That playtest has an odd quirk about it, though. Switch owners can apply to participate in the playtest freely, but if they’re selected, they apparently have to keep quiet about Nintendo Switch Sports. Fans have noticed a stipulation requiring them to refrain from talking about the Nintendo Switch Sports playtest on social media. It’s more than odd that Nintendo has this stipulation in place; on the contrary, it could be actively harmful towards Nintendo Switch Sports. Preventing online discussions of the playtest limits the amount of feedback Nintendo can gather while framing Switch Sports in a negative light.
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Nintendo Switch Sports’ Playtest Issue
The Nintendo Switch Sports playtest agreement states that participants can’t talk about their playtest experience in public, whether that’s verbally or by sharing screenshots or gameplay footage. By preventing those kinds of conversations, Nintendo is actively losing out on potentially valuable information. Getting opinions directly from playtesters is one thing, but hearing about fan expectations when they’re exposed to more Nintendo Switch Sports information is completely different. As playtesters share their experiences, Nintendo could see how other Switch Sports fans react positively or negatively to aspects of the game, as well as any new suggestions that fans come up with thanks to new information, ultimately gathering vastly more feedback than the playtest alone might provide.
Aside from the loss of potentially valuable data, Nintendo is also bound to rub a few fans the wrong way by handling Nintendo Switch Sports’ playtest in such a secretive way. If Nintendo starts striking down social media accounts who share Nintendo Switch Sports information, then fans will likely start to associate the Wii Sports successor with that kind of aggressive behavior, which is bound to put a damper on excitement for the game. Nintendo can be pretty cautious sometimes, but keeping Switch Sports playtest information so close to its chest could be much too cautious.
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Switch Sports’ Situation is Odd
To a certain extent, it makes sense that Nintendo doesn’t want pictures and videos of Nintendo Switch Sports circulating online just yet. Since the game has a couple more months left before it releases, it might still have significant bugs to fix and player animations to polish, meaning recordings of Nintendo Switch Sports’ playtest aren’t a perfect representation of the final product. Having too much of that kind of information spread online could also be a detriment to Nintendo Switch Sports’ reputation. Nintendo doesn’t want potential consumers to think its sports game is a mess.
Preventing Nintendo Switch Sports discussions entirely still seems excessive, though. Fan conversations about their hopes for Nintendo Switch Sports are free publicity for Nintendo, which is great. Nintendo’s policy will prevent misinformation and criticism from spreading online, but it’ll stamp out praise and excitement too. Conversations about Nintendo Switch Sports in its testing state could be a valuable resource to both Nintendo and its fans. Odds are that several testers will leak information about the playtest anyhow, so it should be interesting to see how Nintendo responds to any Nintendo Switch Sports information that does slip out due to the game’s first players.
Nintendo Switch Sports releases April 29, 2022 for Nintendo Switch.
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