Nintendo’s Switch appears to be an exciting new machine, and certainly one that has developers intrigued with its potential. However, Peter Nagy, CEO and Head of development at Gamesfarm, the folks who are currently working on bringing Vikings: Wolves of Midgard, has pointed out in an exclusive interview with GamingBolt that the Switch will need to do more than just being a hybrid, if it truly wants to resonate.
“We developed a lot of games for Nintendo back in the days so I am quite excited about upcoming NX,” Nagy said. “I have to admit that we are completely swamped with finalizing Vikings development and there was not really a lot of time to consider upcoming NX for our future projects.”
Nagy admitted that the Switch has the potential of being a revolution- but that that same potential could potentially be a cause for the platform’s failure.
“It may appeal to a new type of player and bring something new to the existing gaming community which is definitively a good thing. I have to admit that I favor revolution above the evolution but unfortunately revolutionary ideas often fail… However I definitively keep my fingers crossed that NX will fall into successful revolution category.”
Basically, he argues that the Switch needs to straddle two separate niches that may already be filled by other devices.
“Connecting home-gameplay and portable gaming is a good thing; but how this will be implemented is hard to predict at this moment. We may see that people still prefer 4k + VR at home while use portable device (smartphone) when travelling… To change this NX will need to offer something more than just merging those two different approaches.”
Nintendo have repeatedly hinted that there is more to the Switch than what they have just shown (albeit what they have shown so far has been great)- and they do have a tendency to keep some smaller, but significant, surprises, hidden until the last minute. My assumption is we will find out what it is in January, when Nintendo hold their Switch event.