Nintendo Encouraged by Third-Party Interest in the Switch

I may be wrong because I'm just going on memory but didn't Wii U have a bunch of 3rd party support at launch? Just saying that the pre-launch hype of major 3rd parties being back could easily dwindle post release like it did for the Wii U.

I hope I'm wrong about this, but worried nonetheless.

As am I!! This to me was the best news about the whole Switch reveal!

As long as they don't play the "shortage" game like they did with the Wii, Amiibo, and seem to be doing with the NES Mini.

The support for third parties that you've been given and the prospect that more has approached you has given you determination!

@JHDK You're not wrong but this feels different to me. First of all companies like Bethesda have never been on that list of third party support so this says to me they must have reached out to them to get more support. Second I'm hearing things in regards to how easy it is to port games for the system. This means 3rd parties don't have to divide people, money, and resources like they did for the Wii U. Easy ports means less work and more profit! Will it be enough we will have to wait and see.

They need that customer experience to help sales, I remeber when the wii was released and going into my local tesco and seeing people queuing up to play the demo models. On the the other hand a free shiny mew code with every purchase could work......

The biggest thing with Switch is that you can have AAA games on the run unlike Cell phones and tablets.
Could be why devs is more interrested.
Portable Call of Duty, Battlefield, Skyrim etc. should attract alot of people.

Nice quotes. Hopefully we'll see it all in action.

I really hope Nintendo has worked all the stuff with 3rd parties out this time. Not so much for my own sake, as I play on several different consoles, but more to see Nintendo once again as they were in their glory days. That being said, of course I would enjoy big 3rd party games on the go as well!

☺
Lets hope for the best.
Personally I hope for unique gaming experienes, not just third party ports of ps4 or box games. If i wanted to play those Id have bought a ps4 long ago.

@Andrzej777 No profanity, thanks.

Any touring events to try Switch will almost certainly not be close enough to me. I just want to be able to get one at launch. Preordering obviously, but worried they'll sell out in an hour when I'm like working or something. Please make enough Nintendo, I don't wanna spend a ton of extra time trying to just get a hold of your system, I'm tired of those games...

@DarthNocturnal
Here's hoping for Grand Theft Auto or other Rockstar IPs.

I will say one thing the Switch does have going for it that the Wii U didn't: people are more aware of the system, and most reactions are pretty positive.

I remember the Wii U just confusing people, making people think it was just a gamepad add-on to the original Wii. Also, the Switch is going to have a huge launch game (Zelda BotW) and Wii U had as it's "big" games where Nintendo Land (which had a horrible showing off at E3) and a 2D Mario game, which is kind of sad.

Hopefully the third party people stay with the Switch instead of abandoning the system quick like they did the Wii U. The third party developers also need to realize that Nintendo fans hate lackluster ports of there games, and especially when we don't receive things other consoles got, like dlc.

@ClockworkMario I haven't play a GTA game since Vice City on the computer, but I would buy GTA V if it showed up on the Switch and give the series another go

Good for the 3rd parties to HOPEFULLY stay on with the Switch, but I still don't get the secrecy of the SWITCH nintendo is doing. You showed the world the system, so why make investors and others wait for specs and what it can do...makes no sense. I'm not sure why they have to think they have to play this game, but if they reveal everything in January (which is only 2-3 months before launch), it could ruin the system too. People are going to be getting the PS4, XBONE, the VR items this holiday (some will be getting 3DS games, but fans will be anxiously awaiting the switch...like myself). No matter what, if they wanted the system to remain a secret, they shouldn't have even shown off the system at all...that's just my opinion, but they were actually doing a good job at getting the hype train moving at incredible speeds not showing it, now, you have all of these rumors about what it can do (which nobody really knows) and some of those rumors could hurt it before nintendo even announces it (because there are some people that actually believe everything they read on the internet)

@hYdeks Honestly hope Red Dead Redemption 2 comes to it instead!

sign me the hell up.

@gcunit Profanity? You said "OMFG" in the "Japan Is Getting A Yellow And White 2DS This December" article!

If the Switch starts getting really good third party support, I might put my PS4 out to pasture.

@hYdeks The Only problem is if the 3rd parties just release ports of games that are already on the PS4 or XBONE, and have been on it for longer than a few months. Skyrim is already on those systems, and by March, will go down in price from it's $60 mark right now. If the SWITCH version comes out at $60, where it could easily be $20 or less on the others, it would mean the same thing that happened to Wii U (Mass Effect 3, Darksiders 2 and more that were way more on Wii U then the PS3 and 360). That's what basically happened to the 3rd parties on the Wii U, and the games they actually made for the system that was just for the Wii U (ZombiU, Rabbids Land, Game Party Champions and Family Party) were kind of bad games. Zombi U was good, but not as good as what it could have been. No matter what, most of the people that end up buying the Switch, are going to be buying Zelda or the Mario Adventure...with a few buying Skyrim if it is available at launch. Nintendo needs to showcase the 3rd party games more and get people excited for the 3rd party titles too, not just their own...don't just show their own games, show the 3rd party titles off too. I hate the Call Of Duty franchise, but having them would help...Madden would help...FIFA would help...more sports franchises and racing sims would help, not just kiddie-sports-titles and/or compilation sports games, but actual realistic sports titles and racing sims. I really hope the 3rd party support continues, but it's all depending on how many people buy the system, and hopefully, nintendo keeping away most of the 3rd party shovel ware that the Wii and even the PS2 got throughout their years. Seems that the system that does the best during the generations, get all of the shovel ware titles (Wii, PS2, PS4, PS1, NES, Genesis).

@ClockworkMario well, if they actually made a GTA game for DS once...

@Ralizah I'm getting the Switch, but I'm sorry to say that I wouldn't give up on the PS4 or sell it...next God Of War looks good, and they have more coming out! I always end up keeping anything nintendo and sony for consoles...they both seem to be great in their games, even though I always come back to the nintendo console first. Plus, I somehow get a kick out of earning trophies, which I honestly hope nintendo has something like that for the Switch.

@nhSnork I think the DS version was about the only game Rockstar ever made for a nintendo console or system. I never really saw anything else...maybe on N64, but I don't recall seeing anything on Wii? Correct me if I'm wrong, though!

2 million does seem a bit on the cautious side even if it launching early in the year. but after the WiiU I can see why they would be conservative the initial shipment. Hopefully they do see the sort of demand that will have them increase the shipment.(But I know I'm getting one day one.)

@JLPick well, Lemmings were on Nintendo consoles (although I suppose washing machines may be the only piece of tech Lemmings WEREN'T on). That and a couple N64 titles are the extent of my knowledge, too.

Then again, never underestimate Wikipedia. There was some Uniracers game on SNES, Nintendo even published it.

@G-Boy Don't be daft, I said nothing of the sort. But you did use profanity, quite blatantly knowing that it mustn't be used. That's a warning for you then. Please don't do it again.

@JLPick Bully, Rockstar presents Table Tennis, Manhunt 2.

@JLPick Bully Scholarship Edition for Wii.

@nhSnork
You're right, I had completely forgot about that one. Was a great game, as I recall.

@JLPick
They did have a few efforts on the Wii, notably Bully and Manhunt 2. Before that they released some GTA-games on the Game Boy Color. Nothing recent though.

http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Rockstar_Games

@gcunit You're the one being daft around here. http://www.internetslang.com/OMFG-meaning-definition.asp Ban me if you want, but the meaning is still the same, even if it's an abbreviation.

BTW, censoring is the only flaw of Nintendo Life, IMAO.

One thing that has to be fixed from the Wii U era regarding 3rd party games is that they have to offer the same experience if they are to be ports of games released on other consoles they have to offer the same content. No cuts and no skipping DLC. Otherwise you can't blame low sales for dropping support because people aren't stupid and will obviously avoid platforms that won't offer the full experience.

@FX102A Never forget.

This is really starting to sound more and more critical to get switch on day 1...this extra support will fall flat if the launch window games don't sell.

@BiasedSonyFan
My definition about third party developers is mostly Japanese developers, not Western developers. Sorry, my game choices mostly done by them. Not always AAA developers like SquareEnix, Capcom, Konami, NamcoBandai, etc but also including smaller groups such as Syn Sophia, Marvelous, Office Create, MTO, Media Kite, Taito, etc. But, I still have a few Western games that still appropriate for me. I don't really like Western games dominated because most of them don't impressed me at all. I really want Japanese games dominated again like decade ago. Oh, well... maybe still hoping for Marvelous to release Bokujou Monogatari in HD or DDR again by Konami or GO Vacation 2 by Namco Bandai. Wanna see those games on Switch.

@JHDK A number of the companies on the Switch's support roster are companies that abandoned the Wiiu. I don't think those companies that abandoned the Wiiu would be interested in coming back if they didn't feel that the Switch was a lucrative concept. And I think with the Wiiu, publishers didn't care about whether the hardware was worthy or not; they were just looking to get a piece of that Wii audience that unfortunately didn't show up. But, at the end of the day, I wouldn't worry too much because the Switch will grant Nintendo the opportunity to start over, build a brand new reputation.

@Spoony_Tech @JHDK The number of third parties listed now by FAR surpasses that for the Wii U, which actually only had around 10 to 12 third parties "confirmed" at launch. And taking into account what mr. Kimishima has said about that not being the complete list, the difference is even more significant than it already is.

And like some others have also already said, it is more telling that there are also companies on that list right now that wouldn't even have given a Nintendo console a second look in previous generations, so that's actually VERY good news, and no reason to worry at all.

At least for now: that support of course needs to stay around long term as well, and not just be there in the initial stages of the console's life cycle, much like how it played out on the Wii U.

@DarthNocturnal Bethesda won't confirm that Skyrim is the game coming to Switch though:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2016/10/21/oddly-skyrim-isnt-confirmed-for-the-nintendo-switch/#4249d8126ea0

I believe there's a Typo at the "We're hopefully this will"

@G-Boy Please read the Community Rules re. moderator feedback and using the Contact Form.

@gatorboi352 Heh, didn't Bethesda say the same thing about Fallout 4 not happening?

@Spoony_Tech
Your logic is sound Spoony. I hope you're right because having third party games is like extra cheese on a pizza for me.

@JLPick I wholly agree with your point about games being cheaper on other systems. If by the time the Switch launches - Skyrim remastered is, say, £30 on Xbox One, then why would anyone bother getting it for Switch for £50/60? ...

As you rightly put it, the Wii U fell victim to this massively. I got games for 360 that I would have rather played on Wii U - but the price difference was so big I'd have been silly to get it for Wii U.

Hopefully Nintendo mirror the price on the other systems... but they likely won't - Ninty are notorious for their high prices. They'll probably push the 'yeah... it's more expensive but you can play it in the car!' thing which, yes, is awesome but I see the majority of people getting the cheaper version instead.

It's all just words until games actually come out.

My puppet body is ready!

@arrmixer I beg to differ. Having 3rd party games is like actually getting the pizza in the first place. Without them, well, you just have the Wii U and it's disaster of a situation.

@JLPick no GTA game for the N64. Psone only...the top view ones.

I love that the Switch merges gamers from two worlds: Home console and handheld. It will be fun playing together.

@gcunit Where's the Community Rules? I can't find them.

@gatorboi352
yeah your right but hey if you're buying a nintendo console it's for nintendo games anything else is just extra....

which can pose a challenge for nintendo as well.. all these years nintendo tried to alienate/differentiate itself from it's competitors whether they are Sony/MS/or other AAA developers which put nintedo on an island that is nintendo....
Anyway hopefully third party support has improved with the "Switch"

@G-Boy Immediately below the Comment box, and just right of the Reply button.

BUY ALL OF THEM

@3MonthBeef : Yes. It can also boost development for NVIDIA Shield TV which also uses Tegra.
I own 2 Shield TV consoles myself, so i fully know the power of Tegra.

Confession time for ol' Jax

Ok, so I actually did, in all honesty, doubt Nintendo's ability to bring third parties to the table with their next console. After Wii and Wii U, I was fairly confident that 3rd party games (multiplats anyways) were a lost cause and it just wasn't gonna happen.

And there's a number of reasons for that- I mean, for one Nintendo just didn't seem to put all that much effort into bringing them to the table. Be it reaching out to devs, developing an architecture which supports easier ports, or advertising their games. So there was that. But there was also the fact that the fanbase itself didn't want to support those games. Out of dozens of Wii U multiplats, only two or three surpassed half a million in sales and absolutely none of them broke 1 million. And if there's no demand then there's no reason developers have to bring their games to the system.

So I admit, I was wrong, and I'm duly impressed with what Nintendo has done here. Now, the fact remains that although Nintendo seems to be doing their part, it will be all for not if the fanbase doesn't step up and support these developers and their games. None of this scouring for a single reason to skip a game.. "oh look, the framerate is less than PS4, not buying!". No **** Sherlock it's a weaker system. It's going to have to make concessions visually and performance wise. But if people want third party games on Nintendo hardware than people have to, have to have to have to, people have to support the games.

And before anyone says " yeah but I'm not going to support an inferior version", to you I say this: when third parties pull out and support dries up and you have nothing to play except the sparse Nintendo release every couple months, I don't want to hear any complaining or moaning about not having third party games. Not a peep.

I just want Square. Tomb raider, and FF15/7R

@Aaron09 Yeah, we probably won't get FF15 but everything else would be nice (hitman, deus ex, kingdom hearts, tomb raider)

@BiasedSonyFan then they're probably in the 13 million crowd that bought Wii U.

*Disclaimer: I bought a Wii U day one with the understanding it was getting all the same 3rd party support as Sony/MS

@JaxonH I can still see significant difficulty in having the fans support western AAA third parties. For 7th and 8th generation leftovers, PS/XB owners would need some incentive. Is the portability intrinsic to the hardware going to be enough? For Nintendo-only gamers, are those games even anywhere near interesting enough to warrant spending less time with Mario Kart feat. King Boo? For PC gamers, what's the point?

@BiasedSonyFan To be fair, I only like the Nintendo & Japanese style games. It seems Western developers are basically stuck in a rut of making First Person Shooters, First Person Shooters with a gimmick or Minecraft rip-offs. I can genuinely say I've skipped the current gen so far & not felt like I've missed out at all. I'm REALLY excited for the Switch.

@SteamedSquid
Well, at least with Switch there is actual, real incentive to buy games a 2nd time for fans who are also PS4/X1 owners (via portable play).

But for Nintendo only gamers, I don't think it's a matter of spending less time with other games. If that were true we'd never hear complaints of droughts or not enough games. Cause with Wii U, multi console owners weren't the ones complaining. They had plenty games to play, and even if multiplats did come they had no real reason to buy on Wii U over PS4/X1 or to buy a 2nd time. It was all Nintendo only gamers who were actually suffering lack of games and alleging complaints of needing more software.

So it's not a matter of having enough games and sacrificing playing gems to make time for 3rd party games, it's a matter of having huge droughts and constant complaints of not enough games, and then actually receiving great games and then saying "nah I'll pass, nah I'll pass... but there's not enough games! Where's the 3rd party support!"

Unless Nintendo only gamers were totally fine with the number of games we saw on Wii U this year, they have time for other games. And not only that, their complaints show they clearly want to spend that time on more games than are actually available to them.

The issue (imo) is most form preconceived notions about western games and they actually believe that they're not worthy of consideration. They tell themselves "I wouldn't like that" because they've never actually played them before (or very briefly played and formed a rushed opinion when really, they made up their mind not to like it beforehand) and they don't understand that these multiplats are just as good if not better than many Nintendo games.

Preconceived notions. Just like I used to think western AAA was meh. Til I played some and realized how ignorant I'd been. And then again with turn based games. Until I tried them and realized my ignorance.

Can't fix the ignorance of predisposed bias and preconceived notions until a person decides to actually start believing these games they've never really played can be great too.

@DanteSolablood
Wow, me too. My games collection mostly 99.9 % by Japanese developers, the rest just a few Western games. I play Life Simulation, Rhythm, RPG, Puzzle, Action platformer, Party / Board games, Boxing, etc genre. Some of my favorite games are "Quiet" games, that means less actions, less noisy sounds, relaxing and colorful gameplay. If I want some adrenaline rush, I will play Mario Kart 8, DDR on Arcade, Final Fantasy games, etc. I agree with your comment about Western developers are tends to stuck on a few genres (And very LAME genre). And even there are some small Western developers that create Puzzle, Simulation, Adventure, Fashion, Rhythm, etc, some of them have Meh quality compared by Japanese.

Hopefully people actually support 3rd party games this time around. (Not too hopeful I must admit)

@Ichiban The third party games will stick around if people give the Switch a chance. Third party games left the WiiU partly because it was so hard to port to... but also because the WiiU was so poorly launched and marketed that there was little to no money in developers working on the WiiU, especially outside of Japan. It'll be interesting to see whether it gets handheld like sales numbers (good), or console like sales (not so good).

@Anti-Matter Thanks, I must admit that games like Pokémon, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Animal Crossing etc make up a vast majority of my collection. Hopefully the Switch will be region free so some of the games I'm missing like Gundam Breaker etc. will be easier to get via the Switch.

Looks like a PSP to me.

@gcunit Are you asking me to report your comment?

@JHDK
Reggie wasn't wrong when he said that games drive the install base. Although Wii U had a lot of potential support on launch day, unfortunately NSMBU was "not" the Mario game people wanted. And, it's all related.

Had Wii U launched with SM3DW and maybe WWHD or Pikmin 3 together, things would have been a lot different for consistent sales throughout the early to mid months of 2013.

This likely would have driven the install base and in turn the adoption of third party content.

Sadly, Wii U ports also suffered a no' of issues from; feature omissions, patchy performance or frankly, a lack of genuine relevance.

These factors combined pretty much sealed the deal on Wii U third party support. PS4 and Xbox One revisions before their respective launch dates also had something to do with that topic as well.

This is why I think, although you're absolutely correct; support can disappear at the drop of a hat. Switch is looking a lot more promising not just for unit sales and first party software, but for third party titles as well - if they can have Zelda and a new genuine 3D Mario game at launch.

If anything, third-party support is the thing I'm most concerned about. It could be great, and I desperately want it to be, but with almost every console launch ever there is always a group of people who claim they're going to support the platform.

Obviously, it'll come in January but my main question is how it will manifest? Will it be largely ports of older games? New releases that will come to Switch alongside other platforms? Or exclusive titles?
Hopefully games would mainly fulfil the last two categories.

I won't really feel secure on this until the details are nailed down. Yeah, we've had a list of third party developers and publishers, but to those on the outside, that doesn't really mean much. But like anything, we can only wait and see!

@JHDK I'd say you're right to be cautious on that front, as things need to keep going after the initial first year as well. And there are always the people who say they'll do loads of cool stuff with the hardware and then don't follow it up, or do a u-turn! I'm with you that I also I hope I'm wrong about my feelings too. But after the Wii U and Ninty's shaky history with third-party games on their home systems, it's difficult not to feel that way!

I hope the Dark Souls games come to Switch. (T. T )

@Aaron09 btw Square is backing it already when they announced the new Dragon Quest will run on it.

@lilith lol consumer advice and it was that kind of day yesterday.

@brutalpanda I've got good news, the executive developer of FFXV was recently quoted as being "very interested" in making games for the Switch.

@JaxonH I get the feeling that Multi-plats, on the Switch, are going to be competent where it counts. Think about this: Nintendo designed the Switch while being aware of the Wiiu's CPU/GPU issues and being aware of what the competition is putting on the table. So, it would make sense to assume that the Switch isn't just a new idea, but will also be Nintendo's response to the competition and the failing Wiiu, hence why the company has been communicating with publishers and went with a top chip maker like Nvidia.

Nintendo has gone through a tremendous amount of reform over the last couple of years, and that's apparent in the presentation of the Switch. So forget about the old Nintendo, that company is dead, and have faith in the new Nintendo.

@CircuitWrangler3
I do have faith in Nintendo.

It's the sheltered Nintendo only fans I have little faith in. The ones under the delusion that third-party games all suck and never support them despite always complaining about not having them.

That's why I say Nintendo did their part. But now it's time for fans to step up and prove once and for all that when they say they want 3rd party games they actually mean it.

If Skyrim comes to Switch that game needs to sell at least 1-2 million. No more of this 250,000 sold stuff for legitimately timeless classics that are 3rd party games. If Zelda remasters can all break a million, then surely a game like this should sell at least twice that.

But I'd Bethesda brings a couple games and they struggle to even scrape up half a million sales, if Ubisoft brings a couple games and it takes two years and they're not even close to a million sold, if EA and Activision and WB and all these other AAA publishers bring their games to the table and barely break 250k...

Then third party support on Nintendo consoles might be lost not only for the rest of Switch's lifespan, but forever

@JaxonH so far, the third party support had mostly been weak. The games were there, but inferior with key features missing.

The switch ones you can take with you. That's now a key feature other versions will be missing.

This thing is going to sell.

I have this odd feeling that nintendo signed a deal with all these companies to get games on the system if nintendo agreed to foot half of cost to port/create games for the system. That way they don't immediately abandon the system if it does flop.

@erv
I don't doubt this is going to sell.

My doubts are that third party games are going to sell.

You can say the ones on Wii U were inferior all you want, and that's a perfectly legitimate excuse for multiconsole owners like myself (and yet I still bought those third party games on Wii U), but for anyone who doesn't own one of the other two consoles and is a Nintendo only gamer, that's a lame cop-out to disguise the real reason they don't want to support the games.

If I have two coffee shops across the street from each other, and one has the best coffee in the world and the other the second best coffee in the world, no one could blame me for skipping the "inferior" coffee shop.

But if the best coffee shop in the world is in China somewhere and the second best coffee shop in the world is right next to me, who in their right mind would say "I'm not going to buy that cup of coffee from them because it's inferior".

That's what Nintendo-only gamers were doing all generation. And what's worse, they did this all the while complaining about wanting a cup of coffee! And then when the second best coffee shop in the world shuts down their Nintendo location because nobody's buying their coffee, people complain about it!

My hope is the same thing doesn't happen all over again with Switch.

"Interest" doesn't really amount to anything. Every video game publisher is "interested" in a business opportunity if it can make them money. Publishers were "interested" in the Wii U too, when it was clear the Wii U wasn't working out, they lost interest.

It's up to Nintendo to convince publishers it's worth their time and effort to make an investment into the Switch.

@ClockworkMario thanks - I, in my turn, completely forgot about Gameboy GTA games. Or Grand Theft Auto Advance, for that matter.