Bethesda has probably been the most enthusiastic and best third party supporter of the Nintendo Switch so far. This started with the announcement of the platform, where one of the headlining games for it was Skyrim, and then continued with the publisher bringing DOOM, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, and the upcoming DOOM: Eternal.
Speaking to Metro, Bethesda’s VP of marketing Pete Hines said that the Switch represents a technological match for the kinds of games that the company is making, which is why said games are coming over to it.
”Well, here’s the thing We’ve always gotten on well with Nintendo, it’s just a question of do the games that we make… technically are they a fit for the platforms that they’re making?” he said. “In the past the simple answer has been no. Like, Skyrim did not run on anything that Nintendo was making. Could we have changed a bunch of stuff to make it work? Maybe. But that’s not our approach.
“But in the case of the Switch the game as we made it, does it run on this? Yeah, it does! It runs well. And so Skryim, Wolf, DOOM 2016, DOOM Eternal, Shelter, Legends – all of those things are things we’ve said, ‘Look, this either can or will run well on a Switch’. And we continue to look at every game that we make, because we want as many people to play it as possible. I have my Switch with me here in Germany, I think it’s great to be able to take games you love with you.”
This matches what Hines has said about Nintendo for while now– that as loving as they can get the game to work on the system, it will come to the system. But how about making Switch exclusives? After all, Ubisoft has managed to partner with Nintendo to make an exclusive like the incredible Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Hines said it is definitely possible, but didn’t commit to it either way.
“It’s possible, but that’s up to the devs in terms of what game is it that they’d be talking about,” he said. “We’re always having conversations with them, but again those conversations wouldn’t necessarily take place with me, they’d take place with a dev to say, ‘We have an idea for a this or a that and we wanna do a game that is a crossover with the Switch’.”
Collaborations with Nintendo could also extend to Smash Bros. Asked about whether or not Nintendo and Bethesda have discussed Smash Bros., Hines said, “Oh yeah.”
Who knows, maybe the Doom Slayer or the Dragonborn could be unveiled as Smash newcomers in tonight’s Nintendo Direct, eh?