The Switch 2 has been out for a few months now, and has seen a variety of first-party and third-party games released on the console to generally positive reception.

However, it seems that many third-party developers are still having trouble getting their hands on dev kits for the new console. This report comes via Digital Foundry, responding to a question on the latest episode of their podcast (timestamped, 8:20).

Host John Linneman mentioned speaking to a number of developers at Gamescom 2025, who said that while they were interested in developing for the Switch 2, they “can’t get the hardware”, and many were told to ship games for the Switch 1 and “rely on backwards compatibility”. The DF team in general has also heard “through the grapevine” that there have been “weird exclusions” and “weird inclusions” surrounding the dev kits, with even some AAA developers seemingly not in the pipeline to get them.

This report echoes earlier comments from Digital Foundry from prior to the Switch 2’s launch, suggesting that Nintendo is still being very particular about who gets to receive Switch 2 dev kits even months after the console’s release.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.