Bethesda Likes the Switch, but Not Enough to Port Fallout 4

Nintnedo has a problem with third parties, and has had one for a long time.

That said, looking at it in the grand stroke of history, it’s always been of their own making. Back when they were top dogs in the gaming world they were known for having enormously strict quality control guidelines, which was logical given how the lack of such things lead to the great Video Game Crash of 1982 but it also meant that third parties oftentimes languished under the difficulties and demands of the all-powerful Big N. Even after Nintendo found some real competition, they continued to try to keep strict control over all third-party development by forcing them to release their games on special cartages and mini-CD’s, which, as you can imagine, was not a great way to woo would-be developers.

Nowadays, Nintendo is more conventional, but it’s still having a hard time shaking off that old stigma and drawing third-party developers, and thus, whenever they launch a new console, more often than not all they get are ports as developers both test the waters and look to deliver something to a brand-new audience. That was the case with Bethesda when they re-released Skyrim, again, for the Switch, but if you thought that maybe this would be the start of some kind of Bethesda/Nintendo partnership, well… prepare yourself for some mixed feelings.

Speaking with GameReactor.eu following an award show, Bethesda director Todd Howard had this to say on the Switch:

There’s definitely interest, [but it's] not something that we are exploring right now. We think that the Switch is a great platform. It was the first time we really worked closely with Nintendo on Skyrim – really really great experience and we’ll certainly be doing things with the platform in the future, but right now it’s not a mainline Fallout 4.

So Bethesda will work with Nintendo, but not for any of its games that actually matter.

Neat.