It appears that YouTube’s “ongoing” talks with Nintendo to bring an app to the Switch console have paid off.
Users on the video game forum ResetEra report that the game search portion of Nintendo’s website is now serving up a suggestion for a YouTube app. Some users posted screen captures with a YouTube app thumbnail and text indicating that the app is “Coming: Nov 08, 2018” — but it’s unclear where screen captures with the date are coming from.
There doesn’t appear to be a landing page for the app (yet), but as Polygon points out, the fact that Nintendo’s site is suggesting it is a strong indication that YouTube has already been built into Nintendo’s back-end and is on its way to launch. And the phenomenon appears to be fairly widespread: People on the French website NintendHome are also seeing suggestions for a YouTube app, Polygon reports.
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The possibility that YouTube might come to the Switch, which launched in March 2017 and has sold 20 million units, was floated back in June, when Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé said Nintendo was in “ongoing” discussions with both YouTube and Netflix to bring apps to the console. (No word yet on Netflix.)
Considering the Switch has a much larger screen than most smartphones and and can connect to TVs, it seems ripe with potential for streaming services. However, in every territory but Japan, Hulu is still the only streaming app currently available on the Switch. In Japan, Niconico, a video sharing platform, is also available.
