Remedy’s excellent action-adventure Control recently launched for Nintendo Switch in select regions via cloud gaming. Unfortunately, Australia is one of the countries that’s missed out, and it’s looking highly likely we won’t get the game on Switch at all.
Control: Ultimate Edition hit Nintendo Switch on October 28 in the U.S. and other regions. It operates on Ubitus GameCloud tech and requires a strong internet connection to function smoothly. It’s not available on the Australian eShop, and as discovered by NintendoLife, even switching to the NA eShop on your Switch won’t do the job. Instead, you’ll get an error indicating your network isn’t strong enough to maintain the connection to Control‘s cloud severs.
Cloud gaming needs local data centres to work, and that lack of local support is the likely reason we still can’t access to services like PlayStation Now, Google Stadia or Cloud Gaming via Xbox Game Pass. For Stadia, a stable internet connection with a minimum speed of 10Mbps is required before it can run. PlayStation Now and Xbox’s cloud streaming services feature similar requirements. Australian connections — not all of them, but some — can manage these limits, but without a local data server to handle the load, the latency makes the experience unplayable.
Not all hope is lost for cloud gaming locally, though. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer recently indicated testing was currently underway for Project xCloud (Xbox’s cloud streaming service) in Australia, with 2021 planned as a potential launch date. If this goes ahead, it’ll open the door for future services to launch in Australia.
For now though, it appears Australians won’t have access to Control: Ultimate Edition or other cloud gaming titles on Nintendo Switch (like Resident Evil 7).
A local representative from Nintendo told Kotaku Australia, “The regional availability of any individual game, regardless of its distribution method, is determined by the publisher.”
No further information about cloud gaming for Nintendo Switch consoles in Australia was provided, so don’t hold your breath for Switch cloud gaming in Australia anytime soon.
Kotaku Australia has also reached out to Remedy’s PR team to determine whether cloud gaming will eventually make its way to the Nintendo Switch locally. Should we hear back, we’ll update this post.
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