The feelings of developers delivering news of a release delay and the gamers receiving it are practically worlds apart. Developers often delay a release date to double-check every detail and raise the level of polish, hoping to prevent potential optimization issues beforehand. On the other hand, gamers naturally tend to wonder if a critical issue occurred during the development process. While this is true even for unreleased games, such doubts inevitably grow even larger when it comes to games already available on other platforms.
IO Interactive's '007 First Light' is a similar case. While it already launched on PC and other platforms on May 27, the Switch 2 version alone has now seen its release delayed three times. The first time or two, players could let it slide, thinking, 'Well, sure, that can happen. They must be taking extra care with optimization.' However, as another delay was announced on the 15th, gamers' suspicions have been growing. It is a situation that naturally leads to thoughts like, 'Is it delayed because it's barely playable on Switch 2?'
At this point, it is difficult to brush things off with a simple reassurance that "development is going well." Fortunately, by trying out the Switch 2 version of '007 First Light' firsthand at TGS 2026, I was able to check whether it is being properly developed and, above all, what level of quality and performance it delivers during the porting process.
Playing the Switch 2 version of '007 First Light' at TGS 2026 gave the impression of a port that squeezes every bit out of the hardware's limits. However, there is one point to clarify first: what I played was strictly a build in development. As the Switch 2 version aims for a release in March next year, it can hardly be considered fully ported yet. Therefore, what follows should also be read with the understanding that it is an unfinished build.
The visual quality, which catches the eye first, is somewhat disappointing. While it does not look like clay or suffer from severely smudged character models, the basic texture quality is quite low.
On top of that, the quality of environmental objects, such as rocks, is also low in many respects. In the prologue played during this demo, Bond frequently crouches behind rocks to avoid enemy sightlines, making the quality of environmental objects stand out even more. While rocks do not look as if they were cut at right angles, the difference is noticeable when compared to existing PC and home console versions like PS5.
The silver lining is that character modeling was preserved as much as possible. As an adventure game, '007 First Light' emphasizes action, but the cinematic chemistry between characters is also a key element. In that regard, while textures were somewhat sacrificed, character modeling—especially facial detail—feels like it was maintained at all costs. In fact, despite the low texture quality, the character models themselves did not give a major impression of being crude.
Frame rate, another critical point, delivered a stable 30 fps, just as the development team confidently expressed during the previous day's interview. Considering that a stable 30 fps is better than fluctuating frame rates even if higher frame rates are supported, it becomes clear why the developers targeted a locked 30 fps over a higher frame rate. Having already played at over 120 fps on PC, there was certainly some disappointment stemming from the gap down to 30 fps, but it did not feel unpleasant to the point of being unplayable.
Of course, there are caveats to consider. This demo covered the early part of the prologue, consisting mostly of stealth movement without engagement in actual combat. In fact, no matter how fast one moved within the limited demo time, it was difficult to reach sections where combat takes place. In other words, it was not an environment ideal for testing frame rates, such as having screens filled with numerous NPCs or explosives going off all over during battle.
Nevertheless, this demo was meaningful in that it showed potential, at the very least. It was enough to relieve some of the lingering concerns, such as "Is it really being developed properly?" or "Even after delaying release this much, will it be capped at 30 fps with unstable frame rates?"
The new Switch 2 release date set by IO Interactive is March 2027. With roughly six months remaining, there is still enough time for polishing and optimization, even if it were a brand-new game approaching launch rather than a port.
Now that a stable 30 fps has been confirmed, I hope they build upon this to raise the visual quality just a little bit more—really, just a tiny bit more. As '007 First Light' boasts a movie-like story and direction, the visual enjoyment needs to be convincing as well.
