Regarding Switch third party support: Developers don't care about power

[The_Liquid_Laser]

Mnementh said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

Bethesda isn't really "big".  EA, Activision and Ubisoft are "big".  They release several big budget titles every year.  Don't expect them to release their biggest budget titles for the Switch when they get released for the PS4 and XB1.  They could do it if they wanted to, but they just don't want to.  For example, Madden has been on platforms much weaker than the Switch for years and years.    It would be ridiculously easy for them to release Madden on Switch if they wanted to.  They just don't want to.

I agree, but Madden is a bad example. Madden is EA, and EA and Nintendo are special somehow. I never really saw a good support by EA in recent generations. But Ubisoft and Activision are more neutral to Nintendo (Ubisoft even somewhat positive), and they release some bigger stuff - but by far not all. For instance Ubi has Just Dance, Steep and Mario+Rabbids for Switch, but not Ass Creed. I think porting cost vs. expected sales make this a too hard decision. It might or might not change with a bigger userbase.

I was just throwing out three of the biggest companies.  There are other big ones including some Japanese ones: Take Two, Square Enix, Capcom, Namco Bandai (arguably a couple more, but I'll stop here).  They all have a little different relationship with Nintendo, but I am kind of lumping them all together.  But you are right we can ignore EA, because hating Nintendo is part of their corporate culture. 

Let's just look at the other 6: Activision, Ubisoft, Take Two, Square Enix, Capcom, Namco Bandai.  For them it is mostly just business.  Sure they support Nintendo here and there, but if you look where the majority of their games go it is either Sony only or Sony/Microsoft simultaneous release.  In particular, their biggest budget games do not go to Nintendo platforms.  The reason why they don't want to support Nintendo is that they are big third party companies.  They have an advantage on any console where development costs are high.  They can outspend the little guys.  The big Western publishers, in particular, are not even very good at competing on handhelds where the playing field is more level.  Do Activision or Take Two really have big selling games on a handheld?  Not really.  Instead they are on a platform where they can get outsold regularly by Level 5 or some other smaller company.

So do the big third parties, especially Western third parties, really want Nintendo to succeed?  Not really.  They do much better business with Sony and Microsoft.  They can put in the development costs to compete on a high end console.  They will back Nintendo if they have to, especially if the Switch gets a really large install base, but expect them to drag their feet along the way.