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

This conversation should be saved for this time next year. At that point, if there aren't many AAA games on Switch, it will be a valid question.



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Joke thread by joke user. Not worth the analysis.



carlos710 - Capitán Primero: Nintendo Defense Force

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Stuart23 said:

Besides the indies,there was a bunch of japanese devs expressing success on Switch. Bandai, Koey, Capcom, NIS, Square, already gave multiple reports about how their Switch releases selling above expectations and how they will improve their support on the platform. From other devs I can remember Ubisoft also expressing good sales, but to be fair besides Mario + Rabbids their other releases were old ports and party games,so the expectations maybe weren't that high.


OP: like many others already said,most of thirds were not on board with the Switch at launch because of the Wii U third party disaster. A big game takes a lot of time to port and again,many of the powerhorse games will not end on Switch. That said,we had a few great surprises with thirds last year and I think we will have more this year.

Again, it's mostly Western pubs that aren't particularly impressed with the Switch, and even among Japanese pubs, there are many major games that don't seem to be coming to Switch any time soon (Final Fantasy XV, FFVII Remake, Kingdom Hearts III, Monster Hunter World, and Resident Evil VII are just some of the biggest examples that come to mind). I do expect more third party support from this point going forward, and I have seen Japanese third parties expressing satisfaction (at least Bandai Namco, Capcom, and NIS, haven't seen Square talk about successful their games have been on Switch), but I find it telling that almost every game from them so far have been late ports, several from PS3 (Xenoverse 2, Street Fighter II, and Dragon Quest Builders being the biggest examples). 

I did mention that most AAA games started development before specs on the Switch were revealed, and thus they couldn't have ports ready. Again I do expect more third party ports in the coming years, mostly from Japanese pubs along with Ubi and Bethesda (assuming Doom and Wolfenstein II meets expectations anyway, something we don't yet know).



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Megaoverlord12 said:
Miyamotoo said:

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. 

The games you listed are flawed for a couple reasons.

1. Most of those released a 1-1.5 years earlier on PS4/XBO so they should by all means be lower even when comparing same time frame.

2. Vgchartz tracking isnt the best source for some of those games, for example Xenoverse 2 officially sold over 400k on Switch as of early Nov and over 500k at the end of 2017.



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It's possible other 3rd party titles are still in the works. It's still Switch's first year, and I woudln't be surprised if 3rd party took a wait-and-see approach with it, which maybe results in catching up.



 

              

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Should’ve used the pascal tegra x2,   Soon we will see why. Switch is missing out on top games due to limitations of the system. It might be flying high now but it 12 months it might be totally the other way.

Last edited by Roberto63 - on 18 January 2018

Not sure the point got across with my first post in this thread. So I'll say it more bluntly this time...

Switch is getting plenty of third party support. Outside of games that clearly can't run on the Switch, and greedy western devs (looking at you EA, Activision, WB) it's getting third party support from every major company.

Sega supports it with Sonic Mania, SMTV, and Puyo Puyo.
NIS supports it with Disgaea 5, Ys VIII, and many more.
Bethesda supports it with Skyrim, Wolfenstein, and Doom.
Namco Bandai supports it with DBZ Xenoverse 2.
SquareEnix supports it with Octopath, DQB, and DQ XI
Ubisoft supports it with Rayman Origins, and Mario X Rabbids
Capcom supports it with Monster Hunter XX, and USF2.






zorg1000 said:
Megaoverlord12 said:

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. 

The games you listed are flawed for a couple reasons.

1. Most of those released a 1-1.5 years earlier on PS4/XBO so they should by all means be lower even when comparing same time frame.

2. Vgchartz tracking isnt the best source for some of those games, for example Xenoverse 2 officially sold over 400k on Switch as of early Nov and over 500k at the end of 2017.

1. I specifically mentioned they were late ports above that, and I also mentioned that I didn't have a lot of better comparisons specifically for that reason.

2. I'm aware that VGChartz isn't the most reliable metric, but it's the one I used because I can't get reliable numbers for most of them. As unreliable as it is, proof was wanted and VGChartz was the closest thing to proof that I have. As someone who enjoys hearing how games do, I would love to have more reliable numbers.

EDITED: I also specifically note that they are unfair comparisons, but that doesn't change my point. In terms of raw numbers, Switch versions have lower numbers than XB1/PS4. They're not bad, and are far more comparable than Wii U multiplats for example, but still. It'll be far more interesting to see numbers on games that the Switch get at the same time as PS4/XB1.



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my guess is publishers and developers are still behind in the sense that they did not expect the switch to do as well as it has, and so there’s a lot of catching up to do in terms of planning, developing, and releasing the ports.

i wouldn’t worry too much about a supposed lack of third party support. i imagine the support will only increase, and by the end of the year we’ll all have no doubt that the switch is getting the love it deserves from all publishers.



spurgeonryan said:

Some would say Rocket league and Doom should count. Obviously there are other games as well that I did not list. 

But at this point,  with months of news about the Switch outselling nearly everything out there,  why is it not getting better games? At this point when a new Far Cry or Tomb Raider or even CoD comes out the Switch could be attached. 

 

Coming to PC,  iOS,  PS4, Xbox One,  and Switch should be on nearly every box and news article. But that is not the case. The switch should have developers lining up to port their top games from the past two years but it is still hit or miss which games come over. 

 

What else is it going to take to be listed with the other boys on every game announcement?

 

I realize that many more announcement include switch,  and I have skipped a few big announcements. 

 

I just want more and I do not even own a switch!

Well, at this point I say Switch is already popular with Indies and japanese 3rd-parties.Western 3rd-parties just hate Nintendo. I wouldn't wait for them.



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