Nintendo's Mysterious Switch Playtest Details Revealed, And...It's Not What You Hoped

When Nintendo announced a secretive 10,000-person playtest for an NDA-enwrapped project, speculation naturally ran wild. While something to do with the upcoming reveal and release of the Switch’s successor seemed the most popular idea, others wondered if it might be some sort of expansion of the Switch Online subscription. Places were filled up within seconds, with participants sworn to secrecy, so of course it was only a matter of time before the details leaked.

The first person to break the rule, an X user called Ethan_ThisGuy, posted some images revealing the nature of the project, which have inevitably since been removed. This followed an update by Nintendo to the playtest’s site, only visible to those who were among the chosen 10,000, that allows them to download the unnamed “test software” to both phone and Switch.

And what is that test software? It’s reported by The Verge that the now-deleted screenshots originally showed images of Nintendo’s first attempt at...an MMO.

Of course it’s a massive anticlimax. These things always are.

Still, Nintendo making an MMO some 15 years after anyone cared about them is at least interesting in and of itself. And we’re not talking about fighting orcs and buying mounts here, but rather something that looks like a fever dream Peter Molyneux might have after playing too much Minecraft.

“In this game,” the text beneath a section titled “The Game’s Purpose” reads, “the goal is to work with others to fully ‘develop’ a massive, expansive planet by utilizing creativity and farmed resources.” The accompanying picture (which we won’t be posting) showed a large sphere covered in an expansive grid, some of its squares filled in with various amounts of blue. The description continues, “As you progress across the planet, you’ll discover new lands, enemies, and resources that will be come essential to your journey.”

A second screenshot showed what looked like tiny Minecraft worlds in bell-jars, with the words,

Throughout your adventure, players will be granted special tools known as Beacons. These Beacons emit a healing light that purifies and develops the land. The higher your Beacon is placed, the wider its Beacon Zone becomes. Within your Beacon Zone, your best work can be done.

Players will repeat the process until their current Planetary Block is considered fully developed.

The final leaked piece of information is entitled “The Dev Core,” and shows a large room made of blocks, in which Fall Guys-esque characters run around, one carrying a block above his head. It says that this is “a separate space from the planet you’ll be developing. Think of it as a social hub to gather with other players.” It’ll also be the location where you can level up your character, get items, “commune with others, and more.”

Beyond what we’ve seen ourselves, The Verge adds that there’s a description of “UGC (User Generated Content) features,” but fascinatingly people will only be able to share these with others after passing some sort of in-game test “to show that you understand the importance of respectful communication.” Oh, poor, sweet Nintendo.

This all seems to add up to some sort of vast, collaborative version of something like Minecraft, with presumably each sphere its own 10,000-person server, but any more details beyond that would be wild speculation.

It’s interesting that “communing with others” seems to be a key part of this game, since that’s certainly something Nintendo games tend to go out of their way to prevent in order to maintain kid-safe environments. It’ll be interesting to see if this is restricted to emojis and the like, or if Nintendo’s about to discover just how much you never want open chat in anything.

Another thing that seems worth noting is that the character art in the Dev Core image looks awful. If it’s not placeholder, then...erk.

This is, of course, only the first leak of what will likely be many. Apparently the software isn’t even available to play until Wednesday, at which point Nintendo will have to pull out all the stops, copyright striking the squillions of screenshots and videos that will emerge. Although, given that taking part means you’ve given Nintendo your Switch Online details, it’s likely there will be harsh repercussions for anyone who isn’t careful. This is Nintendo we’re talking about, after all.

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