Topic: The port begging needs to stop!

Remember the Trolls only want ports on xbox, ps4 only.

I love ports (as does the consumer market seeing as VC and HD collections/remakes and remasters are so popular) as they will allow me to play a game on modern hardware, rather than digging out an old disk/cartridge/system, I can introduce those games to friends/younger family members that may have missed them for whatever reason, if they are remakes or remasters I often get the version that either the devs really wanted to make or the one that they fixed after they realized a few mistakes.

With the switch being a hybrid I love ports now more than ever because I'm not shackled to a TV anymore on favorite games or games I may even have or wanted but never had the time to play (Diablo 3? Bought it on 360...still in the shrinkwrap. Bought on switch...I'm on chapter 4 and level 40). Also it pads libraries in the early years (PS4 and xbone were quite barren for me but I was saved by ports). Ports even pave the way for sales of a new entry. Bayo 3 is coming to switch. Now sure folks that followed the series will buy it no problem, but for those that didn't? Likely not on their radar. How do you fix that? Put Bayo 1 and 2 on the same system 3 is going to. Easy money, cheap marketing/hype machine for 3 and all the other merits of ports.

The best part? Ports/remakes/remasters gauge interest in a series and that can spell a revival, more ports of a series (like the final fantasy dump. We just need the NES/SNES ones and we are set. And they are coming or I'll eat my eye) or even a new entry. Or that money is used to invest in other new games. Either way it is a sure fire revenue stream and I want my favorite devs to make more money so they can keep making games. That means more new games as well to play.

Ports also filll the hole that multiplats used to. Remember back in the GCN/xbox/PS2 days when there was more (not absolute but MORE) parity? Those days are gone. Even if Nintendo went all in and threw their money at a bleeding edge machine many devs will cite the fanbase/demographic as a reason to skip. Ports allow games that we didn't get on Nintendo systems to finally show up. If you are a Nintendo only gamer...those are NEW games. Even if you are a multisystem gamer (I am) all the other reasons I stated earlier apply. Also there is the personal choice. People that are not multiplat owners pick systems for a bevy of reasons or play one over the other if they are multi plat. Personal case in point: I hate, detest and loathe the PS controlers. They hurt my hands. All of them. But I still own a PS1-PS4 because of the games. But that makes them exculsive boxes. Guess what happens when a game that was a PS game gets ported to Switch? Katamari? Haven't played it in years even though I love the game, Okami I love enough that I bought it every time it came out...where am I playing both of those games the most? Switch. Controllers I love and hybrid system.

Also gaming devs are the only toy companies that really invest in remakes. I would love for some of the action figures that I grew up with and likely destroyed as a little girl to come back for nostalgia reasons (and also so I don't have to pay through the nose on ebay. Seriously, ever try to get the Power Ranger toys? Even the remakes that were worse than the originals are hard to find/expensive as heck.) I spent 2 grand on SailorMoon revival merch (and counting!) because the games/toys came out when I was a child and thus had no job (plus it was the 90s... shipping/buying from Japan was a nightmare as my Sailor Moon music and VHS collection attests to) I am beyond grateful that even though they are premium items, I get to buy these toys that would have been lost to me forever. I only wish that they were like game devs and thus as a better price, but oh well.

The only people that would hate ports are collectors that are afraid their collection will be devalued (and that is a whole other special animal) and people that erroneously think for some reason that ports replace a new game. When that is very rarely the case. Either the new game wasn't going to be made for whatever reason anyway (ROI usually) or it is still coming, just later than you think.

A lot of impotent outrage for something that is quite optional and honestly has little impact on ones overall gaming library. Don't like ports? Cool, buy only new games. Nothing wrong with that. However nothing wrong with somebody wanting to buy Legend of Zelda for the 10th time on Switch. I wish people would spend more time playing and less time fighting. But fake elitism and gatekeeping and all that.

@Ryu_Niiyama Couldn't have said it any better myself. 1000% agreed. And no, that was not a typo...

@Ryu_Niiyama amen to that!

Hi I'm Italian and this is my first time posting to NintendoLife (although I've been reading news, forums and comments for almost two years).

I believe that some games are true masterpieces because of their gameplay mechanics, their atmosphere or their stories. If we were to list such games we would probably end up arguing for days but a good example is probably BOTW. I know, it is not a port. BOTW is a wonderful game but it has definitely been limited by the computing power of switch. Imagine if, 5 years from now, Nintendo were to release a remastered version of BOTW that mantains each original mechanic (motion controls and portability too) but bumps up the resolution to 4k and the framerate to 60fps. Now, wouldn't that be better than the breath of the wild we are now experiencing, from any reasonable point of view? I believe it would. I think this fantasy of mine explains how I feel about ports (when done right, like for MK8DX): they allow gamers to (re)experience masterpieces at their best. Emulation (which, I know, is kind of frown upon here) of GC/Wii games has shown that games like Mario Galaxy (1&2) look way better in 1080p (4k) even without the usage of custom 4k textures. Nintendo has always developed great games that are fun to play and enjoy but during the last generations its consoles (and as a consequence, their games) have lacked from the graphical point of view. I would choose fun gameplay over graphics every day but wouldn't it be wonderful to have the chance to play Mario Galaxy in 1080p? I know it would be a day one purchase for me.

This is only my opinion on the matter. Since I am not a native I probably made some mistakes or wrote some unnatural sentences. Please point them out so that I can improve.

@AndreaF96 Thing is BotW is a port, it was originally made for the Wii U, thats why the sheika slate looks like a Wii U controller

Alright, after keep seeing this, it makes me wonder... Do games like The Last Guardian for example (which is supposed to come out for PS3) is counted as port too then?

And let's add Persona 5 to that too, it released on both PS3 and PS4 after all.

@AndreaF96 Your English is good enough, especially for a non-native speaker. Believe me: I've seen and heard FAR worse than you. There were only two minor mistakes: in the part where you mentioned emulation, you said that it is "frown upon", which should be "frowned upon", and in the last part of your comment, you said "have lacked from the graphical point of view", which I would change into "were lacking from a graphical point of view".

But having said that, I only partially agree. Of course it's nice to have updated remasters, but first off: Nintendo has most definitely NOT been lacking in the graphical department. That's a myth that needs to be eradicated once and for all. The lesser graphics only started during the Wii generation. The GameCube may have been modest in size, but it was a true graphical powerhouse, especially for that time.

It was considerably more powerful than the PS2, and only marginally weaker than the original Xbox, and it even surpassed it in some areas, such as lighting and transparency effects.

As for Breath of the Wild: don't agree there either. The actual truth is that it is definitely NOT held back by the computing power of the Switch, it is actually held back by having been born on the Wii U, and as a result, it was never built from the ground up for the Switch. If it would have been, the optimization process would have been far easier than it has been now, going from the Wii U's PowerPC architecture to the completely different and more streamlined Android-based architecture of the Switch, and it would have resulted in a superior end product for sure.

@subpopz Meh... it's more or less an eternal struggle, that is: if you choose to dive in. You just can't argue in anything even remotely close to a logical fashion, when you're almost exclusively dealing with stupidity and extreme short-sightedness, and let's not forget the often times extreme egoism of anti-port people: they only care about what THEY want to see on their console of choice, and never once take a moment to consider the possibility that there's actually FAR more people that DO want to see these games appear on the Switch or whatever console is the topic of discussion...

One of the more, if not the most sensible comments, has been made by @Ryu_Niiyama, on page 9, but it'll soon be overrun by the masses agreeing with the stupid point of not wanting to have ports on the Switch...

@ThanosReXXX Thanks for your advice on my written English!

Actually Wii and WiiU were what I was referring to when I said "last generations" so I totally agree with you saying that gamecube was a very capable console.

You're right about BOTW being held down by WiiU's capabilites rather than by Switch (still my point stands). Anyway modern pcs (I know it's not a fair comparison) can emulate BOTW and run it at 60fps smoothly in 1080p or even 4k and it looks beautiful. Still hoping one day I'll get to play it, or a sequel that manages to recreate the emotions and the fun the original inspired in me, in 1080p at a constant framerate (30fps is actually fine for me since I can't usually tell the difference).

@Bunkerneath
I think that's kind of a gray area: from what I read BOTW development started on WiiU but then shifted to switch. Anyway, it's not clear in my opinion and, since both versions launched the same day I wouldn't say that either of the two is a port.

@AndreaF96 You're welcome.

And of course, your point stands in comparison with other consoles, and especially with PC's, but certainly that last comparison is indeed skewed and unfair.

And who knows? There's tablets far more powerful than the Switch, so if there's a newer version of the Switch currently being designed, that might just be able to pull off that 1080p/60fps version of Breath of the Wild...

On a side note: seeing as it's now around 900p on average on the TV screen, after a rather bumpy optimization run from the Wii U to the Switch, I'm all but sure that had it been a native Switch title from the start, it would already have been 1080p, with smoother/better textures and effects. Although most people seem to think not, the Switch is truly quite a bit more capable than the Wii U is.

@ThanosReXXX I agree with everything you said but I think I didn't manage to get across my message when I drew the comparison between switch version of botw and pc emulation. Of course pc is and always will be more powerful, what I was trying to point out is how much room for improvement could there be for a possible remaster of botw releasing 5 years from now. I would want that as much as I want a remaster of mario galaxy 1&2 for switch now.

By the way, I have the same feeling about a native switch botw being able to pull off 1080p30fps.

I am a computer scientist, so I know a little bit about how much stricter assumptions can lead to better performing algorithms. Still, I am no game developer and have never programmed for gpu, so take it with a bit of salt.

Remember, ports are bad unless it's a port you want

@AndreaF96 Well, then you probably know a fair bit more than me: I'm also in the IT business, but in sales & marketing, meaning I basically only have to know enough to be able to tell people a nice and truthful story, so I can sell them on the hardware or software...

But I became somewhat of a hobbyist as well; built most of my own PC's, and have done so for other people as well. The biggest takeaway/difference between PC and console game development, I would say, is that it is what they call "programming closer to the metal", meaning that the number of layers in between any Operating System and the executable/the game, is smaller/lighter, meaning that you can get more out of lighter hardware because you don't have to keep a rather heavy OS running in the background.

Such is the case on Windows, where multiple layers (3 or 4 if I remember correctly) are running simultaneously, if a game is running. And besides that, console hardware is also in general far more optimized to begin with, because it is a self-contained, unexpandable system, whereas a PC is of course nearly always upgradable and/or expandable, meaning that the software has to take into account for all the various configurations that might be possible, whereas on consoles, development focus can be far more precise.

@IceClimbers That would be like rule #1 in the book "Port Begging for Dummies"...

@ThanosReXXX well you seem to have your fair share of knowledge too. Actually I have never built a pc since I vastly prefer dealing with software rather than hardware, which is also the main reason why I chose computer science instead of computer engineering in university. Totally agree with what you said about layers of abstraction adding overheads and the benefit of a single combination of cpu, gpu, ecc for development. Actually I believe the latter is caused by a more profound reason: usually the more assumptions you can make on a problem, the more efficient your algorithm can be. As an example, finding whether an element is present in a list has O(n) time complexity (n being the lenght of the list) in the general worst case scenario but you can do it in O(logn) if the list is already sorted. Sorry for the CS off topic ahah.
Also this allows consoles, which are designed to run games, to perform much better than pcs, which are general purpose machines, if we take into account consoles limited resources.

@AndreaF96 Exactly, and that is exactly what the term "programming closer to the metal" entails,
and even though consoles and PC's are slowly becoming more and more alike, that's still quite the considerable benefit that consoles have over PC's.

@ReaderRagfihs Yeah, totally agree, and compilers can usually generate better performing code than humans could if they tried to write assembly. Still, a single platform gives probably many benefits to efficiency.
Back on topic: I think that one of the best games released on switch so far is MK8DX and it is a port.

@ReaderRagfihs @AndreaF96 Far as I knew, most current gen console development/programming is done in C++, not in Assembly. After I mentioned the whole "programming closer to the metal" thing, I actually started to wonder about that, and decided to look it up. Seems some developers already answered that question and confirmed this to be true:
https://www.quora.com/What-programming-languages-are-used-in-...

Seems that quite a few other languages are used as well, but not Assembly. That's probably a last gen thing, or maybe as the exception to the rule, nowadays...

@IceClimbers * Ports are good unless they're for Nintendo systems.

Then they're old games, and you should feel bad for purchasing them.

Yes I would like an HD remake/port of Super Mario Sunshine for The Switch please.

Oh and a port of Super Mario Maker would be nice, and a port of Sonic Colors and a port of The Pikmin games, Paper Mario: Color Splash........ Continues to beg for ports for the rest of the day