Topic: The port begging needs to stop!

I want a port of the very few Wii U exclusives that's left so that I can get rid of that hunk of useless plastic.

@Bevinator Yes it was intentionally hostile. I'm not sorry for that because of OP's also hostile tone, but I am not blind to the fact that some ports may not be worth the money to double dip from an "objective" view. Something like DKC: TP launching at a higher price than it originally did just for Funky Kong, that's going to be a bit iffy from me. Same for NSMBU DX, I'm not going to pay $60 for it when I still have my Wii U hooked up to it.

On the other hand, I would absolutely still pay $60 for Xenoblade 1 and X ports to Switch, plus Metroid Prime Trilogy. They're instant double-dips no matter the price.

But all that is just the minor details. Ports by themselves are nothing but good for getting more people to play those games, and there's no evidence they completely stiffle new games. Sure, it may delay some certain games (like MK8D most likely will prevent MK9 from coming out in a timely manner, but the same team was able to craft something new with ARMS, and aren't most people wanting Nintendo to make new IPs?), but we still get new games.

@Axoloth The useless hunk of plastic that has free online (I know it will be deactivated someday, but for the time being it is valid) and a very extensive Virtual Console that expands even to GBA and DS games? That's an interesting idea of a "useless hunk of plastic" you have there.

Well it was pretty online, and I just smooched my way into someones family plan so I still got free online for my Switch :^)))
Also, you mean the Virtual Console that forced you to re-buy the extensive collection you'd already built up on the Wii?

I like some ports and I hate some ports but some will buy them and some won’t. Options are great

@Quarth

“It sometimes feels as if people are trying to downplay Switch, a console that haven’t been on the market for two years yet, because of the ports”

I guess that’s a factor. I just put it down to being a fashionable, almost habitual complaint among gamers who haven’t been into gaming for long. But yes someone looking for any way at all to denigrate the Switch might try and use ports. I’m not sure it’s the best angle given the preponderance of ports across all systems ever (and the reality of the Switch library as you illustrate) but desperate times call for desperate measures I suppose.

@electrolite77 Yeah, ports have been around for ages. I own a lot of NES ports on the Game Boy, for example.

But as you say: the negative stuff that can be said about the Switch are few and relatively minor, so it seems like some people, eager to portrait the console’s library as bad, creates a problem that really isn’t there (in this case that the release of ports = no new games).

The Switch isn’t perfect (what console is?), but ports have nothing to do with that. Ports help to build the library in many ways.

Again, some people missed out on these titles and nobody is forcing you to buy them. Nobody is having a go at you or anyone else in this thread for not purchasing these titles again. What people are having a go at is the gaming forum bubble some of you seem to be living in. Making games is a business, they exist primarily to make money. The more money they make the bigger risks they can take and the more content they can afford to be working on.

Porting titles from a platform that moved 13mill units globally to one that's selling at a rate of 17mill/year? That makes financial sense. There will be a LOT of people who own a Switch who never brought a Wii U. Far more than a normal generational transition. Additionally the Switch is portable which gives a new angle for the sale of titles that have never been portable. Hell, it's also a new experience for people who never owned the Vita of which there are also many.

As I said earlier, porting games makes sense for developers/publishers as it's low risk/high reward. It also makes sense for consumers as it means a library of content can be built very quickly. It's also good for people who have "brought these games before" because it shows that there's money to be made on Switch and gives developers/publishers the confidence to put more energy into the platform. Nobody loses.

"but if a game isn't exciting to me, i must let it be known i don't like it, i'm important" is what i'm getting

i tl;dr beyond that one quote so i could be wrong

i'm also not interested in buying skyrim again, not excited, at worst i am indifferent to it being ported to switch, not everything is worth actually having an opinion on shrugs

i don't even care about 8th gen pokemon or whatever, but not being excited about one game doesn't matter much to me

if someone stupidly got angry because people weren't actively excited over ports let me know so this guy had a point. instead of the 99% chance he's ignoring that he's annoying people over something that doesn't actually negatively effect him in any way

Ok some reasonable points there. But one valid point remains.

It feels like with some ports that we are getting them instead of a new game in that series perhaps due to publisher laziness. For example NSMBU port instead of NSMBS (new switch game)

This is the main reason I don’t like that kind of port. It’s the potential to be denied a new game so they can make easy money instead.

I’ve bought a few ports in my time. I’m not that close minded.

@skywake

The Wind Waker HD didn’t stop BOTW from being made.

Point is invalid since it has nothing of value here. And your thinking you know better then the publisher tells more why your not in the game development business.

You make it sounds like you can do better so why don't you show us here.

Your own explanation cleary tells the real mindset here.

Again, developers and publishers having money means more content not less. If all they did was create original and risky content they'd go broke. Ports of games like New SMB are funding games like Metroid Prime 4. It's not one or the other, it's one BECAUSE of the other.

@SwitchForce Dood, chillax. Folks can have opinions and not be experts in the matter. They’re not facts, they’re personal opinions.

I don’t know how bubblegum is made, but I can definitely hold the opinion that Dentyne Ice lasts longer than Big League Chew.

That doesn't work when those opinions are based off of blatant disregard of facts.

i mean i could say my favorite super smash bros character is iron man, but hopefully no one takes it seriously since iron man is not in super smash bros (...yet :V)

@Bevinator Counterpoint as I brought up earlier: the Mario Kart 8 team was freed from making a Mario Kart 9 immediately so they made ARMS, a totally new fighting game that doesn't play like anything else in the industry. If they're harnessing that creative juice to create completely different things while letting ports of their old games hit the scene to fill gaps, that's perfectly fine with me.

@kkslider5552000 With Mii Fighters, everyone is here.

I think most people in the internet comment board bubble underestimate just how many units NSMB games sell and the fact that they have a much greater mainstream appeal than 3D Mario games.

NSMBU (with Luigi U) is a much better game than the rest in the series. It sold millions on Wii U but could sell tens of millions more on Switch.

It’s this potential that makes it attractive for Nintendo. Not just because they can get some easy money. They also need a hook potentially big enough to hang a Switch marketing campaign on. In that way NSMBU is a big deal for Switch than games like Bayonetta 3 - even if people on this board believe it’s played out.

As has been pointed out the bigger the user base the bigger the potential sales of more experimental games, the bigger the marketing budgets for them and, of course, the more Human Resources to make them.

I won’t buy NSMBU but I think it’s important for the format to appeal to a broader audience and nothing but good news. I’d much rather the dev team is hard at work on a sequel to Mario Maker (their likely project) than a fifth NSMB game.

That’s a good point in fairness. I bought and enjoyed arms.

@EvilLucario

“New, Original Games” quickly fade out and become old games nobody talks about. “New” and “Original” is an illusion of deception. As if being “New” somehow makes the game more fun to play. As if being “Original” bumps it up 3 points. As if being a “port” means everyone on the planet has already played it, as if everyone on the planet should not want the game on their system.

Port ARE in demand. And you you’re just beating your head against a brick wall trying to deny that reality.

We have the most powerful portable system ever created. OF COURSE people want ports of all the best games onto this new portable system. That was all the rage on Vita, it’s all the rage on Switch, and it will continue to be in the future.

That aside, of course Wii U games are being ported. Why waste all that money investing in a new game that only 13 million people had access to when there’s over 200 million console/handheld gamers out there... and not only that, but people want a handheld version of those games as well. They just do. You can get angry about that fact, but people like what they like. When I play a game I love the very first thing that comes to mind is “how awesome would it be to get a handheld version of this game!”. Going all the way back to Metroid Prime, that’s always at the top of my want list. A portable version of games I love.

But people love ports even when they aren’t handheld versions. PS4 and Xbox gamers buy more ports than anyone! And the only advantage those games offer is better graphics. It goes to show that ports are in demand. Goes to show that just because a game has existed at some point in the history of mankind, it doesn’t mean people aren’t interested in it.

Switch is a PERFECT system to port every single video game ever created to, and I hope they port every last one. And it seems I’m not the only one who feels that way. So you can get mad about that and _ blame_people for liking what they like. Or you can accept the fact people like games being ported to their system so that they have more games to play, and so they have handheld hybrid versions of all their favorite games, and so they have more modern versions of games they love

Now. NEXT GENERATION, no, I probably won’t want ports. Not unless it’s an older game being made more modern, or a console game that’s never gone portable. But this generation, most games haven’t received a portable version yet. In which case, of course people are going to be excited for that. I love ports of games because games are just games. Some arbitrary “port” label slapped on a game doesn’t miraculously make it less fun or exciting. In fact I dare say I prefer ports. Because ported games are cherry picked to be the best of the best. Whereas new games often disappoint. 10 ports will be 10 excellent games. 10 new games will be 5 excellent games, a few mediocre and 1 bad game.

The problem I see, is people accusing those who like ports of not also wanting new games? As if the two are mutually exclusive? As if I can’t like both? As if you must choose sides? There is not a gamer on this entire site that is against new games or not excited for new games. Asserting that anyone who likes ports is against new games is a logical fallacy of the highest degree. There’s a ton of new games on the system and a ton of new games in the pipeline. But people also like ports. Because strangely, as It turns out, people just like great games, and the fact they existed on another console doesn’t change that for them.

@Yorumi Very well put! This is how I've been feeling for a long time.

Also... In regards to "It really does feel like sometimes that people don't really want original content." I think the whole Super Smash Bros 4 port vs Ultimate demonstrates this very well. If you go back to before Ultimate was teased in March of this year, you will see a bunch of people on these forums and elsewhere claiming that a port of Super Smash Bros 4 is not only the "best thing for Nintendo to do", but that there is also no necessity whatsoever to make a new Super Smash Bros when Super Smash Bros 4 was already so good.

Flash forward to post-Ultimate's launch. Funny... I see a completely different trend popping up in what people are saying. I see a lot of people claiming that SSB4 was not even a good SSB game, that it will be forgotten, etc.

Now I'm not meaning to say that these were necessarily always the same people, but the "hype" for a SSB4 port at the expense of a new SSB game was so incredibly extensive that I'd have a hard time believing that there couldn't be any overlap... That people didn't even know they actually wanted a new SSB instead until Ultimate came around. It's very strange to me.