Nintendo Highlights Strong Third-Party Relationships Ahead Of ‘Switch 2’ Reveal
Nintendo has experienced moments throughout its history where it’s had to rely exclusively on first-party content to get by, but thankfully, things improved during the Switch generation – with many major third-party publishers showing their support for the hybrid device.
This has been highlighted in the Japanese firm’s latest financial results, with the company explaining how one of the major changes it’s made this generation is the relationship it has with these “other” software publishers – noting how “significant improvements” have been made in terms of the “development environment and support for developers”.
“Thanks to these efforts, our partnerships with software publishers are now stronger than ever.”
This was achieved by opening a ‘Nintendo Developer Portal’ – a dedicated site for developers and publishers to make it easy for creators to develop software on the Switch. Nintendo has also assisted third parties by providing “various middleware” – including commonly used game engines (like Unity and Unreal Engine) and “more affordable” developer kits.
As a result, its partnerships with third parties have blossomed and are now “stronger than ever” – with the Switch receiving a wide range of releases from publishers like Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Bandai Namco, Capcom, and Epic Games.
Below is some information and a graphic highlighting the success of third-party physical sales on Nintendo Switch:
“As a result, about half of the software units sold since the fiscal year ended March 2021 are titles released by other software publishers. This figure does not include the numerous download-only titles that have been released by software publishers. Sales of both first-party titles and those released by other software publishers continue to achieve high levels of sales.”
There’s more to come as well, with slides in the latest presentation reconfirming a bunch of major third-party releases on the way to Switch in 2025. This includes games like Dragon Quest I&II HD-2D Remake, Suikoden I & II HD Remaster, Guilty Gear Strive and Atelier Yumia. In addition to this, Microsoft has also entered a 10-year commitment to bring the Call of Duty games to Nintendo platforms.
This latest update follows a rumour claiming Nintendo would lean heavily on third-party support for the Switch in 2025.
Do you play many third-party releases on Switch? What other third-party developers and publishers would you like to see on Nintendo platforms in the future? Let us know.