By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Nintendo - Will Third Parties sabotage Switch games and ports like they did with the Wii and Wii U?

MisterManGuy said:
Kerotan said:
It's not just developers fault though. If Nintendo want good ports of most third party games they need to release a machine on par with the ps4 or xb1. Then the developers can literally press a switch and the game is ported.

I get annoyed when pepole think porting is as simplistic as this. Not to say ports take as long as main games to develop, but porting a game to another system still requires a lot of work. It's not just a a matter of copy-pasting code onto a development kit. Now you have to optimize that code, make the visuals work within the hardware, program any new features, re-map all the buttons. It's not as straightfoward as what some believe.

I think developers would be willing to port their games to the Switch, only if the Switch has the sales for the games to make it worth it. If a shoddy port of GTA 5 fails, then of course developers aren't going to bother with it. But if a really good port of Overwatch does well, then the developers will consider the extra effort worth it. 

Contrary to belief, developers don't mind working with underpowered hardware just as long as the sales are there, and the porting proccess isn't impossible. 

No you're definitely not wrong but my point would make it a lot easier for ports to happen.  

 

The big AAA games are going to be made with xb1 power as the base level.  Having to port then to the Switch will be inconvenient as it's much weaker and a lot of changes to the game would be needed.  

 

It's why you'll never see the top range AAA like RDR2 or battlefront 2 on the Switch. 



Around the Network

Some might, but they do so at their own risk. Unlike the Wii era, indies now have a much bigger presence on the console, an on the gaming scene in general. If major third parties jump ship/hold back, there are plenty of indies that will be more than willing to swoop in and fill that power vacuum and take advantage of the growing Switch base. These third parties never had much leverage in the Wii era on Nintendo's console anyway, and now they have even less. 



 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident - all men and women created by the, go-you know.. you know the thing!" - Joe Biden

Upon reading the word "Sabotage" I knew this was going to be another Wii-U apologist thread.


This is the remnants of the 2014 Watch Dogs Boycott against Ubisoft where Wii-U fans actively campaigned for a major boycott of all of Ubisoft's games after they delayed Watch Dogs. For their efforts, Ubisoft cut back their Wii-U efforts simply because they figured they couldn't sell enough games to even break even. The same reason why other third parties abandoned or severely cut back support for the Wii-U - not enough potential sales.

The reason that ports of games to the Wii-U ran worse on that console or came severely cut down is because the Wii-U was 10-15 years out of date (it had the same G3 processor as the GameCube and Wii) and slower than any other consoles on the market during its time (barring the Wii and Android Microconsoles). Developers had a choice of cutting down the games severely to make them run or not port them at all. When Wii-U fans turned all their hate on those developers, they opted to not develop for Wii-U at all, leaving less than 10 retail releases per year following the Year of Luigi.


My main suspicions of why this article has come up is because there's no doubt the Switch is less powerful than the base PS4 and Xbox One. The Switch - as proved before by teardowns - is the next generation Nvidia Shield that's been rebranded. Although the Shield had stellar hardware for an android tablet, it can't beat a PS4 or Xbox One, and can barely achieve anything beyond a PS3. It is still however a lot more powerful than the Wii-U. Because of this lack of hardware power and the slow trickle of retail releases, all the Nintendo fans are terrified that the Switch is going to be deserted by third parties too.



Flash Sentry's #1 Fan (unofficially).

Kerotan said:
MisterManGuy said:

I get annoyed when pepole think porting is as simplistic as this. Not to say ports take as long as main games to develop, but porting a game to another system still requires a lot of work. It's not just a a matter of copy-pasting code onto a development kit. Now you have to optimize that code, make the visuals work within the hardware, program any new features, re-map all the buttons. It's not as straightfoward as what some believe.

I think developers would be willing to port their games to the Switch, only if the Switch has the sales for the games to make it worth it. If a shoddy port of GTA 5 fails, then of course developers aren't going to bother with it. But if a really good port of Overwatch does well, then the developers will consider the extra effort worth it. 

Contrary to belief, developers don't mind working with underpowered hardware just as long as the sales are there, and the porting proccess isn't impossible. 

No you're definitely not wrong but my point would make it a lot easier for ports to happen.  

 

The big AAA games are going to be made with xb1 power as the base level.  Having to port then to the Switch will be inconvenient as it's much weaker and a lot of changes to the game would be needed.  

 

It's why you'll never see the top range AAA like RDR2 or battlefront 2 on the Switch. 

Not saying every AAA game will make it to the Switch, but the ones that will, could easily be downscaled, particularly those made on Unity or Unreal Engine 4. 



"sabotage"

Sure.... Sure...



Around the Network

"Sabotage"? No.

"Get vastly outperformed by versions of the game on stronger platforms"? Yes.

The Switch's value lies in it's ability to go portable, so I expect portable-friendly genres like mini-game collections, Turn-Based RPGs, Tactics, and episodic games to do well in terms of sales. As far as performance is concerned, Switch users will have to cope with having the lowest-grade version of every game, whereas XBox/PlayStation gamers will have to deal with the scope of games being dialed back so they can feasibly make a Switch version.



Watch me stream games and hunt trophies on my Twitch channel!

Check out my Twitch Channel!:

www.twitch.tv/AzurenGames

Azuren said:
"Sabotage"? No.

"Get vastly outperformed by versions of the game on stronger platforms"? Yes.

The Switch's value lies in it's ability to go portable, so I expect portable-friendly genres like mini-game collections, Turn-Based RPGs, Tactics, and episodic games to do well in terms of sales. As far as performance is concerned, Switch users will have to cope with having the lowest-grade version of every game, whereas XBox/PlayStation gamers will have to deal with the scope of games being dialed back so they can feasibly make a Switch version.

How come the best game of this generation is exclusive to Wii U/Nintendo Switch and has a bigger scope than pretty much any game on the PS4/XBONE?



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

Azuren said:
"Sabotage"? No.

"Get vastly outperformed by versions of the game on stronger platforms"? Yes.

The Switch's value lies in it's ability to go portable, so I expect portable-friendly genres like mini-game collections, Turn-Based RPGs, Tactics, and episodic games to do well in terms of sales. As far as performance is concerned, Switch users will have to cope with having the lowest-grade version of every game, whereas XBox/PlayStation gamers will have to deal with the scope of games being dialed back so they can feasibly make a Switch version.

I think the reverse actually, Switch will do well in genres Nintendo has not done well in for a while. 

Sports games, shooters, and open world epic games will do better on Switch than they have on the Wii U or even Wii in many instances IMO. They don't have to be the most recent versions either, but I can see FIFA, NBA2K, Skyrim, Ultra Street Fighter 2, etc. doing well enough on Switch. 

Reason being Switch is actually a very appealling product to a hardcore player and unlike Wii U there is reason for a player to want to buy a Switch version instead of a Wii U version. Zelda is also doing great for that reason. 

Things like mini-game comps are actually not going to do that well on Switch IMO. Look at Just Dance, it's probably being outsold by Neo Geo games. 



Soundwave said:
Azuren said:
"Sabotage"? No.

"Get vastly outperformed by versions of the game on stronger platforms"? Yes.

The Switch's value lies in it's ability to go portable, so I expect portable-friendly genres like mini-game collections, Turn-Based RPGs, Tactics, and episodic games to do well in terms of sales. As far as performance is concerned, Switch users will have to cope with having the lowest-grade version of every game, whereas XBox/PlayStation gamers will have to deal with the scope of games being dialed back so they can feasibly make a Switch version.

I think the reverse actually, Switch will do well in genres Nintendo has not done well in for a while. 

Sports games, shooters, and open world epic games will do better on Switch than they have on the Wii U or even Wii in many instances IMO. They don't have to be the most recent versions either, but I can see FIFA, NBA2K, Skyrim, Ultra Street Fighter 2, etc. doing well enough on Switch. 

Reason being Switch is actually a very appealling product to a hardcore player and unlike Wii U there is reason for a player to want to buy a Switch version instead of a Wii U version. Zelda is also doing great for that reason. 

Things like mini-game comps are actually not going to do well on Switch IMO. Look at Just Dance, it's probably being outsold by Neo Geo games. 

The audience for Just Dance and Skylanders is just not there yet. Just Dance is focused in casual and party gamers that still lovee motion controlls (so they are still probably using the Wii), and Skylanders is focused on small children with tons of Skylander figurines. The Switch, as of now, has been bought mainly by regular gamers and Nintendo fans. Wait for a couple of years to see how they perform in the future.



You know it deserves the GOTY.

Come join The 2018 Obscure Game Monthly Review Thread.

Alkibiádēs said:
Azuren said:
"Sabotage"? No.

"Get vastly outperformed by versions of the game on stronger platforms"? Yes.

The Switch's value lies in it's ability to go portable, so I expect portable-friendly genres like mini-game collections, Turn-Based RPGs, Tactics, and episodic games to do well in terms of sales. As far as performance is concerned, Switch users will have to cope with having the lowest-grade version of every game, whereas XBox/PlayStation gamers will have to deal with the scope of games being dialed back so they can feasibly make a Switch version.

How come the best game of this generation is exclusive to Wii U/Nintendo Switch and has a bigger scope than pretty much any game on the PS4/XBONE?

The context of the post is clearly in reference to multiplatform games.

 

BotW is one of my favorite games this generation, but it accomplishes much of what it does by choosing a stylistic artstyle rather than realistic so that it can focus most of its processing on the massive open world. If you were to try to translate a game like Witcher 3 to the Switch, there would have to be a number of compromises made to the original game.

 

Soundwave said:
Azuren said:
"Sabotage"? No.

"Get vastly outperformed by versions of the game on stronger platforms"? Yes.

The Switch's value lies in it's ability to go portable, so I expect portable-friendly genres like mini-game collections, Turn-Based RPGs, Tactics, and episodic games to do well in terms of sales. As far as performance is concerned, Switch users will have to cope with having the lowest-grade version of every game, whereas XBox/PlayStation gamers will have to deal with the scope of games being dialed back so they can feasibly make a Switch version.

I think the reverse actually, Switch will do well in genres Nintendo has not done well in for a while. 

Sports games, shooters, and open world epic games will do better on Switch than they have on the Wii U or even Wii in many instances IMO. They don't have to be the most recent versions either, but I can see FIFA, NBA2K, Skyrim, Ultra Street Fighter 2, etc. doing well enough on Switch. 

Reason being Switch is actually a very appealling product to a hardcore player and unlike Wii U there is reason for a player to want to buy a Switch version instead of a Wii U version. Zelda is also doing great for that reason. 

Things like mini-game comps are actually not going to do that well on Switch IMO. Look at Just Dance, it's probably being outsold by Neo Geo games. 

Sports games, I'll agree with. Shooters and epic open world games... Not so much. Nintendo managed to do one with their Zelda team while using a stylistic approach, whereas most companies go for realistic in their open world games.



Watch me stream games and hunt trophies on my Twitch channel!

Check out my Twitch Channel!:

www.twitch.tv/AzurenGames