Miyamoto pratar om Switch 2-specifikationer när dess största spel tar form

Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto used a recent Famitsu interview (via Nintendo Everything) to argue that hardware specs no longer drive console buyers. Speaking to the Japanese magazine, he said the priority now is simple: buy the software, and play it on the machine already sitting in your living room. He put the Wii and DS era as the point where Nintendo stopped competing on raw power and started competing on how a game feels to play.

"First of all, I was happy that the Switch lasted for 8 to 9 years. I think that customers are no longer just looking for specs. I think the ideal is that 'if you buy the software, you can play it on the device you have at home.'"

— Shigeru Miyamoto

His argument leans on production math as much as taste. Building for one architecture, he said, lets Nintendo respond faster and keep more creative freedom than a studio chasing every smartphone configuration and performance tier. Smartphones are everywhere, he noted, but the spread of hardware and features makes them awkward to design games for, whereas a single console lets the interface and the game be built together. He also joked about wanting to earn a living with minimal effort, then turned it into a real point about cutting wasted work so teams can move faster. The original Switch backs the claim up: it lasted eight to nine years and passed 150 million units without ever matching PlayStation or Xbox on paper.

The numbers behind the successor give the philosophy some weight. The Switch 2 is the second-fastest-selling console in US tracked history, with 5.9 million units sold in its first 12 months, behind only the Game Boy Advance. Worldwide, Nintendo shipped 19.86 million units in the same window. Circana's data had it outselling the PS5 while both the PS5 and Xbox Series posted steep year-on-year declines, with Xbox recording its worst May on record. Nintendo expects a slower second year, forecasting 16.5 million units through March 2027 because launch demand was front-loaded. A console that trails its rivals on component sheets is outselling all of them.

That momentum arrives just as Nintendo starts retiring the old hardware in one region. The company will stop selling the Switch 1 in Europe from mid-February 2027, a decision tied to the European Union's Right to Repair rules, which require user-replaceable batteries in consumer electronics. Nintendo is redesigning the Switch 2 and its controllers to comply, with the refreshed hardware rolling out through 2026 and into early 2027. Rather than re-engineer the older console for one market, it is pulling the Switch 1 from European shelves. The console stays on sale everywhere else.

"We plan to continue selling Nintendo Switch outside of regions where Nintendo of Europe conducts business."

— Nintendo

The software side is where the argument gets tested, and the first-party proof landed last week. The Splatoon Raiders reviews put the series' first spin-off at 80 on Metacritic across 65 critics and 81 on OpenCritic, with 71 percent of reviewers recommending it. The game came out July 23 as a Switch 2 exclusive and traded competitive Turf War for a co-op survival loop built around heavy character customization. Critics flagged the missing multiplayer mode, but most treated the release as a real franchise entry rather than a side project, and reviewers singled out its budget price and a progression loop several called the best the series has offered. Its score sits just under Splatoon 1 at 81 and the two sequels at 83, a narrow gap for a first run at a single-player direction.

Third-party support is following the install base. Pearl Abyss confirmed a Switch 2 build of Crimson Desert, its open-world RPG that launched in March on PC, PS5, Xbox Series, and Mac, though the studio says the port is early and would not commit to a date until it can hold the graphics and action to its own standard. Its next game, DokeV, is targeting the second half of 2028.

IO Interactive is further along with 007 First Light. The James Bond origin story has been out since May 27 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series, and the Switch 2 version is in optimization for a "later this summer" window that has not moved since April. Patrick Gibson plays a young, untested Bond in the studio's first entry in the series in over a decade; the console launch has sold past three million copies, and Eurogamer gave that version four stars.

"We want to make sure that we give it its time in optimisation and performance, that it reaches the quality that not only we desire, but that we feel our players deserve."

— Theuns Smit

I run a Telegram channel on open-world games, and 007 aside, the port I check on hardest is GTA 6, because a handheld Los Santos would reach players who will never buy a PS5. The rumors about GTA 6 on Switch 2 come from Spanish insider Nash Weedle, who says Rockstar has cleared the early technical hurdles and brought on port specialists as a subcontractor, but that the version will not ship this year. Rockstar has announced nothing beyond the PS5 and Xbox Series release set for November 19, so I file the Switch 2 build as likely rather than confirmed. Crimson Desert is the other one I want on the handheld, since an open-world RPG I can carry around fits how I play far better than a docked-only release would.

Capcom may move first among the big publishers. Insider NateTheHate says the Resident Evil remake trilogy, meaning the RE2, RE3, and RE4 remakes, is planned for Switch 2 this year, though no date has surfaced. Capcom's Onimusha: Way of the Sword is already locked for September 25 across PC, PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch 2, and the RE Code: Veronica remake and a Requiem story DLC are lined up for 2027.

None of this depends on the Switch 2 winning a spec-sheet fight it was never built for. Miyamoto's pitch is that the library and the machine already in the house matter more than teraflops, and the sales lead plus the run of confirmed and rumored ports is backing him up.