Microsoft has enjoyed great success with its Xbox games for PlayStation, regularly topping the sales charts for Sony's consoles throughout the year. But despite its new and stated multi-format strategy, virtually nothing has been announced for Switch 2.
It should be remembered that Microsoft and Nintendo had a fairly deep collaboration for a long time, with several games coming to Switch early on, while Banjo-Kazooie appeared in Super Smash Bros Ultimate and together they finally delivered a refreshed version of the Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye. One person who is surprised by the lack of Microsoft games for Switch 2 is former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, who is very familiar with Xbox management. In an interview with The Game Business, he says:
"You know, the team at Xbox... I'm very good friends with Phil [Spencer]. I know the team there."
He finds it remarkable that so few Xbox titles have been released for Switch 2 ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season, especially given that the console is currently experiencing a shortage of games.
"What I find surprising, I'm surprised that Xbox has not yet fully embraced the Switch 2 platform from a software perspective. That's the one that surprises me because certainly some games could easily be ported over to Switch 2. And I have to say I'm surprised that we haven't seen more of that. I thought there would be much more, especially during this time frame leading up into the holiday."
He explains that he thought the silence was a strategy and "maybe they were saving up for an announcement or something." But that's not how it turned out:
"I bring it up when they made the Halo announcement and everyone was talking about Halo on PlayStation. My immediate thought was why not Nintendo? You know, all through the fall, I was fully expecting some sort of dedicated announcement."
There have been rumors that Microsoft would have a number of announcements for Switch 2, but so far nothing has happened. Did you expect better Nintendo support from Xbox, and what do you think is the reason for the lack of support?