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Creating software for Nintendo Switch will be much easier for both third parties and Nintendo’s teams thanks to full support for the likes of Unreal Engine and Unity, Nintendo has promised.
“For our previous game platforms, creating our own development tools was a high priority for us, explained Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima. “However, since the start of Nintendo Switch development we have been aiming to realise an environment in which a variety of different third-party developers are able to easily develop compatible software, such as by making it compatible with Unreal and Unity as well as our own development tools. As a result, even companies with only a few developers have already started making games for Nintendo Switch.”
Legendary game creator Shigeru Miyamoto went as far as to say that Nintendo’s internal teams are now as capable with the likes of Unreal Engine as Western studios which have been using these tools for many years.
“Even though game software developers in the US and EU are often said to have superior skills to their Japanese counterparts when it comes to software development techniques, Nintendoʼs software developers have mastered state-of-the-art technologies such as Unreal engine, and their skills can now be compared with those of Western developers,” said Miyamoto. “Our developers are more excited than ever to create software.”
Miyamoto also believes that “third-party developers who are making software for PC can now easily adapt that software to work” on Switch. This is a process which he believes should take “less than a year for them to port a PC game to Nintendo Switch”.
Whether or not we see floods of PC games ported across to Switch is likely to be determined by the early sales success of the platform, which goes on sale worldwide on March 3.
Source: Nintendo IR (PDF)
