this generation.

As usual, the Nintendo Switch is highly reliant on the firm’s first-party games to achieve its success, but this time around the company has done well not to confine itself like previous generations. The Switch has embraced multi-platform games like Fortnite and even cross-platform play alongside it.

Devolver Digital co-founder Nigel Lowrie recently explained to Time that this was all thanks to Nintendo’s newfound efforts, ensuring that third-party games were advertised just as well as its own first-party titles.

“It became very clear when the Switch came out, Nintendo, who have been really fantastic since, had started reaching out aggressively. They were contacting us, other devs, other pubs, engaging with us at PAX and GDC, making a conscious effort to see what we were up to … and to this day are pretty active in checking in to see what we have coming and working to promote our games side-by-side with their games, which is impressive to see.”

This is particularly true with Indie games, which began receiving the full strength of Nintendo’s marketing with the release of the “Nindies Showcase” during Nintendo Direct presentations. This ensured that Indie platformer Gris received just as much attention within the same week that Nintendo launched its flagship Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

As the Switch enters its third year, the amount of interest from Indie developers continues to grow, whether it is from the nostalgia of Nintendo’s deep history or the sheer accessibility of the hybrid console.

KitGuru Says: It will be interesting to see whether Nintendo plans to continue this same effort beyond the current generation. We will have a long wait to find out given that the firm plans to continue pushing the Switch for years to come. Do you like seeing third-party developers embrace the Switch?

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