Nintendo Switch version of Fallout 76 "wasn't doable"
New game won't be following Doom and Wolfenstein to Nintendo's console, but Bethesda remains committed to the Switch as a "viable platform"
Bethesda has enjoyed great success with ports of its games on the Switch, but SVP of global marketing Pete Hines has confirmed that Fallout 76 will not follow the trend.
The reason is not Bethesda's will to see the game on Nintendo's platform. Rather, it seems to be down to the capabilities of the platform itself.
Speaking on a panel at PAX Australia last week, Hines maintained that the Switch is "a viable platform" for Bethesda, and one that is "part of every conversation with every dev we have now" about their future plans.
"If the game will work on it, we want it to be on every platform possible," Hines said, as quoted by Gamespot. "Fallout 76 is not because it just wasn't doable. But honestly, there is no game in development that we haven't had a conversation about [bringing it to Switch]."
Hines said that Switch ports of Bethesda games are not "a mandate" handed down to developers. Even so, Doom and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus are now regarded as reference points for how Xbox One and PS4 games should be handled on Nintendo's platform.
"You go where the money is because that's how you stay in business," Hines continued. "What we have seen compels us to say, '[Switch] is a viable platform for the kind of things we do going forward.'"
Hines did not offer any detail on what, exactly, makes Fallout 76 'not doable' on Switch, but the system's relative lack of power is likely to be a factor. Both Capcom and Ubisoft have made attempts to get around the issue by releasing streaming versions of Resident Evil 7 and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey for the Switch in Japan.