Space ninja wizards with guns have never been more portable ever since Digital Extremes ported Warframe over to the original Nintendo Switch. Hence, the advent of a more powerful handheld device, such as the Switch 2, made handheld Warframe more exciting. Over the past few months, however, Warframe devs hit a roadblock because they couldn’t get Switch 2 dev kits to port Warframe. Well, the good news is that they now have those dev kits, and Warframe on the Switch 2 is well underway.
This announcement was made by Digital Extremes CEO Steve Sinclair himself on Warframe‘s Devstream 189. Apart from the teasers and hints for a new Warframe, Sinclair also proudly mentioned that they’re finally in the process of porting Warframe over to the Switch 2, complete with an accompanying gameplay footage showcasing higher framerate and better fidelity:
Of course, it’s much better compared to the Switch 1 version. The footage was running on Switch 2’s native resolution, and Rebecca Ford, Warframe Creative Director, also touched upon how loading times are much faster and only 1/3 of the Switch 1 version. Steve Sinclair added that “shadow quality is cranked up, the shading quality is higher, the framerate is higher… It’s gonna be amazing.”
It’s also worth noting that the testing area is rather demanding, as it took place in Hollvania, the newest and most graphically demanding environment in Warframe, courtesy of the Warframe 1999 expansion. You can thus expect more reveals of the Switch 2 version of Warframe over the next few weeks or months, but for now, it appears Digital Extremes is still in the process of fine-tuning it.
The delay from Nintendo made buyers worried
It’s worth noting that the delay issue with the Nintendo Switch 2 dev kit has been ongoing since July, and it’s not just Warframe that’s affected. In fact, Steve Sinclair of Digital Extremes claimed that they were getting desperate to make a Nintendo Switch 2 port. Still, Nintendo’s slow rollout of dev kits for porting games over to the newer platform has had a domino effect of delays and backlogs.
For the record, dev kits are specialized software or hardware packages that allow developers to optimize and test games for new platforms. In the case of Switch 2, it was Nintendo’s responsibility to provide them to game developers. Some Nintendo fans have certainly wondered and were frustrated as to why Nintendo was slow on their dev kit rollouts, “This is honestly my one complaint about Switch 2. Why restrict dev kits?” says one Reddit user.
Some of the most logical replies, however, have guessed that it’s due to Nintendo being strict against potential hackers and emulator makers, as “The big switch 1 emulators were supposedly built through access to devkits”, claimed another commenter. Nintendo likely wants to avoid this kind of piracy issue again, though at the cost of customer satisfaction. The wait won’t be too long now, however, and Warframe fans on the fence about Switch 2 needn’t worry.
