Nintendo Using Unreal Engine For Switch, Miyamoto Says They’ve “Mastered” It
Nintendo, in what feels like a departure to at least me, is using the Unreal Engine with Switch.
In a recent call with investors, creative director Shigeru Miyamoto said that Nintendo’s own development teams have rapidly gained ground on their Western competitors. That’s because the new Nintendo Switch console is more open than ever, and supports modern game engines like Unreal and Unity.
During the call, an anonymous investor faulted the Wii U for its inability to easily support third-party software. He demanded to know how Nintendo’s own internal teams were getting on with making games for the Switch, which is due out March 3. In response, Miyamoto was extremely positive about the new device’s capabilities.
“Regarding our software development environment,” Miyamoto said, “third-party developers who are making software for PC can now easily adapt that software to work on our platform. In the current development environment, Iʼd say that it would take less than a year for them to port a PC game to Nintendo Switch.
“That ease of software development has also been felt by Nintendoʼs internal developers. Also, even though game software developers in the U.S. and E.U. are often said to have superior skills to their Japanese counterparts when it comes to software development techniques, Nintendoʼs software developers have mastered state-of-the-art technologies such as Unreal engine, and their skills can now be compared with those of Western developers. Our developers are more excited than ever to create software.”