Topic: The future of major third party Switch games will be mid-budget

As you know, this generation is winding down in the spotlight, come next year, the 9th gen systems will make their debut. Sony's already blown the lid on specs for PS5, and everything they've listed sounds very impressive for next gen, and we're still waiting to see what Microsoft plans on doing with Scarlett. One common fear is that because next gen systems will be arriving, that means that the Switch will somehow suffer a mass exodus of third party support. Now it'll be a generation and a half behind the two main consoles, so it's most likely to receive even less AAA support than it was getting before, if it even gets any of those games at all. Now, that's most likely going to be true, the Switch is a tablet at the end of the day, and mobile technology still has limits as to what can realistically run on it. So no, Switch won't be the place to play the latest Call of Duty or Assasin's Creed titles with high end visuals.

But, I don't think that's bad. More specifically, I don't think not having the power for next-gen AAA games is really going to hurt the Switch that much for major publishers, because there is a market, for which games can be developed on a smaller, medium sized budget for all available consoles, and that's honestly, what I think the Switch's future will be in terms of major support, outside remasters and ports. We already started seeing seeds of this last year. Switch got games from Valkyria Chronicles 4, to Mega Man 11, to Starlink: Battle for Atlas same day as the other versions. Along with exclusives like Octopath Traveler, and even late ports like Crash and DBFZ. All of them did as well as, if not better than their PS4 and Xbox One counterparts, and they're games that are generally easier to downscale to Switch vs. the more AAA ones. This year, we have more games like Samurai Showdown, Crash Team Racing, Dauntless, Ninjala, Daemon X Machina, Oniaki, Ninja Box, I'd even argue Mortal Kombat 11 to an extent that fill a niche between AAA and indie and as tired as the statement has become, are perfect for Switch.

That's where I think the future of the Switch will be for Major third parties. Sony and Microsoft have the AAA space locked down, but Capcom, Ubisoft, and the like can still make less demanding games that can run everywhere, and its more viable than its ever been. Game engines and graphical fidelity has progressed so much to the point where you can make a decent looking and solid game with about 30-40 people, run it on low end hardware, and still have it do pretty well. And with AAA games going to need even more resources and development time next gen now that 4k will be standard, the need to do less demanding projects will be greater. That, on top of remasters, Nintendo's own games, and the mountains of indies, the Switch should have more than enough support even going into next gen. And they wouldn't even need a "Pro" revision to do it, though it would certainly help.

I don't even care with AAA 3rd party on PS5, especially games with rated 18+, huge game file size (50 - 100 GB) and need to download something else before playing.
I can live without them on Nintendo machines.
I believe Nintendo Switch will keep survive even without heavy AAA games, because there are some customers who cares with smaller games that offers different excitement than AAA 3rd party games.
LABO, Party games, Kiddie games, Girlie games are perfect examples for customers who care about different experience than typical mainstream games. Not everyone have interest with soccer, first person shooting games, criminal games, ultra violent games, horror games, porn games, etc that typically founded on Sony machines.

PS5 and Xbox Scarlett are literally going to be the definition of modern low-mid budget PCs. Arguably that must mean PC will be getting the top tier games and the consoles will be getting mid-tier titles...

While yes, most people nowadays who look at the budget of the games look primarily at graphics, there are a lot more things which factor in when developing a AAA game. Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee are such examples. Very basic in style and polygon count yet still very much the same AAA standard games.

Instead of caring about the next blockbuster I'd rather give developers incentive to develop something built from ground up and exclusive for the system (like Octopath) rather than trying to port over the most recent COD or Battlefield.

I've expressed thoughts on this more in-depth on a topic very similar from yesterday: https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch/the_future...

@Varkster

I disagree - ps5 and Scarlett will have top tier games - there is little chance that developers will focus in on pc and not the latest consoles - that simply will not happen

I have a gaming pc, Xbox one, PS4 and switch. While the pc plays the top tier games better (in general) there are few exclusives developed purely for the pc to exploit its technical superiority.

I am looking forward to the new consoles - 4K gaming with decent frame rate at an acceptable price point is worth getting excited about.

@Punisher67 You missed my point. Obviously the consoles will be getting these games because developers pursue the biggest market. What I was referring to is the logic that developers won't put an effort into putting AAA games on Switch because it won't match these consoles in power. PCs are generally far beyond what consoles can do and it doesnt mean these games still don't make it onto the current PS4 and Xbox One.

At the current moment the Switch by far has the strongest market. Developers not supporting it with big head games would have wasted potential.

@TheMisterManGuy - I think your assumption is correct. The Switch has been primarily an indie and port machine from the beginning, and it'll continue to be just that until the next iteration. Whether that's Switch 2, Switch Pro, Super Switch or whatever they decide to call it.

However, your perspective is slightly incorrect. The next iteration of Switch could play pared down versions of the latest-and-greatest games (Cyberpunk 2077, Grand Theft Auto VI, etc.) quite easily. The main problem is memory limitations. We already have major game releases with file sizes crossing over 100GB. And unfortunately the current largest microSD card is what, 512GB?

Once technology moves forward far enough, say three years into the life of PS5 and Xbox Scarlet, then you'll see the same degree of third party support on the next iteration of the Switch.

@Magician As demand grows for flash technology, especially now with the Switch on the market as well, the SD cards are rapidly dropping in price. It's very viable that in the next few years we will see a market take-over of flash technology over disc.

Even now, how often do you use discs on your PC in comparison to flash? It's a much more reliable hardware with a lot less limitations than blurays. But we will see, my prediction may be wrong.

The power gap between next gen systems and Switch would only be relevant if big AAA games were a major part of its library or appeal. Aside from a few Bethesda titles, though, pretty much nothing AAA has arrived on the system aside from Nintendo's own games, so I don't really expect the next generation to change much for Nintendo's prospects.

As you've said, so long as the Switch is able to run mid-range games, it'll do fine. I imagine the eventual hardware upgrade will do its part in narrowing the gap enough to keep it competitive in that sense.

This sounds right to me, and I’m probably happier for it. The whole category of AAA is slightly tricky anyway. What are people asking for? Personally, I don’t give a monkey for the cookie-cutter franchises churned out by most of the western big names. I’m not disputing that Assassins Creed, CoD, The Division and [insert racing game here] are good games, but there’s a rote element on all of them that leaves me cold.

Of course, I’d love to see the likes of Cyberpunk, Sekiro and Beyond Good and Evil 2 come to Switch, but I think the AA space (rather than AAA) could actually be a boon. The Switch’s lower specs mean lower development costs and less focus on cosmetics, but the fact it has sold so well means developers want to tap into the market. It’s in the perfect space. Hopefully we will get those AA projects that try to be different, explore new ideas. More Senua Sacrifices, Octopaths, that kind of thing.

Now that Switch is a known, and popular, entity, I don't see much of a reason why AAA games can't be developed from the outset with a downscaled Switch version in tandem with the 4k version in mind.

The thing you lose by not having AAA games on your system isn’t necessarily the games themselves. They aren’t strictly needed or missed. When games like Hollow Knight can sell millions of units the games we all want are clearly more than viable.

What is missed and what you do lose is the massive marketing budget behind them.

@TheMisterManGuy The thing is. There is no real reason for this. PC gaming has, for years, decades even, been producing games that can run on a wide variety of systems with significantly different specs. Developers CAN design games with scale-able graphics and other features that can work on lower powered devices. Third party developers could also design games from the ground up to run on the Switch too. But they don't do either of those things. They are either lazy, incompetent or most likely, the business side of things decides the extra effort to do that, isn't worth the cost in man hours. The business folks will see that PS4 and Xbone have combines a dramatically larger install base and since it takes so little effort to port a game from one to the other and then to PC, that's what they do, and then sell it that way. The "measly" 34 million Switch owners are still a small portion of the likely 100+ million consumers with PS4, Xbone and/or PC.

There is nothing stopping a company like Activision from building a Call of Duty game for the Switch from the ground up, tailored to the Switch. There is nothing stopping Bioware or EA or Ubisoft or Bethesda or anyone from building a new game, or rebuilding an existing game for the Switch's specs. We are long past the technical era where games simply can't be made for a modern device.

The reason Xbone and PS4 always get a game is because they are the same thing with no meaningful difference in specifications. And porting a game like that to PC is really easy, porting almost anything to PC is really easy.

It's not that they can't do it it is that they wont do it. And companies like EA will deliberately release a dumbed down inferior product, and then when that product sells worse, they will claim Nintendo owners don't have an interest in their games and will never acknowledge that what they did give us was missing entire features and ran like it was programmed by a college freshman.

I don't think you're looking at the larger picture here. Switch is only 2 years old. Publishers know it's not going to have the number of users the PS4 and Xbox One got in 6 years in less than 2. What's important is growth. 34 million in 2 years is hard to ignore for many publishers, so as the console keeps growing at a rapid pace like this, they can no longer afford to just ignore it. They'll need to start developing games with the Switch in mind in the future, if not outright exclusive to it.

Even the Wii recieved games made specifically for it thanks to its large user base. And AAA games are only going to get even more expensive to make going into next gen, so why dedicate some resources towards making something less intensive that can run on everything?

@Varkster the current and next gen Xbox and PlayStation are x86 based machines. They literally are subsidized PCs with a proprietary OS.

Game developers generally target console performance. PCs just have the ability to enchance it. Keep in mind Windows/Linux/osx (lmao) have unprocessed running which negatively impact performance, meaning a console will generally have better performance than a similarly spec'd PC.

Nintendo isn't competing with Microsoft or Sony. They turned their console into a handheld. Game Boy Color Metal Gear Solid (Ghost Babel) didn't take sales away from PS1 Metal Gear Solid.

@Anti-Matter You are a strange dude with very niche preferences. Nintendo would be out of business in a month if they did that.

Christmas 2020 - what will the install base of the the PS5 and Xbox NX be? 10 million? 15? 20?

By then Switch should hopefully be beyond 50 million and climbing. That's a fair number to be ignoring if you're developing AAA games for Christmas 2020 release.

@gcunit install base won't be that high for PS5 and neXtBOX. But from what we've heard theyre being smart with integration from the current gen (makes sense since it will basically be a hardware update on existing architecture), so the 120 million PS4 and 60 million XB1 owners will have incentive to continue. Add with it the 90 million on Steam.

But people are missing the point. Nintendo isn't competing with those platforms. Most hardcore gamers own a PC and a Switch, or a PS4/Xbox and a Switch (if they are interested in Nintendo exclusives). It's like saying mobile is competing with PC. It isn't.

Every hardcore RPG guy I know has a 3ds and a PS4 for example.

@Trajan
Nintendo have proved if they can provide a lot of different games from very different genres, even the niche games.
And i by naturally adore kiddie, girlie, quirky and niche games from what Nintendo give to customers.

@Anti-Matter and what Nintendo games are "kiddie, girlie, quirky and niche"?

Kiddie
Yoshi Crafted World, Overcooked, Portal Knights, Dragon Quest Builders 2, Mario games, Sumikko Gurashi, Little Friends: Cats and Dogs, Petz series, The Dog Island, Animal Crossing New Leaf, Fantasy Life, Yokai Watch series, etc.

Girlie
Cooking Mama series, Style Savvy series, Nicola Kanshuu series, WakuWaku Sweets, Imagine series by Ubisoft, AKB48 + Me, Akogare Girls Collection 3DS games by Nippon Columbia, Animal Crossing New Leaf, etc.

Quirky
Miitopia, Tomodachi Life, ARMS, Youtubers Life OMG, LABO, Help Wanted 50 Wacky Jobs Wii, Nintendoland, 1-2-Switch, Sushi Striker, etc.

Niche
Dance Dance Revolution series on Wii, Gold Gym Cardio Workout, Animal Boxing NDS, K-1 Pocket Grand Prix 1 & 2 GBA, Kirei Zukin Seikatsu DS, Zettai Onkan Otoda Master DS, Kurikin: Nano Island Story, Yokai Watch series, etc.

@Anti-Matter you realize that the vast majority of those games are not made or published by Nintendo right?

What if I told you that the SNES was the PlayStation of 1990-1995?