Support NeoGAF

[LakeOf9]

One thing I wonder

Sony is now withdrawing from putting their games on PC. There are many reasons given for this, and I don't want to debate them again. However, one thing that undoubtedly allowed this decision to be made was that Sony's games on PC did not do too well. Their first few – Horizon: Zero Dawn, Days Gone, God of War – did, but everything since then has done middlingly to poor at best.

There are many reasons for this, of course – the ports got more mixed quality as time went on, the marketing started to be extremely lacking, the pricing got worse, the later ports were from PS5 sequels to PS4 games, which were more divisive with players, Sony enforced mandatory PSN logins, which locked out the bulk of the world which did not have support for PSN...

My question however is, if all else was equal – if the port quality for hypothetical Nintendo games on PC was at best the same as Sony's, if Nintendo Accounts were mandatory, if the ports were priced high, if the ports came much later than the Switch versions – would Nintendo's first party games do better than Sony's did on PC?

One part of why I am asking this question is that in a way I feel the PC venture broke the mystique around Sony's games, making it seem that they aren't anything special, just regular old games, and the prestige around them was more perception than anything. I am wondering if this is the case for all first party games, where their stature is more because of their rather specific and unique status, or if it was applicable to Sony, but maybe wouldn't be for Nintendo

 

[Raik]

Sony and Microsofts problem are that their exclusives are not as good as previous generations. Them being on PC has nothing to do with fact they are mediocre experiences. Smash ultimate would be incredible with good netcode *I play it with the boys on parsec pretty often* nintendo had some awesome games during the Switch. Not too impressed with the switch 2 yet though.

 

[SupremeJ]

One thing is for sure, if Nintendo announced tomorrow that it would be porting all of its games to PC from now on, it would be a huge joke for the entire gaming industry.

 

[Banjo64]

Maybe something like Smash would have sold well, Splatoon 3? The rest probably not, there's just not much cross over. The people that like PS/Nintendo games buy the hardware.

 

[Madserb2023]

No. I own Nintendo hardware because I like Nintendo games. I also have a PlayStation for the same reasons. I find it hard to believe there are people that are huge fans of the types of games Nintendo makes but doesn't have a Switch.

 

[LakeOf9]

Maybe something like Smash would have sold well, Splatoon 3? The rest probably not, there's just not much cross over. The people that like PS/Nintendo games buy the hardware.

I mean there's Zelda, Smash, Mario Kart, Metroid, Xenoblade, Fire Emblem, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, and perhaps most of all, Pokemon, from the Nintendo roster of IPs that I think could do well on PC. I guess the question is how well. Those are all games from genres that do well on PC (fighting games, racing games, RPGs and RPG adjacent games, strategy games, cozy games, and Pokemon)

 

[xanaum]

Nope. I mean, it depends. If Nintendo turns their games into live service stuff, maybe Splatoon and Mario Kart could do pretty well like Helldivers 2. But the single-player ones I don't think would perform much differently from PlayStation

 

[Ogbert]

Of course they would.

Mario and Zelda would sell absurd amounts.

But it would hugely diminish owning a Switch.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Yay! Another Boreof9 poll!

Again.

 

[Zacfoldor]

I think they would sell a lot better than Sony games.

 

[Hyet]

Look at Palworld. Even Nintendo ripoffs do better than Sony. The real thing would have explosive sales.

Not every game would be a smash hit on it, but I can't see then being a flop.

 

[HRK69]

Nintendo would make bank with the Pokémon games alone

An official, mainline Pokémon game hitting Steam, bad optimization and a mandatory Nintendo Account login would break the internet and comfortably pull in tens of millions of sales

 

[Magic Carpet]

I would rather have them on my iPhone. But I would buy all the Mario games on PC. The Nintendo games are too expensive to double dipp.

I think the reason Sony games didn't do as well on PC is because eveyone had already bought the games on playstation.
I'm one of the few who double dipped.

 

[owandeseis]

Much better, if they release MK8 in like a year on Steam, it'd get hundreds of thousands of simultaneous players (CCU), same goes for the latest Zelda games, that kind of game is very strong on PC, and Pokemon ones, pokopia or main ones it doesnt matter.

ALl these would do like 5-10x better than any Sony one, the rest like Donkey Kong wouldn't do that good i guess, not sure if im missing any other with potential

 

[Lionel Richie]

Look at the amount of hacks and fangames and decomps for each. This is almost a rhetorical question.

 

[Guilty_AI]

Prob, yeah. There is a huge scene for nintendo games on pc even without official support.

 

[Brakum]

Yes because their games are more unique. I know i would buy some and didnt buy any of the sony games.

It's also why microsoft has a lot of games that do very well on PC despite people saying their games suck compared to sonys output. There just isnt as much competition for forza, flight simulator, sea of thieves etc

 

[EN250]

No doubt about it, but they're not stupid and know they need to shield their IPs and gatekeep them with exclusivity for their systems, otherwise they could get Sony'd/Xboned

 

[ReyBrujo]

Mario and Zelda would sell absurd amounts.

I would say Mario Kart and Mario Maker would sell bonkers, but I don't think single player Marios would.

 

[Brakum]

Maybe something like Smash would have sold well, Splatoon 3? The rest probably not, there's just not much cross over. The people that like PS/Nintendo games buy the hardware.

Wrong. None of my friends group has a switch. If the games were on PC we woukd buy every single mario mutliplayer game. Mario party, kart, tennis, soccer. All guaranteed buys from all of us.

 

[Diddy X]

No, and it would perjudice the IPs greatly, Nintendo games exclusive to Nintendo consoles is the right way to go.

 

[Hudo]

Probably? I mean, Nintendo have the strongest first-party by far. It's an almost unfair comparison.

 

[Sintoid]

Nintendo does Always better in everything she does

 

[Fabieter]

People would bitch about the Nintendo store so no.

 

[tr1p1ex]

Well if Ps5 ports sold poorly and the best Switch games were put on pc then yes they would sell better.

I feel like I am dumber now.

 

[Fahdis]

Nintendo Fans: "NO" while their balls disappear deep inside their Gooch for losing their furry friends and mustached cuck to the PC crowd.

 

[Exede]

People would lose the Emulator Discussion with good ported Nintendo PC games.
To see this alone, would be super fun to see

 

[Ceallach]

"Would Mario, Zelda and Pokemon sell better than Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon and Helldivers"

Idk man, thats hard to say.

 

[Holammer]

Nintendo can get my money now or I'll just get the decomps later.

But yes, Nintendo games would do extremely well. Only a fool would say otherwise.
Despite being old, Animal Crossing:NH would easily sell 10M first month and I think the Splatoon series in particular would find a massive audience and grow the IP.
The Pokemon stuff a league of its own.

A native PC version of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with unlocked framerate and all the content included?

 

[BennyBlanco]

BOTW and TOTK did millions on PC anyway. They would be huge. But Nintendo would never do it.

 

[LavitzSlambert]

No, because they wouldn't do it at all. Nintendo likes to maintain control of their games and the way they're experienced.

 

[Neofire]

Considering how under powered Nintendo consoles are the PC platform would have a field day emulating/pirating everything single game that Nintendo even thinks to port over lol. So yeah to an extent it definitely would do much better.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Considering how fast the emulators get updated to support the latest releases back then, yeah, for sure they would do great on PC.

But that ain't happening.

 

[ssringo]

BotW and TotK would've sold gangbusters and the modding scene around them would've exploded.

 

[poodaddy]

I feel like every PC gamer I know plays tons of Ninty games regardless of whether they own any Nintendo hardware. I've literally never come across a PC gamer who didn't love Nintendo games, even if they hate them as a business.

Yes.

Very obviously yes.

 

[Impotaku]

If they did there would be endless threads bitching and crying about the prices saying they are charging too much.

 

[Puscifer]

One thing is for sure, if Nintendo announced tomorrow that it would be porting all of its games to PC from now on, it would be a huge joke for the entire gaming industry.

We got the original Pikmin on PC though!

 

[Holammer]

BotW and TotK would've sold gangbusters and the modding scene around them would've exploded.

Modding scene for Nintendo games is already pretty wild. But yes.

 

[MrRibeye]

We certainly would have seen more lawsuits

 

[Lokaum D+]

Of course they would.

Mario and Zelda would sell absurd amounts.

But it would hugely diminish owning a Switch.

i tought the whole point of a switch was portability and low entry price and to be fair, you can emulate 99% of Nintendo library on PC nowadays and even with that Nintendo consoles keep selling like hot cakes, so i dont think it would affect switch sales, but they would need to implement a play anywhere feature.

 

[Stuart360]

Some of Sony's games acxtually did pretty well, especially considering how old some of them were.

It sems Sony expected them to perform like brand new games or something though.

Still feel they will be back to PC once we are 2 or 3 years into next gen.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Some of Sony's games acxtually did pretty well, especially considering how old some of them were.

It sems Sony expected them to perform like brand new games or something though.

Still feel they will be back to PC once we are 2 or 3 years into next gen.

all of Sony games on PC sold well if you consider the really low investment to port them to PC, it was basically free money for Sony, they did a 180 with this cause MS hybrid console, otherwise, they would be pumping games on PC no doubt.

 

[Aressa]

If Nintendo games can sell on WiiU then it will sell on PC.