Topic: Worried about mobile games flooding the Switch

So with the announcement of Gear.Club Unlimited coming to the Switch I'm kinda concerned with the premise of getting a flood of, imo, subpar mobile games coming to the Switch.
I made my concerns public on the comments section on the article of the announcement and am a little bemused at how positive the comments are on said title. I bought Implosion another mobile game port and was left wanting as to me it it such a poor game.
I play some mobile games but don't really seek them out. For me (pre-Switch) I stayed loyal to my DS/3ds family as I want deep gaming experiences on the go. Mobile games never seem to fill that void for me and so I don't invest a lot of time or money in them.
The Switch, I hope, is the device I've been waiting for console gaming on the go. Games like Devil May Cry, Ninja Gaiden, Mario, Doom, Fallout, (can't believe I'm saying this one but even) COD. Having that experience on the go is the ideal situation for me. I don't even care if the graphics are on par with PS3 or Wii for that matter I just want 20-60hr gaming experiences but also be able to leave the house and play them.
If we start to get these lesser mobile games released on Switch what is the point really, just play it on your tablet off the google play store....

I guess I'm just ranting but I have a point don't I? Lol hoping others feel the same. If not send your hate my way haha😜

I mean...I dunno. If mobile gaming was gonna ruin other places...it would've happened already?

Well, I absolutely agree that I'd like to see as many big 'AAA' titles as possible coming to the Switch - but I really don't mind seeing the Switch's library further supplemented by mobile/indie games...one of the big advantages that these games have is that they tend to be less of a drain on the Switch's battery - so they can be a great option for longer play sessions in handheld mode

I'm looking at how my Switch collection could look at the end of the year & am really pleased by the diversity of options...

• Breath of the Wild & Skyrim as big, single-player, 'AAA' experiences
• Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Splatoon 2, Rocket League & (possibly) FIFA offering great long-term replayability
• Overcooked, Death Squared and Snipperclips as pick-up-and-play, local multiplayer options
• Then maybe some less-intensive single-player experiences (Gear.Club, Stardew Valley, The Escapists 2) for long journeys etc
  ...so long as we get a good balance going forward, I'll be pretty happy

I don't think it's a problem any more than full blooded console games finding release on mobile.

The two realms are different but they bleed into each other. That can be a bad thing when it means games on console/PC adopting the 'freemium' approach but it can also be a good thing.

Personally I think there's a lot of great, interesting, stuff on mobile - and obviously the vast majority of indie devs are working on mobile - but I simply wouldn't want to play most of them without buttons. Whether I'll play them over a top drawer first party game is another question but the option is nice.

Also - attracting the top tier of mobile games means that Nintendo could position the Switch as the tablet for anyone who likes to play games. At the moment the debate and discussion has centred around Switch taking players from 3DS or the PS4/XBox One pair. Long term however - once Netflix, Amazon, iPlayer and an internet browser arrive and we see steady price drops - Switch could just about eat the lunch of all the lower end tablets too.

Seen in that context it's possible to imagine a scenario in which Switch sales hit 20 million in 2 years and then go really crazy in years 3 and 4.

I think the backing of Nintendo's own first party games is the biggest argument against being worried about a flood of mobile games though. So long as Nintendo is pouring in the money to release big budget fully fledged games themselves the console will have the type of support you're looking for.

I'm fine with games like this indies and the like it's these cheap mobile games that have been made with simple control schemes ( because they come from touch interface systems) that try to dress themselves up as full game experiences that I'm worried about. Implosions controls were just awful. I really can't understand how people enjoy it... maybe it's just me though....

@StuTwo I remember seeing an article somewhere - predating the Switch, actually - which similarly argued that Nintendo should be making a "tablet for gamers". While it's tempting to reject this notion for its passing resemblance to the "just make mobile games" suggestion, it's beginning to make a lot of sense. As long as they didn't lower their software standards for the sake of getting everything iOS and Android get, I'd be down with it.

I was thinking exactly the same thing. I hate mobile gaming, they are normally sub-par games which can be picked up, played for 5 mins and then put down and never played again. Especially with some mobile games which are cheap or even free, but on switch they cost over £5 and are just exactly the same, sometimes even worse than the original, I despair.

If they bring in free to play but with in game purchases I think i'm going to loose hope in Nintendo itself as this seems to be the way they are going. To me DLC which you have to pay for IS in game purchasing.
Maybe I'm just old fashioned and like the way it used to be, you bought a game from a shop, then played it to the end. Maybe go back to it so that you collect all items/coins/feathers, then 2 years down the line play it again. Why do we need expansions, "Fixes", etc, this makes the games company focus on the old games, instead of looking forward and bringing out a new game.

This is just my opinion so hate if you want, everyone has their own.

@kkslider5552000 sorry mate I don't quiet catch your meaning... no offence just don't understand lol 🤗

@StuTwo yeah look a good amount of diversity is great. It's these so called top tier mobile games I am wary of becoming popular ports (or easy ports) coming to the Switch and becoming popular additions which I think could make a lot of games developers think that this is a good way to utilise the Switch and it's fan base. I'd much rather developers look at the Switch as the next 3ds and make games specifically for it giving us some quality and creativity.

Look I am just speculating but I'm just so surprised at the positive feedback these games are receiving. Surely we all see the Switch as better than these 'top" tier mobile games.... personally I don't want to see the Switch as the go to tablet option because it's better than a tablet it's a gaming machine.

Thank you! 👌 I'm not crazy after all.....

@Filth_Element The problem with seeing the Switch as the next 3DS is that, from a development and publishing point of view, it's dramatically less profitable and less lucrative than mobile. So you see games like Professor Layton (a mega seller on both the DS and the 3DS) migrating over to mobile.

Many of the developers behind these games are very talented, they're creating valuable assets and putting together strong fundamentals for their games. They will be focused on mobile because that's where the money is so in many cases it's a case of 'accept a mobile port that uses these high end graphical assets' or 'have no game'. The market is such that very few small development houses will make something exclusive to the Switch - whatever they make has to work on mobile and/or Steam.

If these devs start to see potential for profit on Switch then we'll see more and they'll pay more attention to what features they need for the Switch version from an early point in development. Maybe, given time, we'll even see mobile devs develop and release for Switch first.

What Nintendo is doing with their own games is putting a flag in sand and saying 'this is what's possible, this is what you should be measuring the value of 3rd party games on our system against' and hopefully that level being set so high will dissuade the worst excesses of mobile from appearing on Switch.

Put simply - if a game can't even begin to stand up against Nintendo's own efforts it will sink on Switch. That goes for mobile ports of any kind but it's the same for 3rd party AAA games, ports from steam and games built from the ground up as Switch exclusives.

@StuTwo that's a fair point yes but said developers used to make said games for ds exclusively. Layton etc are easy to turn into mobile games because of their content too. Profit is king I agree and that's why I don't like seeing all the good feedback for games like Gear.Club and Implosion as they try to dress up up like real games when they really aren't. At least not the games I expect. I don't want the Switch to be like Wii U where 1st party games are awesome and 3rd party games are just lazy (not all mind you I. The case of Wii U).

It is not a problem if the e-shop is flooded by mobile games, what would be a problem however if that would change the userbase. The reason why there are nearly no good mobile games is because the user base of these games does not want to spend much (or anything) on those games. When a more expensive game arrives, it is always the question of whether or not that is really worth it, especially since you have many free options to choose from, or games for one or two euros. I notice that I do exactly that on my mobile devices, and this is also the reason why many people thought mario run was to expensive (I bought it, and thought it was perfectly priced).

I don't think we have to worry as long as nintendo does not allow micro-transactions like on mobile devices (thus allowing free games). And of course as long as there are enough people paying for 20-60 euros games, there will not be a problem either, in fact, the new user group that came to the switch will probably create more attention to those developers as well, thus giving rise to more great games on the switch.

I would like to note that I fall into both categories, I am stingy concerning my mobile devices (ipad/ipod) but I spend big money on nintendo games (zelda, mario kart, mario, SSMB etc.). I am not intending to buy many mobile games on the switch either (maybe not including indies which are good value for money), as that is not why I bought a Switch.

I don't think mobile games are the problem. I think you people have to investigate more on the mobile market because some of the games available there can be quite spectacular and there's certainly more creativity out there than in the 3DS library, where 80% of the games are just a reskin of the same 20 year old RPG. Consider yourself lucky if you get the occasional Downwell or Super Crossfire, because you are not going to see those on 3DS. If anything, the problem is that when a mobile game lands on a Nintendo platform, it magically triples its original price.

What should concern the Switch userbase is the flood of games that aren't even good enough to be at the bottom of the barrel of the mobile market. The WiiU had a pretty attractive eShop until it was absolutely ruined by games that wouldn't even have been allowed on flash gaming websites in the early 2000s. Just wait until RCMADIAX, nuGAME, Ninja Pig Studios, Brave Rock, TreeFall, Skunk Software etc put their hands on a development kit. None of these are "mobile games" studios.

There are so many mobile games I would like to try, but the touch screen controls are such a turn-off and I don't want to hook up a bluetooth controller for my phone. As long as Nintendo chooses good ones and doesn't let the flood gates open for shovelware, it could be a very good thing. A game like Implosion comes to mind.

is this intentionally hypocritical or...?

@SharkAttackU if you haven't tried Implosion yet get ready to be sorely disappointed!

@spizzamarozzi more creativity in mobile gaming..... What are you playing that gives you that impression, more to the point what have you NOT played on the 3ds?

I'm concerned about that as well.

So far, with the exception of Zelda, Splatoon, and Mario Kart 8, I'm not really seeing anything that couldn't be done on a 3DS. Granted, games like Skyrim and Mario Odyssey are coming down the pipeline, but I would love to see less games that share a release with the mobile space.

It isn't just the mobile games, it is also games like Cave Story and Binding of Isaac. They are priced to the point of being guaranteed flops! $40?! Seriously?! Who is going to pay that? Anybody who owns a 3DS can have both titles for a fraction of the cost! It's just an absurd strategy!

All Switch games are mobile games, so too late.
_owo

And in the same breath people will complain about the price of VC games and how the purchases are tied to the console.

@shaneoh yeah but I don't mind the VC stuff as I can't purschase the majority of them on other devices. And with the N64 and Wii titles (hopefully NGC too) they are full blown games not 3-7 hour experiences.