May 24, 2017

Launch Your Game on the Nintendo Switch with Unreal Engine 4.16

By Daniel Kayser

After launching early support for Nintendo Switch development in February’s Unreal Engine 4.15 release, Epic is proud to announce fully-featured native support for the popular platform in Unreal Engine 4.16.

Epic Games has teamed up with Nintendo to release the full Unreal Engine 4 source code for Nintendo Switch to approved developers for free! After launching experimental support for Nintendo Switch development in February’s Unreal Engine 4.15 release, Epic is proud to announce fully-featured native support for the popular platform in Unreal Engine 4.16.

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To learn more about the full range of new Nintendo Switch UE4 features, developers can register and join the Unreal Engine community today. Here’s how to get started:

  1. Become a Nintendo developer at: https://developer.nintendo.com/.
  2. Next, contact Nintendo about becoming a Nintendo Switch developer.
  3. After becoming an authorized Nintendo Switch developer, login to your account and fill out the form in the “Unreal Engine” section of the Nintendo Switch Middleware page. By doing this, an email confirming your Nintendo Switch developer status will be sent to Epic Games automatically. 
  4. Complete the Console Development Request form. If you’re already accessing Unreal Engine through a custom license or direct evaluation, email your Epic licensing contact for more information.
  5. Once your Console Development Request UE4 form has been approved by Epic, we will then send you an electronic Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) via Docusign. Once it’s signed, you’ll receive an email containing instructions for accessing UE4 code and tools for Nintendo Switch.
  6. You’ll also gain access to the exclusive UE4 Nintendo Switch forum to interact with the new community.
  7. Once you’ve received source access, you’ll need to compile the code for the Nintendo Switch platform.

New Nintendo Switch UE4 Discussion Board

A new Nintendo Switch discussion board, mentioned above, is now available for approved developers in the UE4 Forums. Please keep Nintendo Switch development-based discussions within this private section of the forums. Feel free to report any technical issues you may encounter here in order to benefit from community-based support.

Additional Resources for Custom Licensees

Epic offers dedicated support and direct engine code repository access to companies with custom license terms. Do you need special terms? If so, get in touch and let us know about your project by completing our custom licensing form.