Level‑5 drops Switch build
Level‑5 has canceled the original Nintendo Switch version of Decapolice and confirmed the game will now launch on PlayStation 5, PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch 2 — a change announced at Level‑5 Vision 2026 Craftsmanship and tied to the game's 2026 delay. (nintenderos.com). This is another clear sign publishers are shifting support toward Switch 2 instead of keeping old‑gen Switch parity, which matters for how quickly developers stop targeting legacy hardware. (nintenderos.com).
Three years after Nintendo first showed Decapolice for the original Nintendo Switch in the February 2023 Nintendo Direct, Level-5 has now removed that version and shifted the game to Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and personal computer through Steam. (nintendo.com) (level5.co.jp) Level-5 made the switch during its April 10, 2026 “Level-5 Vision 2026 Craftsmanship” presentation, where Decapolice reappeared with a short new trailer and an “under development” status instead of a firm launch day. (level5.co.jp) (rpgsite.net) The game has already slipped a long way. In September 2024, Level-5 said Decapolice was moving from a planned 2024 release to sometime in 2026, and the official platform list at that point still included Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. (level5.co.jp) That older plan mattered because Decapolice was built as a cross-generation game. It was supposed to run on a 2017 handheld-console hybrid in the original Nintendo Switch and on a 2013 home console in the PlayStation 4 at the same time as newer hardware. (level5.co.jp) Now Level-5’s own product page shows a cleaner target: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Steam, with the original Switch and PlayStation 4 gone. (level5.co.jp) Nintendo’s timing helps explain the move. Nintendo says Switch 2 launches on June 5, 2025 in the United States at $449.99, which means Decapolice’s 2026 release window lands after the new machine is already on shelves. (nintendo.com) When a game misses one hardware cycle and drifts into the next, developers often stop squeezing it onto the weakest machine in the lineup. That is like designing a new apartment tower and then being told one elevator still has to fit a 2017 motor. (level5.co.jp 1) (level5.co.jp 2) Decapolice is a crime-suspense role-playing game about a rookie detective named Harvard who investigates cases in a real city and a virtual version of that city, so it leans on large environments, combat, and scene transitions instead of looking like a tiny retro project. (nintendo.com) Level-5 is making the same kind of hardware cut elsewhere. Its updated lineup now shows Inazuma Eleven RE on Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Steam, but not PlayStation 4, while Decapolice goes further and drops both PlayStation 4 and the original Switch. (level5.co.jp) (gematsu.com) The quiet part of this announcement is that original Switch support is no longer automatic for every Japanese mid-size release. A game that was once announced as a Switch title can now age into being a Switch 2 title before it ever ships. (nintendo.com) (level5.co.jp)
