3rd party support including RDR,GTA V, and possibly CoD

In it's first year on the market, Nintendo hit on a killer release strategy for its new Switch platform. They realized that they could port games originally designed for their Wii U console over to the Switch, with little to no extra development expense. And since so few people had purchased the Wii U, most of those titles would be comparatively new to any casual fans who hadn't shown up for the Wii U. (which is a lot of them)

Around 9 months after the Switch's launch, Nintendo's diminutive new system is sitting on top of a sizable install base, and a lot of fans are describing it as having a very solid first year of software releases. A big part of this confidence comes from the numerous ports from previous generations. Mario Kart 8, Pokken Tournament, Splatoon 2, and even technically Zelda: Breath of the Wild are all prime examples of this strategy in action.

Now that there is actually an install base to cater to, 3rd parties are also beginning to eye their back catalogs, and consider porting older titles to the Switch. The recent Dark Souls example is just one instance. I would expect this trend to continue. Developers and publishers like having additional platforms, especially when software sales on those platforms tend to be strong. Scalable modern development is also more conducive to the kind of scale-down porting necessary for a platform like the Switch.

 
Richard, I’m not being patronizing when I say this, but that was the single most articulate and insightful post I’ve read anywhere on the broader perspectives of the switch

It’s a sheer powerhouse, as you said it’s so much packed into a diminuitive exterior. I find the convert ability of the console to be an extremely unique, practical, useful, and fun aspect of the “switch experience”.

The portability should,not be a hindrance to developers...if the Xbox 1s x or w/e the fuck it’s called can run a software piece, the switch can handle it.

It’s really a simple downscale from 1080 to 720....which isn’t really a big deal....the hardest thing is porting from native PS4 to other consoles....otherwise I think 3rd party companies may start side by side /dual code development for the FPS and res...
 
I for one don't mind the older games being ported, remastered, remade, etc. I haven't had a chance to play all the games I have wanted over the years.

Many of these games are new to the younger generation as well and anything that keeps the Switch successful is awesome. Being a Vita owner, awesome to see the Indie games being embraced.

Also seeing Nintendo plan out their first two years so well with all their first party games is starting to see that interest in 3rd party.

If they implement online right with cloud saves and some VC, I'll be a happy gamer.

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk
 
chrislisting said:
It’s really a simple downscale from 1080 to 720....which isn’t really a big deal...
Click to expand...
I'm not going to go quite that far. I know from experience that just shifting something over like that isn't always a matter of flipping a variable in the code. Sometimes it can require a significant amount of work, especially if the original game was created with one specific render target in mind.

The thing is, most games these days aren't developed with one render target in mind. In fact, it's quite rare for a game to be developed with one platform in mind, let alone render targets. For several years now, creating games in a more scalable manner in order to get them on multiple platforms with a myriad of different technical specs has been the standard, not the exception. And this is part of the reason why we are seeing down-scaled ports coming to the Switch. For a game designed with scalability in mind, a down-scaled port is easier and less time intensive. A lot of the graphical assets may already be designed for scalability, which makes the process even less difficult.

Since this trend is likely to continue into 2018, it's time to start taking bets on which older title is going to get a Switch port next. What game from about four or five years ago would be the best fit for the platform? Which would scale the best? Which would address a lesser-exploited demographic?

My personal pick is... Alien: Isolation. This is a bit of wishful thinking on my part, I'm a huge Aliens fan. At the same time, it does meet a lot of the criteria. It's reasonably scalable, the original release came out on PS3 and Xbox 360 alongside the PC and PS4/XBone ports. It caters to an under-exploited demographic on the Switch, there aren't a lot of horror games on the platform yet. It's a game that sold decently, but not spectacularly when it originally came out, so Sega might very well be interested in squeezing some more money out of it. And it got a decent amount of critical praise, making it less risky. An Alien: Isolation port release in time for the Halloween season 2018 would be fantastic.

 
Indeed, and since you fell on the subtlety of a key point, I’ll simply say you’re right, I was being succinct with my understatement, so to that I’ll just say simple doesn’t always imply easy.but you also seem to agree with me on what I perceive as a major point of gours, not only is it doable, it’s easier than the other way around, and it’s probably already halfway done by multi platform base or library coding, I’m sure
 
chrislisting said:
not only is it doable, it’s easier than the other way around, and it’s probably already halfway done by multi platform base or library coding
Click to expand...
Oh, absolutely. It is always easier and faster to remove detail than it is to create additional detail. Scaling things up requires way more work than scaling things down. And for quite some time most multi-platform developers have enthusiastically designed their games to be as scalable as possible, so that lower-powered systems can handle them. (as lower-powered systems are actually where the majority of gamers put in the most time)

And this is why it is so likely for us to see ports from a few years back. Games from that era are generally already optimized for the 720p-1080p range that fits just fine into the Switch's specs. For most of those games, an appropriate target build already exists, and most of the port work is in the back-end engine, to insure that it runs on the Switch's ARM architecture. If those games happened to be developed in an engine that is now compatible with ARM targets, than bonus. That makes the developers' jobs that much easier and faster. An Unreal or Unity game from that era would be even simpler to port, as both those engines supported the ARM architecture at that time.

I'm also kind of hoping that we see some Vanillaware releases for the Switch. But those are a little less likely. Vanillaware has been pretty Sony-focused for quite some time, and hasn't dipped their toes into PC ports yet. So Switch ports of their titles aren't really something I would expect just yet. If the Switch continues to do well in Japan in 2018, that could change.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top