Xbox boss says Microsoft has a “great” relationship with Nintendo, addresses future Switch support

Nintendo and Microsoft have been playing well together for quite some time now. The collaborations have led to Cuphead and Ori and the Blind Forest on Switch and even the appearance of Banjo & Kazooie in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Gaming aficionados continue to wonder about what the future could hold between Nintendo and Microsoft and whether we could see other Xbox titles on Switch.

During an interview with IGN’s Unlocked podcast, Xbox boss Phil Spencer addressed the situation. Spencer seemed to damper expectations a bit, noting that some of the Switch releases were pushed by the developers and the company doesn’t want consumers to be wondering as to which platforms all of its titles could end up.

Spencer’s full words:

“The relationship with Nintendo is great. Doug Bowser and I, we talk often. Furukawa-san, the CEO of Nintendo and I, know each other well and we have conversations.

I will say the individual IP by IP to different platforms, I can see it can get kind of confusing to customers over time. We’ve been learning. Some of these have been some of our development partners that have wanted to go do this, and we want to support the desires of our creative talent, so some of this has been partner led. But I think more and more about what a full Xbox experience means on different platforms.

Right now it seems like when any game comes out, it’s ‘Is this one going here? Is this one going there?’ And I’d rather be able to set more of an Xbox-level expectation for our fans on where things are gonna go. I thought we did that with our first party when we talked about games shipping on Xbox and PC, and I got certain blow-back from certain people in certain groups on that, but at least we set an expectation on that, and I’d rather see us get to that point on the different pieces of hardware that we’re on. So I guess I’ll kind of leave it there.

I definitely have a ton of respect for the role Nintendo plays, and I love having great games on their platform. But I don’t really love this idea that for every one of our games, there becomes this little rumor on is it going to end up on the Switch or not, and I feel we should set a better expectation with our fans than that.”

You can listen to the full podcast here.