Topic: Will we ever get more third party games that just 'work'

You know the way they are supposed to, Cyberpunk seems to have pulled it off for the most part, but I know other titles are struggling enormously like the debacle that is Elden Ring and I've also heard that Borderlands 4 isn't performing that great either. I'm wondering if it has something to do with Nintendo not getting dev kits into developers hands soon enough. Sure the games would have to take a massive hit graphically but they should still run and play as well as they do on the other machines..no? if not well why release them and charge a premium price for the privilege then.
I'm getting a little fed up of waiting for 'optimised' games.

Well Star Wars Outlaw seems to be running pretty well from what people said, so it seems it's best to wait for release date before we truly think it runs bad or not?

Edit: even nintendolife has an article about it: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2025/09/video-weve-played-s...

I bet that as time goes on, more developers will get used to how to optimize games for the Switch 2 over time, but that's just me being hopeful, so who knows. Occasional performance issues don't bug me a ton (heck, Pokémon Violet is my favorite video game of all time and has quite a few performance issues), but I do see how they can be annoying, so I do hope that less games have them over time.

We will

Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma performs perfectly on the Switch 2, as does the Bravely Default remaster. No Man's Sky has occasional performance dips, but I've encountered similar dips when playing it on my gaming PC, and they're not a big issue. And from what I've seen from reviews and gameplay videos, both Split Fiction and Fantasy Life run fine on the Switch 2 as well, though I haven't played them myself.

I may be wrong on this, but isn't Elden Ring the only third-party game that doesn't run great, and that game isn't out yet and is being judged on a months-old demo build?

Cyberpunk, Rune Factory, Street Fighter, Silksong, all that other game key card stuff... I didn't think any of those were flagged as running poorly? I own Cyberpunk and Rune Factory, and they're both beautiful and run great.

@rallydefault why even start with “I may be wrong”… we all know you don’t think you’re wrong and you’re here to defend Nintendo to the death.

@sixrings
Sooooo… you gonna prove me wrong or are you just gonna keep throwing this little tantrum or whatever? Lol

FFVII remake looks promising but I know where you're coming from.
But in terms of Switch 2 releases so far, I do think there have been more wins than losses in this department, which is good... but I guess it's still early days.
Anything remotely ambitious that was being ported to Switch 1 felt like a roll of the dice as to whether it would be optimised well.

Another one to throw on the list of potential wins would probably be Persona 3: Reload, if P5R on Switch 1 was anything to go by. That runs perfectly from beginning to end.

@Nintoz man I could really use a P5R patch/upgrade for switch 2, the game looks so blurry in handheld and even docked mode. I think 1080p/60fps could probably be possible

@sixrings The only examples in the original post are two games that haven't released yet.

I have both Street Fighter 6 and Kunitsu-Gami and both play beautifully, and have my eye on quite a few other games that seem to be running really well.

I don't think this is as big an issue as you think it is.

Bold claim given they were right

@OmnitronVariant
It's amusing how many games you've purchased for the Switch 2 given it and the entire ecosystem was supposedly such a insane waste of money you immediately tried to sell it and then proceeded to make a prolonged effort warn others of how bad it is....

For the thread topic I would say that, broadly, Switch 2 is the best position Nintendo has been in since the GameCube in this regard. While relatively underpowered, it is a portable, it is still the first time in a long time they've had a feature complete platform in a line while. And in some respects it outclasses still technically current platforms

I would say that decent third party support on Switch 2 will be the norm rather than a rare exception. And would expect a serviceable visual quality and performance level also. Again, as long as you're not delusional about what a relatively lower priced portable device can achieve (i.e. obviously don't expect 4K 60, set your "acceptable" firmly in 720p/30fps land)

Third party multi-platform ports typically sell very badly on Nintendo platforms. They are more expensive and you own them for a shorter amount of time (unless a physical cartridge) compared to digital purchases on PC. On pc you get to use patches, hacks, extra levels, etc, etc. So you can have more fun with the game over a longer period and a game purchase on PC improves as your pc hardware improves, you get to select higher resolutions, more detail etc. Also typically the PC game would launch before any Switch 2 conversion so you get to play it earlier although personally I always wait for a big price reductions on PC which doesn't typically take that long. It really makes little sense to buy such games on Nintendo platforms unless the Nintendo platform is your only gaming system.

At this point in the Switch 2 life maybe publishers are hopeful of better Switch 2 software sales but from industry reports sales of third party games so far are below the publishers lowest expectations. So maybe some of the early third party ports will get some real money spent on them because that decision was before reality hit about Switch 2 software sales but perhaps later third party ports will need to be faster and cheaper to develop and maybe just simpler games.

The Switch 2 has capable graphics hardware although still quite a low performance level but the CPU performance level is very low. I suspect in future third party multi-platform games will get much, much worse in comparison with other platforms. We shall see though. Ultimately dare I say it but Nintendo platforms are mainly about the exclusive games to that platform.

Because it's a portable console and one that has access to DLSS to close the gap. If you want more than this consistently across all third party titles you've misread the product description. That's a you problem

Obviously, there will be some games that blast past this floor. But if we're talking modern third party ports? We start at that floor. And, despite your statements otherwise, broadly these titles are hitting it

I think a typical native resolution for Switch 2 games on the portable screen is 540p which means DLSS will generate 4x the pixels to create the 1080p image a perfect match. In performance mode I think 360p is more common i.e. 640x360p so can generate a 720p image on the portable screen which will be softer in resolution of course. Natively rendering at 720p is normally for upscaling to 1440p docked. Of course Switch 1 games which can render at all sorts of resolutions with dynamic scaling can look a bit rubbish at 1080p mainly because they aren't using DLSS AI upscaling they are using just more generic simpler upscaling techniques so can look poor and worse than on a native 720p Switch 1 screen. Switch 2 rendering at 540p and DLSS upscaling to 1080p is a great result in my opinion. Looks really good. Perhaps maybe not ideal for very fast moving images though especially as the screen has poor fluidity and a low pixel response rate. Maybe more ideal for 30fps games than 60fps games. I think generating a 540p image means the Switch 2 can punch above its weight, even the Xbox One and original PS4 were generating far higher native resolutions so it means the Switch 2 is given a lot of head room to surpass those consoles and even get close to something like the Xbox Series S when it upscales 540p to 1080p using DLSS. I'm feeling incredibly positive about what the Switch 2 might achieve in the future with how this technology works although I guess there is talk the PS6 will have a portable version and that will make very heavy use of AI upscaling too.

@OmnitronVariant
What are you even suggesting here? That Nintendo refuse to allow the release of software on their platform unless it hits some arbitrary resolution, asset quality and performance targets?Potentially even pull games from third parties after they have spend time and resources on it if it doesn't meet some standard. A standard that, presumably according to you, Cyberpunk, Star Wars Outlaws, Hogwarts do not meet

That'd be a good way to have no third party development for your platform. And frankly it's an absurd take for you to be presenting here giventhe way you've praised the open and unrestricted nature of PC portables in other thread

You've played your hand my friend, you're literally just a troll at this point. I won't be giving your posts any serious consideration from this point

@skywake yes I too am confused how you say there isn’t a problem and the. State as long as you set your expectations realistically at 720p 30fps. 30fps was the ps4 and Xbox one standard. 720p is even below the 360 standard. That’s a great combination of acceptable.

Again for myself and I’m sure others we would have liked to have gotten rid of our secondary consoles.

Also again for myself and I’m sure others the hybrid thing isn’t for us. We’re using 98 inch TVs. And I don’t care what you do with a 720p image it doesn’t look great on a 98 inch tv.

@OmnitronVariant
Stop arguing against things I am not saying. It's getting old fast. I am not here to defend the often, bloated, derivative, focus group driven sections of the industry. What I'm saying is that for a portable console Switch 2 is a decent piece of hardware and has proven to be relatively easy to port to. And that we can expect a decent output from studios

I'm also highlighting the double standards you're expressing here. If as you have expressed you believe that PC portable are great due to the open nature of those platforms? Something I agree with and have said I agree with. You can't then come around and suggest that Nintendo should block the release of titles that don't meet some standard of quality. Which apparently these mentioned games do not meet

It's almost comical the lack of self awareness

@sixrings
Framerate and resolution are just numbers. A stable 30fps at HD resolutions is comfortably playable. If demanding games are reaching this on Switch 2 without massive compromises and significant reworking of the game this is a good thing. Because on Switch multiplatform titles either were not hitting that, often after huge delays and efforts, or they weren't releasing at all

@skywake it’s like I’m talking to someone from Nintendo headquarters and they defend anything.

If 30fps was so incremental than why did Nintendo feel so justified in charging money for the Kirby dlc?
Why does Nintendo brag that now we can play botw or totk in 60fps. Why did Nintendo advertise look how fluid 120fps is and in theory our system can play it. If 60fps and 120fps don’t matter why did they highlight it in welcome tour.

Also full HD resolution base level is 1080p. Anything 720p or 1080i is not considered full HD resolution. That’s not me being subjective. That’s literally the definition.