Hogwarts legacy has had a mixed bag of a year all things considered. On the one hand, the title premiered earlier this year on the next-generation hardware to rave reviews. The PC release at the same time set a strong concurrent player count. The other hand presents Warner Brothers’ desire to not alienate portions of their player base by releasing the game on both the previous gen and the far more antiquated Nintendo Switch, the latter proving the most difficult.
While this in itself is not a horrible thing for a developer or publisher to want, this process has proven time-consuming to accomplish. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions were delayed multiple times, releasing three months after the now-current generation of PlayStation 5 and the Xbox series, it performed well despite a dwindling player pool and denigrated performance. Many of their audience even elected to upgrade to the more powerful hardware during that gap, viewing Hogwarts Legacy as reason enough to justify the price of admission.
The Switch version however remains in a state of limbo, currently set to release on November 11th. Despite the fact that we rapidly approaching that date, the studio’s lack of any official word that this version is progressing well, compounded by several last-minute delays, makes it questionable if the Hogwarts Legacy will even make its latest date of release. Based on what has been released it is clear that the game was intended to take advantage of the latest technology first and foremost, having to be workshopped to run on PS4 and XB1. The Nintendo Switch While a cool portable system, even upon release was not fully on par with its competition.
A Weird Generation Gap To Be In
For the games Nintendo is known for this is not an issue, but the platform has consistently attempted to bring in AAA titles with mixed results to compete. The most jarring example of this is Mortal Kombat which looked shockingly downgraded to be functional on the portable. Much of the outrage has been hammered on the fact the game attempted to sell this downgrade for the same price as its optimized version, 70 dollars, it should be noted that this version was probably carefully considered before being greenlit. A similar example comes from Fifa selling the literal same game twice, calling it a legacy edition, because the game had just moved far beyond what the Switch could handle. Nobody is excusing greedy companies for being greedy, that’s a conversation for another day, but we have seen in real-time the Switch attempt to be both relevant in the industry as a whole, and technically limited.
Hogwarts Legacy has a weird generation gap to be in. Mortal Kombat 1, which was similarly produced by Warner Brothers, completely skipped the PS4 and XB1 which seemed like something the company couldn’t imagine doing only a few months ago. Despite this, the game did drop on Switch, a less powerful platform. Now is this because the company had found some success for Mortal Kombat on Switch for Mortal Kombat 11, possibly… But it probably also has to do with the fact that the Nintendo Switch, if you don’t discount Nintendo’s non-competitive place in the industry, Is their current-gen console sitting at 1.8 teraflops compared to the PS5’s 10.28 and Xbox Series X’s 12. Any way you slice it there is a massive difference in computing speed there.
Should Hogwarts Legacy Skip The Switch?
Despite no official word of a Switch follow-up, the writing has been on the wall for the past year. During the FTC v. Microsoft, Activision head Bobby Kotick described the Switch 2 as being on par with the higher-end previous-gen consoles. There have also been suggestions that the dev kit for Nintendo’s next console is in the hands of developers. Gamescom brought several suggestions that the media was given a behind-the-scenes showing of the console. It’s a matter of when, not if, we are going to see this console next year.
This puts Warner Bros. at one loss at the tail end of this. If Mortal Kombat needed so much work to be rendered feasible on the Switch, what exactly are the chances for a AAA open-world action game? If the Switch 2 has the power we have been promised, we know that the studio can get it to run on there. While it isn’t one-to-one comparable, we have two ports that represent what that could look like. We are also entering into a golden age of portable gaming, with the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and iPhone 15 Pro showcasing that portable gaming has come a long way since the Nintendo Switch launched in 2017.
The question becomes, is the cautionary tale of Mortal Kombat enough to convince WB that waiting a year is more beneficial the releasing a potentially problematic port now? Regardless of when it releases it will undoubtedly sell. Anybody with the ability to get the game probably has, leaving the switch community as really the only group left to buy it, which many will even if it isn’t good. On the flip side, waiting the year for the Switch 2 will require them to weather the adoption period for users to begin buying the platform, or… You know… Find it, given the console shortages of recent years.
It could, however, be a statement piece, an early showcase of what the Switch 2 can run. It would also be a good game to get the ball rolling when it comes to the third-party support Nintendo has been struggling with for years. All of this is speculation, but it is hard to ignore the benefits to both parties should they simply say the game has been “Delayed to 2024.”
We have a little more than a month before we learn what route the game takes one way or another, and for everything I have stated I do hope the game performs well. I loved the game back when it was released on PlayStation 5. Had I had a website back there I probably would have given it an 8 out of 10. It is, however, hard to ignore troubling signs surrounding the port, so hopefully they are weighing all their options.
