In an official statement from Nintendo, the company confirmed that theNintendo Switchwill launch on March 3 without any virtual console support. The official statement reads, “Virtual Console games will not be available onNintendo Switchat launch. We will share more information in the future.”
The lack ofvirtual console supportat launch for the Switch doesn’t come as much of a surprise, considering the rest of the Switch launch plans. There are only a handful ofgames that will be available on day one, with more to arrive in the following weeks and months, and gamers have already been complaining about the long wait before new titles likeSplatoon 2andMario Odyssey.
The fact that Wii U owners can playBreath of the Wildon March 3without dropping $299 on a new console may end up hurting the Switch’s performance in its early months. The real concern is that there is just a lack of content on the new machine.Zeldais definitely exciting, but with no virtual console andno Netflix support, gamers could run out of things to do on the Switch long before the arrival ofSplatoon 2, which seems like the second guaranteed hit.
Armsis scheduled to arrive just a few weeks after launch, so if the new IP catches on in the same waySplatoondid during the Wii U era, that could go a long way to giving players something to do on the console. That said, the initialhands-on experiences don’t seem to be quite as positiveas they were for a game likeSplatoon.Mario Kart 8 Deluxewill arrive in the spring as well, but that is another repackage of a Wii U game that doesn’t include quite enough new content to be enticing.
The Switch’s launch is less than two weeks away, so we’ll have a more concrete idea of the hardware’s initial success very soon. Hopefully the arrival of the virtual console won’t be long behind it.
Are you disappointed that the Switch won’t have a virtual console on launch? Does this impact your decision about how soon to purchase the hardware? Let us know in the comments.
