Back when the Nintendo Switch was launched, it had two launch titles. One was the massively acclaimed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The other was the tech demo party game, 1-2-Switch. Being mostly a tech demo for what the Joy-Cons can do, it naturally wasn’t something people talked about once the handheld console hybrid got a few years to its age. But it apparently sold well enough that Nintendo considered working on a sequel.
But that sequel isn’t looking too good, according to a report by Fanbyte. Sources indicate a possible title of Everyone’s 1-2-Switch. The word “everyone” in the title reportedly alludes to the fact that the game could support up to 100 players at a time. Naturally, the 100-player crowd are not all expected to have Joy-Cons of their own to play, but are instead expected to join using their smartphones. As a sequel to 1-2-Switch, it was naturally expected to also have more minigames inside than the original.
But then things take a turn for the weird. The host of the game was a person with a horse mask, simply referred to in-game as Horse. This is supposedly because it sounded similar enough to Host in English that it would come across that way in other languages. Making matters worse was simply the fact that the supposed 1-2-Switch sequel just tested horribly. Playtesters found the games so boring and tedious that they didn’t even want to finish rounds.
Usually, a game that got this kind of internal feedback would either be shelved, or go through a thorough overhaul. As Fanbyte reports, Nintendo chose the latter route, which is not surprising on its own. What is surprising is that the company went ahead with printing out the 1-2-Switch sequel’s cover art and preparing physical cases for release. All this while the game is still being reworked.
The report goes on to say that while it’s likely what executives want, this 1-2-Switch sequel may not necessarily get a full retail release. It may instead be relegated as an add-on bonus to a higher tier of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription. It may even ultimately get shelved altogether, with the company taking the losses on dev time, the printed cover art and the cases prepared for it. Though sources for the report claim that Nintendo will try to get the game out one way or another.
(Source: Fanbyte via GamesRadar+)
