The Company Behind Control's Cloud Version Is Bringing More "Major" Titles To Switch

A cloud version of FF7R would be funny because of obvious reasons

Whilst I'm really happy to see games such as Control hit Switch, as a physical gamer, I probably won't play this and just stick to the PS4 or Xbox One versions. Still, having third party support such as this is really awesome and I'm glad Nintendo are getting the support

Sound good to me, more 3rd party getting on board means more variety and less coming to PS and Xbox now....and Switch in 1-2 years. Hopefully, all this "next March" talk is right...

I would love to play assassins creed odyssey. Really interested in it.

@BenAV Why can't you use it in Australia?

If you purchase the game, does your ass still need to sit in a queue?

Yeah ! More waiting for hours to play a game !

Even though I prefer physical games, more tailored for the actual console, I'm surprised at how well this worked for me! Wait times are the new loading times it seems hee hee.

@BenAV Ah ok thanks for clarifying.

When I can choose between the performance of the AoC demo (432p-ish with 25 fps handheld) and Control (720p with 60 fps), I know what I want, and that game streaming has a bright future on Switch.

@Slowdive My WiFi is not the most reliable, at least when it comes to gaming: Switch online multiplayer is never a very smooth experience, and xCloud on my mobile continues to be a lag-fest. But I tried out the Control demo and was positively shocked at how smoothly it ran. Seriously, you could have fooled me into thinking I'd downloaded it locally.

Now, whether or not that performance remains stable throughout the day or in different parts of the house is another issue, and of course different people have different internet capabilities, so mileage is always going to vary. The great thing is that they give the demo, so there's no reason not to at least try it.

To me, this offers a functional if un-ideal way to get bigger, beefier third-party titles on the Switch that would never have a chance of releasing otherwise. Seriously, if games like Resident Evil 3 can start coming to Switch in this fashion, that would be pretty cool. Not ideal, but when the other option is literally nothing at all, I think it's a nice option to have.

Noooooo.
Internet is ***** where I live , and even if it wasn't latency would be awful.
If companies start following this trend we can potentially lose a port of a good game because it's easier for them to just put it on the cloud.

Remember boys, the day the company deactivate the servers for the game is the day you'll never be able to play it again.

no no no no no no no no no no no no

The internet where I am is so shocking this is just not feasible.

Not to mention when you "buy" a cloud game you are actually only renting it until they turn off the server. We is worse than digital only

Will try this tonight. My internet is supposedly quite good but have never tried any streamed game. Also how it handles the controls will be the thing to check.

Whilst my internet is theoretically fast enough to support cloud gaming, it is not reliable enough for me to want to use it. And I don't support cloud gaming. As someone who plays and collects physical, the concept of cloud gaming with no actual ownership is disturbing.

This quite frankly sucks. Goodbye to cartridges from third-parties. Just slap it on the cloud.

I think with the great divide in specs between switch and next gen consoles this might help to keep more 3rd party games coming to Switch than otherwise would be possible, as I doubt many truly next gen games could be ported successfully to switch.
I gave the control trial a go and was pleasantly surprised by performance, not as good as playing installed games but I’d take it if it meant a choice between having a game or not. Think Cyberpunk 2077

@Manzoli the latency wouldn't be awful at all, that's just completely false especially considering you haven't even tried any form of cloud gaming. Ive played Celeste, Destiny 2, Division 2 and more on Stadia and it feels like playing on a local system.

If this brings us huge games like GTA V, RDR2, CoD, Battlefield, literally any new Star Wars game (because EA HAS to develop all of them apparently), new Assassin's Creed games, etc., then I'll take it.

By the time these servers are shut down, I would've moved on to the next console and possibly not look back.

Thanks, but no thanks!
I'd rather have some measure of ownership of the games I play, and not depend on the whims of not one but two companies: My internet provider and the game provider.

At least the choice is there - no one is forcing it onto you (and I'm not a fan of streaming but I do understand the reasoning behind it).

I would play this if the free trial was longer than, like, 5 minutes. It's hard to gauge whether it is usable with my internet connection in such a short time scale. 30 minutes would probably be enough.

I wanted to buy Control last night (don't care for the cloud debate-I like cloud gaming), but it's not available in my region. Hesitant to buy it from another region, even though the demo was lag free.

I love physical but played last night with out issue.

This isnt good news at all. Basically you pay for something that you will never own and will get taken down if not enough people play it. Its like a dystopian world. Cloud gaming sucks and it will suck the life out of the industry.

How do these games ACTUALLY work? I saw hitman has a 98GB download size, so that's an automatic nope for me

It's not available on my region but I have great internet so I'm curious to at least try..... But I'm not sure actually buying it from another region would work. This is my only issue with cloud gaming, I get people are worried about ownership and I think it's a valid concern, but I also watch movies on Netflix and listen to songs on Spotify, I own nothing. That's just the world we live in, and control will keep existing physically in other platforms for conservation's sake

I've been playing with Geforce now on my old surface pro for a few years now, and I find in amazing that I don't have to get a gaming rig to play. For me, as the switch came out, it was a dream that Nintendo would implement a similar service (I thought in collaboration with Nvidia as they already have the servers). Personally I'm really excited about these releases, as long as the games I really care about come out as physical (as many of you said). I was on the edge about getting Control from Epic Games, as there is a sale, but now I think I would prefer to play it on switch. The demo ran flawlessly with a 5Ghz wi-fi and a (theoretical) 1Gbps FTTH

@DeclanS98

Are you serious? 98GB? That's insane for a system with only 32GB of on-board storage. That'd fill up a lot of people's SD cards too.

The UK have a demo of Control for the cloud and i wasn't impressed and I have 76mbs. Maybe if you got about 200-300mbs it be good but people from the UK should stress test the demo as its free after all.

@DeclanS98 i guess it's similar as Control, it has (if i remember correctly) around 98 MB file size that contains the app that makes the connection to the server. I guess it's a mistake...

The worst thing about this is that I fear once a cloud version is released for Switch, there probably won't be any attempts at a real port after that... Again, I'm fine with scaled back graphics, no raytracing, etc as long as I have a real game I can play whenever and however I want.

People talk about this like it's only if you want to play the game in 10 years time this will be a problem, but it's actually also possible the company running these servers will go bankrupt in a year and all you have left are icons on your Switch dashboard. It has happened several times before with similar services.

I for one often replay games even close in time to when i first played them, to try new things, play them together with friends, etc. Not to mention I have many games to play, so it might be a whole year until I feel like now is the time for this specific one.

I stand firmly against this consumer-offensive renting business.

@PapaPedro you summed it up well for me. Control worked shockingly well, based on the amount of time I played it. I would've believed I was playing it natively if I hadn't seen it was the cloud version.

I have a 300mbps connection and the Control demo I played last night was pretty bad. I am fortunate to have a One X to play these taxing titles on because the frame rate was jumpy and the lag was making aiming and platforming near impossible. They need to focus on streaming older generation games.

I'm in full support of this, cloud gaming is amazing and I've been doing it myself on PC and mobile for a while now thanks to Shadow PC and Xcloud.

I understand people being concerned about servers shutting down and now t having their games anymore, that's something the devs here will have to address since platforms like shadow and xcloud let you actually download the games too.

I'd like to try a demo just to see how it runs. I have 200mb internet and my switch is connected physically to my network when docked so I'd imagine pretty well.

That being said, as a multiplatform owner, the main reason to get multiplat games for the switch is portability. Obviously a cloud game wouldn't work on the go, so there's no reason for me to get the Switch version when I can play it locally in better quality.

I guess this type of thing is aimed at folks who only have a Switch though.

Good option for those who can only afford one console and have chosen a Switch. I'll be sticking with Sony and playing games like this as nature intended though. Even the best Switch ports always have reviews like "it's really good, all things considered." I prefer to play games without the "all things considered" and leave the Switch for games designed for it from the ground up.

@Manzoli that’s also the day the game is playable everywhere, potentially remastered or remade and probably only a few bucks to begin with anyway.

Between this and having no option to play it at all on the Switch, I prefer this.

I also think one of the features of the Switch Pro might be a better wifi antenna. An old-fashioned box as a Switch Pro for a couple of euro’s next to your tv (chromecast) and close to your router is also an option now. Just to have néxt to your portable switch but which operates within the same ecosystem.

I'm really interested in streaming games on switch but I would prefer a subscription model where you can play whatever you want but dont own the games - like game pass or Xcloud.
Not interested in paying to stream individual games.

@ChaosBadger777 agreed. I am also hesitant to pay 40 bucks for streaming an individual game, when gamepass is also an option...

Might as well post this here

Just tried the Control demo in performance mode and it ran great which is surprising as my internet is anything but. I’m all for more choice and options and this really opens up the door for more games on Switch that would otherwise never happen.
I won’t be buying Control or HM3 as I’m not particularly interested in these games but I wouldn’t rule out going the streaming route if it’s a game I really want and the price is right.

@Susurrus there’s a free demo to download on the eShop so you can try out whether it works for you.

Games I’d like to see: the more recent Assassin’s Creeds, MGS V, RE2&3 remakes (7 is a bit too horrific for my taste), Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2, Cyberpunk (oh, that would be cool), Nier: Automata. Games that are on my wishlist for other platforms currently. I have the Tomb Raiders and Final Fantasies already, otherwise they would be on this list too.

I’m obviously leaving out the 1st party games of other platforms, such as Flight Simulator.

Maybe Call of Duty or GTA5, but just to get more $ for Nintendo to invest in 1st party games. These games are not for me.

@Ricube Wait is it genuinely a mistake?

@WillQuan how would you know? I live in a small town in Brazil, latency is ALWAYS awful here.

@Doctor_Pancakes I’d say your modem / router / stability of your internet (how is your router positioned in your house?) is the problem, not the bandwith you’re describing.

Streaming older games wouldn’t make much of a difference. You’re streaming the image only. So when a game has the same resolution, an older game requires exactly the same bandwith.

I had zero problems streaming the game in performance mode and it looked fine to me graphics wise even in that mode.

@jarvismp... OK then... Have u ever downloaded music, but not owned the physical CD with the case, but still enjoyed the music?? Do u have Spotify?? Have u downloaded a movie and not owned the DVD??

@Amrulez 5 minutes is not enough time to make any judgement. I had no issues but I want longer than 5 minutes to think i would be willing to pay money for a game i will never own

@Brookie No because they rip off musicians so I buy physical.

They pay artists less than 5 pence for their work so I only use Bandcamp where you pay and own the product. It is why I own a house and don’t rent.

I played the Stadia Demo for Immortals Fenyx Rising on PC recently and it did stutter several times (and became unplayable when Chrome decided to download an update in the background).

With that experience I'm not sure I trust that Cloud games on the Switch run well on my connection, when the Switch is also the worst WiFi device I own in terms of speed and reception.

At least the problem with downloads in the background won't be an issue because the Switch stops everything even if you launch a game that has only optional multiplayer, like Animal Crossing.

NOOOOOOoo!! I don’t want AAA devs to get lazy and go this route. Give me physical, and if that’s not possible digital download at least. I will not buy streaming games on Switch.

Stadia is bloody awful. Terrible,

@Brookie a download that you can play theoretically forever because it’s stored on your device is much, much different than streaming.

I'm sure I'm echoing a common sentiment, but streaming games on Switch just isn't for me. America just doesn't have the public wi-fi infrastructure to make the process natural, and I'm a stickler for owning the games I pay for. Different strokes, I suppose!

This worked very well on my network connection (Gigabit FIOS). I was surprised how the game looked like it was running natively on the console. I didn't see any compression artifacts or anything.

Pretty funny when a Switch game surpasses the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X version as it ran ray-traced effects in the Quality mode. I mean, I know it's not running natively on the system, but it's still funny.

That being said, I wouldn't pay for this (I already own the Xbox One version anyways). It was cool to demo, though!

I disagree with cloud gaming on the switch. It feels fake saying you can now play control on the switch if all its doing is streaming online.

@DeclanS98 Hitman III isn't even out yet and Control has a 98 MB download size.

@BTB20 It genuinely showed up as 98GB for me! Had a heart attack, thanks for the update

@Yanina

They more or less lacks broadband there.

This is a shot in the arm for the Switch. A year from now it was going to be really hard to get new ports to the system. Of course I’ll complain if Nintendo ever stops making games that play natively, but I trust that they realize how important that is to their fans and to the gaming experience that it will always have a place.

PRO will be out march 2021

Control runs beautifully for me. Love it!

Anybody know the minimum internet speed required to play a cloud game? My wifi isnt great...

@Imerion The thing is though, for certain games they usually resort to cloud versions BECAUSE they can't attempt to natively port it. Suddenly games like FFXV and Kingdom Hearts III which were actually discussed and worked on for a brief period of time in regards to native ports, have a better chance of actually making it over to the console whereas they probably would've never come otherwise.

It's not really a case of them being too lazy to actually try and port it onto the hardware, it isn't technically feasible.

So far as I can tell, ray tracing is the Johnson rod of graphics tech.

I got to say I've love it if this means I could play Start Wars: Fallen Order and the new Squadron game without buying an X-Box/PS5 - and on the go as high settings!

For how long is this going to be supported?

@NathanTheAsian You want to play a 7 year old game via streaming, but think you won't look back at old games in the future? What ?

Although I'm not super interested in this game, I did try it last night on my average Joe wifi and it actually worked flawlessly. This could very well be Nintendo's answer to next gen rather than a beefy Switch Pro and you know...I'm kind of ok with that if the quality can be this high. Think of the possibilities! Horizon, FF7R, FF16....

@RushDawg I think you really need to read the article. what ***** u talking about 96gb

Holy moly! I wasnt a fan of cloud gaming but man!!! I tried the free trial version. Gorgeos looking games and i had no problem playing it with wifi.
Man o man!!

Cloud versions? No thanks. I actually want to own what I buy.

Sorry if going cloud is the only way to get more lazy PC games on Switch then it's not for me. Heck it's not even for Switch, it's a game on a server that's compatible with Switch and the fact that it required online at all time in order to play means it's not ideal for portability as well which was a selling point for Switch owners. Having games on Switch that you can't play on the go loses the value and whole point of owning a Switch. What's the point in playing it on Switch if all it will give you is inferior performance and no portability play? May as well just get Stadia instead.

I wonder what this will mean for bigger third party releases on Switch in the future. Why would anyone invest months of work into porting a game like Witcher 3 when you can simply offer a cloud solution?

To me it sounds just too awful to be unable to play AAA third party content on Switch because my internet is crap. We just recently had a 1 1/2 day long internet breakdown on the weekend followed by a whole evening a few days later. Yeah stupid first world problems, but I feel I really don't want to rely on a stable connection just to play a game.

Tried the demo, had time just to walk around. Then I proceeded to uninstall it, it wasn't able to get my attention at all

Having the option for cloud gaming is great, as long as we keep receiving ports. I don't want to have the need of a good internet connection to enjoy my games

I'm surprised how well it works on my ***** third world internet connection. Sadly the trial ended too soon before I could try too much of real gameplay.
Its going to be a awesome future.

I would rather see Nvidia make a version of GeForce Now for the Switch. On my modded Switch Moonlight runs great so I can certainly see the potential.

@HefHughner The whole point of owning a Switch is that you are able to play games both at home and on the go with no hiccups. With cloud games available on Switch, all you could really do with those is play them in one location since they constantly required an internet connection to keep performance active and that makes the Switch lose its value. Since the Switch had no network data support and only uses WiFi makes it even less ideal for cloud based gaming.

With phones you could at least still play the cloud based game in some capacity since it'll ate up some of your phone network data instead but with Switch there are no such option (unless Nintendo decided to become a phone or network company). This is why cloud gaming will not work on Switch. All cloud gaming is doing on Switch is simply just showing off and that's pretty much all it did. It's like a chef that doesn't not know how to cook good recipes but watches YouTube while he's doing his cooking trying to impress the judges or he gives you someone's else superior cooking taking credit for it instead when he himself knew he could never had done it. It's just lame and the end result will not be that genuine.

Great news. This is the best solution for AAA games on Switch.

10X better than just getting a sea of 6 year old ports, butchered games or Nothing at all.

Just like some spend their time with RingFit, LABO, RaceTracks when at home... others can Stream a game or 2. You play something else when away.

Cloud as an option for these games on my Switch is very exciting. Didn’t think we’d have the infrastructure in the west to be able to offer it. I’ll be purchasing Control just to support the effort (not sure I’m totally interested in the game itself).

I understand the fear of losing physical media, but as long as there’s a demand, there will always be a supply. I’ll continue to buy physical games that run natively on my Switch and ones that realistically couldn’t, I’m happy to have the option to play on the cloud.

This is great for Nintendo fans.

@TheFrenchiestFry This might be true for next gen PS5 games in a few years. Currently though, if it can run on Xbox One it can run on Switch and several excellent ports are proof of this, such as The Witcher 3, Wolfenstein: New Colossus, Hellblade or Alien: Isolation. Downgraded graphics, sure, but all with good performance and good enough graphics. Those are the type of ports I'm worried about losing. KH3 or FFXV could be ported too, but it would of course require much more effort and would cost more, so I'm worried companies will just take the easy way out when we as consumers and gamers deserve something better.

@Yanina It's cloud gaming. If the servers aren't close enough, they can't offer a fast enough game experience for it to work. Resident Evil 7 Cloud edition on Switch was fine in Japan, but anyone trying to access the servers outside of Japan found it unplayable.

@Imerion We'll see. Switch is so hot right now and the transition into a new console generation is actually worse for Sony and Microsoft than usual because Nintendo has nearly 70 million users and they currently have zero on their new hardware. The reasons some third party developers wouldn't bother porting to Switch a few years ago is because Nintendo has 12 million users versus the 75 million on PS4 or 30 million Xbox (at the time). But now it's the other way around. That and both companies are trying to keep their older fans by making many games still work on the base model PS4 and Xbox One, so I think we'll actually see an increase in Switch third party releases for the next two years rather than a decline. Too much money on the table.

And by the time the decline would start, Nintendo will have likely released a Switch Pro or at least announced the next generation of hardware.

The demo of Control got me excited to see if Xcloud will come to Switch..... So that I can just play the many games on my Xbox on Switch (that support Xcloud).
I am really tempted to double dip to replay Control cause I love that game.

@Imerion Actually Hajime Tabata did go on record stating they actively tried to port FFXV by transferring all the assets into Unreal Engine 4 from the Luminous Engine, but it was still way too graphically intensive for the Switch to handle without severe performance problems. That's why Switch got Pocket Edition instead of the full fat game in the first place.

Now that these cloud editions are a thing, the game can actually be feasible to bring over without any technical compromises. They definitely tried to find alternatives as evidenced by Pocket Edition's existence, so it's not like they were too lazy to port that game. The same could even be said for KH3 or FFVII Remake

I have a poor internet wifi. I live in Athens, Greece which in general, does not have great speeds. However, the game streams almost perfectly with no lag and out of 10 times I played Control I didn't have to wait more than 10 to 30 seconds. Many players on Twitter also say that it streams even better on Switch than in Xbox or Playstation having people asking how is this happening.

@JimmySpades I just see it as sprinkles on an ice cream. Doesn't make much difference overall, but it's a nice garnish.

@Ttimer5
All cloud games on Switch will presumably be handled by Ubitus, so don't expect XCloud on Switch unless Ubitus literally shuts down and Nintendo is absolutely desperate to find a replacement.

I'll repeat a comment I made previously:

Funny to see people here praise cloud gaming from Xbox/Google/Amazon as the "Switch killer", but then immediately turn around and claim that cloud gaming is unacceptable and undesirable when Nintendo themselves begin to implement it on Switch.

Oh more cloud gaming? Hard pass. I know it’s probably a losing battle, but I will not support this. Port it right, or don’t do it at all.

I'm not a fan of streaming games, even though my limited experiences trying some have been mostly good.

However, there is zero chance I support streaming outside of a Netflix style subscription like Xcloud or PSNow.

I'm super impressed. I have average internet, and properly setup wi-fi. Control in Quality mode looks amazing and played super smooth in handheld. Bought it after testing. Played 5 hours so far, and no problems. It's really impressive actually.

@Deltath Yeah I just did not know that Australia has a problem with that. Never occurred to me.

@Ubisoft

Please read this, bring your games also!
Asassin creed odysee, valhalla, Ghost recon breakpoint (love that game on pc).

@Deltath An increase in third party releases and a Switch Pro in a few years sounds like a good and likely scenario. Let's hope for that!

While some people I'm sure will like this I'm not sure I would like this at all. It's going to have artifacts similar to YouTube and I just can't stand the thought of not owning the game.

@westman98 xCloud is vastly different than what Ubitus is though. One is a rental service one is an out right purchase. You act like it’s same thing, but I seriously wouldn’t be surprised if other steaming companies try to get on Switch.

Also it’s not Nintendo teaming up to this but the publisher. It’s in the article.o.O

@mousieone
I am aware of the differences. I think I should have said Ubitus vs Azure rather than Ubitus vs XCloud.

@WiltonRoots Mmmmmmm... sprinkles...

@westman98 okay that makes more sense and less sense at the same time. I don’t see Nintendo using Ubitus exclusively as they would have said as much. And I still think Sega plans on bringing PSO2 to Switch via cloud using Azure as that’s who powers their global servers.

Good work on those titles!!
At least the current Switch owners like me won't miss out these big games. But I personally think, playing games natively is the main strenght of the Switch, and Nintendo should promote it more.

@mousieone
I just dont think Nintendo is willing to let Xcloud on Switch without taking their traditional 30% revenue cut, which Microsoft may not like. That's why I don't see it happening.

@kalosn
Nintendo has been promoting games natively running on Switch since March 2017.

That's kinda bad for anyone with a slightly underperforming internet connection. And since Nintendo's online as been botched at best, I'm worried at what those games will play like. I have one of the fastest internet connection in my province and Stadia STILL lags from time to time, so cloud games on the Switch are a no from me.

No matter how well it plays no way am I paying full price for access to a game that can then have your access removed with 6 months notice.

@fox_mattcloud I don't think this is aimed at people who have the other consoles. If you have PlayStation or Xbox that is the best place to play it. If you only have Switch at least now you have the option.

@Yrreiht bad for people with bad Internet. But good for people with good Internet. This game was only gonna come to Switch in cloud form. Better to come that way and suit some people than not come at all and suit nobody.

@PapaPedro Was surprised as.well.Just need to be closer to my WiFi

@blockfight I guess that's a fair point. At least they let you try out the game for a few minutes so you can test your connection before you buy.

Edit: So I've tried the Control "demo" session and it runs surprisingly well. Both my PC and Switch and connected directly to my modem and the Control demo was more stable than any games I've tried on Stadia. That's a very good sign.

If the system can't run it, don't put it out on the damn system. Hey, can I get a GBA port of a HOTAS-setup flight sim?

Hmm, I'm loving this !😄

@blockfight hmm,bad internet I know what it's like 😒

@fanguy that's one of the big downfalls of streaming. When it works great, it's great. But there are too many places that it's not good enough to run this kinda service.
I'd like to think I'm the next few years this will change. I'm lucky to be in an area with great Internet and no data caps.

@Dreamcast2Turbo So you would prefer if no version of this game came to Switch and deprive people who only have one console the chance to play this game? Why? If you don't want to play it that's fine, but why do you also want to deprive me of the opportunity to play the game in some form also? Seems petty.

If this is the future of third party games on the Switch, let us always remember fondly the efforts of those companies that put in blood, sweat, and tears to make graphics-intensive third-party games like Doom, Witcher 3, Hellblade, Warframe, etc a reality on the Switch. May their efforts never be forgotten regardless of what cloud gaming means for third parties on Switch.

@blockfight well ,maybe in a few years things Will be better in my area 😃

@Friendly i know it has been a bit but I finally tried it. 200MB internet, hard wired to switch. it was functional but I couldn't help but notice unpleasant stuttering quite a bit, especially when the camera was moving. I think I'll be passing on cloud gaming for a while.

@Susurrus fair enough.