If increasing numbers of rumours circulating online are to be believed, we might be as little as one month away from the reveal of the successor to the Nintendo Switch, colloquially being referred to by many as the Switch 2.
It seems like the system, widely believed to maintain the core concept and form factor of the original Switch, is scheduled to be revealed by Nintendo in some capacity in March 2024, almost exactly seven years after the release of the original Nintendo Switch back in March 2017.
While we currently know very little officially about this supposed Switch successor, aside from some leaked information about an Nvidia GPU that supports DLSS features and alleged leaked screen size information, we do know it is being developed by Nintendo, and as such we can talk about the company’s future in terms of their current behaviour and practices.
It won’t be a surprise to any regular viewers of this series to learn that I believe Nintendo is lagging considerably behind both Xbox and PlayStation in terms of offering and standardising modern accessibility practices for disabled players, both in their hardware and software offerings.
Broadly, looking at the wider gaming industry, I feel there are very few large scale game developers dragging their feet more on accessibility than Nintendo right now.
Nintendo first party software often lacks basic accessibility settings which are becoming increasingly common across the rest of the industry. The company is slow to adopt innovations their rivals are standardising, and I struggle to point to many examples of Nintendo pushing accessibility forward themselves. They’re a company failing to keep up as the rest of the wider gaming industry catches on to the importance of accommodating and supporting disabled gamers, and that has only become increasingly more apparent during the most recent console generation.
That’s why I wanted to take some time today, as we approach the imminent announcement of whatever console hardware Nintendo will soon be unveiling, to take a look at some of the ways that I believe Nintendo needs to modernise their approach to accessibility as the company moves toward the announcement and release of the Switch 2.
There are accessibility standards I believe they need to catch up to, concerns I have about their strategy going forward, and pitfalls I hope we see the company avoid as they move into the future.
Accessibility Controller Support
First and foremost, above perhaps any other point, I think it’s incredibly important that we see Nintendo confirm in some capacity that the Switch 2 will support an accessibility focused controller on launch day.
That could come in the form of officially stating that the Hori Flex will be supported on Switch 2 at launch, a vague acknowledgement that current Switch controllers will be supported as an option when playing Switch 2 games when docked, or the announcement of a new first party accessibility controller designed by Nintendo themselves. Whatever form the news comes in, we need to see this kind of day one support officially confirmed by Nintendo.
Xbox set a new standard with the release of the Series X and Series S consoles back in [2020], supporting the Xbox Adaptive Controller on day one out of the box, and we need to see Nintendo follow suit, ensuring that Hori Flex users are not left without a controller that they can use moving into next gen.
A Larger LCD Screen (And Console Size)
According to a report by Bloomberg, citing an industry analyst familiar with screen manufacturing, the Switch 2 will feature an 8 inch LCD screen at launch. This would be a noticeable size increase above the launch Switch or Switch OLED, and be more in line with the screen seen on the PlayStation Portal.
I’m personally of the belief that the main reason Nintendo would increase the screen size seen on the Switch 2 is likely to accommodate larger internal components needed to run more powerful new software, with an increased screen size likely used in part used to make the necessary increase in system size and weight feel like a benefit and upgrade to the end user, as much as it might be to allow for more detail to be seen on screen.
Obviously, there are some pros and cons to a larger screen and larger console form factor. A larger screen will obviously make small details a little easier to see for players with eyesight weakness, and a potential bump from a 720p screen to a 1080p resolution could also help in this regard.
However, the obvious tradeoff is size and weight. I know many gamers currently who play multiplatform releases on Nintendo Switch rather than more powerful handhelds like the Steam Deck because the Switch is comparatively smaller and lighter, reducing strain on joints during extended portable play sessions.
If the rumours of a larger screen are true, hopefully we don’t see too much of an increase in console weight alongside that size increase. Portable system weight is important, and for many a heavier system will mean a less comfortably playable one long term.
While the original Switch’s kickstand and ability to be docked to a TV offer alternatives to holding the system during play, assuming those factors carry over to the Switch 2, weight is still a factor of importance.
Which Controllers Will Switch 2 Support?
Generally speaking, it is currently assumed that the Switch 2 will likely support a generally similar form factor to the current Switch, due to the prior system’s popularity. That said, the rumours of a larger screen size do suggest that the Switch 2, if it still supports a Joy-Con equivalent, may not support the original system’s Joy-Cons in portable mode, as one would imagine a larger screen likely requiring larger Joy-Con rails.
I honestly do hope that the Switch 2 keeps the general concept of Joy-Con style controllers, as I find being able to play games with my hands split apart from each other, spread out at my sides, a much more comfortable and accessible way for me to play games, something that I wish other systems would offer as an option.
The original Switch’s Joy-Cons are far from perfect, with unreliable analogue sticks and far from perfect system connectivity, but the general concept is one that I hope we see Nintendo stick with as they approach next gen, as it’s something currently not being offered at all by their competition, which really helps to positively set them apart.
In terms of potential additions we might see to the Joy-Cons on a Switch 2, there was a patent last year that suggested Nintendo had been looking into magnetically resistive analogue sticks, which could create resistance or tactile sensations when used during play. We made a video at the time about the accessibility implications of such a move, but in short it would need to be entirely optional, the same as Resistive Triggers are treated on PlayStation 5. There’s potential accessibility positives, but it can’t be a mandatory feature if it poses a barrier to play for those with hand or muscle pain or weakness.
Additionally, Super Smash Bros series creator Mashairo Sakurai has long stated he wants Nintendo to add scroll wheels to their controllers. Whether this would be helpful or not would entirely come down to execution, so that’s a possibility that we’ll have to wait and see if Nintendo listened to his wishes on.
Motion Controls
Motion controls are, honestly, a bit of a double edged sword when it comes to accessibility.
It’s undeniable that, for many, motion controls are an accessibility positive. Many people, particularly those without early life exposure to analogue sticks, find big sweeping motion controls easier to control than standard gaming inputs. Games mimicking already practised motions and behaviours are, for many, a much easier way to engage with game worlds. Wii Sports was a great game for showing that, for many, motion controls do make gaming more accessible.
I’m not saying that we need to get rid of motion controls on the Switch 2 entierly for the system to be accessible, but I do believe that making them optional rather than mandatory where possible, rarely if ever required to complete a video game, would be an accessibility positive.
Nintendo demonstrated with Skyward Sword HD that, when pressured, they can find creative ways to offer non-motion based control schemes for some of their most motion focused titles, when they make an effort to do so. I want to see more of that kind of thinking from Nintendo going forward.
Be it a creative alternative method for replicating motion inputs, to just a cultural shift in how Nintendo designs software, I really want to see an acknowledgement with the Switch 2 that while motion controls can be really useful for those who struggle with fine motor control, there are players for whom their mandatory inclusion will make a game unnecessarily unplayable.
I don’t want to see a repeat of Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee, which made motion controls mandatory when docked despite coding in a non-motion alternative control scheme for handheld play, needlessly gated away from docked use.
Let’s make sure that, assuming the Switch 2 supports an accessibility controller like the Hori Flex, there are few if any games that can’t be played using it due to mandatory motion.
Co-Pilot Mode
Initially offered by Xbox, and later adopted by PlayStation, Co-Pilot Mode allows players on these consoles to use multiple controllers at the same time, registered as a single user. This allows, for example, a second controller to be handed to another player to help with certain inputs, or for using a regular console controller at the same time as an accessibility controller as part of one single accessibility setup.
While the current Switch does support the Hori Flex accessibility controller, without support for Co-Pilot mode it’s not possible to use a Joy-con as part of an accessibility controller setup. This is a change I’d love to see made going into the next generation.
Accessibility Store Tags
This most recent console generation, both Xbox and PlayStation have started offering accessibility tags on their online game stores, allowing disabled players to see which common accessibility features a game supports, without having to go online and look for accessibility reviews like those seen on this channel.
This feature is a huge step forward for making accessibility information available easily at point of sale, and is something Nintendo really needs to start supporting.
Accessibility Announcements Prior to Release
One of the most important steps forward for accessibility that we’ve seen in the past few years is a shift toward game developers announcing accessibility information for their games in advance of release.
PlayStation’s first party studios have been generally pretty good at releasing official accessibility information at least a week or two before their titles release, alongside ensuring accessibility focused reviewers have easy access to review code. Ubisoft similarly has been getting better about announcing their accessibility information early in development, with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown for example announcing its accessibility options seven months prior to release.
While certainly not an industry standard yet, Nintendo could make a big impact by moving toward announcing settings options for their games prior to release. Instead, currently many of their games do not even see reviews published prior to the moment a game goes on sale, making it difficult for players to get their hands on day one accessibility information.
High Contrast Mode
One of the most important accessibility innovations to have gained prominence since the release of the original Switch is High Contrast Mode, a settings option which allows players to turn a game’s world to grayscale, highlighting important gameplay elements in bright block colours. This makes game elements easier to follow for partially sighted blind players, as well as being useful for players with cognitive disabilities.
High Contrast Mode is finally starting to gain wider adoption in the AAA games space right now, and is particularly useful on handheld systems where screen resolution and size are more limited.
We’ve seen examples of high Contrast Mode being particularly useful on systems like the Steam Deck, with PlayStation ports to Steam allowing the feature to make its way to a handheld system, and earlier this year we saw it utilised on Switch with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
High contrast Mode is finally starting to see wider industry adoption, and I hope we see Nintendo make an effort to start including the option in their own software soon.
DLSS Support
One of the most reliable pieces of information we currently know about the Switch 2 is that it features an Nvidia GPU, capable of supporting DLSS features.
Discovered as part of a data breach leaking Nvidia information, and backed up by later reports, it seems the Switch successor will support DLSS, which is able to improve either resolution or framerates in games by predictively creating additional visual frames or pixel data based on prior frames that it’s seen. It’s not a perfect technology, but on PC it has been demonstrated to be able to produce impressive results in terms of improving the performance of games running at lower resolutions and framerates.
While many are speculating this tech will be used to boost Switch 2 game resolutions toward 4K when docked, I would personally be more interested in seeing the tech used to provide higher and more stable framerates during gameplay.
As someone who suffers with chronic motion sickness, I find that games with lower framerates or more inconsistent frame pacing are more likely to make me feel motion sick, when combined with other factors such as first person gameplay in a narrow field of view.
If DLSS is commonly used on Switch 2 to provide reliably higher framerates, it won’t fix my motion sickness issues but it certainly would be a helpful factor in helping to mitigate the issue in certain titles.
Accessible Packaging
Both Xbox and PlayStation have shown over the past few years, with the Xbox Adaptive Controller, Series X and S, and PlayStation Access Controller, an understanding of the importance of accessible packaging principles. There’s a lot Nintendo could learn from them, and should apply to the packaging for their next system.
Avoid twist ties where possible, include at minimum a raised edge on outer box stickers to make them easier to grip, include cardboard loops on elements that need lifting inside of the box, and avoid packaging designs which require lifting and tipping to access their contents when possible.
These are not an exhaustive list, but they’re a great starting point for Nintendo to consider. Do what you can to make your packaging accessible, so that disabled gamers can have some autonomy in unboxing their shiny new gaming device.
Voice Acting, Text to Speech, and Audio Descriptions
If there’s one thing that sets Nintendo’s big budget games apart from their biggest competition, it might be the company’s reluctance to introduce voice acting for character dialogue. To this day, most first party Nintendo software features little to no voice acting, with only rare exceptions such as cutscenes in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for example.
This is a choice by Nintendo, and one I’m not going to try and convince them to drastically u-turn on, but I do want to talk about some of the accessibility negatives of this design choice.
As someone with ADHD, I find it a lot easier to focus on game dialogue, and not accidentally let my mind wander, when there’s voice acting to accompany text on screen, keeping more than one of my senses engaged at once.
Voiced dialogue is also useful for players who struggle to read text on screen, either due to blindness or conditions such as dyslexia making reading more difficult.
While I don’t foresee Nintendo moving to voice acting for all of their franchises any time soon, one solution which could really help would be text to speech support on a system level, allowing for a synthesised voice to read system menu text, as well as game text if supported by a developer.
Additionally, Nintendo could use their position as a developer who doesn’t generally support voice acting to their advantage, if they wanted to get ambitious. With no in-game voice acting of their own, there’s less other spoken dialogue to compete with, which could make it easier for the company to start incorporating audio descriptions into their titles, the way we’ve seen recent first party PlayStation titles pushing to standardise the same sort of feature.
Now, I don’t think Nintendo’s likely to make the jump to offering audio descriptions any time soon, but for now text to speech support might be a happy medium between Nintendo’s creative choices, and supporting disabled players needs with regards to delivering text as audio.
Let Other Studios Develop Nintendo Games
I know this is going to sound silly, but hear me out.
Nintendo has, during this past console generation, been slowly opening up more and more to the idea of letting outside developers get their hands on big name Nintendo franchises. Cadence of Hyrule was a music rhythm indie game set in the Zelda universe. Ubisoft made two strategy RPGs based on Mario, and got to create unique Starfox content for Starlink: Battle for Atlus. Bandai Namco have worked as a support team for several Nintendo releases this generation.
I’m not such a fool to think that Nintendo is going to fix their accessibility issues as a company without a lot of hard work and external pressure, but I do think if Nintendo continues this trend of trusting some of their franchises to other developers, we might end up seeing additional accessibility sneaking its way into some of the company’s biggest franchises.
Like, I wouldn’t be surprised if the first time we see High Contrast Mode in a Mario game for example is a hypothetical Mario and Rabbids sequel developed by Ubisoft. An outside developer might bring accessibility to big Nintendo franchises in a way that Nintendo’s internal teams may not, and that might be the backdoor that we need to get accessible practices starting to filter up to the Nintendo’s top executives.
Your Responses
To finish up, I went on social media and asked disabled gamers what accessibility improvements they would like to see from Nintendo going into the next generation, as we approach the hypothetical Switch 2.
Here’s a handful of the responses I received.
Bunny Suicida on Twitter, a gamer diagnosed with Keratoconus, a weakening of the cornea that means light sources appear indistinct, said the following about attempting to read small fonts.
I only have a small suggestion as I *only* have an eye problem that makes bright screens indistinct and fuzzy, so system level font size options would be appreciated.
DeadManArc on Twitter said the following would particularly help them.
The ability to tone down rumble on a console level. Like, I get that I can completely turn it off in system settings, but I’d like there to be system-wide intensity levels so I can have rumble without it causing my joint pain issues to flare up
For SaintNobody on Twitter, the most important changes Nintendo could make are about standardisation, and being transparent about a few key progression blockers.
Honestly, rather than any technical change, I’d like to see accessibility standards incorporated into the certification process. If the game contains any information that is only available via audio or feeling vibrations, that needs to be flagged early and fixed or disclosed.
Victor Dima on Twitter echoed a point we made previously, regarding the importance of text being conveyed as dialogue for blind gamers.
Text to speech implemented systemwide and in all their first party titles instead of animallise
Rebecca Milton on BlueSky emphasised the importance of maintaining the Switch’s detachable controller portable form factor for them as a disabled gamer.
I imagine this will be something that stays regardless, but keeping the screen + joycons setup is important for me! I have chronic pain and spend a lot of time in bed, and the switch is great because it doesn’t matter what position I need to be in.
And Benjamin on Mastadon added a suggestion I think is very much aligned with one of the few aspects of accessibility Nintendo tends to engage with.
A super-simple one: My son (8) can’t read. He won’t be able to for a while. He still loves to play video games, so he relies on me to read everything to him. I’m not always around.
ANYTHING to enable people who _simply can’t read letters and words_ would help. Glyphs/Icons that explain menu entries. Voice-Over otherwise.
Pretty please?
Ultimately, a lot of this is currently hypothetical, but I think as the next few weeks unfold these questions are going to become a lot more tangible and concrete, and as such I think it’s good that we start asking these questions now.
The Nintendo Switch is on track to potentially be the best selling video game console of all time globally in the near future, already reaching that title in certain regions such as Japan. The console was incredibly successful, and loved by many. Hopefully, when its successor is revealed in the coming weeks or months, we’ll see signs that Nintendo’s next system will be accessible to as many excited disabled Nintendo fans as possible.