

I think it’s because the market changed around them. When the 3DS launched they were one of the only companies providing decent BC. Now, everyone does it and people expect games to actually play better on the new devices.
Still a surprise that Nintendo got the message, but with the dozen first party games that got free patches it was clear this was a new era for them. I’m playing Pokemon Violet right now after beating Scarlet a few years ago and it’s like a whole new game on Switch 2, all the performance issues are just gone.
Star Wars Outlaws targeted PS5/Xbox Series X and came out in 2024, Cyberpunk 2077 targeted PS4/Xbox One and came out in 2020. It’s really not a fair comparison.
Could they do it? Probably, but it would likely be a lot of work and significantly hurt performance, for what is an extra port anyways.
I appreciate the devs explaining this publicly. Personally I really liked the idea of game key cards as a replacement for codes in a box, but soured on it when we got codes in a box still AND most 3rd party releases using game key cards. This helps explain why so many devs have been opting for them and hopefully Nintendo rectifies the situation by allowing installs and offering faster cartridges.