“We thought it was a shame,” admit the creators of Hitman, discussing what became one of Nintendo’s biggest Switch disappointments. IO Interactive says cloud versions never lived up to the hype, but sees Switch 2 as a shot at redemption. The studio claims Switch failed right where Nintendo had been most confident: cloud gaming.

What’s your take on cloud gaming? More and more companies are betting on streaming: PS Plus Premium, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and NVIDIA GeForce Now all let you play over the cloud. Nintendo, too, tried to bring big-budget games to Switch via the cloud—but neither fans nor the company itself were impressed by the results.

The cloud gaming experiment on the Nintendo Switch failed to meet expectations—something IO Interactive’s CEO openly admitted in an interview with The Game Business. The studio behind the Hitman franchise and 007 First Light confirmed that despite Nintendo’s best efforts to deliver AAA titles on Switch, Hitman 3’s cloud version never found an audience.

Hakan Abrak explained that Hitman came to Switch via the cloud because there was “unfinished business”—but things didn’t go as planned. “Nintendo had a cloud solution for Switch, so we launched Hitman in the cloud. No offense, but the Switch cloud solution wasn’t as successful as Nintendo had hoped. We felt it was a shame it didn’t take off, so there’s unfinished business.”

Switch 2 Could Offer Redemption

That “unfinished business”? “Hitman: World of Assassination is coming to Switch 2 in the right way for players who prefer that platform,” says Abrak, adding that several Hitman modes will fit the new console perfectly. High prices, dependence on a stable internet connection, and the inferior cloud experience compared to services like NVIDIA GeForce Now likely hurt sales. Still, IO Interactive is all-in on Nintendo’s next console—promising to launch 007 First Light on Switch 2 as well.

Source: 3djuegos