For nearly two years the rumours and community belief has been there that Nintendo would eventually announce a Nintendo Switch Pro-style console, a beefy hardware upgrade to the original Nintendo Switch. That never came, with the rumoured Switch Pro ultimately amounting to the Nintendo Switch OLED Model, which, while certainly a beautiful piece of kit, is not the upgrade in raw power that players had been looking and hoping for. As it turns out though, it wasn’t just the Nintendo players themselves that were longing for an upgrade piece of Nintendo Switch hardware, PlatinumGames, and Bayonetta 3 Vice President Hideki Kamiya is 100% with us all as well! So, when are we going to get it Nintendo? Even Bayonetta herself wants one!
Speaking to VGC in an expansive interview that covered a host of important topics pertaining to not only Bayonetta, and the franchise’s third entry, but also the failures of Babylon’s Fall, the lack of releases on Xbox platforms, and more, Kamiya was asked about what it is like developing for a platform that has now aged quite a lot, and whether that older hardware is a factor in his development approach. To this Kamiya said,
Fundamentally speaking, as a creator, I don’t feel dependent on hardware. We have the hardware in front of us, and whatever the hardware is, whatever the environment that we’re developing the game for at the time, we try to make the best out of what we have and feel good about it.
And that’s exactly how we approached Bayonetta 3: we had to make use of the full potential of the hardware that we have. And as I said, this mentality will be the same on every hardware platform that we’re developing games for moving forward, and not a mentality that is limited to the Nintendo Switch.
Personally, this is a very lifestyle-oriented preference for myself, but right now I feel it’s really difficult for me to actually “sit” still in front of the TV and play games. For me, I lie down and play games in portable mode and I enjoy games that way, and that’s the biggest reason why I like the Nintendo Switch.
Whenever the new hardware that Nintendo decides to launch next arrives, I personally do hope that they still have this portable element so that it can support my lifestyle of playing games as I lie down!
So it is clear that whatever the next Nintendo console platform happens to be, Kamiya is looking for the boost in hardware performance, but also is imploring Nintendo to lot let go of that portable aspect as well. That combination of course means that sacrifices in some areas will be necessary, but for now, on the PlatinumGames development side, it doesn’t currently seem to be a hurdle of any great significance.
Bayonetta 3 launches on Nintendo Switch exclusively on October 28, 2022.
