Nintendo Switch Dev Documents Leak, Nintendo Working on Two of the Switch's Biggest Problems

06/29/2017 09:49 am EDT

A bunch of developer SDK documents for the "NX," now known as the Nintendo Switch, were recently leaked online. There's nothing groundbreaking in these documents, as they've obviously been floating around for a while; since before the Switch was officially unveiled, anyway. The documents do contain two great bits of information, however. An eagle-eyed user on NeoGAF noticed two things in the "NX Account Guide" section of the documents. These two things answer two huge questions we've had since launch: Will we ever get cloud save data, and will we ever be able to use our account on more than one Switch?

When it comes to save data, we find the following, promising guideline for developers: "In the future, we plan to provide a feature to transfer account save data among multiple consoles. As a result, there is the possibility that user accounts with uninitialized account save data will be added. Note that your design must work without issue, even in this case."

This doesn't necessarily mean that a cloud save system is in place. It could just be a way for a new system to recognize your old microSD card. Either way, it's progress, and it means that if you drop and break your Switch, your 200 hour Breath of the Wild data is safe. So how about account migration? The document continues to state:

"We are considering a feature in the future (tentative name: Guest Login) to access existing network service account information without linking to a user account. This feature would allow temporary access to the network service account linked to the Nintendo Account by logging in to the Nintendo Account within the application. This feature would, for example, make it possible to upload a character you have raised as online data and then use that data on a friend's NX (without creating a user account)."

This, on the other hand, does seem to suggest some kind of cloud data system. Say you're playing Monster Hunter on your Switch, and you want to go over to a friend's house and play with him for some couch co-op action on a single TV. With this guest log in feature, you'd be able to sign in on his Switch as your account, and your character from Monster Hunter would be accessible in-game with all of your gear and progress intact. That sounds pretty handy, right? And it could apply to a variety of games in different ways.

So yes: it sounds like Nintendo is actively working on solutions to some of the Nintendo Switch's most basic problems. And since the solutions have been suggested since before the end of last year, we're hoping that we'll see them sooner than later. Stay tuned.

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