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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Why is the Switch still not getting big games from 3rd parties?

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"The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must" - Thoukydides

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My guess would be handheld mode.

In this mode Switch throttles down to be effectively something similar to WiiU - if it was only docked mode AAA publishers would most likely put more effort into making ports for Switch, but handheld mode seems really painful - even Nintendo had to do some not so great compromises on Odyssey for it.

But who knows, if Wii had CoDs, maybe Switch will have those big mainstream AAA games as well.



It's also important to remember that publishers follow profits, not specs. If the Switch provides an opportunity, they'll jump at the chance, even if it seems impossible. If the Switch can run a scaled-back version of Doom, then it can run many other PS4 and Xbox One titles.



cuz it takes time to make games. Third parties weren't sure how the Switch would do after the Wii U failure, so most of them probably had nothing in the works for the Switch when it launched. Despite this the Switch managed to get some older ports of popular games already. It would probably take a lot of effort for games that were built to push ps4/xbone to be ported to the switch, so instead we're getting older ports. I'm sure a lot of games got started for Switch in 2017, by late 2018 and in 2019 there will probably be strong third party support for the Switch, including new AAA games built for it, not just crappy C-team ports of games like Nintendo owners have gotten used to since the Wii. So far its pretty much indie games plus Nintendo's big hitters that have driven the Switch. But within a year AAA third party support should start hitting and helping to drive Switch success.



It doesn’t deserve them. Just wait for the cliff drop of sales. Also only nintendo games will sell



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Robert_Downey_Jr. said:
It doesn’t deserve them. Just wait for the cliff drop of sales. Also only nintendo games will sell



 

As much as I love the Switch, it can't run some of those games. A poor port just makes the Switch look bad in the eyes of the public. Better to not have a game at all than to have a horrible version, I'm my opinion.

I do want Rise of the Tomb Raider on Switch, though. It looks just fine on Xbox 360.



Miyamotoo said:
Megaoverlord12 said:
The Switch IS NOT as powerful as the Xbox One or PS4. That naturally means that some stuff simply CAN'T come to Switch, not without significant cost that may very easily not be recouped. Third party games still do not sell as well on Nintendo most of the time. On top of that, most western third parties (Activision, EA, Ubisoft, Take Two) see the thing as primarily a handheld, and western third parties have not seen much success on handhelds. Besides, remember how long it took PS4/XB1 to get games that weren't just ports of PS3/360 games?

If the Switch continues being ridiculously successful more stuff will come, but you should never expect EVERY third party game to come to it. Now, some games I don't understand not coming to Switch (Monster Hunter: World most specifically), but I expect that I will not be able to get everything I want that comes out to come out on Switch.

Sorry but do you actually have any evidence for sucha claims for Switch also? Beacuse information we have about 3rd party sales on Switch is that they are selling quite good. Actualy Activision, EA, Ubisoft, Take Two seeing Switch primarly like handheld is a plus beacuse they can port their games on Switch and to be avalible in full handheld mode also and that gave extra value to those games, we have alredy games like Skyrim, Doom, La Noire and Dark Souls Remaster that were not on handhelds before.

I tottaly agree about your second part, I think Switch will have strong 3rd party support for Nintendo platform and there will more and more 3rd party announcements for Switch, but it will never be on pair of PS/XB

I guess I should have specified Western third parties. Going by VGChartz


Switch XB1 PS4
FIFA 18 0.37m 2.03m 8.12m
NBA 2k18 0.13m 1.08m 1.90m
Lego City Undercover 0.38m 0.15m 0.33m

Lego sold better, but it was originally a Wii U exclusive, so that's more or less expected plus Lego usually sell pretty decently on Nintendo hardware, likely due to the younger demographics. I don't really have many other good examples for comparison considering that most western third party games on Switch so far are late ports, so direct comparison is unfair. Going by the games that you mentioned (and some other late ports):

  Switch XB1 PS4
L.A. Noire 0.09m 0.07m 0.15m
Skyrim (First 2 weeks) 0.24m 0.47m 0.81m
DOOM (First 3 weeks) 0.16m 0.29m 0.65m
Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (First 10) 0.18m 0.27m 0.91m
Lego Worlds (First 10) 0.15m 0.20m 0.37m
Skylanders Imaginators (First 10) 0.02m 0.14m 0.24m

Now are these most of these bad figures? I wouldn't say they are, but beyond L.A. Noire (for some reason), all of them are unquestionably lower than XB1/PS4. Now is that fair, considering the Switch's significantly lower install base? Again, not particularly. Still the point remains that major third party games sell less on Nintendo hardware.

As for the developers touting high sales on Switch? Those are almost universally indies. You see Team Meat and Team17 happy. Do you see Bethesda touting how successful Doom or Skyrim was? EA with FIFA? No, because they weren't impressive. I want to be crystal clear. I do not think that indies are lesser. I do not think they are not important. They aren't lesser and they are important. HOWEVER, indies need lower numbers for the Switch to outsell other consoles, something that is greatly helped by the lower quantity of games on the platform. An indie selling 10k is a success, 100k massive, 1m unthinkable. But EA, Ubisoft, Square Enix, etc? Needs more than that.

All of this is on top of what many others here have said, that porting to the Switch takes time. If a game started development in 2015/16 for release in 2017/18, most AAA's literally CAN'T have a Switch version ready around launch. 



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Switch will never be able to run quite a few AAA console games so the vast majority of 3rd parties are just content by picking low hanging fruits on the Switch such as porting last gen titles and much less technically proficient games ...



As had already been said, most third parties probably expected Switch to flop after the Wii U, so they would've adopted a wait and see attitude. By late last year it became clear the system was set for success, but any games started then won't be ready yet.

Barkley said:

Because it'd take more downgrades and changes then they're willing to make, Doom just scrapes in the acceptable mark on switch and that's a game that ran at 1080p/60fps on the ps4, the majority of the big games do not run that well on ps4. Which is why the big new open-world games just won't come to the Switch.

To be fair, neither the 1080p nor the 60fps are locked on PS4, and on Xbox One the resolution drops to around "828p or lower" and the framerate into the 40s, so it's not like the game isn't demanding even on dedicated consoles.

captain carot said:
Others show few to no support so far, like Take Two or Acrtivision. Partially their games have flopped though on Nintendo hardware within the last ten years and partially even if you do port stuff it takes time.

Activision had a lot of success of the Wii; Skylanders, Goldeneye 007, COD3/W@W/MW/BO...