Something really interesting @GameNChick (PwerlvlAmy, for the local folks) posted on Twitter today: an article from August about Bethesda and the NX. They said that if the NX is on par with the Xbox One, they will consider porting over games in development. Flashforward to October 20th, and Nintendo shows Skyrim running on the Switch, and an image saying Bethesda will support the NS... Now, I don't believe the NS is as powerful as the Xbox One, but there must be something more than just contracts and money talking. The secret sauce maybe? Most of the article is below:

Speaking with Metro UK, Pete Hines talked about how Bethesda hasn’t supported Nintendo hardware for a long time mostly due to hardware related issues, with the games in development not fitting without  some major cuts.

"No, no. it’s usually been one of a technical… hardware issue. It’s just, what it is that the devs are making and what are the hardware requirements that they’re looking at, to support what they’re making? And what fits? And anything that is below the line is, ‘Well, we can make it work, but we’d have to cut this or that or do it like…’ But no, that’s not the point. The point is to take the game, as you designed it, and to get it working on those platforms. Not make a bunch of cuts and a bunch of changes and bring out some other version of it."

Interestingly enough, Pete Hines revealed that Bethesda will consider supporting the NX if the console is powerful enough. Games far into development, such as Dishonored 2, wouldn’t be coming, but anything that’s still in development could be considered.

So if NX is announced in the next few weeks and is as powerful as an Xbox One or higher, then…

"Then it will absolutely be something that we consider. Okay… let’s say they come out and say tomorrow it does X, Y, and Z. Well, Dishonored 2 is way down the road, it’s not in the conversation. But anything that is in development, I think we’d take a look at and see if technically does it line up with what they’re doing?"

http://wccftech.com/bethesda-developing-nintendo-nx-powerful-xbox/

Skyrim is a 5 year old game though. Perhaps Nintendo actually did something a normal company would do and actually went to Bethesda and got them to agree to at least a Skyrim port or at least a demo for the reveal video.

I don't think Switch is close to an XBox One though.

That Mario Switch game didn't look even close to a standard XBox One/PS4 game, it looked very marginally better than Super Mario 3D World.

People have to be careful when reading things like this, because quotes are taken out of context, for example he never says Switch/NS must be as powerful as an XB1/PS4 for them to make games. Read his actual quote not what the writer of the article is adding on top of that. His actual quote is basically they'd consider putting a game on NS if it made sense and if it was technically feasible. 

That doesn't mean it's equal to XB1/PS4, that means a game like Skyrim HD, which is an upgraded port of a PS3/360 game fit that criteria. We don't know what it means for actual "from the ground up" XB1/PS4 games. 

Essssssssh. While we don't quite know the actual specs since it is a custom Tegra chipset from Nvidia. X1 level performance is quite a stretch to achieve... It will be hard to tell until they actually release the specs.

It might be able to get close in some fronts depending on the actual specs like the CPU but overall, I doubt it.

but it's based on a new chip with new architecture, we don't have the specs, but nvidia is helping with the optimization too. So maybe there's some magic there, maybe not the same power, but maybe not too underpowered.

I could see the specs being just over XB1, and there being an SCD ready close to launch to allow it to handheld VR and checkerboard 4K.

While not certain, this is good news of whats to come.

I'm sure it's at least close to the XBOne. At the very least, it was powerful enough for Bethesda to port Skyrim HD.

We just don't know how much juice the Switch has. Skyrim is a much different animal than, say, Fallout 4, which itself probably (hopefully) won't be nearly as demanding as the next Elder Scrolls game. Remember that last gen versions of Fallout 4 were cancelled because they said the things they were doing "will never work there."

In other words, Skyrim playing on the Switch doesn't necessarily mean more than Skyrim playing on the Switch.

I completely forgot this quote. Encouraging.

That only rules out games currently in development. Skyrim is an old game and should be easily able to run on Switch, and new games can be designed to run on Switch if their production hasn't started yet (at least properly). That said, whether any future games are coming to Switch from Bethesda probably depends a lot on how other third-parties do, and if/when Skyrim is released on Switch, how well it does.

Anyway, I wouldn't expect huge Switch support from Bethesda.