Ubisoft may have had a slow start on Switch when compared to how enthusiastically it supported the Wii, 3DS and Wii U in the early days of those consoles, but with Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle on the horizon, the company is clearly taking the system very seriously indeed.
The French publisher announced during its recent earnings call - as noted by those lovely people over at NeoGAF - that it has more Switch games to announce "quite soon", but no indication of what these titles might be was given.
That means you get to experience the fun of guessing what they might be. Could the Switch get an Assassin's Creed outing? Or perhaps Beyond Good & Evil 2 is indeed bound for Nintendo's console? Maybe we'll be getting another Just Dance spin-off? Let us know your predictions by posting a comment below.
[source neogaf.com]
Comments 123
Hm ??
Just give some girls and kids Petz series or Imagine series or any cute games for kids.
Ah, an announcement of an announcement.
I love it!
Hope they have more games made specifically for the switch.
Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Dance...
Well what games these could be will depend very much on when Ubisoft call quite soon. Quite soon could be later this year, or it could be during next year.
@Neon_Blues Mario and Rabbids: Plumber's Creed.
Just Dance 2019, 2020, 2021. I hope not.
Right now, the Switch is missing out on practically all of Ubisoft's major support. Bar the awful Just Dance which still gets a Wii version, there's very little. A Mario/Rabbids collaboration, a Wii U port of Legends and a toys to life SCam.
I'm gonna dream big. Beyond Good & Evil 2, Assassin's Creed port (older game), Rayman sequel following Origins and Legends, and, GASP, Prince of Persia!
@Neon_Blues @Kalmaro Mario+Rabbids: The Mushroom but Whole
Interested to see what those new titles may be...
Far cry 15
"announce" means calling out something for the first time. I´m pessimistic it may just be a release date of the already revealed upcoming games for Switch, the Rayman and Steep game we saw in the january trailer who didn´t get any info at E3
Betting the 2D Assassin's Creed games, Child of Light, that one about the first world war that reused the Child of Light assets, and their ropey version of Tetris.
Donkey Kong v Rayman
Samus v Ezio
Tom Clancy's Lylat Wars
Would like a splinter cell game maybe but pc version would be superior so maybe more unique titles like Mario n rabbids is the best thing to do
@MrGawain Tetris would be a hard sell considering Puyo Puyo Tetris is already on there.It's probably the best version there has ever been.Those split Joy-con buttons are perfect for playing it,if not much else
Well, Gamescom is just around the corner, hopefully we'll hear something then.. Or maybe that's just wishful thinking!
Really hoping watch dogs 2 comes to the switch. It would be nice to play this type of game on the go.
I'm not expecting anything too exciting.
I'm expecting it to be that game they finished for the Wii U but never released.
This one:
https://youtu.be/893C4shx_CI
Maybe a Prince of Persia for Switch? I'd be up for that.
@Moon Holy sht that looks like arse. I duly hope they look at 1-2 Switch not selling too great and keep that definitely far worse game in the bin.
Guys, Ubisoft games are also like Petz series, Imagine series, Gold's Gym Cardio Workout, any Family Friendly games.
Haven't thought about those of them yet ?
I think the sensible thing for them to do would be to do ports of older games to test the market (possibly even only on the e-shop)... they'd be easier/cheaper to port than some of their newer titles, but will allow them to see which of their games are more popular on the Switch so that they can more efficiently focus future development for the system.
My thinking for this is mainly due to what happened with the Wii U... third parties completely mis-judged the target audience, causing the games they released on the system to sell badly, which led them to cut back their support for the system... and I really don't want the same to happen with the Switch.
If they are waiting to judge the target audience of the Switch, this could explain why they haven't yet announced which systems Beyond Good and Evil 2 will be released on... the original game could be one of the ones they're planning to release.
Beyond Good and Evil 2, including first game bundle pack, please please PLEASE PLEASE crossed fingers
@MasterGraveheart ooh a new prince of persia would be awesome! Now you made me want something else i didnt know i wanted!
@Grudgebearer I agree it looks really REALLY bad.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE well, me and my daughter have had hours and hours of fun with JD on the Switch. I'd never have bought it for myself mind you but in the right context with the right people the game is far from "awful". Horses for courses mate.
It is time for more Wii U ports! My predictions are Child of Light, Rabbids Land and Zombi. If there's new games it'll probably be the canned Wii U game @Moon mentioned.
Announce more Nintendo Switches.
Just as long as it isn't any shovelware junk (although most of that stuff has migrated to the mobile market).
Another unique title would be good.
I'm betting digital games like child of light. That game was awesome
I want new, unique (and preferably exclusive) games instead of more of the same IPs... Never cared about Assassin's Creed, but would love a new Prince of Persia
Rayman 4? New 3D platformer
@Anti-Matter is that what you want? A new Petz series game?
Whatever it is I believe in Ubi.
If only it was something as wacky as Rabbids + Mario that would be the best.
My money is on Rayman returns or some other crap.
After seeing that starlink game, I have a little faith that Ubisoft will actually give switch some actual releases. They supported Wii/u quite well, here's hoping for something like red steel 3, or even more assasins, zombiu, bg&e2 if we really lucky. But if it's just some dumb party game, I'm prob gone buying ubicrap games for good. I even held out for watchdogs just for offscreen play. It wasn't that bad. No glitcher then assasins creed was on my PS3.
Southpark and southpark.. I'd be happy with that. I have to many games on my to play list at the moment as it is for anything more and with a time hog like splatoon2 here in a few days it does not look like that will change. What happened to quiet summer schedules, This is when I catch up with game releases, this year the backlog is growing and I am getting more gaming time than ever before with the switch!
@shonenjump86
Somewhat like that.
As long the games are cute, HD enough, not stiff, rich features, not boring, I wanna try those games.
IMAGINE series in HD would be looks great as long Ubisoft keep continue those series.
Those cute games should be included on Nintendo Switch.
I don't normally like to give sugar hope as it leads to disappointment but there were two facts (assuming true) about Ubisoft and Beyond Good & Evil that spring hope there
-Ubisoft requested more power for the Switch, Nintendo crammed in more power
-Beyond Good & Evil 2 has been developed to support various platforms. No confirmed platforms yet
Lilely a remake or ultimate edition of assassin creed 2 ( that the one with Enzo right?)that came out a while back. A New rayman ,both south park games and hope ubisoft spain is right.bg&e 2
@Grudgebearer
Forgot they hold the rights to that franchise. Would be nice if they either make a new game or hd remake of the sands trilogy
@Anti-Matter
Think the style games are still ongoing on the 3ds so not entirely impossible
Mario + Assassin's Creed: Crazy Kart Racing
Mario + Watchdogs: Pet Rescue
Mario + Prince of Persia: Pokey's Desert Dance Party
Mario + Far Cry: Minigolf Adventure
It's Just Dance, another Rayman re-release, and that snowboarding game Steep.
Surprise....
Ports of all their PS4 and Xbone games going forwards please...
Probably some crappy Rabbids party game...
Another Rayman game is needed. Legends was an absolute beauty. Easy to run on a lower powered system too.
@Anti-Matter : The Style Boutique games are made by Nintendo, not Ubisoft.
watch dogs. assasins creed collection but probably be just dance & some rubbish board game
I'm actually always a little more optimistic about this developer than most other Nintendo fans, I think they do care about us! So real talk predictions?
That hd remaster of the first Beyond Good and Evil. The third Rayman game (ala Origins and Legends.) A new Ubi Art Engine game/ a new 3D title from left field, I don't predict it will be a port of a recent game like Watch Dogs 2, although maybe it could be like the Ezio collection for Assasssins Creed
Also I think Starlink Atlas looks great, that's not really related though, huh?
I think the Assassin's Creed Ezio trilogy is a good bet since they remastered last year and I think could run on the Switch. That would be ace...
Red Steel 3
As long as their assassins creed game isn't done by the people that made the abominations that were the psp and vita creed games....
@Bread-Not-Toast I would like this. Or even like a Red Steel 2 HD
Can we just forget the first one ever happened?
It's gonna be great!
BEYOND 👏🏾 GOOD 👏🏾 AND 👏🏾 EVIL
Whoa, already? Surprising
@sillygostly
Oopsie...
I take a screenshots from Ebay, so pardon me if there was a Style Boutique NDS.
@Wichtel They obviously went to the Square-Enix school of PR.
@Robotron2084
Well...
Almost everybody here talked about Just Dance, Rabbids, Rayman, etc.
But NONE talked about Petz series, Imagine series, any cute games from Ubisoft on Nintendo machines.
I was the One who start to talked about those games.
I know that i'm totally Opposite from typical male gamer.
Switch getting Just Dance is obvious. We need more
@Grumblevolcano they could release a bundle of all of those together!
@Anti-Matter That might be because very few of us like these games. The Petz games are specifically aimed at children, with very simple goals, so that's hardly engaging for the discerning adult gamer.
And I only know Imagine from the horse riding series on the Wii and DS, and those games are aimed at girls, so yeah, it's not all that strange that we don't have any interest in those games.
We want the bigger games to come to Switch, not just because it's good for us, but it's also good for Nintendo, because it would mean third parties taking them seriously again. And in turn, Nintendo doing good, is also good for the business as a whole.
The Petz and Imagine series are just cheap shovelware titles that will only result in people labeling the Switch as the next Wii, and that is something that no one should want, regardless of personal taste. Keep an eye on the bigger picture.
While Mario Creed would be fascinating, I'd settle for some details on the Steep release. . . . and without tears, thanks.
@Moon well they did say games. I think we will at least get a port of one of their big ip's
@Yasaal that has already been announced. These are games we don't know about.
@ThanosReXXX
Eh...
I personally never like the games from Ubisoft what majorly people like here.
Once again, i'm totally Opposite.
I just want some Peaceful games with Less Loud Voices, Less Actions, Very Colorful World, Full of customization, Girlie or Kiddie looking. Totally Opposite with typical Adult male preferences that adore Dark, Violence, Actions, Loud voices.
The positive reception toward Mario+Rabbids seems to have made Ubisoft more confident in the Switch.
I think any new games that Ubisoft announces for the Switch will likely be Switch exclusive, much like Mario+Rabbids.
As someone else said, I'd love to get some sort of Red Steel 2 re-release, but of course that will never happen.
Also surprised noone mentioned Far Cry 4, I'd love for that game to be ported over.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE They said quite soon so that would be within a year, I think? If we see another Just Dance game (which is highly likely), it would be October at the earliest (over a year from now). I think some of the likely candidates are the following:
-new Rayman (haven't seen him in a little while and there's already an engine created for the series)
-Assassin's Creed (annual release schedule and quite frankly they got it to work on the Wii U despite the bigger difference in architecture).
-Splinter Cell (due for a new game and had games on both the Wii and Wii U)
-Watchdogs 3 (?) (if Ubisoft is indeed trying to sell that series annually we might see this, especially since they still managed to bring out a Wii U version, despite the technical and hardware issues)
@Anti-Matter Yeah, we know that by now, and all people are allowed their own tastes, but like I said: you should not close your eyes to the bigger picture, and your personal taste is bad for business.
If you want Nintendo to stay in the industry, then it NEEDS these bigger titles, plain and simple. That's a fact.
So, much like the people you're always attacking, you don't have to comment in every thread that has these games, that you would rather like these cutesy games. We all have our own tastes, and if we don't like a particular game or genre, then why not ignore that article instead of making a negative comment?
And no offense, but in general, grown men exclusively liking kids' and girls' games is something that is at the very least somewhat questionable.
And we don't all like dark and violent games, but there's also something in between what you like and that, which could still be entertaining while not being in any way offensive, but it seems you have closed yourself off from that, which truly is a pity.
@Bunkerneath Snowdrop title. Highly unlikely.
@NotSoCryptic Mario+Rabbids also runs on Snowdrop, and so does Steep. Both games are coming to the Switch.
Regardless of the difference in aesthetics or horsepower needed between these two games, it does show that the engine running them is compatible with the Switch, so a game running on Snowdrop is no reason for it not to be on the Switch.
I'm hoping for Rainbow Six: Siege, complete with Imagine Babyz DLC. I'm looking forward to playing House, but with babies everywhere
@ThanosReXXX
Yeah, I know i'm quirky, weird, unusual, call me a Weirdo, even my other classmates called me Mr. Bean when I was Grade 6 Primary school.
My quirkiness is somewhat like what Nintendo did for Tomodachi Life and Miitopia. It was Perfect for me for a Quirky lover, Hillarious Fans and Chibi looking.
Well, very rare to see a grown up men like the opposite things such as Kiddie/Girlie stuffs. I ever heard also "True Gentlemen Wear Pink". If a grown up men can handle Girlie stuffs without being humiliated, I give salute to them, just like Ms J. Alexander on America's Next Top Model as a Runway Coach.
Btw, you should be proud to have a friend like that. Not many grown up male gamer have a taste like that. There is nothing wrong for grown up men have a bit Girlie side inside his mind.
@ThanosReXXX Just FYI, @Anti-Matter has publicly posted here admitting to some form of mental condition (autism, asperger, can't remember). While I definitely don't share the same opinion of him, I'd hardly call his posts "attacking" toward anyone, and in an article about Ubisoft announcing that they will have more games to announce, stating what kind of games you'd like to see is definitely on topic.
@ThanosReXXX steep runs on anvil. Not snowdrop. Getting Mario rabbids to work is a porting effort exclusive to the project with the intent of releasing the game specifically for the switch. In other words the code does not transition easily between platforms. By time beyond good and evil 2 releases it'll be a next gen game with features well beyond the switch. Don't get me wrong I'm sure massive is trying to get snowdrop working on switch, but any title not specifically made for the switch will not easily port until the end of its relevance cycle. Snowdrop is very resource heavy.
More games is always a good thing.......exclusive games even better. Hoping Ubi makes 1 game a year exclusively for Switch......something unique.....maybe not Marrio+Rabbids unique, but still different from the usual annual releases they have
Zombiu sequel please
ZombiU2 and I'm buying a Switch the day it drops.
Just give me a Mature game. Not because I'm edgy, just becasue I'm afraid Ubisoft is never going to release one for the Switch.
@Kalmaro: That's a crossover that I would actually play.
@Tyranexx After I posted the pic I thought about it and realized that I totally would too!
I bought both assassin's Creed games new on the Wii u and I didn't really like them.
I liked splinter cell and zombiU though
Beyond good and evil looks cool too. Never played the original
Perhaps the Ezio Collection, Good & Evil, Just Dance, and maybe more if we're lucky.
@gatorboi352 How well would that work though? We don't have the second screen so I don't think the impact from a survival horror perspective would be there (since you have to manage things in real time like rummaging through a bag).
Well hopefully, they can patch split tv, portable support in at some point. Especially, if Nintendo plans on making another "Maker " style game.
More third party support is always a welcome sight.
"lovely people over at NeoGAF"
I lol'd.
Ubi, just DO IT!!
@gatorboi352 I would welcome both a sequel to ZombiU and a game in which you slaughter zombie Bono, so whichever you meant I second it.
Splinter cell
Red Steel 3.
@Anti-Matter Seems like I have to tone down a bit, as @greengecko007 has stated. I didn't know about that, so my apologies.
But in general, so not specific to you, I do still stand by my statements/sentiment of girly/kiddy games not being for grown men. I can only see me playing them together with kids, seeing as we've got quite a few of them in our family and circle of friends, but I would never play them by myself.
Oh, and I do wear bright colors from time to time, especially in the summer, so also pink and so on, but I don't see the need to feel proud about that: it's just clothes after all.
Anyway, I'll keep in mind to be a bit milder towards you in the future. Have a nice day.
@NotSoCryptic Ah, my bad, didn't know that. I thought I read somewhere that it was using Snowdrop. And for a winter sports game, that couldn't have been more appropriate...
So, it must be using Anvil Next, then. Using the old engine that they also used for the Wii U would probably be a bad idea. But I guess we'll first have to see them succeed in porting the game in the first place, considering the last article about it mentioning the difficulties.
As for Snowdrop, I actually remember reading an interview with Massive in which they stated that it was made to be highly flexible, in more than one way, so that would at the very least partially dispute the whole "resource heavy" statement. That would be the exact opposite of flexible...
I'll try and find that interview later today, and I'll post it here in case I do manage to find it.
@Robotron2084 Thanks, that's exactly what I meant. Having your own taste in games is always fine by me, but a bit of understanding for what is best for the company that you like/love, is also not that bad of an idea.
Bigger picture and all that...
Well, once bitten... after what happened with their Wii U support, I'm keeping my expectations in check. Like, quarantine-level tight check.
@Neon_Blues I'd buy it xD
@ThanosReXXX The engine is very flexible in a lot of ways. You can assemble scenes and logic for scripting in a pretty universal way. However it isn't designed with the capacity to scale down easily. There are currently no hooks in the engine for Switch specific development. Even just working with it on PS4 and Xbox One presents.... certain issues.
Snowdrop is still a very new engine and one should take what they say with a grain of salt. Some systems are expertly designed and others need some maturity. Junior staff can do that to a project.
In the long run I'm almost certain that snowdrop will be able to run anything on any platform it is on, but the assets (dependingon the platform) will have to be tailored specifically to anything outside the norm. The Switch is very much outside the norm and it'll be the thing that hinders projects like BG&E2 or South Park The Fractured But Whole from running on the platform. Since the PC, PS4, and XB1 are all targeting a similar spec I can't imagine them having too much variance between assets. Nintendo Switch has a smaller memory foot print which means everything from audio compression to asset handling to any performance enhancements done for PS4 and XB1 specifically to make that project work will need to be redone for switch.
Engines are just a starting point, they aren't the end game. In game development you're constantly stepping outside the bounds of what your engine is intended to be used for in the first place. See Mass Effect Andromeda or anything that isn't a shooter shoehorned into Unreal Engine 3. There are going to be a ton of custom systems that likely had lowlevel optimizations done.
Snowdrop doesn't have a means of scaling some of these differences. A project starting on Switch will be fine. However back porting a project for something that is targeting the high end will have issues dealing with that Tegra SoC and 4 gigs of memory. That isn't even getting into any specialize decompression hardware and how that interacts with third party dependencies like Wwise.
@ThanosReXXX So Thanos, not the right place, but I thought I'd ask you since you're here and we're speaking technical. Do you think that, IF Square Enix brings KH3 to the Switch, they'd port or build from the ground up? And how long would you think each option feasibly takes?
Well, is there anyone not expecting Zombi Definitive Edition at this point?
Didn't Ubisoft have 1 more Wii U game that they "Finished" but we're waiting to release? Based on that timetable I'll believe it when they announce it.
Ubisoft has a whole plethora of older content that would be cool to play on the Switch/on the go. Aside from that, I've seen a lot of people thinking it'll be an Assassin's Creed port.
If it's new content, I think Mario+Rabbids has shown us it could really be anything.
@NotSoCryptic Interesting, although this:
"There are currently no hooks in the engine for Switch specific development. Even just working with it on PS4 and Xbox One presents.... certain issues."
does kinda sound as if it has no Xbox One/PS4 specific hooks either.
And I would think that the people responsible for the engine would know the most about it, so if they target a certain purpose and say what it is meant for, then surely they should at the very least come close.
And apparently, the team has shown a lot of promise, otherwise they wouldn't have been snapped up by Ubisoft.
All in all, it sounds like a situation that is more or less similar to the Unreal 4 engine, meaning that if and when Snowdrop will be officially supported on Switch, that games can be scaled to the hardware with minimal issues. (I'm expecting it to have that ability at some point, because scalability too, would be one of the criteria if we're talking about a flexible engine)
Mario+Rabbids might be a custom made version of the engine, or simply a lower end one, but it will more than likely still have the core of the engine on there, otherwise they would have given the engine another name, instead of just Snowdrop, so I'm betting that some of the basic elements are in there, just not the more demanding ones, and that is more or the less the same as what is happening with Unreal Engine 4: that will never run full force on the Switch, but it definitely WILL run and games running on the engine CAN (and will) be ported.
P.S.
Found that interview with Massive about the Snowdrop engine, that I mentioned earlier. It's actually an interesting read:
http://www.makinggames.biz/feature/the-creation-of-snowdrop-engine,7198.html
@Grudgebearer Well, Kingdom Hearts 3 runs on the Unreal 4 Engine, so logic would dictate that if it comes to the Switch, that it will be ported, and not built from the ground up.
UNLESS... they want to do something truly Switch specific that cannot be implemented into the core game without drastically changing it, so in that case, re-making it could possibly be a better or cheaper option.
In software development, time is also money, and of course there's also the number of people working on a title to take into account, each costing a certain number of dollars in man hours, so normally, you would always be looking for the most time/cost-effective solution.
And of course balancing that with getting a good product out of it, because obviously it's not ONLY about time management...
From all reports, porting an Unreal Engine-built game to the Switch can be done in a couple of months. I don't know if that's exactly true, but let's just say that it should be doable in 6 months max, whereas building from the ground up can take anything from a year to several years, depending on what issues they run into along the way.
@ThanosReXXX The hooks for XB1 and PS4 are there, but standards change and custom code is still produced. For example the Division which Snowdrop was designed for, doesn't require half the systems or the rendering techniques present in SP:TFBW, given the pseudo 2D nature of the show, the only reason the engine was picked was due to its rendering pipeline already had the means of supporting Maya in a much more native way. Which is contrary to Anvil which uses Max 3D. Maya is important since that is what the show uses and the artists are supporting the game in addition to Ubisofts own staff. Once the code is written it can be repurposed. Its a lot easier to repurpose code that already supports a platform for the game you're trying to build. In the case of BG&E it is neither of these games and will lead to problems. But that is on a code level which is a whole other set of problems from the assets and supported technologies that complement the engine. Tools themselves need to be revisited just as much as the art assets themselves.
As far as those who work on the engine. You never know who is posting on these Comment Sections
As far as an Unreal Engine (which is far more matured than Snowdrop) it should be easier to port that engine over as the distributed load and demands are there to have that technology developed. When 15 games are asking for a feature set versus 2 games within your publishers owned studios, its a lot harder to justify the work. Also it's important to keep in mind that those UE4 claims are based on individuals who do not venture far from Vanilla UE4 and just seek to stay within the capabilities and spec. This isn't always a common thing for larger 3rd party studios producing AAA titles. They'll modify and toy with an engine, even replacing entire components of that engine to the point that it isn't recognizable anymore. The Mass Effect Trilogy is said to be using Unreal Engine 3, but the core renderer of those games was literally rewritten for the project and tools built custom to support their games specifically. So seeking help from say Iron Galaxy who did a UE3 point to Vita and maybe PS3 wouldn't do them a lot of good if they ever wanted to port their ME Trilogy to PS4/XB1. Just a mess. Not that it isn't doable, but its a lot of code to revisit and assets to pair to the platform. It can be problematic. Outsourcing firms like bluepoint can help, but you're still saddled with time, money, and technical + artistic challenges. So if someone says "oh it's on UE4 they can just port it over in a couple of months", that usually stems for a lack of understanding of what is involved in the creative and engineering prospects of a project. It's a lot harder to back port a project then port up as well, something to keep in mind. Again Borderlands 2 for Vita as opposed to an entire collection for PS4.
Switch is certainly a cool little machine, but I feel like it would be served better with titles dedicated to its unique attributes, then trying to shoe horn ports of higher end games. It would be like taking PS2 games and putting them on PSP.
I would love to see them start with an Assassins Creed Collection for Switch. Then maybe announce a new title for us or give us the new one. I sure wouldn't mind it
Hoping for either an AC London port, or Wildlands
@ThanosReXXX Aye, but I would think building it from the ground up would do the series justice. An outright port would have to make many compromises.
@NotSoCryptic Interesting, again. I like this kind of background info, so thanks. And some good points too, so fair enough.
"As far as those who work on the engine. You never know who is posting on these Comment Sections"
Meaning you, so you are a developer yourself? Care to elaborate? (or perhaps better: are you allowed to?)
As for the Unreal 4 Engine ease-of-porting comments: I have no idea who made those, but I do know that they were official statements of developers talking about porting from PS4 to the Switch, so there's got to be something more to it than "individuals who do not venture far from Vanilla UE4 and just seek to stay within the capabilities and spec".
As I already mentioned in my comment to @Grudgebearer, I don't necessarily believe that it can be done in only a couple of months, but within the space of half a year wouldn't seem all that unlikely to me.
As for the final part of your comment, it would seem to me that this is exactly what Sony did with the PSP: making PS2-like experiences so that Sony gamers could take their home console experience on the go. Much like the PS Vita was more or less a PS3 lite. But they failed, except for the Asian region.
Nintendo somehow got a better handle on it, even though the Switch lacks some (arguably necessary) oomph, but even though it's perhaps a bit early to say, I feel like they actually managed to succeed again where Sony keeps failing with practically the same idea, well largely the same idea anyways...
@Grudgebearer That would seem to be a logical thought, wouldn't it? Unfortunately, the business doesn't work that way. In bigger companies, time and money efficiency always takes the upper hand.
Doing a game justice or tailor-making it towards a certain platform does happen, as seen in Ubisoft's current efforts, but it is more prevalent with smaller companies, because they tend to have more freedom to do so. Companies of developers working under rule of bigger publishers simply don't.
And I personally think that "many compromises" is somewhat of an over-exaggeration. Downgrading the resolution from 1080p to 720p, downgrading shadow and lighting effects to similar proportions and removing more advanced features like HDR and such, already goes a long way towards bringing down the scale of a game, and texture work can be another step. Because of the smaller screen of the Switch, it will hardly be noticeable as well, so only on the TV will you be able to see the differences, but only if you put them side by side with the other versions.
And then there are some smart programming techniques and tricks that can go some ways to nullify/negate the larger effects, at least: to the human eye, so at first glance, the difference doesn't have to be that big at all.
Case in point: the Unreal 4 Engine Elemental demo reel, which renders live as it goes, was shown by Nvidia running on their Tegra X1 hardware, and it shows that even on their relatively modest (compared to console spec) hardware, it still looks pretty damn good, but you be the judge:
(skip to the 2min mark for the demo)
And for comparison's sake, here's the side by side video of that same demo running on PC, PS4 and Tegra X1:
As you can see, there are definitely some differences, but they aren't as dramatic as you would think. And remember: this demo renders live, so it's no CG animation being played back.
And like I said, the differences are only noticeable when you put them side by side. If we had only seen the first video, then most of us would probably think that this demo looks pretty damn good on such a small piece of hardware.
Wildlands or The Division please.
@ThanosReXXX For a small piece of hardware aye, but I can only hope the titles continue to live up to it for me, as a home-console user. These sacrifices weren't made for those like me, after all, and it'd be a good offset if the portability brought in games, which it does, thankfully.
@Grudgebearer Well, if it does, then there's nothing seriously bad going on so far, right? At least you're not one of those that constantly whine and bemoan the Switch for what it "should" have been or what it should have had instead of what we actually got.
I personally think that they've hit an almost perfect balance between the two markets, those being home and handheld consoles, and in time, that will establish itself and prove itself more and more. And looking at the results so far, I'd say they've made the right choice, regardless of what some armchair experts on NLife and other sites seem to think.
And if they stay on this road, then future upgrades will come ever closer to actual home console grade graphics, because mobile hardware is now growing exponentially, and at a much higher rate than normal/PC based hardware, so they're definitely doing the catch up game.
@Grudgebearer Oh, and give that first demo video a try on your TV, and you'll see that it still looks great enough to pass for a real console experience, proving that the Switch can pull off stuff like that.
And perhaps you've also heard of the guys behind Dark Souls, and how they actually got their game running at a decent pace on the Switch, so that kind of game is also possible.
It's always going to be less than the Xbox One/PS4, but it is definitely going to be better than the Wii U, so it really isn't anything to complain about (in general, not saying that you are doing that).
P.S.
There's a trick to getting YouTube videos running on the Switch, so if that interests you, watch this video tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvPIZWLnr4o
In the video, only handheld mode is used, so I don't know if it also works in docked mode, so you could display videos on the TV.
But aside from that, I'm fully expecting video apps to come to the Switch at some point anyways, so eventually, we'll need no more of the tricks explained in this video here...
@ThanosReXXX Could always hook up my PC to my TV
@ThanosReXXX I do not bemoan it for what it could've been, not anymore at least. Though I would've liked more power, if only to have less of this "The Switch simply isn't powerful enough for our games" going around.
It's portability aspect brings more people in, but sadly there's no draw for home-console only players, other than games. Unless they were to soup up the dock, but I don't see Nintendo pulling that one.
Again, I've enjoyed most games I've played, other than those that I outright couldn't enjoy (ARMS) but I also realize the sacrifices made to have it be this hybrid.
@Grudgebearer Well, I said I didn't mean you when I mentioned those whiners/bemoaners, but there certainly have been quite a few, also on here, and some of them are still crying...
As for those "sacrifices", sorry but that too is another glass half empty point of view. As a mobile device and in this form factor, no sacrifices have been made at all, and it is literally the most powerful smart device out there.
If I had to single out an actual sacrifice, then it would be the only one that counts, and that is them down-clocking the processor from the standard Tegra SoC, but other than that, it's top of the line hardware, which is only going to get better in the coming years.
Obviously not with the current model, but definitely with Switch 2 and 3 or whatever they are going to call them. Unless they're going to come up with something completely different once again. We're still talking about Nintendo here, after all...
And perhaps they can come up with some firmware update that will actually release the restrictions put on the CPU now, although that must have been done with good reasons, but who knows. Perhaps they won't bring out a souped up dock, but they could bring out a self-cooling dock with an extra fan, that will allow the Switch to work even harder when docked without getting overheated, and that would at least give it some more oomph, even though it would still not be up to par to the other two, but it would also be crazy to expect that.
That's like expecting your phone to be as good as your PC, which is equally crazy, but people see the word console, and they're making all kinds of idiotic assumptions and statements, which make no sense whatsoever if you just step back and take a minute to think about it.
@ThanosReXXX Well, what rings a bell in the public eyes when one mentions "console"? I'd not be surprised if they think of the Xbox One and the PS4. Perhaps even the Wii-U or the older retro consoles, but not the Switch.
There's that thing isn't it? Mobile hardware? I mean it's part of that choice why we have so many messages of "Our game won't run on Switch" or "We don't want to compromise that much to run on Switch" I could go on, but we know how this goes.
You don't see sacrifices made? Well I certainly do. Cartridges to accommodate it being handheld before home-console and it's small form-factor not allowing much in strong tech, which ties into the above part of "Switch' too weak".
If Nintendo were to release a home-console only version of the Switch that costs more but is far stronger, I don't even need a minute to know which one I'll get and which one I won't use anymore. It's a hybrid all fine and dandy, but for what most consider to be home-consoles, aka the competition Nintendo deliberately tries to remove from memory, as to avoid comparison, has far stronger tech and more support going for it.
The Switch may yet see the support part, but certain games will forever be out of reach, especially if the developer decides to push the boundaries and make use of cutting-edge strong tech (Monster Hunter World)
Rainbow 6 Siege, For Honor, and Trials Fusion are my wishes as all 3 would be good games to play here and there.
@SLIGEACH_EIRE The "toys to life scam" is for all consoles, not just the Switch. I'd hardly call it a scam. Toy-based video games aren't exactly unpopular. Disney's Infinity, Skylanders, etc. They're not huge hits but they ARE successful. This just takes it another step forward.
@UmniKnight The Switch can run the Snowdrop engine, which isn't a small thing. Same engine behind the Division. It also runs Unreal Engine 4, also not an engine I'd claim to be a slouch. More goes into consoles than sheer hardware power: it's how the architecture functions, how that architecture executes the software, etc.
You're telling me that the Switch can run an engine that handles the Division, and it's somehow super weak? Say what you want about that game, it's still present gen. Then you're off on this "developers don't want to make compromises" argument.
Look at NBA 2K18. It has full parity with the other console versions. So does WWE 2K18. FIFA 18 is missing a feature or two, but EA felt so strongly about the Switch that it built a Switch version FROM SCRATCH with a different engine.
Now, let's look at the Wii and compare it to the PS3 and Xbox 360. The Wii was a far weaker system comparatively, and yet you saw developers clamoring to make games for it because of sales. It's the best-selling home console ever. You had Black Ops AND Modern Warfare 3 on the Wii.
Power does not matter when compared to hardware sales. That's because hardware sales = user base and the stronger the user base the more incentive developers have for porting their games to that particular console. They're willing to make "compromises", as you say, to reach that user base.
@GimpySpaceman Yet historically, third-parties have seen poor, if not, at least, sub-par sales on Nintendo platforms (Switch seems to change this, but it's still a young system). Why else do you think they're so hesitant, water-testing (A lot of publishers) and even DOUBLE water-testing! (Capcom)
Power is a part of some games: http://nintendoeverything.com/developer-a-plague-tale-innocence-not-coming-to-switch-because-of-the-systems-lack-of-power/ but power is irrelevant in the face the developer wanting to put it on or not, thinking it'll sell or not etc. The prime issue here, is that they don't bother explaining us consumers why decisions are made, except in some rare circumstances like the above article. Anyone that has the guts to properly explain their decision, even if it's negative, has my respect.
Well, it's been over a month and I'm not seeing any news.
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