Reggie talks further about lack of save management on Switch, need to avoid piracy / modding / hacking
Mashable was able to speak with Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime at this year’s E3. At the show, Reggie was pressed further about the lack of save management on Switch. One of the things brought up is how it’s crucial Nintendo avoids piracy on the system as well as modding and hacking.
Read up on what Reggie had to say below. You can find Mashable’s original piece here as well.
On whether the lack of file management on Switch is due to piracy concerns…
Our focus in launching Nintendo Switch was to make it a stellar game-playing device. In driving that focus there were elements that we knew needed to come later. Like Nintendo Switch Online. Like other services — the Netflix and Amazon Primes of the world. With that as background, we are keenly aware of all of the things that consumers are asking for.
For us, it really is about thinking through how to do this in a way that makes good business sense but also is something that the consumer is really going to be excited about. We’re aware of requests around cloud saves or file management, we’re certainly aware of all the requests for legacy content, we’re aware of consumers asking for ways to have multiple devices linked to one particular account, we’re aware of all of those. What we’re trying to do is deliver positive steps on all of these areas but in a way that is prioritized and makes sense for us.
On concerns about Switch breaking and losing progress in Zelda…
It is well understood. For a person who has 100 shrines, I understand the concern about losing all your data. For us it’s all about, OK, how can we do this in a way that makes sense for the consumer, that makes sense for us, that’s what we’re working for.
On whether it’s a question of how functionally it’s going to work…
It’s everything from not only how is it going to work but it’s also how we do this in a way that doesn’t lend itself to piracy or systems or our core software infrastructure that can be modded or hacked. Those are all of the things that we need to think about from a business standpoint.
On whether it’s a matter of safeguarding around these features…
We need to create them, we need to safeguard them, we need to deliver them to the consumer the way that makes sense.
On where save file management and the Virtual Console fit on the list of priorities…
Certainly the virtual console aspect is going to be part of what we do in terms of making some legacy content available with the Nintendo Switch Online. In terms of the file management, all I can say is stay tuned.
