Paladins brings team shooter action to the Switch

In unexpected news, the popular hero shooter Paladins is coming to Nintendo Switch as soon as June 12, Hi-Rez Studios revealed today.

Paladins is a team based shooter that recently came out of early access after being available on multiple platforms, including PC, Xbox One and PS4.  Combining guns and magic with a range of different classes, at first glance you might be reminded of Overwatch, but the game also uses a unique card-based loadout system, allowing players to customize their Champion to their own style from the beginning.

“We’re thrilled to bring one of the world’s most popular shooters to an incredible platform like Nintendo Switch,” said Executive Producer Chris Larson. “Players will experience the same fantastic team-based shooter gameplay they know and love in Paladins, now in the palms of their hands.” Paladins on Switch will run at 60 frames-per-second thanks to a custom in-house port of Unreal Engine 3.

To play Paladins on the Switch, you’ll need to initially purchase the Founders Pack from the Nintendo eShop for $29.99. This gives you access to the game, along with all 36 Champions currently in Paladins, all future Champions, and a number of Founder Exclusive cosmetic items. According to the reveal post, Hi-Rez Studios intends to offer a free-to-play version on Nintendo Switch later this summer.

While it isn’t free to play just yet (as it is on other platforms), at least you can count on cross-play multiplayer between Xbox One and Nintendo Switch players, showing again that multi-platform online multiplayer games of this variety are more than capable of doing so if those platforms actually come to the party. This is also a first for Paladins, and is a smart move to attract new players.

I have to say, I’m stoked to see a game like this releasing on Nintendo Switch and hope to see more of the same from other developers. You can check out Paladins on June 12th to see for yourself how it holds up in docked and handheld mode, along with the Rise of Furia event taking place later this month.