It's bad news for those waiting for Obsidian’s RPG Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire to make its way to the Nintendo Switch. The game’s publisher has announced that the planned port has been canceled. This news follows a ton of delays for the game’s arrival and hardware issues for its predecessor.
The game’s publisher, Versus Evil, shared the news of the Switch cancellation on their Discord channel last month. In a response to a question about the game’s impending arrival, an employee responded with “Hey there! Unfortunately, after much deliberation, we have decided not to move forward with Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire for the Nintendo Switch.” No further explanation was given or has been offered since.
However, there have been several issues leading up to this cancellation. The game was originally set to arrive on the Switch back in 2019. Some setbacks caused the Xbox and PlayStation versions to arrive a year later in 2020, and the Switch version was pushed to an undetermined date. Since then, the game has suffered multiple delays, and updates became few and far between.
The publisher has also made some decisions regarding the future of the game’s predecessor on Switch. Last year, Versus Evil made the announcement that updates would stop being released for the original Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition on the Nintendo console. This decision was credited to certain limitations presented by the Switch’s hardware, but those limitations were never expanded upon.
This decision not to bring Pillars of Eternity 2 to the Switch may be to free up more time or resources for Obsidian’s upcoming Avowed. While not a lot is known about the first-person fantasy RPG, it is set to take on big games in the genre like The Elder Scrolls and Oblivion. Recent interviews and leaks point to an early 2023 release for the game, so the studio may be allocating all of its resources to hit that target timeframe.
No matter the reason, it is disappointing that Deadfire will not be having its Switch debut. The Pillars of Eternity series are some of the best RPGs out there and feel like games made for a handheld experience.