Image & Form's New Game Required Power The Switch Didn't Have, So It Did A Deal With Xbox

Looks really bland for an image and form game. Like RARE games after they left nintendo.

I'm sure they could have gotten it to work just fine, though that's a time commitment that not every developer wants to do.

What a load of BS, if that's the case it would be multi play with the ps5, what he really means is Microsoft gave us lots of money...

First sony with avengers and now this and xbox paying for 15 timed exclusive games on Xbox series X, next gen is all about which company has enough money to throw at companies to make exclusive content/games/timed games.

In the right hands they could get this on Switch I bet when you look at other games that are ported. It might still happen a couple of years down the line.

The game mechanic reminds me a little of Super Mario Sunshine, except you suck up the gunk instead of squirting things clean.

I guess this is just a timed exclusive. I still think it might come to the Switch evetually (it doesn't look to taxing). Or it just goes straight to Switch 2. Anyway, nice to see they try something else.

@playstation_king it's understandable but it doesn't define the gen it's more along the lines that both are competing for the beginning foothold to hold the starting advantage which xbox desperately needs over ps to survive.

cinematic trailer so... 😶

Some company wants to do a deal with Microsoft they are going to, then if people ask them they're not going to say we wanted more money so signed with Xbox. They would come up with something like this.

It isn't switch news, the switch is just mentioned.

@jobvd How so? I think it looked quite intruiging for the little that was shown. And I really like I&M, they've delivered with every game so far.

They should stick to 2D games, this game looks like all the run of the mill indie games out there.

Looks neat! Glad it's not a SteamWorld title though, honestly. I'd hate to miss out, and I'm not about to shell out for an X-Box anytime soon.

@Liam_Doolan,

Okay, it might not have been announced as a timed exclusive, but I still have hope. After all, we also have Cuphead and Ori.

Good thing they got the probably sizable check from this going directly to gamepass, because otherwise I dont know that this play would have worked out well as far as them selling units over there.

@jobvd Then you never played one of Rare's best games ever. "Kameo - Elements of Power" and Sea of Thieves for example. Grabbed by the Ghoulies is cool too.

Image & Form were the ones who wanted to remake Ice Climbers for Nintendo as late as early 2020 i think it was.

Interesting that people are slagging the game off because it’s going to Xbox. If it was a Switch exclusive, people would be going on about how amazing it looks. Y’all are extremely obvious.

@nessisonett I agree. It's like Sony fanboys. Only looks good if it's a Sony exclusive.

As of next month people can play Xbox One games on Cell phones and tablets anyway if they want with XCloud.

It doesn't look that great to me from that trailer, but I tend to enjoy Image & Form games. If it reviews well, I'll probably grab it so I have an excuse to turn on my XBox One.

Looks bland and lacking their usual charm. At least they had enough sense not make their next Steamworld game an Xbox exclusive.

I will definitely be trying this one out on Game Pass!

@playstation_king Read more closely. He said they went decided to go to the powerful console makers and that they had "a bit of discussion back and forth". That's the part where Microsoft promises to pay them for game pass and console exclusivity. There's no BS; the whole story is right there.

Sony won the last generation handily because they just had more & better exclusives. I can't fault MS for trying to compete. At least they're being more open than Sony by making all their console exclusives available on PC.

@Kalmaro This. The Switch can handle this, but as I&F pointed out (just skimmed the article so not sure if it was quoted) they are a team of 25, and it would take resources that they don't have to make that happen. It's a perfectly valid reason that, being perfectly valid, I wish more third parties, especially AAA studios and publishers, would use when they try to explain Switch omissions. The Switch can do more than people give it credit for, but if it would take more time to achieve than is reasonable for a single project and more money than they can expect to recoup, not pursuing it is the correct decision, and I wish they'd just say so.

@BenAV,

I agree.

@nimnio "You don't hate Nintendo enough to be a real fan!" --a mind-bogglingly large group of NintendoLife commenters.

Que comments on how nobody cares about this anyway 🤣

Ill check it out on PC Game Pass. Most games announced lately not coming to the Switch. This is nothing new.

@Mince SteamWorld Quest was a Switch console exclusive and apparently it didn't make that much money. At the end of the day, I'd rather I&F maintain financial security with Microsoft's money than risk collapsing or having to lay off artists and developers.

@JimmySpades I agree, that's why I pointed out that it's not a time commitment that every dev would want to pursue. It's good if you have more time to do it and funding isn't as big an issue. In this case, it seems like it's not an option right now.

@nessisonett it's more like I'm on a Nintendo website. Why do I care about Microsoft locking down games. Seriously look at the context.

The whole switch doesn't have the power is kind of a swipe at our favorite system too. Instead of them just being honest they were paid to make it exclusive

@Ventilator oh I played them... My God, did I play RARE's later games... 😢

@doctorhino That’s fair enough. It’s more the ones saying that the game is bland or Switch won’t miss it. That’s just petty.

@nessisonett yeah I have no comment on that one yet. I have an Xbox one so I might end up playing it if it's good. Just seems if PS4 is cut out of the deal it's more than a power excuse thing, unless they needed that exclusive bonus check to finish the thing

That’s fine I’ve never liked their work anyway.

Good luck to them. It looks good, I'm interested to see more. I have an Xbox so I'm not going to cry if it doesn't come to Switch.

Terrible name, but cool looking game.... It was one of the games that stood out during the ms presentation.

@turntSNACO powerful console makers? The ps5 and xbox series X will be pretty similar in terms of power.

And I don't get game exclusives from third party developers, they are losing out on money from selling on the other two consoles unless Microsoft are paying "Big" money to cover the loss

@Agramonte So you'll check out a game you don't care about. Sounds reasonable.

@Liam_Doolan Cuphead was also a full exclusive to Xbox 🤔

I’m not naive enough to think that every game can run in the Switch, but I do worry that this game doesn’t fit the traditional XB fan base.

@nessisonett
Sorry but devs letting themselves be Xboned rather than go for their larger target audience on Switch or PS4 will never stop being hilarious.
@playstation_king
Remember Titanfall? That could have been a huge franchise if they had launched on PS4 instead of being Xbone only, because of this the excellent sequel was ignored and now it’s trapped in battle royale hell never to escape.

Luckily I will be getting an XBOX Series X as well. Not all next gen games will be on the Switch.

all they showed was the equivalent of cutting trees in pokemon

Meh. Glad they’re able to branch out and stretch their legs, but I’m pretty much over the whole weird-alien-world trend in indie gaming at this point. They all just feel the same to me.

Times they are a changing. Like TV packages most viewers have more than one. We can see the way things are going since the new Disney + channel.
If you want to play any game, buy three consoles
If you want to be limited, stick to one.
But owning two and you should be ok for most games.

That's what I'll do when the PS5 is released. Loyalty doesn't mean a lot anymore. 😭

SteamWorld Heist 2, please..

I get that they did a deal with Microsoft, exclusives are a thing and I'm fine with that. But if it runs on Xbox One it can run on Switch, even if it uses the rather resource-wasting UE4, so I don't buy that excuse.

Love their games and wish them the best of luck with whatever they do.

You should've seen the salt on Push Square, all the fanboys were like "who even WANTS this game?!1! It looks like garbage, etc. etc.".
It was so funny 😂

@Mince "Third party exclusives just make me lose respect for the the developers."

It must be great not having to worry about how you're gonna pay the bills 👍🏻

@Henmii "so I know they said it's an XBox exclusive, but trust me, it's not"

It's starting to grate me how so many people on this site constantly doubt official statements and such and trick themselves (and others) into thinking that every game ever is coming to the Switch (even if it's exclusive to other platforms), or at least could be technically feasible, because of course the whole community is made up by the finest engineers in the whole damn world.
Stop being delusional.
Stop fooling yourself, and, most importantly, stop spreading misinformation.

(This is not directed only at you, mind you)

@clvr "It's starting to grate me how so many people on this site constantly doubt official statements and such and trick themselves (and others) into thinking that every game ever is coming to the Switch (even if it's exclusive to other platforms)"

I still get people telling me we're definitely getting the FF7 remake or Persona 5 because of smash

I saw this one (without knowing it was an Image and Form title) during the Xbox conference and it was one of the titles that interested me most.

game pass exclusive means xbox gave them money for it. so dont come out with some garbage about the switch. No shame in taking the money to finish your game

Disappointing for me personally, as seemingly everything these guys touch is gold, but hope the gunk is a success for them. They are such a great team.

Developers keep bringing up Nintendo's next platform, I think we'll hear something in the next 2 years about it.

@Mince be careful with that much edge, you run the risk of cutting yourself 😉

TBF it looks nice but proof is in the reviews and the gameplay. They have done some excellent videogame works so far.

We're not really that easily "fooled" with regard to the implied statement on this game not being able to be run on Switch. It's a case of who did them the deal. Money.

Not a game developer but from what I see on this video this looks like something the Switch could handle, my guess is they got money from Microsoft and it will become a Switch title down the road.

@CasePB

They were down on it?

This is not news?.. this game was part of the Microsoft game showcase last month full of exclusives.
That being said this is reminding me of Hob- I’ll be excited to try it out on Gamepass.

@playstation_king They talked to MS, MS showed immediate interest. Maybe they talked to Sony and Sony showed less interest. Maybe they didn't bother because early conversations with MS led them to believe they wouldn't need to. Dude probably wouldn't go out of his way to say "Sony didn't care about our game" or whatever.

As for them losing money...it's a good rule of thumb to assume that people won't make decisions that are against their own interests. Either the down payment they get for game pass is bigger than what they projected to earn on PS, or they decided to prioritize the guaranteed money over the potential earnings. We know none of the numbers here - I&F does.

Image & Form are among the classiest of devs. If they say it, it’s genuine. Looking forward to what they put out next on Switch, that’s for sure.

@Mince This is an article summarizing the contents of one email they wrote to Kotaku. No reason to expect the totality of their reasoning to be included here. My point is that I don't think it's fair to judge them for making the choice that they expect to bring in the most revenue without knowing their financial situation.

IF is hit and miss in their games.
Good one on them for finding a way to fund an ambitious project they were excited about making!
I hope it is awesome and Xbox owners love it.
I'll be here waiting for a new Heist or Dig if one is made.

@Imerion Yoshi ran on ue4 and looked pretty bad on handheld. So yeah, dont think this could run on switch.

@fadedcolors Daemon X Machina also used UE4, and it runs great with the full screen resolution in handheld and 1080p docked despite loads of action and advanced physics. Hellblade also looks and run fantastic on Switch. Other great ports include Ashen, Darksiders Genesis, recent versions of Dauntless, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Observer, Trials of Mana and of course Dragon Quest 11. UE4 has also received some rather heavy optimization for Switch since Yoshi and many others released due to Epics work on Fortnite. I'm not saying it would run in 720p@60FPS in handheld, but dynamic resolution with 30 FPS is feasible and more on both when docked.

The GPU is a excuse anything is possible is they really wanted to do it. Take Witcher 3 after doing 3.6 update and configs it looks better then you think. Also Crysis is coming to Switch now ask yourself why is that? They know the audience wants it on all platform and xboning yourself to one is asking to die a thousand code deaths is what will end up being. The less you expand to other platform the sooner your future expansions chances die out. Now xboning is boning them in the back and now they can't back out. So tell me again whom got the better deal xbone or the developer whom got shafted.

These guys always claim to be such Nintendo loyalist but just sold out.

Not a fan of the Dig series but Heist was alright.
Decent studio I think they could have made something work for the MASSIVE Switch userbase.

Personally, I think the game looks pretty lame honestly.

That game could easily be made to run on the Switch, but Microsoft is desperate for exclusives.

But to be honest, that gameplay trailer didn't do much for me. Game looks pretty boring.

@SwitchForce The only one trolling in this comment section is you. Nothing unusual about that though.

@Kalmaro Yeah, that is what I thought as well, but hey, they are just an indie dev, so we should give them some slack.

Wii U days all over again. Grown men pretending that a game looks like garbage the second it jumps ship. Yet...ironically the same grown men get chills when a generic eshop game pops up that resembles something Rare used to make.

@Mince so you didn't like them even before this article? Steamworld Quest was a Switch Exclusive (+ PC and Stadia). Or is it just when it's an exclusive on a platform you don't own?

Bloody bummer that we are missing out on this, great aesthetic and finally stepping away from their bizarre and simplistic Steamworld vibes. I've always wanted to see if a game could capture the fun of "cleaning" like was possible with Mario Sunshine and the FLUDD. Will definitely be checking this out on PC when it comes to fruition.

@playstation_king lol sony did this since the very first Playstation. You complain now because Microsoft is doing it but a megacorp using its big wallet to freeze the entire industry was made by Sony first.

I am a fan of Image and Form and have played all the steam world games. This game looks really good.

However, just from the trailer it looks like a 3d version of Hob.

Does anyone else see that?

Nintendo need to start buying out exclusive rights from other developers or next generation is going to be very ugly for them.

@Pigeon they haven't done that since the N64 days.

Also if they did Sony and Xbox fans would cry so much harder.

Look at the uproar surrounding Bayonetta or Astral Chain.

PS4 fanturds all foaming in the mouth with anger.

That's disappointing, game looks great to me but I wouldn't buy an Xbox just to play it.

It’s nothing to do with power. It’s about money.

Glad Xbox snatched some exclusives for launching Series X and I will be keeping my eye on this one. No disrespect to Switch but more power wouldn't hurt it now new architecture is out in the wild, these newer processors if utilised correctly in a smaller form factor could easily double Switch's output for same power draw. Using 2013 tech has served them well, but it'll need a refresh within the next 2 years just to keep Devs interested. Will be a fun Next gen hopefully.

Wow, wasn’t this on state of play? Now it is on Xbox only?

@Razer that's why i have both a switch and a ps4, stops the foaming

Lol at all the opinions dismissing it. Almost like they’re comments from fanboys that feel sidelined because the developer said something not so rosy about their plastic god.

I always have mixed feelings about platform exclusives — though it's hard to be a Nintendo fan and slight other studios for partaking! I have no mixed feelings about a small and awesome studio getting to take on a very cool project like this looks to be. Good for them!

For fans of the SteamWorld games, it's easy to imagine their sensibilities making this game into something special. I really like the look and feel of it, myself.

Switch was obviously a great move, but Nintendo's trade off on being near the bottom edge of performance means that it won't be the destination for many games to be at their best. (At this point, I'm kinda hoping Metroid Prime 4 is primarily targeted at the next-gen Switch for that reason.)

I can't see how. It looks pretty simple.

Anything exclusive means the Developers aren't in control and their CEO dictates the direction. Does people get it now. Once you take someone's Development exclusive money to make it theirs you are no longer in the Driver's Seat they will be the one to Drive you on their whims.

@aaronsullivan Nintendo's trade off on being near the bottom edge of performance means that it won't be the destination for many games to be at their best
Now if I haven't heard of a NintenDoomed fandom we found one now. If what is said so true why is it the best selling hardware Docked/Portable console. Guess people like to talk to themselves in the mirror alot. If all you can think is the next console that would stand to reason why your not in any Nintendo R&D development otherwise your company would have you on the UNemployment line now or you bankrupt the Software/Hardware company already. Those are the very mindset that is why Nintendo is doing far better then NintenDoomed fandom would try to revise the booming Switch sales and it's not only because of GPU. Alot of koolaid and mirror talking people want to think they know more but at end of the day Nintendo knows far more then these would.

@Mince Not sure where the aggression is coming from. Don't think I said anything rude to you. But point made , I'll move along.

@jobvd Not really bland. Looks like a step up from Steam World.

@hitherehello amen man.

@msvt Maybe they just want to move their games to the next level and Switch would have held them back? There's a reason Nintendo is mostly getting ports of games from 11 years ago.

@jarvismp It has everything to do with power, fanboy. If it were just about money, it'd be a timed exclusive. They LOVE Nintendo. Lot's of interviews and podcasts with them discussing as much

@Pigeon They stopped doing that since the nes

@jobvd ok Nintendrone

@JimmySpades I am not joining in play hating a game because it is not coming to Switch... why I said "I'll check it out on PC Game Pass". You should reply to comments that people actually write.

It's fine if xbox is a better fit for this game. But I still wish it was on switch...

@Dang69 Yeah, maybe!
I still couldn't care less for their direction.
, no matter which console they choose. I am sure they will get all squishy and pander to them just as they did to Nintendo's audience. I just find it funny is all, don't you?

@msvt what I think is, if you look at everything they have done in the past, this is a huge step up in scope...I've listened to a lot of interviews they've done over the years with Retronauts, IGN, their own youtube series, etc and know 3D is something to hoped to do one day. With that in mind, even non BIG AAA games can be difficult to develop for Switch, using whatever engines a smaller dev has at their disposal. So I bet they were targeting Sony and Microsoft, and Microsoft in desperate need of exclusives threw them money to help expand the scope of the game even more. In all of this, I see the problem with Nintendo and not correctly fostering new 3rd releases or exclusives for their console. I would bet they could have, with enough time and resources made a different version of this for Switch with some kind of deal with Nintendo. Nintendo doesn't play ball with that (you see the fruits of that non-relationship during the pandemic where the other consoles are still getting hype releases).

@Dang69 well said

@SwitchForce Mmkay. Do you always shovel words into people's mouths? I said nothing about the success of the Switch. I own two of them and I guessed it would do great and it did even better than I hoped.

I've been a Nintendo enthusiast since I painted a fence to earn an NES in 1986. I own and still sometimes play the Wii U. NintendoLand is the game that gets played the most. I'm very accustomed to defending unpopular aspects of Nintendo consoles. I'll defend Skyward Sword if you'd like.

Nothing about "Switch was obviously a great move, but Nintendo's trade off on being near the bottom edge of performance means that it won't be the destination for many games to be at their best. (At this point, I'm kinda hoping Metroid Prime 4 is primarily targeted at the next-gen Switch for that reason.)" suggests I think Nintendo is doomed — and I don't remotely think that.

It's not really helpful to be blinded about the downsides of what you are defending, though. It is on the bottom edge of performance.

Me, I'm just looking forward to the future a bit. I'd like Metroid Prime 4 to be at its best potential and it is going to have problems, given expectations, with the current Switch hardware. Maybe a dual release like Breath of the Wild...

@aaronsullivan is that all trying to be a NintenDoomed is probably the best you can offer then is that is all then that a sad day in your world. The rest have moved on and so marching on is the Switch. Grab onto your NintenDoomed days those are long forgotten into History.

Yeah, right? Then I wish them good luck on making The Gunk run on an Xbox One S.
No, seriously. I believe anything that can run there can run on a Switch too.

@SwitchForce Okay, now I'm pretty sure you don't read posts or care for discussion. Fair enough.

For anyone that cares, I have never thought Nintendo was doomed. Closest I got to being worried about Nintendo was when the Wii games dropped off precipitously in the 5th year of that console's life or so.

Maybe ironically, I was convinced Nintendo was as strong as ever with the commercially unsuccessful Wii U. I was convinced because during the rough time they were making solid unique games with that "Nintendo touch" despite how some perceived them: Nintendo Land, Mario Kart 8, Splatoon, etc.

Switch is undeniably a return to form for Nintendo in terms of commercial success and it coincided with a Zelda for the ages, a potential definitive Smash Bros., and new breakout success for Animal Crossing. Nintendo is in the strongest position it has been in for over a decade.

I still think the Switch is not the best destination for some games and game types and I do hope there is a version of Metroid Prime 4 that releases on Nintendo's next console from the get go, kind of like BotW released on Wii U and Switch — but this time the dual-release game should look and/or perform much better on a new console/handheld.