Master Detective Archives: Rain Code dev on making the game Switch-exclusive

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code writer Kazutaka Kodaka has spoken a bit about having the game be Switch-exclusive. His comments came about as part of an interview published a little while back by Denfaminicogamer.

Spike Chunsoft revealed Master Detective Archives: Rain Code for Switch in a previous Nintendo Direct. The news may have been surprising for some as Kodaka’s previous series, Danganronpa, was largely associated with PlayStation.

Here’s our translation of the interview excerpt:

Kodaka: The response from overseas has been great! There’s already things like fan art. It’s not easy to reach a wide range of people with an initial announcement, so Nintendo Directs are great.

We talked about potentially making it multiplatform before, but this announcement made me realize the effect of narrowing it down to one platform. It would be a different story with an AAA title, but there are so many AA and A titles that it would get buried if it were multiplatform. It was Spike Chunsoft who made the decision to make it Switch-only, and I think it was a wise one.

A common pattern I see with successful indie games is to release as a Steam exclusive, climb the Steam rankings, and be noticed by new people that way. The same can be said for the Switch: climbing the Switch rankings puts the game in front of a new audience. To reach those who don’t consume media, climbing the rankings is just about the only opportunity.

Kodaka: Exactly, and if we made it multiplatform, it would certainly be buried and lost.

Nintendo Direct has much more influence than State of Play, so that seems like an advantage of making it Switch-only. Although developed by other companies, Nintendo Direct announced Triangle Strategy while State of Play announced The DioField Chronicle, both of which are Square Enix games with similar needs, and yet their sales numbers are completely different. I don’t think that’s an issue with the games themselves. It seems like a difference in promotion from my outside perspective.

Kodaka: Another factor in our decision to release it for the Switch was that it’s an adventure game. I think if another company decided to make a new IP for the Switch, they would have a hard time if it were mainly CGI because of the Switch’s hardware limitations. We were able to make Rain Code because it focuses mainly on the story. We’re going to release more promotional videos, some of which will feature the Mystery Labyrinth, so I hope the variety there catches people’s interest.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code will be launching on Switch this spring.

Translation provided by Kim Louise Davis and Simon Griffin on behalf of Nintendo Everything.