A year into the Nintendo Switch 2's lifecycle, the illusion of limitless technical prowess is beginning to fade. While the console initially wowed audiences by miraculously handling heavy hitters like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and the upcoming Onimusha: Way of the Sword alongside its PS5 and Xbox Series X counterparts, a new wave of developer feedback suggests the hardware still has formidable boundaries.
The latest reality check arrives via Sandfall Interactive, the acclaimed studio behind last year's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In a recent interview, co-founder Tom Guillermin expressed a strong desire to bring the hit RPG to Nintendo's new platform, but conceded that doing so presents a "big technical challenge."
The primary culprit? Unreal Engine 5. Sandfall relied heavily on the engine's advanced features, particularly Blueprints—a visual scripting tool used to build complex gameplay systems. Currently, many of these core UE5 mechanics are either incompatible or highly unstable on the Switch 2.
"They're introducing features like Lumen Lite now, which is easier to run than the standard Lumen, but these things take time to roll out," noted lead character and concept artist Alan Reynaud. For now, studios looking to port UE5 titles are largely at the mercy of Epic Games to optimize the engine for Nintendo's hardware before they can move forward.
Sandfall isn't an isolated case; cracks have been showing across the industry for months. Last year, 2K Games indefinitely paused the Switch 2 version of Borderlands 4 to allow for "additional development and polish," with little news surfacing since (though Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick recently assured fans the port hasn't been outright canceled).
Furthermore, the highly anticipated Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition has become a crucial barometer for the console's actual capabilities. Originally slated for a 2025 launch, the port suffered a massive year-long delay after rough hands-on previews at Gamescom raised red flags. Now scheduled for August 28, FromSoftware's ability to smoothly run the massive open-world game on the Switch 2 will serve as a major stress test for the platform.
Ultimately, the Switch 2 narrative is splitting into two distinct camps. While industry titans like Capcom and Square Enix possess the massive budgets and workforce required to brute-force complex optimization, smaller independent teams simply lack the resources for such demanding, time-intensive ports. Nintendo's dream machine is undoubtedly powerful, but for many developers, it remains an incredibly tough nut to crack.