Former Nintendo of America president surprised at lack of Xbox support for Switch 2

Reggie Fils-Aime may not be the head of Nintendo of America anymore, but he is still very active in the games industry, often speaking at events, consulting with publishers and giving interviews. Recently, he spoke a little about AAA support for the Switch 2 console, expressing surprise that Xbox hasn't gone ‘all in' on the console.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is a huge hardware upgrade over the original console, giving developers access to much more modern graphics technology, and support for things like DLSS, which can help boost performance, and even ray tracing. There have been a few major AAA games announced for the console already, but Xbox has so far only announced a few games. According to Reggie, Xbox should be looking to ship more games on the Switch 2.

Here is the full quote from his interview with The Game Business:

“I’m surprised that Xbox has not yet fully embraced Switch 2 from a software perspective. 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.”

Microsoft has announced a couple of titles for Switch 2 so far, including Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4, Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition and even Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. However, games like Call of Duty, The Outer Worlds 2, Avowed, Halo and others are still yet to be announced for Nintendo's platform. There are older Switch 1 titles like Skyrim that could also benefit from an update for the Switch 2 hardware.

It is expected that Xbox will ramp up its support for the Switch 2 over time. There is one crucial thing that Reggie doesn't make note of in his comments, and that is the fact that Switch 2 development kits were in pretty short supply at launch, and Nintendo was very choosy with which studios got early access to the hardware.

Nintendo prioritised producing as many consumer units as possible to avoid issues with low stock and scalpers at launch, an effort that was largely successful. If you've wanted a Switch 2 in the last few months, it hasn't been difficult to find one. The downside to that is fewer studios were prepared to release titles within the first year and a few major games, like Borderlands 4 and Elden Ring, had to be delayed.

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KitGuru Says: With Microsoft now fully focusing on multiplatform game development and doing away with exclusive games for its own console, I expect Xbox's support for the Switch 2 platform to ramp up over the next couple of years.

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