The Nintendo Switch 2 has sold 17 million units and boasts a library of 323+ games. But behind the scenes, a growing number of developers are frustrated: they still can’t get dev kits, and Nintendo isn’t even accepting applications.
It’s February 2026 — eight months after the Switch 2’s June 2025 launch — and the situation shows no signs of resolving.
What’s Actually Happening
Reports of dev kit scarcity first emerged at Gamescom 2025, when Digital Foundry’s John Linneman revealed that “a lot of developers” said they couldn’t obtain Switch 2 hardware. Linneman went further, stating that “Nintendo seems to be almost discouraging Switch 2 development to some degree,” with developers being told to ship on the original Switch and rely on backward compatibility.
As of February 2026, the situation persists. Nintendo is not accepting dev kit applications, according to multiple developer reports. Studios must either wait or “hope to be tapped on the shoulder by Nintendo.”
The distribution has also been inconsistent. Some major AAA studios have been excluded from dev kit allocation while certain smaller indie studios received hardware — a pattern described as “weird” by multiple developers.
Is It Deliberate?
Multiple outlets report that the scarcity is a deliberate strategy to reduce shovelware on the Switch 2 eShop. Nintendo reportedly wants to avoid the original Switch’s eShop problem — an overflowing storefront where quality games were buried under waves of low-effort releases. By limiting dev kits, the theory goes, Nintendo can give big third-party titles more visibility.
The results have been mixed. Despite the restrictions, the Switch 2 eShop during its first summer was still reportedly filled with shovelware, suggesting the approach may not be working as intended.
What This Means for Indie Games
The biggest losers are indie developers. Studios that rely on Switch sales as a significant revenue stream are stuck waiting for hardware they can’t buy. Even developers who are aware of backward compatibility issues between their Switch 1 games and Switch 2 can’t get dev kits to fix them.
Nintendo Life spoke with developers who described a “dev-kit disparity” — with some acknowledging the Switch 2 is “huge for us” while expressing genuine concern about the uneven access.
Nintendo’s Response
Nintendo has not publicly addressed the dev kit shortage. They avoided comment during earnings calls and haven’t issued any statements explaining their distribution policy. For now, developers can only wait — and hope that Nintendo’s strategy eventually opens the door wider.
Why Dev Kit Shortages Matter
When developers do not have access to dev kits early enough, the result is either delayed ports or poorly optimized launch titles. The Switch 1 launch benefited from strong first-party support but suffered from a thin third-party lineup partly because dev kits were distributed late. If the same pattern repeats with Switch 2, the launch window could feel sparse despite strong hardware.
Small and mid-size studios are hit hardest. Large publishers like EA, Ubisoft, and Activision typically receive dev kits early due to their established relationships with Nintendo. Independent studios and smaller publishers often wait months longer, which delays their development timelines and pushes their releases further from launch.
What This Means for the Launch Lineup
The Switch 2 launch lineup will likely lean heavily on Nintendo first-party titles and major third-party publishers who received early access to hardware. Indie games and mid-tier titles may take several months post-launch to appear. For buyers, this means the first few months will be dominated by big-budget releases with indie variety arriving later in the year. If Nintendo wants to avoid the slow start that hurt the Wii U, resolving the dev kit shortage quickly is critical.
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