Topic: How does the Switch's third party support stack up to other Nintendo handhelds?

Regarding third party support on the Nintendo Switch, some people will instantly compare it to the PS4 or Xbox One. In that sense, it does seem much weaker in that regard, and that's not surprising given hardware limitations. However, I feel like that's the wrong approach to take with the Switch. Given that its main gimmick is to be taken on the go in either handheld or Tabletop mode, we really should be comparing it to past Nintendo handhelds. The Game Boys, GBA, DS, and 3DS. In terms of where the Nintendo Switch ranks, I think it sits nicely in between the GBA and the DS. The GBA got a lot of great 16-bit ports, and even custom sprite-based versions of popular console franchises, and the Switch a lot of indie and AA multi-platform titles, as well as the occasional AAA feat every now and again. The DS got some console ports, but it was mainly known for its exclusive titles, that leveraged the system's unique capabilities. The Switch while it doesn't have as many of those, still has a nice share of games that at least were exclusive at one point. It's already miles ahead of the 3DS, which got largely Japanese titles and not much else. The Switch has indies, Western and Japanese AA titles, and a few AAA games. That makes it a more robust lineup than the 3DS, which was much more of a first party machine than some fans like to admit.

It really depends how you measure it. Some people only count 3rd party AAA games from major studios. Some people count "lesser" games from "lesser" studios but weigh them less. Some people disregard indies entirely or weigh them as far far less important than AA or AAA games... How do you measure 3rd party support?

In my opinion, it's the best Nintendo has had since the days of GBA and SNES. To me, any game not made by Nintendo or one of their "second party" studios like Intelligent Systems is 3rd party and the Switch has a very impressive variety of 3rd party support.

I've seen a lot of people argue that the Switch is still pretty weak on 3rd party support. To be fair, it doesn't have lot of recent AAA 3rd party games. With major studios like EA, Activision and Square Enix releasing very few titles on the platform.

Anybody who argues that the Switch doesn't have good third party support at this point are probably those who still want it to be a AAA player like Sony or Microsoft's platforms. They fail to see that this wasn't the intended purpose of the Switch. It's meant to be a convenient way to play a console-esque game in a mobile format, not a PS4 killer. Most people who understand that fact already know there's plenty of stuff to play on it, especially on the indie front.

Also I wouldn't lump Square Enix in with EA or Activision. They're actually one of the Switch's biggest supporters.

@TheMisterManGuy "Also I wouldn't lump Square Enix in with EA or Activision. They're actually one of the Switch's biggest supporters."

They are and they aren't. They've only really put their best effort into a Switch game with Octopath Traveler. Which was a great game. But they haven't given us any Kingdom Hearts titles or any mainline Final Fantasy more recent than PS2's FF12. While I agree they've done much more than EA or Activision they still aren't really treating the Switch very well. Not like they could be. I am grateful for the many classic FF titles they've given us on the platform, but that's very little real effort for them. They haven't committed to making a major release on Switch. Heck, they didn't even ship enough copies of Octopath at launch in Japan, resulting in people seriously struggling to find a copy for a long time.

Also I don't mean that the Switch doesn't have 3rd party support but that people do still argue that it lacks it because to them, only major AAA titles like we see on other consoles count. I'm well aware the Switch isn't designed to directly compete with PS4 and Xbone. But it is true that the Switch is lacking in the sort of major name 3rd party support that other consoles have and older Nintendo hardware once had. Even the Wii U had a Call of Duty and 3DS had a Kingdom Hearts. For example.

@Heavyarms55 Dragon Quest XI S is a hugely optimized and upgraded port, so I think it's fair to say they put their "full" effort into it. Also, FFXII features improvements over the PS4 version.

We might not be getting some of the AAA games they release, but they've done an amazing job establishing a huge presence on the system over a short period of time. More than almost any other single major publisher.

You're really not missing anything. And, in fairness, we got the Pocket Edition of XV!

@Ralizah That's fair, it does appear that they are finally putting real effort in with this new Dragon Quest title. But I only have a little credit to give them for the piles of old ports, yes I'm glad they are there(I've bought several), but it's not like they had to really do much to release them on the platform. I wouldn't be surprised if it was done by a team of like 5 people as an afterthought.

And the Pocket Edition counts about as much as an a participation award in grade school.

Square Enix is putting everything except their AAA releases on it. They even said that the Switch lended itself well to Mid-budget titles with smaller teams and shorter development cycles, using Octopath and the Tokyo RPG Factory games as example. I guess the one exclusion that might be baffling however, is the complete lack of Life is Strange. Neither the original or its sequel and spin-off is on the system, despite the fact that the Switch can more than likely run all 3 of them.

Also I don't mean that the Switch doesn't have 3rd party support but that people do still argue that it lacks it because to them, only major AAA titles like we see on other consoles count. I'm well aware the Switch isn't designed to directly compete with PS4 and Xbone. But it is true that the Switch is lacking in the sort of major name 3rd party support that other consoles have and older Nintendo hardware once had. Even the Wii U had a Call of Duty and 3DS had a Kingdom Hearts. For example.

Well there are some AAA ports like Witcher, Doom, Wolfenstien, and a few others. I do agree that the Switch could use a few more AAA franchise games, even if its a late port or a last-gen remaster. That said, It's already fine on 3rd party support at the moment. Games are selling great on it, especially indies. And more and more developers are starting to make games with the Switch in mind going forward such as with Gods and Monsters from Ubisoft.

Japanese publishers have been backing the Switch strongly since launch. Square Enix, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Nippon Ichi Software, etc. While western publishers have dabbled with releasing games on Switch simply out of respect for its market share as it becomes the #2 platform in North America. The DS with its 150 million units sold was given the utmost support by third party publishers.

Unfortunately, the Switch won't receive the same degree of support as the DS did. Even though it's fair to assume that the Switch brand (Switch V2 and Switch Lite) will eventually sell 100+ million units, it will continue to be an afterthought for some publishers (EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Take Two, etc). Because by Holiday 2020 the Switch will be two generations behind, hardware wise. Sadly, the Switch will carry on as a first party, indie, and port machine for the rest of its existence.

If you want to play third party games like Madden, Cyberpunk 2077, Call of Duty, Watch Dogs Legion, Red Dead Redemption 2, or Devil May Cry 5...you'll need to own a Sony or MS console along with your Switch.

My 3rd party choices are mostly girlie, cute, kiddie and safe for kids / teen games and not really AAA / AA games so i really depend the games such as Cooking Mama, Fashion games, Bokujou Monogatari, Party games, The Sims series, Portal Knights, DQB2, Akogare Girl Collection, Sumikko Gurashi, etc.

@Heavyarms55 Well after 12 you have a trilogy not on current gen outside of backwards compatibility on XB1 (13), a MMO (14) and we probably got the pocket edition of 15 because the normal version wouldn't run well on Switch.

If the FF13 trilogy came to PS4 and XB1 via a remaster it would likely come to Switch as well as the PS4/XB1 remaster of Type-0.

@Grumblevolcano
From FF XIII trilogy, i just only want FF XIII without FF XIII-2 & Lightning Returns because i have lost interest with FF XIII sequels.
Even FF XIII itself still not my best FF (6 / 10)
I think FF XII still better than FF XIII in term of gameplay.

This is wholly accurate, yet it's so easy to skew negative. One could just as easily write:
"If you want to play third-party games like Astral Chain, Daemon Ex Machina, Shin Megami Tensei V, Mario Vs Rabbids. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, Bayonetta 3, Cadence of Hyrule or Alliance Alive Remastered ... you'll need to own a Switch along with your Sony or MS console."

I'd argue the Switch's third-party support is extremely healthy, regardless of whether you're talking AAA, AA or indie (Hollow Knight was the best game I played last year) - it's just not the same third-party support that the PlayBox gets.

Just a small correction. Most of those games are second party games, not third party. Second party games are those that are financed and/or published by Nintendo, but the rights are owned by another company. Third party games are those that have all of their financing, publishing, and their rights owned by someone other than Nintendo.

This is precisely what I miss most about Nintendo's older handhelds, and I am baffled by the lack of more low-budget Nintendo games to fill out the gaps in the year.

The bite-sized handheld iterations of multiplatform games, and the "lite" spin-offs were occasionally among some of the finest games on the older systems. I wish publishers would consider commissioning such games again. It also gave fans of certain franchises more ways to enjoy their favourite series, at least until the next major entry in the series is released, for example, the Stories games in the Grand Theft Auto series, the story-based spin-offs of The Sims on console etc.

@Magician Alright, that's a fair cop! But some of them are genuine third-party games! And the Switch also has a few console-exclusive indies, too.

This is not directed at anyone here personally - promise! - and I am veering off the thread's premise, but I do get tired of all the "but the Switch doesn't have this massive AAA third-party franchise, or that one", when there are plenty of titles that only the Switch has to offer in return - even if the majority are first- or second-party (as if that were a bad thing).

We all have a favourite title that, for some reason, isn't available on whatever our console of choice is (I'm looking at you Persona 5), but the nub of it is, if you want to play all the games, you need all the systems (or at least Sony, Switch and PC). But who seriously can play all the games? I need to sleep some time, dagnammit.

Back on topic, I still think the third-party support for Switch is really very good. Did anyone really believe we would be getting something like The Witcher 3 on a handheld? Yes, it would be lovely to get more unique, bespoke titles, especially now the Switch is pretty much a mature system, but I guess this is the downside of technological advancement, which means development costs make single-platform titles far harder to justify. It's simply a higher bar compared with the days of the Game Boy, GBA and DS.

It feels so weird for a Nintendo handheld to not have immediate third party support from Atlus. Yet here we are, other than SMTV (which hasn't received a single notable announcement since the Switch's launch, more than two years ago) and P5S- which is a Koei Tecmo made spinoff, Atlus seems to still be apprehensive about releasing anything for Switch.

Both the 3DS and Vita received games from Atlus far sooner in their lifespans, than the Switch has. And both have received plenty more games from Atlus since the Switch's launch, than Atlus titles that have been announced for the Switch.

It's just so weird how Atlus has ignored the Switch, even after it has been shown to be a success. It makes EA look like a big third party supporter for the Switch.

@Galarian_Lassie Atlus isn't ignoring the Switch. It just takes a LOT more time to make HD home console games than it does 240p games for a handheld. So far we know SMT V and an Etrian Odyssey successor are coming to the Switch.

Notice PS4 barely got anything from Atlus until P5 released.

@Ralizah @Galarian_Lassie I hope Sega is pushing Atlus towards releasing more on Switch. Not P5 necessarily, I mean more of their back catalogue. I'm still not sure if Vanillaware despises Nintendo or if the reverse is true, but Vanillaware's games haven't appeared on Nintendo platforms since Muramasa on the Wii. Clearly somebody within either company was severely disrespected.

@Magician I'm not too worried about Atlus. They made a TON of games NDS/3DS. We won't get nearly as many on Switch, but I think support will pick up more once their ambitious mainline SMT game is finished.

I'm still a little irritated that the Switch wasn't apparently considered for Catherine: Full Body, though. I have no idea what the people at Atlus are thinking sometimes.

As to Vanillaware, I'm sure the people there would give the same blithe answer as Falcom, considering they're Japanese. "We love the Switch! But our audience is on another platform." The degree to which some of these developers wish to pay fealty only to Sony is a bit startling.

The Switch is still lacking in terms of games in the same bracket as:

Watch_Dogs
Assassin's Creed IV
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
(Deus Ex: Human Revolution)
Batman Arkham Origins
Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Injustice: God's Among Us

These are all games that released on Wii U within a year of being released on other consoles, aside from Deus Ex I think, which was 2 years.

Switch still seems to struggle to get much of a look in for new big games. Mortal Kombat 11, Wolfenstein, Doom Eternal, Valkyria Chronicles 4, are the exceptions that spring to mind, but I don't think there are many others. Given how well Switch did in its first 18 months that surprises and disappoints me. Though Wii U benefited from overlapping the PS3/360 era, I know.

Civilization VI, The Witcher 3, Skyrim, Resident Evils, Final Fantasies, Doom, Dragon Quest XI, plus so many more, are all fantastic high profile third-party additions to the Switch library, but none of them new.

To a certain extent Switch doesn't need many of the new AAA games because we've all been complaining of having too many games to buy/play. But I'd rather they be there than not, even if I can't afford to buy them.