Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Yeah ,Bayonetta 2 sold 850k on Wii U and with digital sales included I think it passed 1 million. I can't see the Switch port reaching that number. Wii U releases didn't have a lot of competition so games continued to sell fairly well long after release. I'd say Bayonetta 2 for Switch has already reached 90% of it's eventual lifetime sales.

@darkfenrir To be fair to Nintendo and Sony, they both have completely legitimate reasons why backwards compatibility wasn't implemented on their current machines. The switch over to ARM away from the basically dead PowerPC was basically a requisite for the Switch to survive in the market where Wii U was dead, and same with PS4 away from it's crazy old Cell processor (which was also PowerPC... partially.) Once you switch the architecture, you can't include backwards compatibility without basically packing in the hardware for the previous console.

Considering both of their histories when architecture doesn't change, it's quite likely the PS5 and the Switch 2 will have BC, as X86 and ARMs seem here to stay for now.

@link3710 That's true. Hopefully the next one will be having BC... unless architecture is changing again, I guess... Hopefully not though.

@link3710 @darkfenrir In Microsoft's defence, they're in a similar situation. The Xbox One isn't backwards compatible with the original and the 360 either. What they're doing is individually porting the games over and offering them as free digital copies to anyone who has a disc of said game. I guess Sony could offer a free digital download of one of their few PS2 Classics if you inserted the disc, that would be the same.

Wew, give me a whistle for Microsoft then. That's so darn good of them because it's all goodwill (It won't really generate revenue because people use their own disc after all)

@darkfenrir Yup. It also explains why only part of the library is compatible with Xbox One at the moment, but I believe they're still adding more games to their BC programme.

But it's also why I think that all next gen consoles will be backwards compatible, because x86 is here to stay. Sony, nor Microsoft will change their architecture again, so everything should be playable from the get-go.

@darkfenrir Yeah, while Microsoft isn't doing well on the front of 1st party games over the past year or so (think an even more barren version of the Wii U's 1st year) they're doing fantastic on pretty much every other front of supporting the system. System updates come with with plenty of fan requests, their backwards compatibility lineup keeps growing, crossplay with Switch/PC is increasing, etc.

@DarthNocturnal I stand corrected then. I've heard several things over the years, and I'm still not sure how they're doing it exactly.

Well, things are still going good for them hopefully. Since that's the things that should be making people getting goodwill...

(Although I read some comments at eurogamer that they would move to whichever has the best exclusives instead of xbox next gen).

Anyway, hopefully all 3 will still be here to stay.

Basically, they're emulating certain hardware features, while allowing others to occur naturally. It's the same process by which Nintendon't works on the Wii U. There's actually a few features missing from Wii U's natively playing GameCube games, but people figured out how to emulate just those missing bits. From what I understand, there's more missing features from XB360 to XB1 than GameCube to Wii U, but it runs on the same idea.

Or on another front, if you've ever had to run a program in "Compatibility Mode" on a PC because it was so old, that's basically the same thing. Filtering over old commands to newer ones, than translating the results back to the program.

Bit annoying to see both Mega Man Legacy Collections would fit on one 4GB card, but SF needs an 8GB card yet doesn't need a download.

@YummyHappyPills I think that's the problem, to get the 2 Legacy Collections on 1 cart you'd need to create stuff that isn't in the PS4/XB1 versions like have an extra menu where the user decides which Legacy Collection to play. The options to avoid having to do that would be either each Legacy Collection has its own cart (more expensive for Capcom) or have one of the collections be digital download (the option they chose).

@link3710 Why they did they not add 3ds backwards compatbity due to the GBA,DS,3DS use a ARM tech.unless they will port them over i hope for an echoes port

@Grumblevolcano
Sounds plausible, until you consider Mega Man X Collection 1 and 2, which isn't sold separately on other versions yet still requires a download for the second collection.

@JaxonH The PS4 and XB1 versions of Mega Man X Collection 1 + 2 have 2 discs so while it's not sold separately, the same logic applies. The choice being for Switch between 2 carts (more expensive for Capcom) or have one of them be a digital download.

@Grumblevolcano
Didn't know that.

They're so freaking... so paying for 2 discs rather than just making a menu to launch either Collection, or just make it one master collection... Idk what Capcom is thinking sometimes.

Wait, so it's literally two discs in one case? Because they couldn't bother making a separate menu? lol

@link3710 "Compatibility Mode" is a result of Microsoft's fragmented development leading to backward incompatibility in core system APIs. It's incompetence, not a feature

@Grumblevolcano They've made good hardware with a well supported ecosystem. They're consumer friendly (mostly because they have no choice but to be as the also-ran right now), but ultimately it's always a catch 22....the nicer machine/environment, versus the machines that actually get you more of the big name games. That will perpetually keep them behind probably even Switch.

That's so weird. In early gameplay videos of Street Fighter 30th, they were showing how quick you can go in and out of all the 12 SF games on the main menu. But the same studio(Digital Eclipse) that doing the emulation couldn't have the Legacy Collections on one menu?

@DarthNocturnal "For Honor got it on all platforms not too long ago"
Adding dedicated servers for For Honor doesn't cost much. You only need an old C2D and like 2GB of ram to host a server for the dozen or so players it has. (ba dum psht!)

@darkfenrir MS is the only one that really CAN do BC this gen. They moved from PPC to x86 so they can emulate the PPC reasonably well. Nintendo moved from PPC to ARM, and its wildly different mobile architecture....you can't really emulate a WiiU on it directly and expect reasonable results. And Sony moved from that REALLY bespoke custom Cell to x86. PS3 was just....weird inside. So they have that absurd Gaikai service. Sure it makes them look like they're the most consumer friendly (and right now they are), but it comes as a benefit of being the only one that can technologically do it with the most similarity between their old and new architecture.

PPC->more powerful x86 = doable emu.
PPC->ARM/mobile = too different architecture required to get effective EMU.
Cell->Anything = Run. Screaming like a little girl. Do NOT look back.