© NintendoThe Switch release schedule may be looking a little light at the moment, but it would be fair to assume that there are projects in progress that have not yet been announced – and we undoubtedly had confirmation of this assumption by Christophe Gandon, Executive Director of Games at Virtuos, the studio responsible for impressive third party Switch ports like Dark Souls, Starlink and LA Noire, among others.
Speaking about the news that the Switch overtook the 3DS to claim the honor of being Nintendo’s fifth best-selling console of all time, Gandon said:
2021 started with the continued growth of the Nintendo Switch, which now exceeds the lifetime sales of the 3DS. There are many reasons for its success, including fantastic original games and smart design that finally crosses the divide between consoles and notebooks. However, what makes the Switch really stand out is its strong ongoing support from third parties. Investing in the Switch ecosystem no longer means losing some of the biggest IPs in the world, with franchises like Bioshock and XCOM in the same content library as Mario and Zelda. This can be credited to Nintendo’s new approach to working with third parties and its desire to make the Switch a welcoming home for developers of all shapes and sizes. We were able to make good use of Nintendo’s toolkits to make games look and run very well on their hardware, and we are excited about new projects on the horizon this summer and beyond. There’s a lot more coming from the Switch family.
Gandon is clearly suggesting that Virtuos has irons in the fire for 2021, but the use of the phrase “Switch family” is also interesting – he could be suggesting that we are going to receive new Switch hardware in the near future, as there have been strong rumors for some time (despite Nintendo’s best efforts to ignore them)? Or maybe it just refers to Switch and Switch Lite?
Let us know your thoughts by posting a comment below – and don’t forget to also tell us which third-party titles you would like Virtuos to bring to the Switch in 2021.