Just the chill then: Nintendo Switch won't have Netflix or other streamers at launch

With every new announcement, it’s sounding more and more as though the Nintendo Switch is meant as a portable console that can be docked rather than a full on home console. 

The latest indication of this is the news from Nintendo that the console won’t support any streaming services at launch

In a statement sent to Kotaku, Nintendo said, “All of our efforts have gone toward making the Nintendo Switch system an amazing dedicated video game platform, so it will not support any video-streaming services at launch. However, support for video-streaming services is being considered for a future update.”

“We have nothing to announce at this time” 

The answer was one of a number sent through in a statement. Other questions focussed around the return of Miis, backwards compatibility, and the continued existence of the Virtual Console. 

Unfortunately when it came to the latter series of questions, Nintendo’s response was a consistent “We have nothing to announce at this time.”

As a result we don’t know whether the Switch will be compatible with existing Virtual Console purchases, we don’t know whether existing Virtual Console games will be available, and we don’t know how the promised SNES online functionality will work. 

With just over a month left to go until the new console launches, it’s worrying that Nintendo doesn’t yet have answers to these questions. 

Jon Porter

Jon Porter is the ex-Home Technology Writer for TechRadar. He has also previously written for Practical Photoshop, Trusted Reviews, Inside Higher Ed, Al Bawaba, Gizmodo UK, Genetic Literacy Project, Via Satellite, Real Homes and Plant Services Magazine, and you can now find him writing for The Verge.