Credit: Oliver Cragg / Android Authority
- Japanese Nintendo Switch port developers revealed how the Nintendo Switch’s underpowered hardware hampered development.
- Everything from the weak CPU to the paltry 4GB of RAM was an impediment compared to its competitors.
- The number one thing developers want from the Switch 2 is “improved overall hardware specs.”
It’s common knowledge that the Nintendo Switch was underpowered when it was released in 2017, but now we know exactly what that meant for developers. Automaton Media interviewed a group of Japanese developers of Nintendo Switch ports about their experience with the platform, revealing just how limiting the hardware was.
For starters, the CPU was constantly at full capacity, meaning that background loading was nearly impossible. Typically, this would allow the console to pre-load the next scene before it starts, smoothing out transitions and reducing load times. On the Nintendo Switch, most developers simply accepted that load times would be significantly longer than on other platforms.