Poll Finds Nearly 25% of Players Would Buy a Switch If It Featured Xbox Games

By Mark Delaney,

With rumors pointing to Xbox Game Pass and other Xbox Live features possibly coming to Nintendo Switch in the future, perhaps even the very near future, we asked our community last week whether the prospect of that collaboration meant anything to them. As it turns out, it certainly does. Over half of respondents said they would play Xbox content on Switch. More interestingly, nearly a quarter of those who voted said they don't own a Nintendo Switch but would buy one for the ability to play Xbox on it.

Would you play Xbox games on Nintendo Switch?

Answer	Percentage of voters
Yes, I own a Switch already	30.63%
Yes, I would buy a Switch to play this way	22.83%
No, I own a Switch but wouldn't play this way	4.12%
No, I don't own a Switch and wouldn't buy one to play this way	35.95%
Other	6.46%

These sorts of numbers likely confirm what Microsoft already knows and seems to be building toward; ecosystems, not consoles, reign supreme. Phil Spencer and others have made it clear that they want to get Xbox content on as many screens and in as many hands as possible. Set off in a bad direction by the wrong-headed ideas of the previous regime, Xbox's future is now all about player options, and these Switch rumors play into that future perfectly.

The Xbox One's price point was a devastating blow given PS4 was sold for $100 cheaper when they launched together in 2013. The brand's shoddy messaging, features incongruous with what players wanted, and well-founded perception of inferiority in areas like power and game library hit them hard too. Collectively, it's meant them being outsold by their closest competitor by an estimate of about 2:1. We don't know for sure because Microsoft stopped sharing sales numbers years ago. They've spent the past several years playing catch up, but as this generation nears the home stretch, Microsoft is looking to get a headstart on the next generation.

They launched the Xbox One X in 2017 to leap-frog PS4 on the way to becoming the world's most powerful console, a distinction they are likely intent on holding into the next generation too. 2018 saw them work aggressively to overturn their first-party problem. They acquired many studios, including close-knit partners such as Undead Labs and Playground Games, but also left-field surprises like Ninja Theory and Obsidian. They've also opened The Initiative in Santa Monica, poaching talent from the likes of Crystal Dynamics and Rockstar, dubbing the new games house the first "quadruple A" studio. Other features of the console, like backward compatibility and Xbox Game Pass, will be mainstays of whatever the next Xboxes look like, and set the standard for Sony's design too.

Xbox on Switch is the kind of rumor kids share from their "uncle who works at Nintendo," but it's in keeping with Microsoft's future plans.

Along with all of that, playing Xbox content on Nintendo Switch makes sense. Cloud gaming, Game Pass, creating Xbox customers out of those that don't have Xboxes, giving players options — these are the tenets of Xbox's future, so said publicly by Phil Spencer and others enough times by now that we all know it. It seems this collaboration truly may be the next step in Microsoft's redemption story, and if so, many people are ready to jump in.

Xbox One

Written by Mark Delaney

Mark is a Boston native now living in Portland, Oregon. He has written for GameSkinny, Gamesradar and the Official Xbox Magazine. He runs the family-oriented gaming site Game Together.