Modders get GTA V running on Nintendo Switch, but it’s rough

A group of modders have managed to get Grand Theft Auto V up and running on a Nintendo Switch, albeit with mixed results.

Last year, the source code for GTA V leaked, making it available to the modding team known as Superstar South (an apparent play on GTA developer “Rockstar North”). The group then announced last month that it planned to develop a native Switch port of GTA V.

Now, it’s shown the fruits of that labour in a post on X (Twitter) courtesy of @SuperstarS31668.

Obviously you want to at least see how far we got…

(the recording is not as smooth when compared to hardware video output) pic.twitter.com/y0oSRterbD

— Superstar South (@SuperstarS31668) April 17, 2024

In the clip, which is taken from the tutorial of GTA V, you can see Michael and Trevor executing a heist, but it’s decidedly rougher than other versions of the game. For one, textures like Michael’s jacket are blurry and lacking detail, while the framerate consistently dips and the game chugs along sluggishly. (It should be noted that Superstar South says the original gameplay recording is smoother than what’s seen in the upload.)

Of course, none of this is a sleight against Superstar South. The fact that a game as massive as GTA V is running natively on the Switch at all is quite impressive. Therefore, immense credit should still be given to Superstar South for having any measure of success in this regard.

However, Superstar South says it’s ceased work on the project and has taken everything down, though purely of its own volition, rather than any legal action from Rockstar. It also says “stop asking for discord or progress, there won’t be any.”

Ultimately, this serves as an interesting, if flawed, tech demo.

Rockstar, for its part, is working on Grand Theft Auto VI outside of regular GTA Online content updates. The highly anticipated sequel is set to launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S sometime next year.

Image credit: Rockstar