Switch 2 devkits still scarce, Nintendo remains very selective of who actually gets them

Publishers and game developers are still having trouble getting a hold of Switch 2 devkits, sources tell Digital Foundry.

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Nintendo is still being very choosy in who is getting Switch 2 devkits. According to Digital Foundry, a lot of developers can't actually get Nintendo to send them a Switch 2 development kit. This has stalled the amount of games that can be made available on the Switch 2, as devs can't make games for the system without Switch 2 devkits.

According to the latest episode of DF Direct Weekly, Digital Foundry spoke to a bunch of developers at Gamescom 2025 and they basically all said the same thing: They can't get a Switch 2 devkit. This makes sense to a degree as Nintendo still has to manufacture, produce, and ship each devkit, which can be costly because of tariffs, plus Nintendo is also trying to be careful because it wants to avoid any more potential leak situations.

This unavailability could also affect the platform's reputation, and impact major companies like Bandai Namco; case in point, the Switch 2 devkit situation might be the reason that Elden Ring performed so poorly on the Switch 2 at Gamescom.

Here's what Digital Foundry's John Linneman said during the episode:

"There's been a lot of talk about this lately--Nintendo seems to be almost discouraging Switch 2 development to some degree. I've spoken with plenty of developers where they were [basically] told that their game should just ship on Switch 1 and rely on backwards compatibility.

"There's a lot of developers that are unable to get Switch 2 devkits; we talked to a lot of devs at Gamescom this year and so many of them said the same things.

"They want to ship on Switch 2, they would love to do Switch 2 versions, but they can't get the hardware."

"It's really difficult right now."