Switch 2 - does Series S existence guarantee huge third party parity for the next 6 years?

Will Switch 2 see a big increase in third party ports?

  • Yes

    Votes: 70 60.3%

  • No

    Votes: 46 39.7%
  • Total voters
    116
RetroGamingUK

RetroGamingUK

Member
Apart from the odd "impossible port" such as Witcher 3 and Doom Eternal we didn't see many third party games on Switch 1 that were released across PS4 and Xbone. In fact Switch was more likely to receive ports of PS3 and 360 games from the previous gen.

However with the current gen there's now a lower spec base system that's somewhat restricting how ambitious third parties can be with multiplatform games this time around.

Has Microsoft's attempt to boost console sales with the Series S come back to bite them in the ass and given Nintendo a huge leg up?

Could we see Switch 2 receiving the kind of third party multiplatform support Nintendo haven't seen since the SNES days?
 
Port of 360 and PS3? Huh?!...there were a lot of ports from this gen than previous. And if it was from previous, then the Xbox one and PS5 probably got the same ports too.
 
Yeah I think the combination of the Series S, the Steamdeck (and other PC handhelds) and the long cross-generation period between PS4/Xbox One and PS5/Series will all contribute to a lot of games being able to be ported to the Switch 2.
 
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In handheld mode, on which everything has to run, the Switch 2 is nowhere near the S, and that box already struggles heavily with a lot of games. There will be a lot more "on all platformas bar switch" announcements and potato-ports.
 
Seeing the lineup already this might have the best third party support since the snes

Oh and CDPR saying cyberpunk was a seven week port, if true well then you can convert a lot of games for switch 2 extra install base. Price the game right
terminator 2 money GIF
 
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No.
Because it is accepted that graphics on a handheld will suck. There is no parity clause so no parity will happen. Series S would be ignored by ongoing third parties due to the RAM restriction and by Xbox overall being abandoned.

Switch2 will get compromised ports and that is fine because of the smaller screen. The market would be big enough that most games would be ported, it just would have a wide array of quality.
 
Well.. There are different questions in the poll and headline here.

I don't think Switch 2 will have guaranteed huge 3rd party parity for the next 6 years. I do believe Switch 2 will see a big increase in 3rd party ports relative to Switch (1) though.
 
No. When games will be exclusive to Series S/X/PS5, I doubt that putting them on Switch 2 will be that easy. For now, PS4/One are still the weakest supported hardware, and many third party games still get released for these consoles. So Switch 2 can be easily included as well. But as soon as PS4One support will be totally dropped, Switch 2 PS5Series ports are going to get just as ugly as PS4One ports were to Switch 1.
 
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I think the Switch is in a good position now and probably for the next 3-5 years.

Nintendo will stretch it out for 8 years again though so the sunset years we'll definitely be saying 'this is a bit crap'.
 
Baemono said:
Phantom liberty. And also Split Fiction and Star Wars Outlaws
Click to expand...
PL is still "just" CP. Split fiction is not demanding at all, and for SW...let`s see what they made of it before cheering. The power difference is quite real, that is not really debatable, so something has to give. They even tried porting stuff like COD to the Wii back then.
Every new Nintendo gen we see that "we got 3rd party" push with some specifically endorsed ports, and then it quickly dies off because the platform is too different/weak for a low effort port to cut it.
 
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Banjo64 said:
I think the Switch is in a good position now and probably for the next 3-5 years.

Nintendo will stretch it out for 8 years again though so the sunset years we'll definitely be saying 'this is a bit crap'.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing we've still got another 2 years of first party support for the original Switch.

Though I think Metroid Prime 4 will be the final AAA game.
 
Days like these... said:
No, how about you cope harder. How is it a potato port because it was on ps4?
Click to expand...
are you stupid justin bieber GIF

We´re on about power baselines here. Ofc the Switch can run antyhing that released on PS4.
But we`re 5 years into the gen after that with a lot of software really struggling on a series S which is still ~2.5x the power of the Switch 2 in handheld mode........
 
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Sabejita said:
With 64GB cartridges? :unsure:
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We will see a lot of download only and/or "Game-Key cards" from 3rd parties I'd imagine.

I don't think space will be that much of an issue for developers specifically when the system supports memory cards up to 2TB.
 
Devs want to sell games to a wide demographic.

That will be biggest reason to launch there.

Series S simply makes it easier for devs to scale it down, since they already have experience.

But technical side of things are no longer the reason to not launch on system. All systems are pretty powerful these days I think.
 
Maybe developers will start targetting Switch 2 specs as their main console and stop going down the bottomless pit that is chasing graphics. Lots of profits to be had.
 
I'm not sure. Series S still has a much more powerful 14 thread CPU. Also more memory bandwidth.

I guess a 30 FPS CPU limited game like GTA 6 would never be able to run on the Switch 2. But current gen games running at 60 FPS are possible at 30 FPS on Switch 2 in most cases I imagine.

However, if you look at what the Switch 1 was getting despite its lacking hardware power, I wouldn't rule out 30 FPS current gen titles entirely, even if it seems technically impossible. Devs really did some black magic on that thing.
 
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cireza said:
No. When games will be exclusive to Series S/X/PS5, I doubt that putting them on Switch 2 will be that easy. For now, PS4/One are still the weakest supported hardware, and many third party games still get released for these consoles. So Switch 2 can be easily included as well. But as soon as PS4One support will be totally dropped, Switch 2 PS5Series ports are going to get just as ugly as PS4One ports were to Switch 1.
Click to expand...
There's one major difference compared to the previous gen: DLSS

Also Switch 2 has more RAM than Series S
 
It will get a lot of ports but not due to the Series S but due to it getting all th PS4 games of the past. The Series S' main issue is lack of RAM. The Switch 2 is rumoured to have more than XSS anyway so it's likely that Series S gets skipped more than Switch 2 to begin with.
 
SimTourist said:
I don't think we've seen any full current gen games ported yet
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Star Wars Outlaws is coming, which surprised me. If the very short look in that sizzle reel is anything to go by, it looks really good and better than Series S. But I'm skeptical if that was Switch 2 footage at all.
 
Dampf said:
Star Wars Outlaws is coming, which surprised me. If the very short look in that sizzle reel is anything to go by, it looks really good and better than Series S. But I'm skeptical if that was Switch 2 footage at all.
Click to expand...
Ah yeah, forgot that one, along with the whole world
 
I'd rather suspect Microsoft to drop the Series S compatibility requirement for publishers once their next gen machine is full Steam ahead. They'll drop it like a hot potatoe, gradually retreat as a hardware manufacturer, and let the producers of said hardware (ie ROG Ally equivalent of the next Xbox) together with the publishers figure out what performance targets meet consumer demand.
 
Don't mistake high Switch 2 console sales for guaranteed third-party support. Publishers care about port sales. If those sales flop, support will drop. Indie and mid-budget devs, though, will probably keep supporting it like the original Switch.
 
XSS is like ~2x Switch 2 docked perf based on the rumored docked clocks. The PS6 handheld might hit XSS perf or so (with newer GPU arch) if the 15W N3P rumor is correct.
 
So far only games that are current gen only and come to switch2 is sons of liberty expack for cp2077 and borderlands 4, lets observe bit more and see how well they look and run on switch2 and if/how many/of what quality games we gonna get, then we can be sure if indeed we getting current gen 3rd party support or not for at least 3 next years- new xbox coming supposedly in 2027, ps6 likely holidays 2028.

So far its definitely positive sign but we shouldnt get ahead of ourselfs till we see actual current gen 3rd party games.
Personally i think if/when s2 reaches quickly 40-50m sold units pubs will have big incentive to port to the mashine, even if those versions will be highly "optimised" aka cut vs big console versions, they will do it in a heartbeat as long as instal base aka potential profit is there.

Hail mary's like gta6 on s2- not saying they are out of question but we dont even know how they look/run on base ps5 trully so no point to speculate about s2 version yet :)
 
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hemo memo said:
Don't mistake high Switch 2 console sales for guaranteed third-party support. Publishers care about port sales. If those sales flop, support will drop. Indie and mid-budget devs, though, will probably keep supporting it like the original Switch.
Click to expand...

Exactly how it happened with the Wii U. Wii = big success, Wii U = lots of 3rd parties coming early on (Batman, Darksiders, Call of Duty, Fifa, Assassin's Creed), leaving before the dust settled as the console was flopping hard.
 
it's going to go the way it always does, heavily front loaded 3rd party support until the industry moves on and the switch 2 essentially becomes what the switch 1 is now then you'll see less and less 3rd party support outside of the odd bigg AAA franchise.

When the costs to develop outweigh the potential sales, then the devs will focus less on the platform.
 
Baemono said:
It's like I'm repeating this every 2 posts: Split Fiction and SW Outlaws
Click to expand...
My bad, bro, forgot about them, good on u for noticing :)
Im actually big star wars fan but mentally blocked out SW: Outlaws from existence here for obvious reasons(its bad game)haha, and that split fiction game, well its an indie/double A, so ofc can run on switch2 fine (80ppl dev team, 50usd launch price on all platforms) but got really high scores so definitely good for switch2 library :)
 
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