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Image: GamesIndustry.biz Japan

Some reports are doing the rounds from Game Creators Conference 2017 out of Japan, which are interesting if not necessarily ironclad in detail. Twitter user @aizen76 attended a talk held by Masaru Mitsuyoshi from Nintendo and Capcom's Masaru Ijuin - and tweeted some remarks from the presentation. One key detail has been followed up by the Japanese affiliate of GamesIndustry.biz, which certainly lends it some extra weight.

The detail that's consistent across the tweets and the report by GamesIndustry.biz relates to a low cost for Switch development kits of 'around 50,000 Yen' - that currently converts to roughly $450 / €420 / £360. Even if that's just for a basic kit it's certainly a welcoming entry point, with the system's support for the likes of Unity and Unreal Engine 4 also helping matters. Interested developers need to sign up on the Nintendo Developer Portal.

The tweets by @aizen76 touch upon some other topics, which are intriguing if not necessarily to be taken as 100% translations of what was said. For example Ijuin-san spoke about Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers utilising Capcom's MT Framework, an engine that was also supported on the 3DS and Wii U. The process of porting it to Switch was apparently relatively easy, with a small team completing the initial work quicker than they could on Wii U and 3DS. Capcom seemed to work quite closely with Nintendo during the early development of the hardware in terms of providing feedback on technical aspects; initially the Joy-Con controllers weren't even a part of official documents about the console, apparently.

The tweets also suggest that Capcom is pleased with the resources offered by the NVIDIA GeForce-based technology in Switch, in terms of developing through PC software tools / emulation, and the flexibility it offers in high power performance when docked and lower power consumption in the handheld / tabletop modes. Capcom reportedly raised early concerns in the past related to the amount of memory available in the system for running applications, which was then addressed by Nintendo in subsequent builds. This isn't unprecedented - there were once reports that the Circle Pad Pro for 3DS was only developed in order to appease Capcom ahead of the portable's first Monster Hunter title in Japan.

According to these tweets, there's also an intention to adopt the RE Engine for Switch - this is Capcom's resource used for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, a title that's been in the rumour mill for a while in terms of a version on Nintendo's console. There's no guarantee it'll happen, but it would certainly be welcome if major Capcom releases using the engine could come to Nintendo's console.

Some interesting information, certainly, especially as multiple sources reference an affordable price for development kits. The more third-party support Nintendo can attract to the Switch, the better.

[source jp.gamesindustry.biz, via twitter.com, nintendo-insider.com]