I think so too, but the fact that we're getting compliments with no promise of support gives people fair reason to be pessimistic.
Take Two CEO "Nintendo is making a 'great effort' to support 3rd parties on Switch"
- Thread starter bomblord1
- Start date
I think so too, but the fact that we're getting compliments with no promise of support gives people fair reason to be pessimistic.
I'm not saying anything is guaranteed, but 3rd parties aren't going to just go around yapping about what games they have in development for Switch at this point in time. it's pretty obvious Nintendo is keeping a lid on anything that's being developed for the platform, which is why companies like Bethesda and 2K put out those very similar statements even though their damn games were in the Switch trailer.
EDIT: also, it's not like we got absolutely nothing in terms of publishers pledging support:
Dark Cloud
Member
Seriously this. It's so lame to keep saying "we've heard this before" when we haven't. You can say "yeah it probably won't get western third party support", but comments for Switch are so much more positive than Wii U from multiple western devs.
http://nintendotoday.com/wp-content...o_switch_partners-1140x754-640x423.jpg?x74487
Also this...compare it to the sorry ass Wii U's list.
Justin Bailey
------ ------
I'd love to see this happen, believe me, but if you look at the list of best selling games for the Wii you have to scroll down a bit before you get to the first third-party game - Just Dance 2.
The approach I hope Nintendo is taking this time is the same that Sony did in the 90s, or MS did with the XBox - they are a new player in the market and they need a "Grand Opening" type of approach with developers. Really give them an incentive to develop for your platform and cater to their needs. Treat them like customers on their own.
Switch versions of games actually a offer real, distinct, and most importantly, marketable advantage over their PS4/XB1 counterparts, that being portability. Obviously there will be disadvantages in other areas, most notably graphical fidelity, and probably robustness of online capabilities.
Now, I'm not saying this means third party games will sell better on the Switch. Handheld gaming isn't the draw it used to be. But for the first time in probably two decades there's actually compelling reasons people would buy third party games on Switch. I know if I owned a Switch and a PS4, I'd be buying NBA2K17 in the Switch (assuming the content is the same) because being able to play that on the train is a huge draw.
I think what Nintendo needs to really push is feature parity between games. That's what will make or break it.
It is encouraging at the very least because its a lot more positive than usual.
Remember when Nintendo themselves commented on how they were reaching out to 3rd parties with the Wii U? People were pretty hopeful then we found out their idea of reaching out was talking to the Tekken team and such and that was about the extent of their working with 3rd parties on the hardware.
Western 3rd Parties commenting on Nintendo reaching out and putting in effort is a totally different scenario. In the end how well the device sells will determine support long term. Technology wise its in a good place that it can get whatever but sales will determine it all in the end.
Remember when Nintendo themselves commented on how they were reaching out to 3rd parties with the Wii U? People were pretty hopeful then we found out their idea of reaching out was talking to the Tekken team and such and that was about the extent of their working with 3rd parties on the hardware.
Western 3rd Parties commenting on Nintendo reaching out and putting in effort is a totally different scenario. In the end how well the device sells will determine support long term. Technology wise its in a good place that it can get whatever but sales will determine it all in the end.
Soapbox Killer
Grand Nagus
Depends on what Third Party you want. Japan will absolutely devour this thing. And here is the biggest "if", IF Nintendo has a solid launch window (First 18 months) then the console will be fine and the 3rd party support should at least be decent.
Lets not forget that all the 3DS games publishers might not have anywhere to go so the Switch being the de facto home for those games. Nintendo already had a pretty ok relationship with indie developers and they did well on Nintendo. Overall things are looking promising for the future.
brochiller
Member
I hope Nintendo realizes now that whatever they say about 3rd party support means nothing. They should have never talked it up like that with nothing to show for it.
A lie is not a fact. We have right now, on the front page of the Gaming section of this very forum, EA promising support for Switch.
It really was a big mistake. They made it sound like they had reached out in a big way and then it was revealed that they spoke to a few Japanese partners and that was it. In the end those partners did not even really deliver anything either due to how poorly the Wii U performed.
Movalpolos
Banned
I've heard that one before.
First post wins again.
Calm Mind
Member
It wins nothing but a trip to ignorance.
lwilliams3
Member
In this dimension? That's not the dance I remembered for the Wii U.
Someone needs to make a thread full of Wii U quotes from third parties and compare it to what they're saying about the Switch.
There is definitely a difference. Memories are short.
Skittzo0413
Member
That's a pretty good idea, although in January the third party picture should be a lot clearer. But yeah it seems that a LOT of people are misremembering the lead up to the Wii U launch.
By this point before the Wii U launch we had major 3rd party developers openly mocking the Wii U.
I by no means expect this to be a miracle turn around on 3rd party relations. Any effort will take time but Switch is a step in the right direction. Now its on Nintendo to sell the device to follow up their efforts
Sammy Samusu
Member
They got Skyrim from Bethesda.
Nintendo is definitely doing something right.
Will Nintendo fans buy third party content though? I'm pretty sure we let ZombieU bomb. Let's not make that mistake again. 🔪
Nintendo is definitely doing something right.
Will Nintendo fans buy third party content though? I'm pretty sure we let ZombieU bomb. Let's not make that mistake again. 🔪
The difference between Vita and PS3 was an order of magnitude. The difference between Switch and Xbone will be around 2 or 3x on the GPU side, and the Switch will likely outperform the Jaguar CPU.
I think it's fair to assume that any major publisher that doesn't have at least a launch title for the Switch will either wait to see sales numbers before devoting resources to development or just skip the Switch altogether. The official launch line up is going to be very revealing of the Switch's future. Also Switch owners are going to have to substantially support western 3rd party software next year or I can only imagine the plug will get pulled rather quickly.
Poimandres
Member
While I do think the Switch is shaping up quite differently to the Wii U, it's not really accurate to pretend that the Wii U didn't receive praise and promises of support.
Gearbox in 2012 on Alien Collonial Marines (lol): "The Wii U is a powerful, powerful machine and it can do a lot of cool new things. And so the game itself, moving it over to work on the Wii U was not much of a chore."
EA in 2011: "We look forward to seeing great EA content on this innovative new platform. Nintendo's next console is truly transformational, a better platform than we've ever been offered by them before... The Wii U is certainly a platform we like and will support going forward."
Activision in 2013: "As we have said before, we're committed to doing everything we can to support the Wii U, which is why we're excited to be bringing some of the most popular entertainment franchises in the world to the platform this year"
There's other stuff out there as well, and let's not forget that the 3rd party launch lineup for the Wii U looked pretty decent when the Wii U was unveiled in 2011.
The difference is that there was also some less than flattering stuff said about the Wii U, and so far everything I've seen about the Swtich has been positive.
schaft0620
Member
Take Two has the elbow room to make a big splash on the Switch. Nintendo might sell 10 million devices with small AAA 3rd party support.
EA is putting one game out, Nintendo will probably do about 4, Ubi 2/3. Take Two can port Bioshock Collection, NBA 2K17, Borderlands Collection, XCOM 2 and GTA V day one and make new fans via the Nintendo community and people who want to play these games on the go.
EA is putting one game out, Nintendo will probably do about 4, Ubi 2/3. Take Two can port Bioshock Collection, NBA 2K17, Borderlands Collection, XCOM 2 and GTA V day one and make new fans via the Nintendo community and people who want to play these games on the go.
AcademicSaucer
Member
It's also important to remember that by this point in the Wii U timeline devs were already giving back their dev kits.
Poimandres
Member
Were they?
Someone needs to make with the quotes to show the anti-Wii U sentiment leading up to launch. I know there was a bit of stuff out there, but going to need a refresher on this.
Here's a good one from Bethesda in 2013
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...wii-u-due-to-nintendos-hardware/#5c648d16553f
Fair enough, Gearbox's comments are similar, and were definitely an over-exaggeration in the end, but that's pretty much the only comment here that lends itself to your point (not taking into account how dishonest they were in general at this time).
To say that Activision, EA, Warner Bros, Ubisoft just lied directly to our faces with comments like the above is just incorrect. They supported the thing in the beginning, I should know, I bought a lot of 3rd party games in the first year. Sure they weren't perfect, but fuck, it was a new platfrom that had a vastly different architecture and shitty tools at launch. These poor devs/pubs tried (just read that link). They legitimately put a respectable amount of 3rd party games on the Wii U in the first year, so it's not like they were completely lying. You can't expect EA to want to continue to want to give "unprecedented" support when the system has shown to be failing, is giving their developers a hard time, is under-powered in comparison to it's direct competitors, costed money to develop for, and the games weren't selling.
In the end it really is down to how Nintendo handles their own platform. With the Wii U, Nintendo created a platform that simply wasn't inviting to the type of players that would buy "core" EA, Ubisoft, Activision games. They marketed their platform to really young children and families, and expected games like Batman AC to sell well. From the way the system looked, to the marketing, it just came off as "childish". The current situation is friggin vastly different.
ReyVGM
Member
If the games are there, the gamers will too. True about Mass Effect 3, but you know what EA did too? Announce a Mass Effect Trilogy for every console (except the WiiU) before ME3 even came out for the Wii U.
Also, before the WiiU came out, everytime a new game was announced people asked "is it coming for the Wii U too?" and the answer was no.
So why would a non-Nintendo lover buy the WiiU when all the new 3rd party games weren't even considered for it?
I'll certainly have a better chance of ever playing GTA V if it comes out on Switch than any other platform out there, including PC where it's just a matter of a few clicks on Steam for me.
Or maybe when they finally make a new Bully, there will be a Nintendo version as well. It was pretty good on Wii.
Or maybe when they finally make a new Bully, there will be a Nintendo version as well. It was pretty good on Wii.
Mr. Enigma
Member
Remember when the WiiU was supposed to have this amazing third-party support?
"We've got Assassin's Creed III! Black Ops 2! Batman: Arkham City! Mass Effect 3! Ninja Gaiden 3! All at launch!"
What happened after that?
"We've got Assassin's Creed III! Black Ops 2! Batman: Arkham City! Mass Effect 3! Ninja Gaiden 3! All at launch!"
What happened after that?
Outtrigger888
Member
GTA 5 on the go would be incredible, I'd buy it for a 3rd time.
... it literally did get all of those games... that actually was solid support. Not publishers fault that Nintendo made an unattractive console where those types of games couldn't sell. Switch so far is not being handled in any way similarly to Wii U.
Mr. Enigma
Member
Perhaps I should have added and then what?
See my second sentence. Publishers will support a platform that supports them. Wii U wasn't made with "core" gamers in mind, so "core" games didnt sell, those pubs stopped supporting it for that reason alone. Nintendo mostly designed and marketed the thing with the already dead and burried Wii crowd in mind. Only thing the Wii U proved was that pubs/devs are willing to try with Nintendo, that just leaves it to Nintendo to create a platform that is sustainable. They seem to be on the right track with Switch. If you really saw that Switch trailer and thought "lol this will just be the Wii U again" I really don't know what to tell you.
The pessimism is justified if you go by wii and wii u comments but I would give a grace period until the January presentation. There might be a lot more anouncements made once the full reveal is done. That's a reasonable assumption I believe.
Dash Kappei
Not actually that important
Sorry but... no shit?
If they try but in the end don't sell then of course there would be no reason to make them anymore?
Look at Xbox, the platform isn't getting basically 80% of Square Enix's JPN output... I wonder why,
Uhhh, no, I don't. I remember several late ports, Lego City Undercover, Injustice with missing DLC and Monster Hunter. But the fantasy of "amazing 3rd-party support" was demolished well before the product hit a store shelf, with its only help of getting it being selling like the Wii. Which didn't happen.
The lengths people seem to be going to in order to draw a correlation to Wii U is getting a touch absurd.
Don't forget they are bound to the release date of the actual system as well, they might have wanted to release it this holidays alongside the other version if it weren't for the march 2017 date.
Randy Pitchford should never be quoted on anything.
They didnt sell so Publishers pulled their support. Same thing could happen to Switch or any other platform.
YourMaster
Member
It's not up to 'Nintendo fans' to buy games they are not interested in - no matter how good or bad those games are. It is up to Nintendo to grow an audience that buys different types of games in good amounts.
Gonna buy Switch day one even just for Nintendo games and those sick exclusives like Phoenix Wright, Layton or Ghost Trick...though if third parties will join the party too it'll be great, could actually prefer Switch version over the ultra settings PC one, thanks to the portable feature.
A game that is struggling to get noticed on PS4/One/PC surely isnt the best option for their first relevant product on a Nintendo consoles in decades. Dishonored 2 would likely bomb on Switch as well if people would even care about it - Skyrim is a mass market hit like Mario Kart, Fifa and GTA - its performance will be a better indicator for their Switch success chances than a game that got ignored and will 20 bucks by the time Switch launches.
Also i wouldnt get Dishonored 2 on Switch instead of the other Version - but i gladly double dip on Skyrim even though i own Remastered on Steam already. Its a better showcase of what the Switch is about.
I completely agree,
thing is most people dont wanna invest the time to educate themselves but still be part of the Discussion. So its easier to just repeat what you have been repeating for the last couple years or just jump on a opinion you are familiar with.
Cant even blame those users...its just funny reading when people try to act as if the 3rdParty support on n64, Cube, Wii and WiiU was exactly the same - when there were in fact mayor differences.
January Event should be fun though - expectations are so low that it will be interesting to see how everyone react when there are more than two 3rdParty titles announced heh.
Why is it absurd? So far it's pretty much like the Wii U was. Third parties saying they'll support it and Nintendo giving the illusion they will have third parties support.
Until we're about 6 months post release, we have to assume it'll be another Wii/Wii U scenario.
After the January event and the launch in March we will know what to expect.
A Wii/WiiU scenario is unlikely just because japanese 3rdParty and Indies will likely be there early on and keep supporting the plattform.
WiiU was a mayor bomb - sure Switch could flop as well, but i dont see it happen with the Informario we have on the first Party lineup and the pricepoint they are aiming for.