Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter yesterday, Nintendo President Reggie Fils-Aimé commented on the future of a Red Dead Redemption 2 Switch Version, and why the major Rockstar title isn’t yet available on their platform.
The interview honed in on Nintendo’s priorities for the future of the Switch, with Fils-Aimé expressing that “third-party, big or small, we want all that best content to come.” When pressed further specifically on the matter of a Red Dead Redemption 2 Switch Version – a game Fils-Aimé replied, “Absolutely. We’d love for it to be there.”
The problem for Nintendo, he said, was that major games like RDR2 had been in development “well before any conversations about Nintendo Switch”. From their perspective, publishers like Rockstar are focused on finishing the existing development cycle, before looking for “opportunities” with other platforms.
Nintendo has pushed for many major third-party games to be re-released on their platform, including the 2011 Rockstar title L.A. Noire, and the comments from Fils-Aimé suggest that we’ll likely see similar releases in the future.
However, even with Nintendo’s interest in publishing RDR2 on their platform, the Switch’s capabilities as a portable platform remain an issue. The current generation of Nintendo Switch consoles might not be capable of running the demanding open-world shooter. Panic Button, the developers responsible for bringing DOOM to Switch, revealed earlier this year that the greatest challenge with the Switch lies in graphical issues.
In the same interview, Fils-Aimé also discussed the importance of bringing back classic titles from Nintendo’s perspective, remarking “we want to bring new experiences from our best franchises to Nintendo Switch, and that’s what you see with Smash Bros. and Pokemon”. This strategy is a clear success for Nintendo, with Smash Bros. quickly becoming the best Switch launch in the UK so far last week, but major third-party support remains out of reach for now.
