Switch Is A "Fantastic Platform" For Indie Developers, Says Curve Digital

Yes it is. But can the same be said for 3rd party developers? I think this E3 will give us the definitive answer. Most haven't bothered, they've just given us quick, cheap ports with inflated price tags. A lot of them say they're interested but never back it up. Words are hollow. I think they may be thinking to themselves, let's grab some easy sales while the Switch is the hot new product before continuing on about their usual daily business. I'd love to be wrong, but it's been a year, where are they?

It's easier for an Indie developer to get attention and sales on Switch than drown in the Steam Sea. But as more and more Indies come to Switch they'll eventually stand out less and less. 85% of the games on Switch are from Indies. Well over half of those are old ports. And the same can be said of the remaining 15% 1st and 3rd party games.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE To be quite honest, Not many developers knew that much about the Switch

the 1-2 to nature of the consoles + the terrible WiiU were obvious in the "should i put money in this console, chances are it's another flop".

Developing takes time and the reassure from nintendo that this console will sell, i guess that part it's done and we should see more 3rd party games coming.

@Nincompoop that's right, down with those horrible Indies. Who wants to play games unless they're AAA anyways? And this awful Switch, it's the only console that gets them, the others only get an influx of AAA week after week after week while we're left to deal with all the trash

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
As is customary, I will point out that indies ARE third party developers.

Rather than more AAA-productions from the big stock listed publishers, I'd love to see these put some effort into making more compact games with dashing visuals.

If they're that good, let's see them upstage the indies on their own turf.

@gortsi You got the idea but Switch is a tablet so it also gets the cr*p from mobile. So you see: Switch gets indie cr*p from both sides, and all the AAA we got from 3rd parties are ports except an Ubisoft bunny strategy game.

@Pod Why are they called Indies then? There is a distinction between Indies and 3rd party developers. Sure you can call them 3rd parties, but you know what I mean and it would otherwise be confusing if we lump everything that's not Nintendo as 3rd party. They know what they are, they call themselves Indies, the article calls them Indies, they're not traditional 3rd party developers.

@Nincompoop So probably best you pop off then seeing as the Switch is so rubbish. Byeeeeee

@Nincompoop
I don't even need AAA 3rd party games if Great Indie games (Not Retro 8-bit style) are captivating me such as Portal Knights, Earthlock : Festival of Magic, My Time at Portia, Yonder the Cloud Catcher Chronicles, etc.

And i still wait further informations about this Indie games from Magnus Game, Malaysian developers, published by Square Enix Colectives : Re:Legend.

To tell you, NEVER EVER Underestimate Indie Developers !
Some of their games are BETTER Than Typical Western AAA 3rd party, especially when the Indie games created by Asian peoples.

@Samwise7 I only play Nintendo first party game on Nintendo hardware. I'm just commenting on all the indies on eShop, it's creating an illusion that Switch has so many games... most of them are cr*p or ports, or cr*p ports.

@Nincompoop
"Switch has so many games... most of them are cr*p or ports, or cr*p ports."

I have Portal Knights, Overcooked Special Edition.
They are Great ported Indie games with Physical release also and they are NOT a Crap.

I sincerely believe that we’re going to see an uptick in quality third party support throughout this year. Will we see many exclusives? Eh, probably not. The years of abundant third party exclusives are basically over, and I don’t think that it’s very likely that we’ll see an influx of PS4/Xbox 1 ports (some of them simply can’t be done without some major downgrades). I’m happy with the occasional surprise port (Doom surprised me). I’m perfectly fine with having a little PS3 in my bag (Dark Souls Remaster is my most wanted game this year).

Developers are going to hit it from all angles: you’ll have the lazy mobile games, but you’ll also get the occasional indie game that is brilliant fun (Golf Story, Celeste, Shovel Knight), port of a previously released game (LA Noire, Dark Souls, Doom, Skyrim), old classics (the ACA line, a slew of old bullet hell games), the first party lineup, third party exclusives (Bayonetta 3), interesting experiments (Labo), games that deserve a second chance (Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, Bayonetta 1 and 2).

I love my PS4, but I think that the Switch is a far more interesting piece of hardware. It’s selling on par with the Wii, but there’s a difference between the two; so many people bought Wii for Wii Sports, and the occasional first party game. With the Switch, people are actually buying games that go beyond first party!

Give it time.

Really dont know whats wrong with indie games, most of the statements ive seen were just not true or were just close minded opinions.
Pretty sure most of the people that say they are crap barely gave one a chance or barely batted an eye.

@Ardisan
Some gamers are really Snoobish.
If NOT AAA level (Rich) they don't even want to play.
They hate Indies because the games looked cheap.

@Anti-Matter

Or maybe they just have their own tastes?

@SLIGEACH_EIRE They’re called Indies because they are independent third-party developers. They’re still third party developers. I don’t know how many times I’ve told you this. Your agenda to minimize and marginalize Indies is getting old.

@thesilverbrick To say it's a broken record is an understatement. Dude is stuck on permanent loop.

@thesilverbrick It's pretty difficult to "marginalise" something that makes up 85% of the Switch's catalogue of games. I'm talking about traditional 3rd party support. You know that, I know that, the dog on the street knows that. But don't let that stop you.

I hope that there will came more Indie games because I have bought more from Indie then from big publishers.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE You seem to have no problem attempting to marginalize (which is defined as “to treat as insignificant”) Indie games, and a large part of that marginalization is your general refusal to even accurately acknowledge them as third-party developers. Sure, we all know when you say “third-parties” you’re talking about big budget studios, but your insistence on treating and defining Indies as something less than they actually are is getting tired.

@WiltonRoots and when they do he will complain that a) they're old ports, despite never owning a non-Nintendo console and thus never playing them, b) despite the fact that a lot of these "old" ports also come out (or have come out) for the PS4 and the XBONE, where I don't see anyone complaining about it, c) he will complain about the price comparing them to the prices of editions that have already been out for years and have had opportunities for sales etc. and despite the fact that so far most third parties have been good with including previous DLC. We all remember how this and similar third party efforts went for the Wii U.

@Nincompoop Your comment gets the CRAP comment AWARD of the day. Congratulations!

In other breaking news, it is believed that water is wet. Scientists are working on confirmation.

@gortsi yep but if he had a PS4 he would drive them nuts at PushSquare over the lack of Nintendo games or the cost of all the DLC and the subscription service.

@Nincompoop Well it's not an illusion that it has so many games and I for one have never played any of the ports or the indy titles either so for people who don't have PS4 or a PC etc its a plethora of new games and ideas brought to a new a portable fanbase.

There are so many indies I want on Switch. I'm waiting on Hollow Knight since I got the console. And the couch multiplayer ones are a no-brainer – hoping InvisiGun Heroes gets the success it deserves on the Switch! I already got Lovers in a Dangerous Space-Time. It's basically my indie machine.

As for big name devs, I'd rather they make games for the console with all the specs and features in mind rather than just give us ports of their PC/XBO/PS4 counterparts. Yeah, sure, you can play Payday 2 on Switch, but unless you're completely averse to PC gaming, why would you.

I play indies cause a lot of them offered gameplay experience missing from the actual triple A titles and some like Ittle Dew 2+ are actually complete game and not half baked. Third parties started pissing me off when everyone are jumping on the season pass, day one or on-disc DLCs, always online DRM, micro transaction, and loot box bandwagon.

Indies are great the App Store has a lot of great games and a lot of **** games but to be fair they are way cheaper equivalents to the switch

Good games are good games regardless of whether or not they are indie, third party or First party Nintendo games. My only thing is that the eshop really needs a redesign as the amount of games available makes it a slog to get through to older titles. Also maybe Nintendo needs to tighten up some quality control

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Of all of your tiresome repetition your view that indies aren't third-party may be the most tiresome. It's certainly the most objectively false.

@Mr_Pepperami
And indie developers need to stop making Too Many 8-bit style games.
Okay, it feels so Retro, so Nostalgic, so 80's, but that's too many of 8-bit indie games like that.
They need to build Decent 3D games with proper features from AA or AAA games.
I will pay attention for some Decent 3D Indie games rather than Retro 2D style.
Btw, did you know if we will get very interesting Indie games for Switch (Steam first, then PS4 & Xbox one, Switch later) from Magnus Games, Re:Legend ?
That's i want to see from Indie developers, making Decent 3D games with Passion of being a Gamer also.

@retro_player_22
"loot box bandwagon."
What is that ?

@Anti-Matter yeah I agree the 8-bit thing has kind of been milked to death at this point. It’s nice to see more games taking on 16-32 bit style graphics now like Owlboy which is fantastic but too much of anything is a bad thing. I think 3d is hard to do in a small team and have it come out looking and playing well, especially with modern gamers demands on how well 3D games must play now. That shows in a fair few reviews of the 3D indies we have so far which seem kind of average to poor like radiation island and Hollow. Would be great to see a great 3D indie though

@Anti-Matter he’s basically saying that when one AAA third party publisher put loot boxes into its game mechanics and saw it made a lot of money, they all did and now most to all AAA third party titles are flooded with loot boxes. Which he is correct about. That’s called jumping on the bandwagon.

@JimmySpades Someone will jump in and say "he's entitled to an opinion" soon...even though this is the 478,297th time we've heard said opinion...

This again.... This topic is a drawn out one that keeps pumping out the same arguments for and against it every time it comes up. So, here's my worthless two cents.

Indie's ARE 3rd party developers. The difference between them and the big names are basically the income they have and can put towards their titles, and the willingness to try something new. Indie's, while lacking funding for the most part, are willing to try new ideas most of the time. The big names are more unwilling to do so since they seem to believe it would cost too much vs potential revenue to establish new ideas. Not to mention it is cheaper for them to just pump out the same type of games all the time, just slightly updating them each time.

I compare this scenario to how the stereotypical "Elderly vs Younger generation" is viewed by some.... The big names are the Elderly for being dead set in their ways, refusing to change and/or try anything new. The Younger Generation are the Indie's, while trying the old ways, they are more apt to branch out and try something new.

Just waiting for Human: Fall Flat to go on sale, Curve.

@justin233 been waiting for a few to go on sale to be honest. Thought they were gonna do a big sale for the switches bday but sadly they didn’t ☹️

@Mr_Pepperami Would have been a good opportunity for a sale, but you know how Nintendo is. I pretty much wait for all indie games to go on sale because I’m both stingy and patient.

@justin233 the ultimate combo. I’m the same. I can wait them out....I have supplies

@Anti-Matter Why are Asian devs the superior indies? Also, some people want the bigger multiplatform stuff.

@thesilverbrick To be fair, I'd have to agree with @SLIGEACH_EIRE because most (not all, most) indie games don't interest me and loom dull. With the exception of Overcooked, Snipperclips, Rocket League and (maybe) Portal Knights. Most of the others just look underwhelming to me, at least.

@Anti-Matter Now you know...

I wish that people stop complaining about the switch and its' games. Does ps4 & Xbox one get AAA third party all the time? No. Do they get exclusives all of the time, no. Do they get bad games some times. Yes they do. The switch is not perfect, but neither is the ps4 & Xbox one. If they would make the switch as powerful as the other systems, you would be paying about 400-500 dollars. Plus this is not just for home console, but also portability too.

@Nincompoop

you really should not purchase N hardware honestly. this is what N is now. the nes/snes ain't walking through that door. they gave up when they stupidly went with carts for the n64. that was N's last real console and they killed themselves.

or complain on the internet.

Nintendo could do with a few more third party AAA titles. I think that’s true. Indie games are wonderful and inventive. The costs are lower so they take more risks. And the quality of indie games are now so much higher. That is all great.

But some of us love a nice shiny blockbuster to sink our teeth into. And it’s gone a bit quiet on that front at the moment.

It doesn’t need Call of Duty/Madden/Assassin’s Creed necessarily. Those are the biggest selling PS4/Xbox One games, and Nintendo games will always be the best selling on its own platforms. But perhaps something like Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare 3, Soul Calibur, Tomb Raider, XCOM 2, Spyro, South Park, Resident Evil 7, or some nice new IP.

Just a more consistent stream of interesting titles that appeal to different people.

Nintendo does not need this, I might add. It would just be a good thing.

But the truth is, it will probably start to happen. Switch is on 15m sales worldwide and then some. That’s a good install base. Even Blizzard, Rockstar, Bethesda and From Software are supporting Nintendo at the moment. That’s such a surprising thing to see. It would be nice to see the quantity to pick up, to match the names involved.

@Matthew010
Well, judging from gameplay habits, i noticed that a lot of Asian gamers, especially South East Asia territory (Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, etc) are Really dedicated in gaming. They play hard, study the details of the game to getting know better, when they designing a game, they can apply so many details from their experiences as gamer. Also, i found Asian developers tends to create very complex games, especially JRPG or Life Simulation that are their Specialty, they can put their version to develop their games to become very interesting games. This tendency was also built from MMO RPG games concept that really popular in Asian region, and if compared with Western developers, i found Asian developers are still better in gameplay complexity & details than Western developers did.

Let's say RPG. Western developers can create really Fun and Cute RPG Sandbox game like Portal Knights, but Asian developers can create Really Cute and Adorable Action RPG like Fantasy Life or Yokai Watch or like this from Indie developer Magnus Game, Re:Legend (Based on their Interview about their gameplay concept that they will bring for Re:Legend)

Last time, i found that Indie games created by Malaysian Indie developer, Magnus Game with gameplay mixed of Rune Factory / Harvest Moon + Monster Rancher / Hunter + Evolution of Pokemon + Cute Nendoroid looking. Sounds very interesting, especially the creator are also was a gamer with heavily influenced from Harvest Moon, Monster Rancher, Monster Hunter as their games they played about. Now, as developer, they bring their gaming experiences into their game and with help of funding, their games will be released on this June 2018, according from their interview.

For indie developers, i wanna see if they can create at least Decent 3D games with proper features like AA / AAA games, Not a Retro 8-bit All the time.

@Matthew010 You are more than entitled to your opinion (as is he), and I have no intention of arguing with your feelings. My issue doesn’t come with the fact that he doesn’t find Indie games appealing. I take issue with the fact that he refuses to define Indies as third-party developers, which they in fact are, whether he admits it or not.

People here really seem to hate indies. I'd gladly take them over the kid-friendly lootbox casinos that EA creates.

Not to say that Nintendo shouldn't pursue AAA 3rd party support, because they absolutely should, but indies will be a prominent part of the Switch's library whether it gets the AAA 3rd party games or not.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE
Apologies, but this one is a little lengthy.

They absolutely are traditional third party developers in the business sense of the term.

They just aren't THE traditional third party developers. They aren't the actual companies run by the actual people that used to be called the "third party developers".

And though I do indeed know what you mean when you say "third parties", and the smaller developers and publishers do indeed call themselves "indies," it's not that their legal status aren't third parties, is that they only stand to gain from the definition "indie".

The rise of developers perceived to be a kind of grassroots movement helps the new publishers' narrative of being part of the next generation of games, and of belonging to current younger gamers, instead of belonging to their dads. It's an underdog story that the publishers picking up indie games have been buying into for years now. The guys at Devolver certainly don't want to look old and established.

But as this very article outlines, publishers like Curve (that are really Kuju sporting a name they bought along with a studio) are starting to see a point where they have to invest more and more to see reasonable returns, and that people don't buy their games just because they're "indie" anymore.

They're growing up and becoming big players. It's been happening since forever. Studios with publishing power like THQ clawed themselves out of obscurity doing licensed games for many years and managed to become a major publisher for a few years before betting it all on the wrong horse and going under. Were they not big enough to be "third party"? Or does someone need to actually be publicly traded? Because then Valve wouldn't qualify.

The only difference between THQ and the current slew of smaller publishers is that the current ones that call themselves "indie" hold on to the idea of publishing original IP. Because that is viable to a certain extent again, do to digital distribution and social media marketing. And publishing own IP and surviving on doing so has if anything traditionally signified a publisher with staying power.

When self owned "indie" publishers manage to put out boxed games for Switch, there's no reason left for distinguishing them from "third parties" unless you really want to play in to their own narrative of being the creative underdog who deserves their turn of sticking it to "the man".
Many of these publishers play hardball in their deals with the independant developers, just like EA and the others used to do when they still bothered to publish for others, and many harbor every intention of being just as big as the big guys 10 or 15 years from now.

@Anti-Matter
Many indie developers have created very good looking 3D games. The studios with this ambition just usually do not call themselves "indie". That moniker is still somewhat loosely tied to the movement started with Cave Story, which has grown to mostly encompass slick 2D art games like Night in the Woods, and retro style 2D games like Shovel Night.

There's a deliberate wish from most of the developers and publishers calling themselves "indie" to NOT look like the current big name 3D productions, because they know the term indie lures in a certain crowd.

So you might be asking for something that isn't all that likely to happen, unless you go scouting yourself for products that deliberately aim to be big league rather than indie, but still comes from independant developers who self publish.

There have been some absolutely stellar indie titles on Switch, Golf Story, Night in the Woods, Stardew Valley... but there has also been more than enough random "Retro 8-bit" clones flooding the shop with so-so titles too. Overall, I am glad the indie scene is thriving, but it hasn't been perfect.

People's arguments against indie games are funny.

"There are bad indie games" : Well no kidding. There are bad AAA games too. That's why you buy the good games and avoid the bad, not a hard concept. And for the love of God, could we stop acting like bad indie games is a Nintendo problem? There are bad games on PSN, there are bad games on XBL and believe me there are PLENTY of bad games on Steam and the app store.

As for the prices for some of these indie titles, that's subjective. But you can always wait for a sale or now use MyNintendo coins for a discount.

That name though. Dinsey. Two of the letters look Switch(ed) (see what I did there?)

@SLIGEACH_EIRE

The traditional hardcore market with it's AAA third party titles is not growing and it pretty niche compared to the mobile/smart phone market.

At its height in the Ps2/Xbox era there were around 180 million consoles sold,the next generation with the Ps3/Xbox 360 saw around 160 million consoles shifted,the only difference being the ratio of sales between the two console makers with Microsoft taking more of the pie that time around,the current generation will end up at around the same as last time possibly may creep towards the Ps2/Xbox generation depending on when Sony or Microsoft announce their next machines.

The reason the market is growing in is the amount of extra dlc that is shoved down peoples throats,pure and simple.

Nintendo have not been part of this market since the Wii and to be honest have been doing pretty well,I mean come on do we really need three consoles competing for around 160-170 million consoles?....and at best Nintendo could hope for around a 50 million share of this.

Does this make sense to anybody?..hell even in a generation like the Wii U and 3DS Nintendo have managed to shift around 84 million consoles,Nintendo will be always going their own way as the traditional hardcore market is a lost cause for them and has been for a long time.

Nintendo has and will always have it's hardcore fans,plus if they make a nice piece of hardware like the Switch they can not only tap the huge potential of the mass market,they will also get incremental sales from the more hardcore market who will see the Switch as a nice powerful handheld to go alongside their Ps4/Xbox One.

All the third party support in the world will hardly make any difference to any of this,as it will always be Nintendo's mainline and indie games that will push Nintendo's latest console,sure we will see third party ports as the companies will see a profit there as the console continues to shift significant numbers of hardware,but this will always be a niche part of the systems overall game sales.

Nintendo would be far better served by getting as many top Wii U titles as it can ported to the system as these games will be brand new to a huge percentage of the existing and potential Switch market.