Historically, Nintendo consoles have not produced a conducive environment for the flourishing of Western developed and published third party games. I know the Wii sold something like 500 million third party games, so I'm not talking as a general "third parties don't sell on Nintendo!" thing. More specifically, AAA games marketed at 18-40 year old males.
There's a lot of reasons for this. Nintendo have generally cultivated a younger audience along with those not so predisposed to the violent asthetic that has dominated western video games for 20+ years. The Wii didn't allow them to use the HD dev pipelines they spent millions investing in. The Wii U was just a disaster all round. After their failures on the Wii U, Ubisoft are basically refusing to publish any more M rated games on Nintendo consoles, and to this point, support from this segment again appears anemic for the Switch.
I get this - the Switch was very much an unknown quantity, with Nintendo coming off its worst performing console in their history. If I was a business manager at a Western publisher, I certainly wouldn't have been jumping up and down to support it.
However, all initial signs point to the Switch being a break out hit. Seemingly bar a natural disaster, it's on track to outs the Wii U LTD in its first year alone. The hybrid concept appears to be a hit. Nintendo finally have put out a system that supports up to date development tools and engines.
So the question is - will any of this result in a successful western third party publishing environment?
The big thing Switch has got going for it, more than probably any Nintendo console in history, is someone could look at a game (assuming feature-parity) and choose the Switch version because the ability to take it on the go is something that the PS4 and Xbox One can't match (no, internet connection + extra device dependent remote play doesn't count, even if in your specific use case it works). In a world where everything else under the sun is mobile, I think this is a huge selling point. Obviously not everyone will care, especially those who place a bigger emphasis on visual fidelity.
And that brings us to the big hurdle - power. The Switch gives up a lot here, but it's yet to really be seen exactly how much (I don't think we've got a single game yet that was actually developed for the Switch in mind, right?) It's got UE4, which is a plus. Can it do a pretty good approximation of your standard PS4/XB1 title at 720p/30fps? Or is the difference just too great to make it worth while?
Anyway, what do others think?
There's a lot of reasons for this. Nintendo have generally cultivated a younger audience along with those not so predisposed to the violent asthetic that has dominated western video games for 20+ years. The Wii didn't allow them to use the HD dev pipelines they spent millions investing in. The Wii U was just a disaster all round. After their failures on the Wii U, Ubisoft are basically refusing to publish any more M rated games on Nintendo consoles, and to this point, support from this segment again appears anemic for the Switch.
I get this - the Switch was very much an unknown quantity, with Nintendo coming off its worst performing console in their history. If I was a business manager at a Western publisher, I certainly wouldn't have been jumping up and down to support it.
However, all initial signs point to the Switch being a break out hit. Seemingly bar a natural disaster, it's on track to outs the Wii U LTD in its first year alone. The hybrid concept appears to be a hit. Nintendo finally have put out a system that supports up to date development tools and engines.
So the question is - will any of this result in a successful western third party publishing environment?
The big thing Switch has got going for it, more than probably any Nintendo console in history, is someone could look at a game (assuming feature-parity) and choose the Switch version because the ability to take it on the go is something that the PS4 and Xbox One can't match (no, internet connection + extra device dependent remote play doesn't count, even if in your specific use case it works). In a world where everything else under the sun is mobile, I think this is a huge selling point. Obviously not everyone will care, especially those who place a bigger emphasis on visual fidelity.
And that brings us to the big hurdle - power. The Switch gives up a lot here, but it's yet to really be seen exactly how much (I don't think we've got a single game yet that was actually developed for the Switch in mind, right?) It's got UE4, which is a plus. Can it do a pretty good approximation of your standard PS4/XB1 title at 720p/30fps? Or is the difference just too great to make it worth while?
Anyway, what do others think?
