Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Let's not lose our heads over a rumor, please.

@Octane Nintendo 3DS is swimming in Dragon Quest games in Japan, so I highly doubt that.

@Ralizah But do they use the same engine? Although an emulator seems more likely for an FF collection. So unless the 3DS has DQ VC in Japan, that could be a reason.

EDIT: Didn't even realise this was only a rumour...

@Octane I mean I doubt that Square Enix somehow having a bad relationship with Nintendo is an explanation for anything. 3DS got two Bravely games, a huge number of DQ games, and probably other stuff as well.

Also, I haven't heard a peep about the supposed "Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Collection" since it was "leaked" last year

@Octane Hey, so err...guess what? In DQ11 on 3DS you can unlock the original to play via Virtual Console...so um...yeah that's not the reason I'm afraid.

So my stance with third parties is this.

Look at all the rumours. How many of those games actually came? Not many. FromSoftware is MIA, Dark Souls, nope. Soul Caliber? Nope. Call of Duty? Nope. Activision? MIA. EA? Doesn't give a toss.

Until the millisecond these games are announced for Switch officially I expect nothing from any third party, because at this point they are far too willing to dangle a thread and get us to bark on command for something we never get.

I don't blame third parties for being hesitant with Switch. But look, I think Capcom, Namco et al are interested in Switch, however don't lose sight of how long game development takes. Heck, if they were out at launch and only just started to be fully in, then I wouldn't be surprised if 2018 is full of ports/ collections and small / middle games because the big ones probably aren't even ready early 2019!

@GrailUK As a game developer, I'm perfectly aware of how long it takes.

However, I am also aware of the concept of good PR. If it cant happen, cool. If its possible, then say. If you say you are all in, throw us a bone, don't give us a reason to think otherwise.

Alternatively, don't ask us to port beg for nothing and become the laughing stock of the industry to the point the Project Cars developers get brazen enough to ask Nintendo fans about THAT game. XD

@DarthNocturnal
Could be.

But it's not just that. That's just something I got linked to yesterday, and seems indicative of a larger problem.

Almost a year into the lifespan now... you would expect to start seeing more announcements than what we're seeing. Even with Namco. And I'm not talking about that whole rumor because we knew that was a rumor from the get go. But they announced some anime fighter today, and PAC Man. And I'm thinking, out of all the high dollar and high-quality games you bring the other systems, this is what you give us?

Bandai Namco couldn't even be bothered to announce that new One Piece open world game for Switch. Code Vein? Nope. Dark Souls? Still heard nothing. God Eater? Uh uh (even though the 3rd entry was just announced and would cater to the MH audience in the absence of that franchise skipping out). Digimon? Notta. Tales? Still waiting. No Final Fantasy for Switch announced- not even ports of FFX, FFXII, FFVII, Type 0 HD, Collection... meanwhile FFXV and FFXIV Online are games they'll still be talking about "possibly looking into bringing in the future" years from now. Not even World of Final Fantasy has been announced. Kingdom Hearts... nothin. Not even the collections or an HD port of Dream Drop Distance... which even 3DS got an exclusive KH. We can't even get a port. Capcom... they finally make a big budget MH and the only system not getting it is the one where the fanbase of the last 10 years is on. No Marvel vs Capcom Infinite, not even Ultra Street Fighter IV. Just retro compilations...

And don't get me wrong there is some support from these companies on the way. And even though it's a compilation I'm still very excited for Mega Man, Mega Man X and Street Fighter. But gosh dang... it's such an insignificant slice of the larger pie, and when it comes to actual high dollar games nobody wants to bring anything. Even the Wii U saw new releases like Injustice and Splinter Cell and Assassins Creed and Call of Duty and Watch Dogs (even if it was late). Not that I necessarily care about all of those franchises (some I do) but it's just the fact that nobody wants to bring high dollar games to the Switch, and it's starting to become aggravating.

I hear a lot of talk but I'm not seeing any action. Not really. Valkyria Chronicles 4, Bayonetta 3, Dragon Quest XI... those are high dollar, high-quality games. Those are what I expect to see (and not leave the middle market games out either, we want those too obviously... I want PAC Man and the compilations, it's just not all I want). At first I didn't expect much for the Switch, but I expect more of the system now that it's such a success, and now that the third-party software is selling reasonably well.

@JaxonH Don't forget that FF1-9 are already playable on the PSVita (through PSP BC / PSone classics). Maybe they'll be getting what is essentially a rebundling of these versions?

@Buizel
I don't even know if it's true or if plans have changed, but even ignoring that entirely, there's just so many other examples. Even Ubisoft... no Assassins Creed. No Far Cry. Just Uno and Monopoly, a Rayman port and Mario. It really speaks volumes about what they think will and will not sell on this platform. This is not the Wii U. It's not even the Wii. And that old way of thinking about the Nintendo gamership needs to die off already. We are not just Nintendo fans on Switch. We are PS gamers, Xbox gamers, PC gamers, and even those of us who are strictly Nintendo fans I believe are far more open minded toward third party games than past generations ever were.

The only thing that's going to change their minds is continued sales. If third party games continue to exceed expectations we will gradually see more and more. It's unfortunate that's the way things have to be because it will be a painfully slow process, and by the time we see a significant amount of support the generation will nearly be over. If they would just realize that people on this platform play all types of games, and that you can sell more on this platform than just your typical Mario crossover, board games and retro titles... they'd be making a lot more money and we'd be a lot happier. Take a chance already.

Unless the Direct that's coming up soon reveals a decent amount of big games, I won't expect the third party situation to improve very much during this generation, if at all.

Yeah honestly at this point, the only improvement we are going to get is that third parties are actually considering some games, and giving us the B-C tier stuff, with the occasional A game much later than everywhere else.

If things continue to go well, we will get ALL the B-C stuff on Switch 2, along with considerations and more attempts at the A stuff. Then on Switch 3, again assuming nothing goes wrong, we should start getting the A games consistently.

It'll be a console or two before we get the games even the 3DS got honestly.

The industry has become so stacked against us that it basically is an uphill battle. No matter how well the system sells, no matter what games we buy, it'll take years before they realise, but by then...it'll be our kids playing the games we would have licked to play on the systems....but the issue is our kids will likely be into something else entirely and not want those games.

So they'll give us the games we want now...in about 10 years...

I get that people are upset that we're not getting all the multiplats that the Switch can obvious handle but...I really don't think the third party situation is that bad. At the very least, it's looking to be the best it's been since the Gamecube.

Really? What did the 3DS get in its first year that is better than the Switch's first year?

@Buizel I'm referring to stuff like the JRPGs, the remakes, the collections, the solid platformers, it's going to be a while, because Atlas....is yet to jump over and just announced another 3DS game for Etrian. DQ is...an alleged thing.

But all those quirky little mid tier 3DS games, sure they get successors like Octopath to Bravely, those likely aren't going to be a thing for...at least a few years. It's either the big games watered down understandably, or the little games and re-releases.

Oh for the love of God, chill out. These things take time. Marketing has a timeline they have to abide to - there's a time and a place for every announcement. Just because one thing was announced now doesn't mean that there aren't more announcements coming; it just means they're coming at a later date.

Games that were greenlit now and over the past few months won't come out until late 2018 at the earliest, the majority of it in 2019, and most likely won't be announced until spring 2018 at the earliest (more likely during summer, and the later ones in fall).

And we know damn well Nintendo's been working closely with third parties to plan out/control when things get announced.

@YummyHappyPills You know what? There's tempering expectations, there's even pessimism, but this is just straight out blind cynicism. There's no reason for it either. To be completely honest, it's getting more annoying than Slig's constant complaining.

Look, I get it, the Wii U era sucked. But now? There's no reason to continue with this constant victim/persecution complex.

Switch is doing incredibly well right now, and will continue to do so, but most of these companies didn't expect that to happen. Game development, and subsequently the marketing cycles for said games, take a while. Said announcements will come when they come.

Games like Code Vein, or that One Piece game, or Soul Calibur VI, etc? Those were greenlit 1-3+ years ago. Potential Switch ports weren't factored in to the development and marketing cycles for those games, and so if they come they'll be later on and on separate marketing cycles. You're going to have to wait. Period.

Until then, you have all these flavors, and you chose to be salty.

I feel like Pac-man championship edition could be fun at a reasonable price. $30 would be stretching it, but I think $20-$25 could be a good price.

I'll wait for the Direct, since rumors are that, only rumors that can be true or false. The Soul Calibur VI rumors was true in the sense the game did exist, but was absolutely wrong in the rest.

Personally, I won't deny I would love multiplat ports, but if they don't come, I'm happy with the middle tier support. It's more than we got with the Wii U and games like Project Octopath are those that can be the bread and butter between big releases.

@IceClimbers I am well aware of how long it takes to make something, but third parties were made aware of Switch over a year ago. As far back as June 2016 for some companies as we now know. They would have known what the system could do by late 2016, so anything made to go in that time should be out this year or next.

Sure the bigger games can miss out. I have no problem with waiting (Unless it goes the way of WWE2K18...at which point....yep) BUT my issue stems not from "The games aren't coming" to instead "They said one thing, do another".

Like yes, Square said lots of mid range titles would come. We already have stuff like Builders and Octopath coming. Great. What future titles could come? We will see.

But you get a company like BandaiNamco, who say, take the bait and let us know and then do what with it? Try the same thing again and again. At what point do we say enough is enough with that? We shouldn't need to bark when they say in the hopes we get a game, which right now looks unlikely.

Take Capcom, directly involved with the development of the system, said put more RAM in it, we have these stories confirmed by both Nintendo and Capcom and developer conferences in Japan. What do they do? Port the MT Framework, give us a game they won't localise until at least late 2018, and some welcome late ports (USF2 is now in a tricky situation given the Collection) and Mega Man 11. Oh and some Resident Evil in suspiciously close proximity to the other console releases for something that wasn't planned.

Okami though? If Capcom has been involved in the system since the start and they are okay with it being a budget release, it can't have been that costly. Why not port that, you knew the system was coming.

Other companies have had many instances of porting things that weren't going to be quick, like DBXenoverse 2, not made during the Switch cycle, still came. L.A Noire, miraculously. Wolfenstein 2, been in development for ages, it's coming. DOOM, it came. There have been third parties releasing games that yes, began development before they knew about Switch.

What annoys me isn't that these games aren't coming, it's the damn inconsistency. Like sure, if you're gonna dangle a carrot on a stick like Bandai did repeatedly then please, honour it. If you were Capcom, cheaply porting Okami, and knew about the system and how well it sold on Wii, wouldn't you port that? Wouldn't you localise XX?

That's the issue. The waiting? That's fine, so long as the end result is at least decent and not a fire like WWE. The expecting us to jump when they say jump, and the straight up lying about not porting something? That's the problem.

Sure, you wouldn't have had time if you were Bandai on something like Code Vein or SC6, but apparently Bethesda did. Square did. Koei Tecmo did. Ubisoft did. They had the time.

But it didn't factor into it. I mean I'm impressed that Mario + Rabbids started in 2014-2015 and ended up on Switch, if they didn't factor that in.

If, god forbid anyway, in say 2 years they keep saying, we didn't factor it in because we didn't know about it when we started development, what will you say then? They were making a game for almost 5 years and at no point factored in the system?

See, I'm personally fine with the games not coming. I'm not fine with the bark when we say, keep prodding the waters to test it, and the cases where there is absolutely NO reason something like Okami shouldn't be here.

It's the inconsistency, the PR saying one thing, the developers and actions of the companies saying another. If they were clear, if they weren't so wishy washy and started making promises and acting in ways that go counter to the information we know is true because they themselves said it (Capcom!), because that is knocking consumer trust. You guys had a hand in making the system, you knew it was coming, why are you unprepared? You didn't think it would sell? Okay, fine. That checks out, but that didn't stop the handful of games you put out anyway.

Why put out only some low risk ports? Why go counter to everything they said pre-launch? It's actually baffling to me. Again, the games can come or they cant, I just want more transparency here, because people are seeing where the stories don't add up. In some cases, like SC6, they do. In others, there are obvious huge gaps or holes in what they say, or alleged support.

Seriously, the hell is FromSoftware doing at this point, or is that canned?

I will end by saying this: Where Bamco, Capcom, EA etc. opened a box by saying flip-floppy things repeatedly and getting us to their beck and call asking for sales, Activision did one thing right: They have said NOTHING.

In this case, that nothing is far more comforting than being yanked around by the chain.

I'm giving the publishers the benefit of the doubt in some instances like SC6 due to the development time and because they probably want to finish the other versions.

At the same time, as @YummyHappyPills is talking about, these same publishers need to stop with the "promises" and all the talk. I'm gonna laugh if these Japanese publishers are still acting hesitant when the Switch outsells the PS4 in Japan and the Vita worldwide next year.

I do agree that the publishers can often be hypocrites about this and there's reason to be concerned to some degree, but tbh

1. At least 80% of good games coming out in the past year do not actually require more than what the Switch is capable of. They just don't.
2. There's no point in making predictions based on what's announced now, since "announce major title a couple of months before release" is slowly becoming the new norm.

With February's lineup more than likely known at this point outside of indies, I've been thinking again about when the paid online subscription would go live. April comes to mind if Kirby is a March game.