Pachter Says Switch is the Easiest of the Big Three to Develop For

Hoping so

I'd imagine it's easy to develop games for the Switch. It supports Unreal Engine 4, Unity, various OpenGL APIs, not to mention APIs that the PS4 and Xbox One don't even support, such as ARM-based ones, Vulkan (Vulkan!), and Nintendo/Nvidia's own NVN API.
(Edit: Speaking of Vulkan, NL hasn't reported that the Switch will support Vulkan yet.)

I really hope that Nintendo has dropped the "special snowflake" mentality and made this a relatively straightforward console to make games for. They've done the same thing over and over since the N64, and while the Wii was a one-off sales success, it certainly wasn't a third party support success. They need to stop shoveling that line that they "aren't competing with Sony and Microsoft"; the sooner they realize that they are in direct competition, the sooner they can become a major player again.

On one hand, that sounds pretty believable and would be great if true, but on the other hand... it's Michael Pachter.

Since it's Michael Pachter and he's never been right about anything, the Switch will be impossible to develop for and to port games on! Yep, Nintendo is doomed.

I wouldn't be surprised if storage will prevent once again a ton of ports to arrive on the Switch, just like with the N64 and Gamecube. And the Switch will probably launch with a bunch of Xbox/PS4 ports so everyone gets their hopes up. Until they realize that none of them will sell well because everybody only buys Nintendo games.

I also just realized that this is the first Nintendo console without the Nintendo D-pad. Luckily the Pro controller has one.

I wonder if the Wii U Pro controller is compatible.

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy I was thinking the same thing lol

LMAO at the saltiness people have over Pachter. He originally said the Wii U would sell about 20 million units and people were absolutely raging at him for being so pessimistic. He's been right before.

Anyway, this isn't him speculating. He's just reporting what he's heard, so whether or not you believe this statement ultimately comes down to the reliability of his sources and NOT his ability to predict.

Back on topic, this would be a very good thing for Nintendo. Even if it's hardware is subpar, it should be able to handle most triple A games with some downgrades with no headaches. Makes developers a lot more keen to develop for it.

Pachter has something positive to say about Nintendo?! Wow, hell really did freeze over when the Cubs won the World Series. First, Trump was elected president, and now this.

The PS3 was notoriously difficult to program for. If a system sells and has a substantial user base publishers won't ignore it.

I just hope Nintendo doesn't F up. This world needs an innovator, a risk taker. We need Nintendo!

@BulbasaurusRex Even worse, I'm actually respecting Pachter's opinion for once. Is this the apocalypse? Have we hit Revelation?! I'm scared...

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy To be fair, he did predict the Wii U's failure, though that was pretty predictable early on.

Man, the comments in this article just prove to me that even Nintendo fans don't want to believe any positive rumors. Only the negative ones are worth listening to, apparently.

Keep in mind that he's simply saying what he's heard from others. He didn't just pull this out of nowhere. Sure, this can't be taken for fact, but neither can the dozens of other conflicting rumors, including the negative ones that people automatically take as fact.

This isn't massive news for people that have been following the Switch for a while but it is another chance to turn something positive into a negative. I'm not a fan of Pachter at all.. but ironically he is someone that calls doom on Nintendo regularly. Maybe he'll be called out as a traitor for this?

@BigKing "I also just realized that this is the first Nintendo console without the Nintendo D-pad. Luckily the Pro controller has one."

The patents that came out last week suggest there will be a Joy-con that has a proper D-pad.It'll likely need to be bought separately but it's good there will be options.

@Captain_Toad "Since it's Michael Pachter and he's never been right about anything, the Switch will be impossible to develop for and to port games on! Yep, Nintendo is doomed."

Lol.😜 ...Lol...right?😳

@KirbyTheVampire Oh, I have nothing wrong with positive rumors. The more the merrier.

But... it's Michael Pachter.

Forget the tech assessment in this statement; we should all just be glad that such a hardened analyst as Pachter is still referring to Nintendo as being part of the "Big Three."

For far too big a segment of the gaming ecosystem this gen, if you asked them who the Big Three in games are, they'd look at you a bit strangely, and after thinking a bit, say "Playstation, Xbox, and, uh... oh, right, Steam."

The fact that the Switch is likely the least powerful of the systems already makes it the easiest, and cheapest, to develop for, if the game is made natively or exclusively for the Switch. One of the biggest draws to making games for lower end hardware is much smaller development cost.

What this means for multiplatform games though, I think is harder to say. The Wii for example, was so far behind the 360 and PS3, that straight ports were considered too difficult (luckily for Nintendo though, the Wii sold so well, publishers were willing to put in the money and time for heavily altered ports).

@BigKing "I wouldn't be surprised if storage will prevent once again a ton of ports to arrive on the Switch, just like with the N64 and Gamecube. And the Switch will probably launch with a bunch of Xbox/PS4 ports so everyone gets their hopes up. Until they realize that none of them will sell well because everybody only buys Nintendo games."

2012 called. It wants it's post-launch Wiiu trajectory back.

Easy-to-develop-for with great engine, API support and easy to code for doesn't automatically mean high hardware power. But it sure helps if there's no esoteric magick needed for making a game for it.

@BigKing @OorWullie Haha, there's gonna be a Joy-Con for every occasion!
N64-Con, Gamecube-Con, a Con with cameras, special controller Cons...
I wonder what additional Cons will cost.

@KirbyTheVampire "Man, the comments in this article just prove to me that even Nintendo fans don't want to believe any positive rumors. Only the negative ones are worth listening to, apparently."

Welcome to Nintendolife.

Being easy to develop for is not necessarily totally positive. As @Mr_Zurkon points out, the PS3 did ok despite its uniqueness.

Being easy to develop for just guarantees a whole load of shovelware from those without talent but looking to make a quick buck.

Can you please stop giving this ridiculous man airtime. He just regurgitates everything everyone else has said.

'The system needs to be able to accept ports of games' how insightful.

@Moshugan it feels like we're getting....conned into this? Huh?huh?

I was thinking about sending this in but decided against it after what he said about Iwata. And besides, I don't really get why people care what this idiot mouthpiece has to say. He's like the Katie Hopkins of the analcyst world.

Will Call of Duty be a big seller on the Switch next year?

Was it a big seller on the Xbox and Playstation this year?

If 3rd party devotees find joy on the Switch great, but I'll be happy if it plays Mario and Zelda.

It's no good being easy to develop for if the Switch does not sell well. I like the concept of the Switch but it's an chicken an egg situation which comes first the games or the gamers?
Nintendo need to heavily advertise the Switch (especially in the UK) after the marketing disaster that was the WII U.
January 13th can't come soon enough and hopefully put an end to all this speculation.

@Moshugan I think so too. I imagine some of their big games like Splatoon will come packaged with their own special Joy-con.Sounds like a great idea to me. I just hope they don't go overboard with it.

Don't pay any heed to him when he is slagging Nintendo off or disrespecting Satoru Iwata, so I am not gonna pay any heed now just because he is spouting something positive. Pachter is a waste of time.

So long as Nintendo can provide enough of their own games for Switch, I wouldn't care at all if it gets no third party support.
Now that their portable and home console dev teams will be focusing on one platform for the first time, it's a very real possibility.

@MetaRyan Precisely. The level of support Switch is receiving compared to Wii U is absolutely unprecedented (no pun intended), and disregarding that it's Pachter saying this it's no surprise that it's easy to develop for. Some people just won't give up the doom speek though, no matter how much positivity emanates from the people that are actually working on it.

He's right that ease of porting is what counts. Wii U wasn't hard to make a game for but it was incredibly difficult to port to.

Also, why the Pachter hate? You know what his job is, right? To advise shareholders. So far the last ten years he's been saying avoid Nintendo. Why is that idiotic? Their share price (the only think that matters to a shareholder) has tanked since 09/10.

@MitchVogel 'They've done the same thing over and over since the N64, and while the Wii was a one-off sales success, it certainly wasn't a third party support success. They need to stop shoveling that line that they "aren't competing with Sony and Microsoft"; the sooner they realize that they are in direct competition, the sooner they can become a major player again.'

Agreed!
Lol, do you follow ReviewTechUSA too? Watched this last night https://youtu.be/RwJqCyZArPY and it's all extremely true. Some Nintendo fans can be so blind.

I think the Switch is going to be a comeback for Nintendo after the struggle with the Wii U. Surely things like ease to develop for, are to be expected. With so many partners already on board, Nintendo should be able to keep strong third party support maintained throughout the consoles duration.

@allav866 what opinion? he just reported what he had heard.

@SBandy Well said.

Having ports fill in the gaps between Nintendo made games would help to make it a more well rounded console, but developers would need to see the switch sell well to justify continued support, I honestly do think it will sell well

No, the only real thing for get the third partys will be the NUMBERS. If switch is selling very well, then third partys will work very well. But if switch don't selling well, then we can say "hello" to the new Wii U 2...

Gaming world is ruling just by numbers since long time ago. Not only about the game deploving, the awards are the same. This is just another business after all.

Why would anyone expect Switch to be as powerful as a PS4? It's a tablet!

Switch could be able to port games by itself and third parties still won't support it if it doesn't sell well. The reason third party studios didn't supported wii u wasn't because it was hard it was because it didn't have a big enough user base.

Just as I've always said, the Nintendo geeks on here dismiss Pachter when he's critical, but trust him when he's pro-Nintendo. Totally bias!

@chiptoon 2016 will go down as the year everyone realised with dismay that fact and realistic expectations have very little relevance out in the wilds of the net

At the moment we still don't know enough and I'm not sure the 12/13th will help too much in terms of the actual specs. We need to see games running well, especially some third party games.

Regarding Maxwell architecture, I have heard it said that the last iteration of Maxwell is very similar to Pascal. Also, if it is X1 it will be a heavily customised chip. They could shrink the die.

Even with the disappointingly low clock speeds, we still have devs looking at the console with interest. The Dark Souls 3 team have even gone as far as to see how it runs and confirmed they have performance they are happy with. The clock speeds etc can't be the whole picture.

TL;DR We don't know the whole set-up and if we see games running well, the actual specs won't matter that much to the average consumer.

Nintendo stared to make massive strides with the Wii U, sadly too late though. Good thing they are supporting all these different engines straight away, rather than adding support post launch, ala Wii U and Unity.

I like this kind of positive rumors. But... the source is problematic.

I'll take this with a grain of salt, nice little tidbit, but Patcher' isn't what I would call a reputable source....

@readyletsgo That's funny, because I watched this last night https://youtu.be/N-3e2bpm3hg and it's also extremely true! So how is that possible?

One of the bigger problems with Nintendo was that their provided documentation was often confusingly written and they didn't make themselves available to help confused third parties. If that flips on its head with the Switch, then expect to see a lot more third-party content.

HA! I was wondering when Pachter would open up his big mouth and... and... and?!

Holy cow, Pachter always predicted Nintendo's "death" and it never happened... the f@#%er is employing reverse psychology to jinx a Nintendo console.
Well, either that or a still unpleasant feeling about Pachter being uncharacteristically nice about a Nintendo console. Seriously, it's an unnervingly shocking swerve.

Ok patcher said something good about nintendo

ggwp, nintendo won.

@Snader lol, I'm more highlighting Nintendo's past for the past 4 home console generations, Nintendo trying to change things when clearly not needed. Or just being plain difficult for 3rd parties. I know, because (prob like yourself) I've lived though each Nintendo generation.

TBH. The Switch will be a power house tablet when connected to the dock. Won't be as strong as the competition though, obviously. How could it be, for the over all size of it. I just love the idea of playing BotW on the go.

I still feel 3rd parties are going to screw things up and be lazy with porting their games to the system. -.-

Idk, is hard to blame nintendo honestly

with Phone/Tablets getting stronger and stronger, PC gaming being at its highest, theres not enough room for a 3rd console that does the same as the other 2.

Going for a different approach is, in my book, the way Nintnedo can keep their consoles in the game (yes, the WiiU was a disaster but i blame that on the lack of actual advertising and "knowing what the hell is supposed to do that thing" than the console itself)

@MitchVogel Well, considering we have reliable rumors pointing towards handheld performance being 1.5 Wii Us and console performance being 3 Wii Us duct-taped together, "competing" is really the last thing on their minds with the Switch; it seems more like a really souped up handheld that can plug into the TV than a console that can be taken anywhere.

"Do you think it'll secure firm third party support?"

I haven't felt secure about this in years.

Pretty reassuring

@readyletsgo I don't think it's that obvious that it won't be as strong as the competition, because of the differences between the ARM and x86 architecture. Apparently NVidia is capable to get more performance out of the same amount of teraflops as AMD. It probably won't be as strong, but don't count it out just yet.

Until now Nintendo used PowerPC architecture, which was basically already outdated more than 10 years ago. Look how the huge Power G5 Mac running on PowerPC architecture (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Mac_G5) got outperformed a year later bij the tiny Mac Mini (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Mini) running on x86 architecture, while the form factor is many times smaller.

Probably Nintendo kept using PowerPC, because they know this architecture inside out, but eventually they had to abandon it. I get the feeling by adopting ARM full on (which they of course already used in their 3DS) they skip an architecture iteration in their home consoles and are looking directly to the future. The close co-operation with NVidia is proof of that.

Hopefully for strong games, not a endless stream of meme-runners!

@MitchVogel "I really hope that Nintendo has dropped the "special snowflake" mentality"

Wow that sounded so smug in my ears.

Nintendo never had a special snowflake mentality. They did the job with the best tech available at the time, creating systems that were designed for video games first, with affordability, reliability and comfort of use as major targets. Something many companies nowadays should consider again.

Some of their systems proved to have design flaws. Yeah it's like they were created by human beings... not by infallible deities. It's easy to blame people with insight.

Now we are facing something totally different. I haven't seen anyone pointing this out yet, but with the retirement of the 3DS, we will witness the disappearance of the last entirely custom, video game-focused system. The PS4 and XB1 are little more than proprietary PCs and the Switch is close to a "smart device" type of architecture. The days where consoles were unique systems and indispensable for playing VG are long over. Now they are kind of awkwardly sitting there between the iDroid monster-sized market and the old fashioned PC.

You can't blame anyone for trying to provide alternatives. Now you have what you wanted. Nintendo has made an ARM tablet, just like everyone else. Let's hope it works out well.

Shut up, Pachter!

@BinaryFragger /facepalm

If you hate Nintendo's systems so much, feel free to move away from them, we have enough brainless haters already.

1/ They "stuck to cartridges" yes. I'm tired of hearing this BS over and over again. Let's explain that again.
Cartridges are superior to optical disks in every possible way except for their price. Here you have it.
If you really have such an obsession for spinning of objects, purchase yourself a Frisbee and go play outside for a bit. It will do you a lot of good.

2/ "Proprietary" discs are not an issue in itself. Especially since they were an actual standard. It is called MiniDVD. They were just as proprietary as the PS2 discs were. The focus was put on speed instead of size, that's a choice.

3/ Online gaming? Nintendo and Sega were the first to push online functionnalities. The public answer was basically: "_meow online! I want a Playstation. Because it has seadeas! Hurr durr"

4/ Don't bring that HD/SD stuff up again. PS360 ran mostly SD games. The Wii focusing on price instead of performance was another choice. You can agree or disagree with it. But whining won't change the past.

This would be great news if it turns out to be true, as I really don't think Nintendo can sell the system just through its own games. Sure the third party games MAY not sell as well as Nintendo's but as long as it is profitable to do so I can see a lot more help being given to the Switch than before and the system supposedly being easier to develop for will keep costs down.

Michael Pachter actually being positive about Nintendo is a VERY scary world to be living in...

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy
I actually think the fact this is coming from Pachter actually lends more credence to its credibility, given how quick he usually is to downplay Nintendo at every opportunity. I mean, if even Pachter is saying it's easy to develop for, I think it's a pretty safe bet to be the case.

Lol at the people that STILL can't spell Pachter correctly. (or think that it's funny to call him "Patcher". Small hint: it's not)

Meanwhile, an industry veteran and renowned insider has now mentioned on his Twitter something that is the complete opposite of the current, rather negative rumors:
https://twitter.com/mochi_wsj/status/811851139553456128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Supposedly, the Switch will be 1080p in handheld mode, and 1440p in docked mode. That would make it a "2K" console, or the 4K version of HD Ready. Which would be interesting if true, because then the difference in what you'd see in multi-platform titles would truly be very minimal.

Clearly a man who knows what he is talking about /sarcasm

As someone who has worked with the k1 and x1 I can't say this thing will be any easier to work with even with Nintendo's dev kit in place. Just better hope those examples are in English or some engineers day is about to be ruined by having to wait for Nintendo's week long response times.

I can say this the architecture is one part of three important teirs that determine a systems future. Is it easy to work with, is it powerful enough, and how good is first party involvement. The second teir tends to kill the first one as having to rewrite, optimize, and recreate sections of the game can cause a port to crumble under its own wait. The third can help mitigate the second, but again Nintendo has never been very kind in this arena.

From my own experiences not including the switch I feel like patcher is riding on some conversation over drinks and like most either is glaze over when the engineer talks; or its some production monkey who sees engineers getting demos up fast, but not things of substance.

I'm not hearing positive things myself.

This will be a good machine, but expect to end up back on your PlayStation or Xbox by the end of next year.

Are analyst paid day to monitor what companies are doing and they write their opinions? Is that their only job?

@ThanosReXXX I didn't even realize his name wasn't "Patcher" until you mentioned it.

@Kroko Do not swear on this website, and don't try to hide them, because we will find them.

As much as ​Pachter got on my nerves, I have to give him his due when it comes to foresight. With that said, then it's good to hear good news about the Switch.

@Mega_Yarn_Poochy Ah okay, I always wondered about why so many people spell it that way.

But in all fairness: it's always written correctly in the article, so all people have to do is copy/paste that name. If people can flawlessly type the rather more difficult names of several important people at Nintendo, then typing "Pachter" should be a breeze...

Finally, a spec win that actually matters.

@Kroko

Your anger is not a virtue. Everyone who obeys NL rules is welcome here. Even those you disagree with and call haters.

"Satoru Iwata - the late and not-so-great."

Micheal Pachter 2016

@Moshugan

Maybe they'll come out with a Con-Man!

Wait a second...

@Kroko

"Cartridges are superior to optical disks."

You just referred to a cassette, which uses magnetic data reading/writing. You meant "disc".

If you didn't add the 'optical', you would have basically said: "Cartridges are superior to cartridges.", which would have been hilarious.

Disk: Floppy Drive/Cassette/Diskette/Hard Drive/ etc.

Disc: Digital CD/DVD

It's a very common mistake, which annoys me and is wrong.

@MitchVogel Wow. I expect better from a writer from NintendoLife. A special snowflake. The Wii was Nintendo only way out at the time vs Microsoft and Sony was during with the PS3 and Xbox 360. Sony and Microsoft lost billions of dollars. In fact, due to the rush to develop HD games we have lost countless developer and the middle market for developers have all but disappeared. You have Microsoft and Sony to thank for that. But Nintendo is a special snowflake. Nintendo played it smart. Furthermore, there are a lot indication that the Gamecube was easy to develop for as well. I give you that it is on the record that Nintendo did make the N64 hard to develop for but no will is going can say with a straight face that the Wii was difficult to develop for.

Very good news and like everybody on here I'm blown away by Pachter actually having something good to say about a Nintendo console. If he's saying it then it means the Switch can basically port/develop games on its own.

@KingofSaiyanZ
That's always the battle. And it's a two-parter. The third party versions of Switch need to be worth buying, but developers aren't going to take the time if they're not seeing sales. Hopefully we see some devs take initiative early on and Nintendo gamers respond by rewarding them with sales. That's the only way we're going to see actual third party support on the system. Both sides have to do their part though. Gamers won't pay if they don't see the effort but devs won't put in the effort if they aren't seeing the $.