The Nintendo Switch Thread

[Shiny Gems]

1 minute ago, SupahBerry said:

I'm not sure if I'd buy that. Most Mini-Directs I know were focused on a single game, and I don't see how they'll add on to anything in the JAN-MAR lineup. Then again, we had correctly guessed from the Twitter posts that it would be a surprise unveiling, so maybe that theory isn't too far off either.

Well, remember the news before the Mini Direct saying Amazon had 18 Switch game placeholders to be revealed at a Switch event? I don’t think the Mini Direct covered all 18 games that were yet to be revealed. It was only around 15 minutes after all, if I recall correctly.

[Marcello]

Roughly 11 hours from this post, Nintendo is going to do some presentation of a new interactive experience aimed at kids and "kids at heart".

Quote

Tune in at 10pm UK time tonight to discover a new interactive experience for Nintendo Switchthat’s specially crafted for kids and those who are kids at heart.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-new-play-18th-january-7am-jst-2pm-pst-5pm-est-11pm-cet.17004/

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Misc-/17-01-2018-1328637.html

[Salamander]

A new game with some kind of peripheral gimmick, I expect.

[Marcello]

I don't own a Switch.

So this must be Metroid Prime 4!

Also

The Animal Crossing New Leaf game designer retweeted this.

[Graystripe2000]

Bandai Namco Singapore reportedly working on Metroid Prime 4, Ridge Racer 8 as Switch exclusives.

https://mynintendonews.com/2018/02/07/rumour-linkedin-page-suggests-metroid-prime-4-developed-with-bandai-namco-singapore-ridge-racer-8-exclusive-to-switch/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-02-08-yes-namco-bandai-is-working-on-metroid-prime-4

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Hard to believe,  but Nintendo is potentially doing a better job at selling people the idea of cardboard box more and better than Microsoft with their Xbox.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

IN recent news, it has been announced that Ark Survival Evolved will be coming to the Nintendo Switch.

With this being such a big deal, there's an interesting read on how they're going about, optimizing it for the Switch:

Quote

How they got Ark: Survival Evolved working on Switch

Port specialists Abstraction on Nintendo, hitting the headlines at GDC and creating its own IP

Christopher Dring

Publisher

Wednesday 21st March 2018

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Abstraction Games

This has been a good week for the Netherlands-based developer Abstraction Games.

The port specialist has seen its latest work - the Nintendo Switch version of Ark: Survival Evolved - debut on stage at GDC during the Unreal keynote talk.

It was a surprise moment for the company, which created a Switch port of the hit PC game in a matter of weeks - much to the delight of Ark creators Studio Wildcard.

"We did not expect to get a keynote announcement," Abstraction CEO Ralph Egas tells GamesIndustry.biz.

"But then again our client didn't expect us to deliver a build that is this advanced already.

"I got an email from Jeremy [Stieglitz, Studio Wildcard], who said our build was so robust and impressive that they've decided to demonstrate it live during Epic's keynote. That's big news for us.

"Most companies usually have a Plan A and a Plan B, and it's Plan B that they're banking on. But we delivered Plan A, and they didn't expect it. They wanted a first playable at this point, but we actually have created something you could almost send for certification. That's how we try to operate. They didn't expect that. And that's why they're all of a sudden shifting gear and doing an entire presentation at GDC."

Ralph Egas, CEO of Abstraction Games

The reveal comes at an ideal time for Abstraction. The firm is an expert in porting games and co-development, and has enjoyed some real success in that space. It has almost doubled its staff count from 20 to 37 over the last year alone. Yet when Abstraction's founders, Ralph Egas and Erik Bastianen, set-up the company, they really wanted to work on their own IP. And this year, after more than a decade, they'll get the chance to do that in a significant way.

We've covered the story of Abstraction Games before. But that was four years ago, and it's always worth a recap.

The studio was set up by Egas and Bastianen in 2007, who created the WiiWare game Potpourrii in 2008.

"It's not really worth mentioning," says Egas. "It was our first game. It was a puzzle game. It was horrible. The graphics were good, but they were actually created elsewhere."

Shortly afterwards, major mobile publisher Chillingo was looking for content to launch on Apple's new 'iOS' system. Abstraction decided to work with them on Potpourrii, and they fully converted the game for smartphones in just two weeks. Chillingo was impressed and started working with Abstraction to port some of its mobile games to other platforms.

This was done on a royalty basis. Some of the games never released, and those that did just about enabled the firm to break even.

That was until 2011, when the duo were handed a game called Angry Birds to release on PlayStation Portable. It was a huge success.

"We made money and we were able to hire our first employees," Egas says. "This was the first moment when we felt we were becoming serious business."

Angry Birds was the first moment it tasted success, but life as a port studio was never an easy one. Indeed, during its first eight years, the company just about covered its costs.

"There were a few times where I thought it wasn't going to work, and saying let's cut our losses and move on," Egas continues. "There were moments where we had to let people go, or we struggled to pay salaries on time. That happened only a couple of times, but the sheer tension of that situation was horrible."

"Switch is not as powerful as a PS4 or Xbox One. Everyone knows that. But the difference isn't as big as the general perception would have you believe."

That was until it teamed up with Koch on the Director's Cut of Deadlight, which was a co-development project. Abstraction initially pulled together a quote for the work, but it was advised by its agents to increase it.

"They were worried that it might look like we were too cheap, or not of high quality," Egas recalls. "There's certain value to the quality of work that you put out. We always ended up doing more development that we initially quoted for, so we really should be working with a bigger budget. It took me eight years to realise this. That has allowed us, over two years, to expand our business and keep growing."

Now the firm boasts big clients from around the world, including Deep Silver, Studio Wildcard, Tequila Works, plus Japanese firms such as Spike Chunsoft and SNK. Abstraction has built a reputation for delivering strong ports and quickly.

Today, the team is especially proud of the work it's managed to achieve on Ark: Survival Evolved for Nintendo Switch.

"Switch is not as powerful as a PS4 or Xbox One. Everyone knows that," Egas says. "Having said that, the difference isn't as big as the general perception would have you believe.

"In some locations you need to downsize a bit on the distance you're able to view. But not as much as you'd think compared with Xbox One and PS4. Obviously, in terms of Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, that's a different story. But compared with the base platforms, Switch is not that bad."

He continues: "Performance is not really the issue. The issue instead is in the size of carts. The 32GB carts are expensive, you shouldn't be wanting to do that. So we need to fit everything on 16GB, whereas the standard game on PS4 is much, much larger. It's a crazy ratio we're talking about. However, thankfully, there are a lot of opportunities for reduction without changing anything anyone will notice. Another thing we can do is do a cartridge version and then do staggered downloads to make the game complete. That's probably the hardest part. Finding all the new technicalities and quirks that you get with a new platform.

"Of course, with the runtime memory footprint, there's not as much as PS4 or Xbox One, so that means you need to reduce the content that is being used at any one time. Partially that's a case of having fewer dinos here or there, and downsizing on actual content experience. But that's only a bit. The rest is just from clever compression algorithms."

A pre-alpha shot of Ark on Switch

Abstraction still has a few months left to work on the Switch version of Ark, but it's already reached what it calls the 'tailoring' phase.

Whenever it works on a conversion, the developer starts by getting a straightforward port completed.

"That's basically getting it to run on your target platform, but not in an ideal way," Egas says.

"Maybe the controls aren't quite right yet. Perhaps we've just mapped a mouse pointer to the analogue stick in a console port of a point-and-click PC game. You can still play the game and still complete it, but it's probably going to be horrible. That's a straightforward port. And I kid you not, there are companies out there that have done ports like that and released it. We obviously don't do that."

After the basic port, Abstraction then moves to tailoring - making sure the controls, the UI, the achievements and even (sometimes) the content is suitable for the new device.

"It's about making it into a product that the customer on that target platform is going to love," he explains. "Because they only know their platform. And they are accustomed to certain things on their platform for every game they play. That's very important. That's what we do."

With Ark: Survival Evolved for Nintendo Switch, Abstraction is already into the tailoring stage.

More Ark on Switch

"Studio Wildcard only asked for a first playable. That's not even a straightforward port. They just want to be able to play it, but maybe sound isn't there yet. Or no cutscenes. Or not all the controls are implemented yet. Maybe you can walk and do this and that, but you can't craft anything yet. That's a first playable and that's what we agreed. But we went all the way and did a straightforward port on every sub-system, and then some. We still have some work to do, but it's already running close to 30fps in most cases."

The game, along with several other projects, will be completed by the summer. Which is when Abstraction will go on the next stage of its journey. A decade on from Potpourrii, the developer is looking to return to creating its own IP with a separate team.

"Now we're in a good position with very nice clients and ample financial means to fund our own game," Egas says. "And I am talking a substantial game, a bit like what Ninja Theory has just done with Hellblade. The way they did the independent AAA thing, and how they achieved that... I realised that's what we need to do. So that is what we're going to pursue from July 1st. For that reason we need more people onboard. So we're looking to go from 37 people to around 57 in just a few months time."

"Now we're in a good position with very nice clients and ample financial means to fund our own game. And I am talking a substantial game, a bit like what Ninja Theory has just done with Hellblade."

Abstraction says the key for them is attracting skillful people that fits with the studio's social and cultural ethos. They're also looking to ramp up in the creative department.

"Erik and I are both programmers, so we started the company as engineers," says Egas. "Over the years we've tried to catch-up with the creative side, because you need those - not just for our own game, but also for co-development. We are now covered in the creative department as well, but it's not as big as the tech department, and that's partially why we're looking for people. We need a narrative designer, for instance. We are in a position where we're seeking that kind of specialism."

Egas says that Abstraction remains proud of its porting abilities. The company has found a technique that works for them, which enables them to perform impressive feats quickly - Ark: Survival Evolved being the latest example.

So porting will remain central to its business, even as it looks to build its own independent AAA project.

"We are still going to do our bread and butter thing," concludes Egas. "Why would we stop that? It's a very viable business. So we are still going to do what we've been doing for the last ten years.

"But we will add this team that will work exclusively on their own IP. I imagine there will be people who go back and forth between the two divisions. Because someone might be good at doing X or Y, and can help the other team on those things. That remains to be seen. But looking at the business model for this year, I know we're going to need more people. And I know exactly the people we are going to need.

"So the news this week, with Ark being on stage, couldn't have come at a better time."

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-03-21-how-they-got-ark-survival-evolved-working-on-switch

It'll be keenly amazing to have this game on the go and functioning properly for whatever optimizations are made if they succeed truly!

[tailsBOOM!]

I need a Switch... I already have Forces but not the system to play it on... My priorities are a bit off...

[JaidynReiman]

10 hours ago, tailsBOOM! said:

I need a Switch... I already have Forces but not the system to play it on... My priorities are a bit off...

Well, Forces is on PS4 and Xbox One as well...

[Ashwalking Bat]

I've got a Switch and I have a few great games to play. Though I am looking forward to Metroid Prime 4, getting my hands on LOZ Breath of the Wild, and defiantly going to smash stuff up in the new Super Smash Bros. game that'll be coming to the Switch.

[Harkofthewaa]

Reposting from a status. Basically what happened is that the Switch's Tegra chip has a security flaw that can't be fixed. So now the Switch has been blown wide open, which is really going to hurt, especially this early on.

[Blue Blood]

A hardware revision would sort this, and it's likely that Nintendo and Nvidia will have a revision out sooner or later. They might even have one in the latest factory batches. But the Switch has already sold in its millions - the damage is ready to happen. 

[Harkofthewaa]

Yeah, I'd say that newer batches of Switches will have the problem fixed. Which means the old ones will end up commanding outrageous prices on E-Bay, kinda like J-Taggable Xbox 360's.

[Meta77]

So I can download free games now?

[Kapi]

6 hours ago, Blue Blood said:

A hardware revision would sort this, and it's likely that Nintendo and Nvidia will have a revision out sooner or later. They might even have one in the latest factory batches. But the Switch has already sold in its millions - the damage is ready to happen. 

I think it was found that in one of the recent updates, a mention of a new SOC revision was found. I've seen estimates on Reddit for release possibly as soon as July, but there's not much Nintendo can do now to mitigate the damage. Then again, I can't help but think all the banwaves on the 3DS were just practice for the Switch.

[SupahBerry]

So here is when you can get a first look on what to expect from the Online Service.

 

This could mean danger coming so shortly after the exploit was revealed. If this system fails to satisfy it's users, they may turn to piracy methods more. It could even lead the console's swift and brutal undoing....

[Harkofthewaa]

It won't happen, but the best thing Nintendo could do to save face for the exploit (which will mean inevitable hacking/cheating) is roll out the new online service for free, at least for long enough so they can show the world what it can do and why one would want to pay for it in the first place. A trial period, if you will.

[SupahBerry]

Isn't the fact we can play online in games for free right now considered it's "trial period?"

[Harkofthewaa]

I know that, but this online service is supposed to be something new, right? 

[SupahBerry]

Hence my concern for it. This service will be the make-or-break keystone for the Switch's future, especally regarding whether or not things like a real Virtual Console will be part of it. Nintendo had been lagging behind in terms of online in past, so they've got to prove that they can make a difference.

They can make some of the best games of all time exclusivly on it, but it won't make much a differnce if it's online aspects bring it down. Many of their consumers and third party companies could stop supporting them altogether. That's why I hope that Nintendo can pass this test. Cause it's gonna be huge.

[Meta77]

Make or break? and the systems flaw hardly does anything against online. You could get a game yes but few things . 1 you'd still need the games file to install any homebrew to it. 2. To play any title online will still require a few. 3. If it's anything like ms or sony if they see your using a hacked game since you'd need to connect to online for updates they could just ban your account since it's not a patchable fix

[Ryannumber1gamer]

On 4/27/2018 at 6:34 AM, SupahBerry said:

Hence my concern for it. This service will be the make-or-break keystone for the Switch's future, especally regarding whether or not things like a real Virtual Console will be part of it. Nintendo had been lagging behind in terms of online in past, so they've got to prove that they can make a difference.

They can make some of the best games of all time exclusivly on it, but it won't make much a differnce if it's online aspects bring it down. Many of their consumers and third party companies could stop supporting them altogether. That's why I hope that Nintendo can pass this test. Cause it's gonna be huge.

I mean, I'd argue they've already proved to still be behind in regards to online. To the sheer fact it utterly shocks me that Nintendo still have the guts to go through with this charged online service when their service is so totally lacking in comparison to Xbox and PlayStation. Off the top of my head:

• In general - online connectivity for the Switch sucks. It's insane that I can play Overwatch with few lag spikes on my PS4 but in the very same room, I constantly drop connection on Splatoon 2. 
• Nintendo are extremely poor with consequences of dropped connections. Combining with the above issue of the Switch's absolutely shit connectivity, I have to keep risking a penalty in games like Splatoon 2 because of dropped connections that come completely at random. Like seriously, it wouldn't be so bad if it was lag spikes or something or other, but it literally goes from full 60fps online play with no drops or latency issues right into a dropped connection. 
• Games are STILL locked by region for online. This one is a total joke and has killed a lot of the enjoyment for me when it comes to games like Splatoon 2. Just a week or so ago, @Kaze no Klonoa wanted me to help out with a Splatfest group (which for the record would've been the first time I actually took part in a Splatfest) only to disappointingly find out that it was region locked and I couldn't be apart of his group. This massively impacts and harms the fun of online and the only other game I can think of not inflicted by the issue is Mario Kart 8 and possibly Xenoverse 2. 
• The friend system is still pretty terrible. There's no messaging service for Switch, and there isn't even an invite system that I'm aware of. Games like Mario Kart 8 still frustratingly requires you to set up a whole room and make plans offline to have people join. With SSMB Game Night which had a lot of games on Wii U like MK8, Splat 1 and Smash U, I REALLY was hoping for some kind of proper invite system but that's out the window once more.
• Virtual Console games, especially if it's only for NES/SNES games is absolutely lame as something to give players to pay for their online service. If I'm paying up for that service, I want something comparable to the other platforms like PS4 and Xbox One - I.E - full games that will last me longer than a few hours at best. PS4 is only now beginning to offer Triple A games for PS4 as opposed to indie stuff and smaller titles while Xbox has been offering bigger games for much much longer. If Switch is seriously considering this cost for something that's nowhere near the same point of value, that's a total joke.
• Lack of apps. The Switch has no video streaming apps like Netflix, YouTube or anything else. I'd consider that an absolute necessity for something like the Switch, especially when the PS Vita and 3DS bare minimum had YouTube apps.
• Various missing features. No trophy/achievement system, no voice chat, no parties, no aforementioned messaging service, no Miiverse, nothing that actually makes the Switch stand out. It's been 10 years since the Wii's release and we are still lacking common online features. The very concept that they want us to pay for online service when their own service is so utterly lacking is downright insulting.

[Zaysho]

37 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

The friend system is still pretty terrible. There's no messaging service for Switch, and there isn't even an invite system that I'm aware of. Games like Mario Kart 8 still frustratingly requires you to set up a whole room and make plans offline to have people join. With SSMB Game Night which had a lot of games on Wii U like MK8, Splat 1 and Smash U, I REALLY was hoping for some kind of proper invite system but that's out the window once more.

I think that separate phone app was sort of how they were trying to do matchmaking at the time but I don't think it was a good solution for that kind of thing (it was pretty dumb in general). No idea if it's still being used or not.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

8 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

I think that separate phone app was sort of how they were trying to do matchmaking at the time but I don't think it was a good solution for that kind of thing (it was pretty dumb in general). No idea if it's still being used or not.

I just heard the way Splat 2 handled matchmaking/voice chat was despised by a lot of people. Either way, using a smartphone sort of shows another issue with Nintendo, they're so desperate to try be different that they lose focus of just making things simple and easy for the user. 

Doesn't help that Sony has done the same thing fifty times better. You can use PS' messaging service from their apps. 

[Kaze no Klonoa]

9 minutes ago, Zaysho said:

I think that separate phone app was sort of how they were trying to do matchmaking at the time but I don't think it was a good solution for that kind of thing (it was pretty dumb in general). No idea if it's still being used or not.

The phone app was made to have voice chat function while having a private lobby (pvp or salmon run) with friends, and nothing else. You can't use it to connect with friends in ranked, turf war, or league. It's kind of like Nintendo forgot about the app, I only have really used it for Splatoon 2 stats and the SplatNet shop feature.