Third party AAA games on Switch - A lost cause?

[Hero-of-Time]

6 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Bethesda have taken the crown! Well done to them!  They are putting damn near every Japanese and western 3rd party to absolute shame right now.

Indeed.

Crazy to think that they are putting in this kind of effort, yet someone like Capcom continues to treat the Switch the way it does. I think S-E are also doing a decent job of supporting the platform.

[Dcubed]

39 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Indeed.

Crazy to think that they are putting in this kind of effort, yet someone like Capcom continues to treat the Switch the way it does. I think S-E are also doing a decent job of supporting the platform.

Yeah.  Octopath Traveler looks like a solid A-Grade effort.  Outside of their gun shy attitude with their biggest titles (FF15, FF7r, Dissidia and KH3) I can't fault their support so far.

 

The Eidos side needs to step up to the plate though.

[ArtMediocre]

Yeah, I actually thought Bethesda would hold out any new game development after the release of Skyrim, to see if the game failed or not on the system. Which it probably would, seeing as it is a port of a game from 2011. I'm really glad to see that they have gone a step further and announced two games that are both triple A and totally not a typical Nintendo game! It really shakes things up, and in a very, very positive way!

[Kav]

Doom & Wolfenstein 2 is a great coup for the Switch!

[Kaepora_Gaebora]

Wolfenstein The New Order is still probably my personal highlight on Xbox One, I'm genuinely surprised New Collosus is coming to Switch! Fingers crossed they throw The New Order in there somewhere as well as a double pack or before New Collosus is released.

[dazzybee]

Capcom have been dreadful and it makes no sense at all! I reckon the afternoon collection and mega man would both sell best on switch.

Seems like this is the start and that 3rd parties are going to start growing. But they need to sell!!

[Agent Gibbs]

I'd love to know wheni crossed the void into this reality where Bethesda are supporting the latest (and sellin well) Nintendo console, the best out of all third parties!

[Hero-of-Time]

Gotta say, i'm really impressed with how NBA 2K18 looks and runs on the Switch. 

 

[markderoos]

As far as third party support goes, we still have a way to go. It would be great to see the day we get/from;

Ubisoft: (a port of) Assassins Creed Origins

EA: the Mass Effect games, NFS and COD

Activision: Starcraft, Diablo, James Bond, Tony Hawk

Squeenix: FFVII, Tombraider

Capcom: All Resi games

Rockstar: GTA 5

Konami: Metal Gear compilation

LucasArts: Star Wars Battlefront

Bethesda: Fallout

Bandai Namco: Tekken

2K: Borderlands

These types of franchises would get the Switch the third party support image it needs.

I never thought I would say this, but it doesn't even feel like that much of a stretch today 😱

 

Edited September 15, 2017 by markderoos

[Kav]

CoD isn't EA, it's Activision.

[markderoos]

33 minutes ago, Kav said:

CoD isn't EA, it's Activision.

Heh, stupid, thnx!

[liger05]

7 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Gotta say, i'm really impressed with how NBA 2K18 looks and runs on the Switch. 

 

Looks great. Shame about 5gb per save file. 

Nintendo need to allow save files to external memory or cloud saves as internally there isn't enough for downloads and huge save files. 

[dazzybee]

Pretty tempted by NBA2k18; anyone here got it?

[Kaepora_Gaebora]

4 minutes ago, dazzybee said:

Pretty tempted by NBA2k18; anyone here got it?

So tempted...

[Londragon]

1 hour ago, dazzybee said:

Pretty tempted by NBA2k18; anyone here got it?

Thinking on it, at least I'll wait until the retail package drops.

[liger05]

Now this sounds like a third party who is doing things the right way. 

https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/21/t...esda/view-all/

GamesBeat: There’s probably quite a bit of pent-up demand for something like this on a Nintendo platform.

Hines: We haven’t done anything on a Nintendo platform in forever. Breath of the Wild being the runaway colossal hit that it is, there’s certainly some belief like, “Hey, if you like open-world RPGs where you can explore and do what you want, Skyrim might be a good fit for you.” I don’t know what the exact size is, but some number of people who own Switches have never played Skyrim before. It’s a new thing for them, and for folks who have played the game, the ability to take it on the road—you’re going on a trip or commuting to work, it’s a great time.

And Doom is a completely different kind of game from what everyone else is doing. It’s a very visceral, violent, bloody, fun first-person shooter. We’re excited. They both have their place in what’s going on with that platform.

Expectations:
 

GamesBeat: With these games on these platforms, what are some of the expectations? Do you think these games can do just as well on Switch as the platforms they’re already launched on?

Hines: Certainly we think they can really well. What that means respective to the installed base or to other stuff—we’re not coming from the same place with Skyrim in terms of, “Everyone on this platform already knows the Elder Scrolls series.” There’s some amount of—this is new to folks. We have to introduce it to them and explain what it is. It’s the same with Doom. There is some crossover, but there’s also a new audience that isn’t sure what these games are. They haven’t played a Doom or a Skyrim. There is some education there as far as, “Here’s why these games are cool and fun.”

The Future:
 

GamesBeat: Did you have any particular kind of conversation with Nintendo when you proposed this?

Hines: Honestly, it’s been a long series of them. They came out to see us before they unveiled the Switch to show us what the hardware was like, what they were doing with it. We’ve been in constant conversation with them, and not just about the two games we have now, but about our whole approach to the platform going forward – what we can do, best practices, what things are a good fit, what they’re excited about in what we’re doing. We’re obviously excited about these two games, but it’s not as if we’re going to just do these two games and that’s it. We want this to be the start of a relationship that we build with Nintendo and Nintendo fans.

 

[Dcubed]

Great to hear that Bethesda want to support the Switch long-term.  Me thinks they're gonna be handsomely rewarded for jumping in early with full support! (I know that they're certainly on my radar now!)

 

Speaking of which... (this is probably the best place to put it for now).  Nintendo World Report have a whopping 27 minutes of offscreen footage of Doom running in handheld mode!

 

 

Looks absolutely stunning! Nice to see the Doom tradition of impossible ports is alive and well!  Despite the framerate being cut to 30FPS, it still looks extremely smooth (the copious motion blur helps a lot) and looks extremely impressive! (and this is undocked! It's gonna look even better on the TV!).

 

After seeing this, really, I can't see many excuses for 3rd parties that refuse to support Switch (especially considering that Doom is perhaps the very best looking 60FPS title on consoles right now - it's probably the best litmus test for its capabilities as you're gonna get).  It's also a great game too and the arcade mode is a fantastic fit for the pick-up-and-play nature of handheld play.  Bethesda/Panic Button/ID deserve all the very best success for what they're doing here!  

[Hero-of-Time]

It depends on how scalable the 3rd party engines are. Apparently the one Bethesda is using is very flexible which allows for the results we are seeing.

You look at S-E and FFXV and they are wanting to bring the game to Switch but are trying to find a way that won't hinder the performance of the game and which is cost effective.

EA is another one where you would imagine they would have just used the newer Frostbite engine on the Switch version of FIFA if the console could run it, rather than having to create a custom version.

I think 3rd parties not bringing their games to the Switch for technical reasons is still a valid one, it's just that Bethesda look to have been more prepared for such a situation than others.

 

[Dcubed]

12 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

It depends on how scalable the 3rd party engines are. Apparently the one Bethesda is using is very flexible which allows for the results we are seeing.

You look at S-E and FFXV and they are wanting to bring the game to Switch but are trying to find a way that won't hinder the performance of the game and which is cost effective.

EA is another one where you would imagine they would have just used the newer Frostbite engine on the Switch version of FIFA if the console could run it, rather than having to create a custom version.

I think 3rd parties not bringing their games to the Switch for technical reasons is still a valid one, it's just that Bethesda look to have been more prepared for such a situation than others.

 

Well of course it all comes down to a developer's technical proficiency and the scalability of an engine, but it also shows that it is IS possible to port over even one of the most advanced games of this generation and keep the experience intact with relatively minimal sacrifices (and hell, this port isn't even being done by ID themselves here!).  It shows that it's not really the fault of the hardware, but rather it comes down to the developer themselves and the effort/budget that a publisher is willing to put behind the Switch versions of their games.

 

NBA 2017 is also a very impressive port (bugs and egregious microtransactions aside) that runs on the same engine as the PS4/Xbone too and we know that the Switch runs UE4 games very very well (as Snake Pass and other title attest to).  As far as I can see it, developers/publishers can make it happen with their games if they really want to.  They just need to want to.  I'm not the only one who feels this way either; just looking around online, Doom has really shifted the mindset about what the Switch is capable of and I am hoping that other developers/publishers are seeing it the same way.

Edited September 22, 2017 by Dcubed

[Hero-of-Time]

I don't disagree with you I'm just stating that it comes down to whether 3rd parties think the Switch is worth their time and effort in getting their engines working.

It's pretty much the same situation as the Wii U. That was capable of running most of the PS3/360 stuff but developers didn't want to spend their time and effort in porting them. The only difference here is that the Switch is selling a hell of a lot better than the Wii U.

[Hero-of-Time]

Quote

The Evil Within 2 is out in just a few weeks for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and now producer Shinji Mikami--who previously directed the original game as well as the Resident Evil series--has said he would like to see a Switch version of the horror title.

In an interview with GameSpot, Mikami said, "I think a Switch version would be interesting. I'd like to try it if I had the chance." While not exactly confirmation that such a port is happening, it's at least promising that such a prominent figure in the series (Mikami is acting as producer and supervisor on the sequel) would like to see it happen.

Bethesda publish the games so this could very much be on the cards.

[dazzybee]

PLayed NBA2k18, runs really well, ultimately I'm more of a playgrounds fan I think, I don't like the sport too much so a hard core sim isn't for me; was tempted and it plays as good as expected but made me realise that I won't be getting it!

[Hero-of-Time]

33 minutes ago, dazzybee said:

PLayed NBA2k18, runs really well, ultimately I'm more of a playgrounds fan I think, I don't like the sport too much so a hard core sim isn't for me; was tempted and it plays as good as expected but made me realise that I won't be getting it!

Good. Nobody should be supporting that game. 

[dazzybee]

2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Good. Nobody should be supporting that game. 

Why? Is this the micro transactions thing? Don't know anything about it, presume it pay to win or some mobile style bullshit? Wrestling better not have the same as I do want to get that.

[Hero-of-Time]

4 minutes ago, dazzybee said:

Why? Is this the micro transactions thing? Don't know anything about it, presume it pay to win or some mobile style bullshit? Wrestling better not have the same as I do want to get that.

Go in the Switch general thread and watch/read what's been going on. Short version is that it's essentially a pay to win game wrapped in a retail package, with 2K threatening reviewers/sites if a score was low.

Edited September 24, 2017 by Hero-of-Time