NintendoLife: Sitting Down With Panic Button, Nintendo Switch's Most Important 3rd-Party Studio
'Panic Button has worked wonders on Nintendo hardware, but Boggs is keen to stress that it’s rarely a cakewalk when it comes to bringing AAA titles to Switch, despite the studio’s prior successes. "The bar has been set so high for what's possible for the Switch, and so optimizing games for performance and making sure things still look great in handheld mode is always pretty hard." Ultimately though, the effort is worth it. "There's still just something magical about having this gameplay experience on your TV that you can transition to a handheld and take with you. We see that during development, and it's still exciting every time." And the satisfaction level of Panic Button’s current clients? "That’s a great question for them!" laughs Creighton. "I would say they say they are happy. And we almost always do more than one project with them, so... hopefully?"
It’s tempting to suggest that the company’s work is doing more to enrich the perception of the Switch in the eyes of the gaming public than even Nintendo’s own first-party software; games like DOOM, Rocket League and Wolfenstein II have a mainstream appeal which is capable of drawing in new players, perhaps even more so than the adventures of Mario, Link and Samus, all of which arguably cater for the needs of Nintendo fans first and foremost. "The folks at Nintendo are great platform partners," replies Creighton diplomatically. "My hope is Panic Button is a part of broadening the appeal of their great platform, and bringing franchises like DOOM and Wolfenstein to Nintendo gamers – for some people, maybe for the first time."'
Last edited by Raven - on 30 July 2018
