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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Dark Souls Switch delayed to Summer 2018

Pavolink on 17 April 2018
ryuzaki57 said:
With the Valkyria, DQ delays and now this, it's clear that Switch versions are giving trouble to 3rd party developers/publishers pretty much everywhere. That Bamco's comment on Dark Souls is further evidence that it's difficult to have a PS4-based game run in handheld mode. Longer development means higher cost, and sales prospects for 3rd party games aren't that brilliant seeing COMG and recent records of Switch 3rd software sales, so ultimately that's lower margin for those companies. It will be interesting to see how they will react in 6 months/1 year.

To what recent records are you refering?



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VGPolyglot on 17 April 2018
Pavolink said:
ryuzaki57 said:
With the Valkyria, DQ delays and now this, it's clear that Switch versions are giving trouble to 3rd party developers/publishers pretty much everywhere. That Bamco's comment on Dark Souls is further evidence that it's difficult to have a PS4-based game run in handheld mode. Longer development means higher cost, and sales prospects for 3rd party games aren't that brilliant seeing COMG and recent records of Switch 3rd software sales, so ultimately that's lower margin for those companies. It will be interesting to see how they will react in 6 months/1 year.

To what recent records are you refering?

Who knows, he always wants to talk about how much in danger third-parties are on the Switch.



Eagle367 on 17 April 2018

I don't know how moderation on this site is these days but screw it I'm saying it: "Fuck you Bamco!!!"



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Cloudman on 17 April 2018

This seems to be a worrying ongoing problem with Switch versions of games lately. I hope they don't end up hurting the sales of the Switch version.



 

              

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Kai_Mao on 17 April 2018
nemo37 said:
ryuzaki57 said:
With the Valkyria, DQ delays and now this, it's clear that Switch versions are giving trouble to 3rd party developers/publishers pretty much everywhere. That Bamco's comment on Dark Souls is further evidence that it's difficult to have a PS4-based game run in handheld mode. Longer development means higher cost, and sales prospects for 3rd party games aren't that brilliant seeing COMG and recent records of Switch 3rd software sales, so ultimately that's lower margin for those companies. It will be interesting to see how they will react in 6 months/1 year.

With the exception of Dark Souls, much of the delays can be explained. DQ was chucked up to the version of the engine used not being compatible during the game's original development. Now that the engine is compatible they have move the game over from the older version of the engine to newer release. Similarly, it is likely that development on Valkyria 4 started later, considering Switch was still new when the game was in development.

While your statement about porting PS4-based games does hold up for more graphically intensive titles designed around PS4, the Dark Souls port is based on the last-gen versions of the game. In fact, DS for Switch is being handheld by completely different studio than the PS4/Xbox One versions. There have been several ports of PS3/Xbox360 era games already that run and look better on Switch than on those systems. Based on the PAX demo, where areas like blighttown, which the last gen consoles really struggled with, were running fine on Switch. This indicates that this is not a case of the system struggling to run the game, but it could have to do with other things (maybe the online component of the game, or perhaps it was a business decision based on Nintendo filling up May with first-party releases which Bamco did not want to compete with).

Finally, I don't think your argument regarding sales of third-party titles hold up. We have had games like Attack on Titan 2 that have done fairly well on Switch, and even some late ports like Xenoverse 2. The problem right now is that we have very few major third-party titles that have had simultaneous releases with Switch. We know very little about how such titles would perform on the system.

I think third party games can do well on Switch. As you said, there is noted successes on the Switch, despite a majority of the third party games being ports. Heck, Ultra Street Fighter II, which was a $40 port of a classic game and its HD remix version, sold above Capcom's expectations. Then you got Doom, Skyrim, Mario + Rabbids, and others that have found success on the Switch.

There is opportunity for developers to find success on the Switch, especially since its selling well and has different userbase to tap into compared to PS4/Xbone.



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Solid-Stark on 17 April 2018

I'll be more busy with the PS4 version then. Still can't wait till it releases though.



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Jranation on 17 April 2018
KLXVER said:
That sucks. The Switch version will suffer from this.

This is not the first time it has happened. 



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Nuvendil on 17 April 2018
Hiku said:
AngryLittleAlchemist said:

Well just any game like Final Fantasy really. We've gotten a few titles but the third party support we got in the first year and few months was way different than what most expected. 

I'm not saying you literally believe in a conspiracy. I was just saying that we should always be skeptical to some degree of companies. 

Edit: Actually, I am curious how you can say that the developer of this port is lousy when they are working at a similar time frame to other third party developers, and Skyrim was also a 7th gen game?

What do you think people were expecting for Switch in its first year in terms of third party support?

As for saying the developer is lousy, that is interesting considering this delay only happened for the Switch version. Similar to what we heard about Dragon Quest XI.
Is the Switch version of Dark Souls handled by the same studio who are making the PS4/XBO versions? Or a different studio?

Bandai farmed it out to a porting studio.  And I don't think they're lousy but I would bet my entire tax return on 3 things:

1) Bandai gave them the tiniest budget they could possibly get away with

2) Bandai has provided no assistance

3) the developer is probably bogged down with other projects.

We've heard for a while that these port studios have work rolling in like the tide because a number of publishers are interested in the Switch but NOT interested enough to habe their devs lift a finger to do any work on the Switch themselves.  So I would bet cash that some delays we see are due to these port houses being clogged but publishers being unwilling to put real resources behind these versions.

And also, Soulsbourne games don't have great engines, they are all a bit finnicky.  And handing over a finnicky engine to a porting house and just telling them to call you when it's done is basically leaving the future of that version in the capricious hands of fate.  

And I derive my cynicism also from Bandai's history of crap ports to platforms they are uncommitted to.  Numerous PC ports for a long time were incredibly bad.  Such as Tales of Symphonia which was a gimped version of the mediocre PS3 port of the gimped PS2 port of the GameCube original.  Their history, in short, does nothing at all to inspire confidence.



Nuvendil on 17 April 2018
Mar1217 said:
Nuvendil said:

Bandai farmed it out to a porting studio.  And I don't think they're lousy but I would bet my entire tax return on 3 things:

1) Bandai gave them the tiniest budget they could possibly get away with

2) Bandai has provided no assistance

3) the developer is probably bogged down with other projects.

We've heard for a while that these port studios have work rolling in like the tide because a number of publishers are interested in the Switch but NOT interested enough to habe their devs lift a finger to do any work on the Switch themselves.  So I would bet cash that some delays we see are due to these port houses being clogged but publishers being unwilling to put real resources behind these versions.

And also, Soulsbourne games don't have great engines, they are all a bit finnicky.  And handing over a finnicky engine to a porting house and just telling them to call you when it's done is basically leaving the future of that version in the capricious hands of fate.  

And I derive my cynicism also from Bandai's history of crap ports to platforms they are uncommitted to.  Numerous PC ports for a long time were incredibly bad.  Such as Tales of Symphonia which was a gimped version of the mediocre PS3 port of the gimped PS2 port of the GameCube original.  Their history, in short, does nothing at all to inspire confidence.

I wonder then, why Nuntendo keeps getting them as partner for some of their projects with their IP's (Smash Bros, StarFox) ?

Cause they have manpower and tallent.  It's not lack of those that leads to screwups with Bandai, it's lack of effort.



KLXVER on 18 April 2018
Jranation said:
KLXVER said:
That sucks. The Switch version will suffer from this.

This is not the first time it has happened. 

Ok. Whats your point?