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Nintendo has had moments throughout its history where it had to rely solely on first-party content to make ends meet, but thankfully, things improved during the Switch generation – with many major third-party publishers showing their support for the hybrid device.
This is highlighted in the Japanese company’s latest financial results, with the company explaining how one of the most significant changes it has made this generation is the relationship it has with these ‘other’ software publishers – noting how ‘significant improvements’ have been made in the areas of the “development environment and developer support”.
“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 helped third parties by offering “various middleware”, including commonly used game engines (such as Unity and Unreal Engine) and “more affordable” developer kits.
As a result, third-party partnerships have blossomed and are now “stronger than ever” – with the Switch receiving a wide range of releases from publishers such as Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Bandai Namco, Capcom and Epic Games.
Below is some information and an image highlighting the success of third-party physical sales on Nintendo Switch:
“As a result, approximately half of software units sold since the fiscal year ending March 2021 have been titles released by other software publishers. This figure does not include the numerous download-only titles released by software publishers. Sales of both first-party titles and titles from other software publishers continue to achieve strong sales levels.”
There’s more to come, with slides in the latest presentation reconfirming some major third-party releases heading to Switch 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, Microsoft has also made a 10-year commitment to bring the Call of Duty games to Nintendo platforms.
This latest update follows a rumor claiming that Nintendo would rely heavily on third-party support for the Switch in 2025.
