| Conina said: He said "It's a massive game. Re-creating it would be really difficult." That sounds like a more ambitious approach where they upgrade most of the assets (similar to the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro trilogies or Windwaker HD). But a simple port of the engine with the same resolution (undocked) or a bit higher resolution (docked) would be good enough for many Switch gamers. And for these kind of ports you don't need the creativity of the original team, it can be outsorced to a third party developer specialized on porting games. Additionally, even if it would be an easy port... it would be stupid for him to admit that in an interview for two reasons: he would start rumours of a port long before Monolith is ready to announce it and a "difficult port" is much easier to sell for full price to the fan base. |
This is the last time I'm going to post here because you are ignoring what I'm saying in favour of sticking with your own opinion. Your position seems to simply be that because you want Chronicles X on Switch, you think it's going to happen this year.
To summarise my position - which I think is much stronger than yours given it's backed up by clear evidence - I don't think it's going to be ported in 2019 because of the scale of making that happen. It isn't simply that you get the game up and running on new hardware, you also have to optimise it for Switch and do so for both portable and tv modes - and we are in this case talking about the second most ambitious Wii U game Nintendo have published after Breath of the Wild. We have the head of the development team and studio responsible for the game saying it isn't happening and that it's very difficult to make happen - especially because of the expense of making it happen (Takahashi cites the cost of porting as a major reason why it isn't happening in the USGamer interview). We know that Monolith Soft are already working on one or two new games and that they usually provide support for EPD developed games, suggesting that they don't have many resources to spare.
To counter your suggestion it could be outsourced to a third-party: we know that Nintendo has primarily had Wii U ports to Switch be handled by the original developer - this was the case with Bayonetta 1/2, Mario Kart 8 DX, Pokken Tournament DX, Hyrule Warriors, DK Tropical Freeze, NSMBU DX - Captain Toad is the only exception, but even then EPD were involved (they had assistance from NST). It's quite clear that Nintendo's preference for Wii U to Switch ports is for the original development studio to handle the porting process. Not a single one of these projects were handed to a third-party studio - apart from Bayonetta 1/2 which was Platinum-developed in the first place. Captain Toad received porting support from another first-party studio (who have only been trusted with minor projects in the last decade). There is not a single shred of evidence to suggest Xenoblade Chronicles X is coming this year beyond the possibility of Wii U ports - and every bit of information we do have about porting games to Wii U - including as I've said evidenced from the head of the developer itself - points strongly to a Chronicles X port not even being underway. If you don't want to accept that, then fine. But prepare to be disappointed when it doesn't come to Switch in 2019.
Personally I hope a port does arrive at some point during Switch's lifespan - but it's pretty clear it's not on the agenda in the near-term.
