We've seen some amazing ports on Switch, the most recent of which is the exceptionally good DOOM Eternal. While we know that Nintendo's console isn't as powerful as Sony and Microsoft's last-gen hardware, it's clear that in the right hands, it can still host some impressive titles.
However, not every game is destined to come to Switch, and it would seem that Desperados III – which is currently available for PS4, Xbox One and PC – is one of those games. Mimimi Games head of design Moritz Wagner was recently quizzed about the potential of a Switch port, and replied:
So we love the Switch as well, especially our boss – he’s a big fan. I don’t think it’s gonna work. We have been trying this for quite some time. It’s something that’s always coming up again. Sometimes THQ’s like, ‘Well, we could have these people look into it. Maybe they could make a port.
The thing is the game is very demanding – especially CPU, which is a big problem for the normal consoles already getting this game running. Which sometimes you might not believe it, because it’s not Red Dead or something, right?
… I don’t think that it’s gonna happen. I hope that it might at some point happen. We’re always reevaluating it if something new comes up, but the game just doesn’t really run. Maybe there’s a new version of Switch that is a bit more powerful – it’s something that we can look into again. I’m not quite sure if they’re currently looking to something, but not in the near future sadly.
Were you hopeful that we'd see Desperados III on Switch?
Comments (40)
My favorite kind of news. Thing that don't come to Switch.
THQ Nordic ports are rough at the best of times, so it's probably for the best.
As the power gap between consoles widens there's going to be fewer multi platform ports coming across to switch.
No point worrying about what we can't play on switch when we have titles like Silksong and MH Rise to look forward to
@Mr-Fuggles777 I wish more people thought like that!
Now, let's port Red Dead Redemption 2 and prove them wrong!
More power isn’t necessarily a good thing as development costs and times increase dramatically.
Look how many games are getting released on the PS4 / PS5 and Xbox series X, there’s literally nothing about apart from remasters.
At least with the Switch we’ve got a decent constant supply of software
I will state from the start that my knowledge of computing is next to none however, I have wondered if the reason some games can’t run on switch is because they were never efficiently coded in the first place.
I remember reading a piece from team Cherry who, if I remember correctly, chose to to back into the coding to optimise it to get Hollow Knight running just how they wanted on Switch. I think Nintendo utilises a similar strategy from the start (granted they understand their platforms the best)
Is it possible devs code games in a way that is so reliant on the power of current next gen systems that they can afford to be somewhat not optimised. So then porting to switch becomes problematic.
I know Witcher 3 on switch is not the prettiest thing but it runs and it’s a massive open world game with lots of NPCs. It handles lighting and shadows and draw distance etc. So I always scratch my head when for example, the team for Ori say they weren’t sure their 2D Metroidvania could run properly on switch. Am I missing something?
@meeto_1 spot on! This is why some games take up so much gb as they’re not optimised, not efficiently coded from the start. Nintendo are the masters of efficient coding
Watch the guy's words accidentally fan the flames of "Switch Pro Confirmed" in the fandom.😏
If they can't produce a satisfactory port for Switch, indeed, better luck in a few years with Switch's successor. No impatience here, especially somewhere I haven't yet played the first two games of.
I have no clue about games development but from the gameplay of Desperados, it really makes me wonder why the Switch is not powerful enough to run it.
The game doesn't seem to be very demanding and there are many similar games already available so I don't know what the issue is here.
It's more about laziness then anything. Devs aren't ready for hard work that and not knowing if Nintendo fans would buy said games.
@Yanina So Only the games you and your fans like matter to the gaming community? To hell with anyone else ? No bodies forcing you to buy any game but you’re happy no one else is given the choice ?
Super Switch now, please. Thank you. ♥
Well it's not Witcher 3 or Doom eternal either!
Gaming companys.. for the love of my bank account. Stop making games before we have a chance to finish or even start playing other games we have.. if its not a 10/10 new quality game.. it doesnt have much chance of gaining my money anymore.
@liljmoore the charts prove that Nintendo fans only buy first party games, look at recent top 10 game charts - Animal Crossing, Mario Kart, Mario 3d Allstars.
Where's Doom Eternal, Immortals FR, Ori, Bioshock etc?
Doom Eternal had nearly a year of extra development time and likely sold a lot less than on other systems - That must be a significant hit on profits.
A large percentage of the switches audience are casual gamers that only play the same handful of familiar games.
@Cromwell I was absolutely ironic.
I edited in a sad face to make it more clear. Even though I thought it was already.
Never heard of this game series so not really that fussed tbh. There are other great games on the Switch horizon to look forward to instead; MH Rise, SM3DW + Bowser's Fury, Bayonneta 3 & Metroid Prime 4 to name but a few.
@Mr-Fuggles777
That’s not entirely true. A lot of indie devs have gone on record to say their game has out performed the sales on steam and other platforms (sometimes even combined sales)
The current game in the Japanese charts is from Konami I believe and it has sold 300k, something like that
I said in another post but if devs put the right games on the platform they will perform. I honestly believe monster Hunter will shift at least 2 million globally this year. That is a perfect example of the right game on switch.
You are right that first party games outperform everything else and that is unique on Nintendo’s platform but hay they have the franchises.
Won't come to Switch even if a Switch Pro comes out, because then it would still have to run on the older one. There you go. No mid-gen refresh please, it won't help. Focus on the next system.
this is something i brought up in 2018 when the switch was starting to explode in sales: it doesn't matter how many millions they sell, if it can't easily handle current gen gaming without lots of hassle, publishers just won't release the games on it.
fast forward to 2021 and it stands true. Many interresting titles won't make it on switch. For some reason some nintendo hardcore laughed at me, but who's laughing now? Better to be realistic than to live in a fantasy land where big games release on switch.
there's a reason why, more niche, lower budget JRPGs get on switch: they're not the most demanding games and these series probably already were on the ps vita anyways (atelier and trails of are an exemple). Publishers see the switch strictly as a handheld and because of that, they have this mindset of "i don't think it's gonna work"
@HamatoYoshi
"Look how many games are getting released on the PS4 / PS5 and Xbox series X, there’s literally nothing about apart from remasters?"
You're being ironic right?
The last year has been an absurd outlier in most ways but Nintendo's output has been almost entirely port's this year.
@AJWolfTill but there’s still been more content than for the other consoles, look at PS5 now, there’s literally nothing to play
Not a game I would be interested in even if it could run.
@Mr-Fuggles777
Do you want to know why third party games don’t sell well? Most opt to partially put their game out on a physical cart but require a ridiculous download. Some don’t even put out physical at all and require a solid chunk of digital space on the system.
Consumers don’t want that, I am a consumer and that’s exactly why I didn’t but Boarderlands, Bioshock or Doom Eternal. Not after Mortal Kombat 11 took 26gb of space...
Now, have a company pull a Witcher 3 and put that whole beast on a physical cart and they’ll get my purchase right away.
I’d venture to guess that most other consumers would do the same.
@meeto_1 You got it, games nowadays are rarely coded efficiently, thus making more powerful systems brute force thier way to better performance. Coding a specific build for the Switch takes a lot of time, effort, and labor, as you know. So the Desperado devs opted to use a middleware game engine, Unity in this case, to make it easier to port. The downside is that a lot of "demanding" games made in Unity can choke, even on relatively powerful platforms, if it wasn't designed efficiently from the start. Which seems to be the case here. Too many processes demanding resources all at once, probably.
They shouldn't blame the target platform, they should get their runtime priorities in order and optimize.
@Zach777 the sales don't warrant the additional cost of the cartridge unfortunately.
Look at the sales figures for witcher 3 which was one of the more popular 3rd party games, it couldn't even hit a million copies on Switch - the xbox (which was second lowest sellimg) managed over 4 million. PS4 around 10 million and PC over 12.
If those are the numbers for a game that you say most consumers would support, what kind of numbers would borderlands attract?
@HamatoYoshi “This is why some games take up so much gb as they’re not optimised, not efficiently coded from the start.”
Large games are generally large because of multimedia assets including textures and audio, which may include localised audio for multiple markets. Nintendo’s titles are likely smaller because the majority of them don’t push a lot of high detailed textures and are often pretty sparse in the audio department (great quality music, but not necessarily a lot of recorded speech). Their games can also afford a lot of texture reuse due to their style where in a realistic looking title, texture reuse becomes more obvious and an immersion breaker.
Not saying Nintendo doesn’t optimise its games well, they do, but the file size isn’t necessarily a good measure of that. Something like BotW while looking beautiful, doesn’t necessarily have the best textures if you get right in on them. The game looks good in spite of that due to clever art direction, but games going for a more realistic look will take a hit in the assets department.
Measures of efficient code are better assessed by the sorts of things Digital Foundry look at including ability to hold frame rates and/or resolution, rather than just size on disc.
@Mr-Fuggles777
Well if we're keeping it 💯, the bulk of anybody with a popular system's base are casuals. I don't know why people keep thinking casuals are only a Nintendo.platform. There was TONS of casuals on the ps4 which is why I sold so well. Same with the ps2 & every popular console out there.. We just shake out head and laugh when we see people trying to apply the casual card only towards Nintendo.
@Tipehtfomottob
Yeah, me either. And it honestly doesn't look that appealing to be honest. There's already games that look like that on the Switch that I've asked by. So while I feel for people that may have been excited about that game, I'm okay with it. At least they put a game like the DarkSiders prequel on the system & BattleChasers that I would actually want to play.
@meeto_1
Not only that, but the thing about it is that they're bring up the fact that Nintendo games are always are performing others on Nintendo systems, but it's not just exclusive to Nintendo systems. Overall we've been seeing charts showing that Nintendo games are often outperforming games on other people's systems as well. Heck I remember a gaming article showing that in only six weeks on the market Animal Crossing had sold more than almost all of sony's exclusives out at at the time of its writing . A list that was including horizon zero dawn , spider-man, god of war, gran turismo sport and more Sooooo...🤷♂️
@masterLEON I presume the move to these top end SSDs means devs can get even sloppier? Unless the concept hinges around the one seen in the new Ratchet game (moving in and out of worlds on the fly)
@Mr-Fuggles777
The charts also prove th t Nintendo games sell better in most games on the market including other people's exclusive and third party games. There have been overall charts that we've been seeing over and over accounting for all three systems out there and yet Nintendo games are constantly charting higher than many games released. So I don't know if that's really saying anything other than that there is an extremely healthy appetite for Nintendo's games.
Like I said to another poster earlier there was a stat out there showing that Animal Crossing New Horizons had individudlly sold more copies than god of war, horizon zero dawn, spiderman, Gran Turismo sport and others in only 6 weeks of it being on the market. That's just apparently what their games do. Soooooooo...🤷♂️
@HamatoYoshi
For real though. My nephew wanted that damn thing so bad and now he finally has it, he's still playing on the ps4 that he's had for years more than he ever does his os5. He was actually a bit salty with me when I told him I wasn't willing to give him cash for stuff he wants for his ps4 now (as I'm often a sucker and do when he asks). I felt a little bad as I have a soft spot for him, but I was like "nope, you wanted to waste your Christmas capital on this system, so there you go" .LOL
@Casual_Gamer95
😴😴😴
@gameboy1975 by causal I mean people who don't normally game that have jumped on board with the switch.
My Mrs, Mam, Sister and Neice have all bought a switch/Lite simply to play animal crossing together through the pandemic. Apart from the Mrs (who plays Diablo and MarioKart with me) AC is the only game they have bought.
Saying that my mam has put way more hours into the game than I have (over 800 last time I checked), so who's the real "casual"?
@Mr-Fuggles777 yeah because Doom Eternals poor sales couldn't possibly have anything to do with:
Its was 9 months delayed
It cost more on the Switch
No physical
Yeah it must have been because Nintendo's gamers are casual gamers who only buy first party games...
@Mr-Fuggles777
Yeah, I got you there and fair enough. At least you actually understand the terminology and how it goes though. I'm just used to people thinking that just because they play on a certain consoles, buy certain games certain genres, or buy a lot of games but don't really get into many of them makes them more of a gamer than actually enjoying them and going at them like you said your mam does.
@Zach777 it's not the only reason why tho. yes, partial physical games don't help but people tend to forget that with a user base of near 70M, many people ALREADY own a ps4/5/xbo/xs or pc to play these games. And i'd be lying to myself if i said the switch version is still the best.
I would much rather have cleaner visuals and better performance in these games. And MANY people that play these types of games think exactly the same way.
The switch doesn't shine with third party games, it shines with the indies and exclusives and maybe some last gen games, but anything current gen needs ***** ton of downgrades, so naturally people that already own a better platform will buy them elsewhere than on switch.
edit: also, they come late on switch and cost way more by the time they reach the platform, it's also another factor to consider. If i'm offered the same game, one full price and the ps version half of it, but with cleaner visuals and better performance, ps wins my choice. i ain't paying more for a downgraded game
@Razer Doom 2016 only sold less than half a million copies on Switch which is probably a factor in skipping a physical version to regroup some profits.
Like you pointed out, a 9 month delay meant most "gamers" would have already bought and finished the game by the time it dropped on Switch.
It would be interesting to see sales figures from Crysis remastered which dropped earlier on switch and ran better than the other consoles at launch.
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