Summary
Nintendo’s long-standing design philosophy that prioritizes player freedom over arbitrarily imposed goals may be the reason why theSwitch 2won’t have system-wide achievements. That conclusion can be drawn from a recently resurfaced interview with a senior Nintendo official, conducted many years before theSwitch 2even reached the drawing board.
Achievements have been an industry-standard feature of gaming platforms since the late 2010s. Nintendo has so far resisted this trend, despite some vocal fans calling for the company to reconsider this stance. After the company fully unveiled its next console in early April 2025, it became clear that theSwitch 2 would mark yet another Nintendo device generation without system-wide achievements.
Bill Trinen, the Nintendo VP of player and product experience, outrightconfirmed that the Switch 2 won’t have a unified achievement systemin a recent interview with Polygon. While he didn’t elaborate on the reasons behind the decision, an older interview of his from 2011 may offer some clues. Back then, formerKotakureporter Stephen Totilo questioned the lack of system-wide achievements on the then-upcoming 3DS, much like fans are now doing for the Switch 2. Trinen was a bit more talkative in response to this inquiry, stating that Nintendo was “not opposed to achievements,” but while suggesting that a unified trophy system was at odds with its overall philosophy at the time.
Nintendo Games Encourage Exploration Over Meta Gameplay
Elaborating on this point, Trinen explained thatNintendo’s developersat its flagship Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD) division preferred not to guide players toward specific objectives for external rewards. Instead, their focus was on fostering exploration and experimentation by delivering in-game surprises for players willing to get creative or otherwise curious. “[Nintendo’s designers] don’t tell you how to play their game to achieve some kind of mythical reward,” Trinen said at the time.
[Nintendo’s designers] don’t tell you how to play their game to achieve some kind of mythical reward.
Given that the Switch 2 marks yet another Nintendo console generation without a unified achievement system, it’s possible that the philosophy Trinen described in 2011 still holds 14 years later, mostly unchanged. Even so, the Japanese gaming giant isn’t completely ignoring fan pleas for meta gameplay incentives like virtual trophies, as underlined by the fact that theSwitch 2 editions ofZelda: BOTWandTOTKwill both have achievements. The only catch is that these trophies will be tracked via the Nintendo Switch App rather than in-game.
Some first-party Switch games have already explored similarly contained achievement systems, withPikmin 4being a recent example. Given this state of affairs, it’s possible that Nintendo will eventually relent and embrace a system-wide trophy system in the vein of those offered by PlayStation, Xbox, Steam, and many other platforms, including mobile ecosystems. But if that time ever comes, it’s ostensibly going to be after the Switch 2 generation.
