One avid tinkerer has found a way to makeGenshin Impactplayable on the Switch with the help of another console. The news of their achievement permeated social media weeks after thethird anniversary of theGenshin ImpactSwitch trailer.
Back when the Switch port ofGenshin Impactwas announced,HoYoverse was still called miHoYo, and its breakthrough game was yet to leave open beta. Since then, Nintendo has more than doubled its lifetime Switch sales, which went from 52.5 million in early 2020 to 122 million as of February 2023. And while the Switch install base is becoming more attractive to developers—especially those specializing in free-to-play games—by the day,Genshin Impactis still nowhere to be found on the eShop.
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One fan has now gotten tired of waiting and opted to take matters into their own hands, subsequently managing to get HoYoverse’s hit ARPG to run on a jailbroken console with homebrew software. This feat isn’t a first of its kind, seeing howGenshin Impactwas already seen running on a jalbroken Switchback in 2022. However, while the previous demo used an Android emulator which resulted in abysmal performance, the newly shared setup “runs smoothly” and with no noticeable lag, according to Reddit user Kiararenee, who said they paired their Switch with a PS5 using a homebrew version of the PlayStation Remote Play Android app.
Given howGenshin Impacthas been available on the PS4 for a long time and considering the fact Nintendo’s hybrid console recently surpassed Sony’s last-gen system by global sales, it’s plausible that HoYoverse’s inability to port its hit game to the Switch isn’t rooted in a lack of perceived profitability, willingness, or resources. Instead, the company might be struggling with hitting its performance targets on the Switch due to the console’s modest specs.
WhileGenshin Impactis somewhat playable even on low-end mobile devices, Nintendo’s latest hardware was barely on par with mid-range Android smartphones back when it debuted in early 2017, and is outperformed by most budget handsets and tablets nowadays. Granted, that’s not taking into account the fact that the Switch has a dedicated cooling system, which allows developers to squeeze its hardware to the absolute limit.
Even the latest flagship smartphones cannot avoid throttlingGenshin Impactperformance during prolonged playing sessions, so directly comparing the Switch specs to mobile platforms doesn’t paint the full picture of what Nintendo’s aging console is capable of. Given this overall state of affairs, some fans are now arguing thatGenshin Impactshould focus on the Switch 2if HoYoverse still isn’t close to bringing the game to Nintendo’s existing console
Genshin Impactis available now on Android, iOS, PC, PS4, and PS5, whereas its Switch port is still in development.
