Noticing a disturbing trend...

[spacecadet]

The system is a somewhat bone stock sorta custom but not Android Shield TV2017 system and has been designed to use the same developmental tools that the PC, Android, PS4, One and even PS3/360 used as well between Unreal 4, Unity, Vulkan, and the rest. It may fart out notably less polygons, but the tech aside is right there with it and games can be moved over just with a loss of roundness to things with less polygons possible.

 

Well, I'm going by what developers themselves have said when they're being candid and not just promoting a current or upcoming game on the system. Examples:

 

https://www.neowin.net/news/developing-on-the-nintendo-switch-is-a-struggle-according-to-developer

 

http://wccftech.com/nintendo-switch-requires-new-form-game-development-straightforward-home-console-development-bring-issues/

 

https://www.vg247.com/2017/01/20/titanfall-2-developer-laughs-at-the-idea-of-releasing-the-game-on-nintendo-switch/

 

etc.

 

Most of the problems are due to the hybrid form factor. Developers can't develop a game as either a home console game *or* a handheld game but as essentially both, so they have to think about things in a totally new way.

 

Maybe if the system continues to sell really well, they'll just start putting out some down-rezzed straight ports of PS4/Xbone titles and cashing in on whatever money they can make. But for now it seems like they're worried about that hurting their reputations (and probably not making enough money to justify it).

 

My concern is the chicken/egg thing. The Switch is selling well now despite not having many games, but will that last? And if it stops selling well, developers may drop any thoughts about potentially developing for the system.

[Rick Dangerous]

Games that i'd like to have on cart:

 

-Sonic Mania

 

-Every single Neo Geo game

 

-Namco Museum

 

-Shantae Half-Genie Hero

 

-Yooka Laylee

 

-Blaster Master Zero

 

-FastRMX

 

-Retro City Rampage DX

 

-World of Goo

 

Yet none are...what gives.

 

Holding out and sticking to physical from now on.

 

I DO like my cartridges. I DO want to own my media. Apologies if that makes me old fashioned.

[+atari2600land]

I WANT CARTRIDGES. I don't want to download anything. I had to buy Mario Kart 8 Deluxe because I thought I needed a game to go with it. I totally forgot about this stupid downloading games crap trend.

[Tanooki]

I've seen that argument worrying about porting stuff over and people then being internet trolls and whining how they're shoddy against PS4/X1 stuff, and there are plenty of internet assholes who would do just that. I guess it would come down to is the concern valid, or would the owners of the Switch just laugh them off as losers and trolls and want a game that scales up/down depending if TV docked or not as it can be carried on the go which is the big appeal of Switch anyway. Nintendo could have easily gone with a more beefy Nvidia arrangement (like the future Tegra/Shield sequel chipset) and just did a console like the other two with that but didn't.

 

Nintendo as far as I recall do not block people from making games just portable or just for the TV. There even is an existing game or two already as there is now that is TOUCH only so you can't play it in TV mode. So with that as a published and released known, if the worries are that bad, one could just forego the portable nature of it and push the docked mode to the extreme perhaps. It still wouldn't be as polygonally pretty as the others but would leave more overhead to work with. Personally I'd be happy if you started seeing some 720p versions of PS4/One titles scaled back to work in both modes or just one. It would give the library some more variety which isn't a bad thing as long as it didn't diminish it to a lame port box.

[Mord]

Nintendo and publishers can do what they like for their digital-only tendency, however there are "consequences" for going digital only. Main one being that there are a lot of people that are not willing to pay full price for a digital game no matter how much they may want it. I have no problem buying the occasional digital title, but it has to be cheap. Meanwhile if the same game is on physical media I'll be willing to pay more for it.

 

As an example, I bought Cave Story+ for 39.99 as a physical cart. It's the same price in the digital store - I would never even look at the game digitally even if it was 20 dollars. I picked up Blaster Master Zero a week or so ago digitally. It cost about 13-14 dollars. If it cost closer to 20+ I wouldn't have touched it.

 

I just don't place as much value on digital only titles.

 

Granted if the switch was Digital-Only entirely, I wouldn't have touched the switch at all, much like I refused to have anything to do with the PSP Go at any price.

 

I was considering getting Sonic Blast for the switch but if it really is digital only then that's out the window. I doubt I'll be interested in it enough to get it on any of the other platforms either outside of a massive flash sale. I'm not -that- much of a sonic fan.

 

I'll reconsider if I want it if it gets a physical release later.

[Tanooki]

^That's actually exactly what I've been doing and did do in the case of Blaster Master Zero. I won't pay more than around $15 at the highest for a mobile digital only game (android/ios) and rarely over $20 even if it's on something I keep a copy like GoG. I don't value non-tangible goods as highly, and greatly less so when I have no say or control over them at all at the publishers mercy. I've paid +$10 for games so far to get a real version vs a download, no problem with that at all if they don't want to eat the costs I will.

 

If Switch were a digital system I'd not have bought it too, same thing went when I had a PSP and Go appeared, laughed it off as asinine, greatly more so when they wouldn't honor original purchases that didn't fit into the UMD-less device.

 

Sonic Mania if it's not a screw up has some physical version coming in the european market if Spain based Amazon wasn't making up stuff. I'll wait and import it, simple as that, or do without. Sonic has been lousy since Sonic Adventure 2 and was still a little hot and cold before that a bit so I am not tied up in rose tinted sonic love.

[Keatah]

Most all game console manufacturers make systems that historically support their needs first. And they rely on naivety when it comes to selling digital downloads.

 

The learning process can take many games and several years - before users realize that once a server shuts down the game is gone and they're left holding the bag. See it all the time..

Edited August 17, 2017 by Keatah

[RamrodHare]

 

 

The learning process can take many games and several years - before users realize that once a server shuts down the game is gone and they're left holding the bag. See it all the time..

This is only an issue, if you follow the rules. I hacked my PSP years ago and have every game for it downloaded on an external hard drive. I sold all my physical copies right after hacking it. By the time they drop support for the PS3, I'll be ready for it too. I have all the roms for every system I've ever owned or wanted to own, from the 2600 to PS2.. Any system with the option to download games, should eventually be hackable, to play roms. There's also the option of Flash Carts, like the Harmony for the 2600 or the EZ-Flash for GBA. Is this 100% legal? No, but it's a way to keep the games after support for them has been dropped.

[Flojomojo]

[Osgeld]

[+atari2600land]

How can they make a game unplayable if I have the cartridge for it?

[Osgeld]

in the last decade and a half, very easily

 

I have a small graveyard of games from year 1999 that simply wont even try to run cause they are calling a ghost server, not console games, but it just goes to show, just cause you have a physical copy doesnt mean it is going to work

 

unless you are lucky enough that the game was popular enough for someone to release a crack for it so you can continue using it .... its kind of hit or miss on a PC, let alone a stock walled garden console

 

and yes some of those are on compact flash read only "carts" and read only secure digital (SD) "carts" heck I even have music albums that I can only access though 2001 era software on SD with it trying to phone home

 

welcome to 15 years ago in the PDA gaming arena, you think its going to get any better with "9 year old Johnny" trade a card systems always connected and mass storage

 

lol

 

the only thing physical media does for you in the post PS2 / XBOX era is save you a massive download, and hell even 5 years ago on PC all it did was auto update a steam code on some games, stupid dungeons and dragons game from "atari" bought the dvd installed 3 files and downloaded 2.9 gigs from steam .... in like 2010, that was worth the extra 5 bucks for the physical media I threw away the instant steam validated it and attached it to my account

Edited August 18, 2017 by Osgeld

[+atari2600land]

But I don't have it connected to the internet.

[Osgeld]

I never connected my psp to the internet, newer games stopped working

[+atari2600land]

I'm new to this, I guess. Explain how they can make games quit working even when my Switch isn't connected to the internet. Wouldn't they need it to be to make it stop working, or is there a clock inside to make it stop in a certain number of years, or what?

[Keatah]

Could be a clock, could be a number-of-plays counter. A record of the game could also be kept by the console. After 10 hours of play it either connects to a server or the console won't play it.

 

could be other things too.

Edited August 18, 2017 by Keatah

[Keatah]

A cartridge could also contain 99% of a game. And the other 1% acts like a key. A key that needs to check in with a server. And a cartridge, of course, is also able to be flashed and updated too. At least a portion is. It all depends what they wanna do.

[cybercylon]

Maybe some one pointed this out, but some of these digital only releases on the Switch are games that were already released digital only on other platforms (Steam, PS4, etc). I don't expect those games to get a physical release for the most part.

[Mord]

Maybe some one pointed this out, but some of these digital only releases on the Switch are games that were already released digital only on other platforms (Steam, PS4, etc). I don't expect those games to get a physical release for the most part.

 

Yeah, I noticed most of the games are the smaller games that never would have a physical release anyway unless it managed to do a limited release. That's why I'm not too surprised by the high percentage of digital only on the Switch for now - those digital types were likely very easy to port over, or were always planned for a release on the switch anyway. The big companies probably didn't even start considering Switch releases until April after seeing the Switch fly off the shelves - so that's going to take some time for them to actually get anything out.

 

Regarding making physical releases not work after a time, there's definitely ways to go about it. I doubt any publisher would be retarded enough to do a games-played counter on a physical release (yet. We're still tumbling down this shitstain of a slope) but there are games out there on the other consoles that are essentially multiplayer only - once those servers go away, so do the game. Other tricks to employ (Which currently would be as much of a dickmove as a games played counter, would be a game-time counter or a date check (which the game keeping track of the last recorded date so you'd have limited success at resetting the clock offline)

 

Then you have a game like Minecraft Story Mode which had a physical release that contained only 1/8th of the game (if you include the expanded chapters) on the disc. If you're getting that game after the servers go down, or even used prior to the game going down, you're getting just a demo disc. Additionally even if you bought it new, but had to get a new console after the console was removed from the marketplace, your full game physical purchase is now a demo as well. If they had the full game on disc I'd probably have considered picking it up, but with that kind of setup it can sit at the store.

[Tanooki]

At least give Nicalis their due though. Isaac and Cave Story, and with multiple more coming through 2017 into 2018 they have already propped up on game lists on amazon. Those are all digital games Switch is getting on the cheaper end as physical.

[Mord]

Oh I agree about those. I have Cave Story bought and plan on picking up Isaac eventually actually. My note was more about the bigger companies completely ignoring the Switch to even start serious development until after the public proved them and the critics wrong about how the Switch was going to fare.

[Tanooki]

At least they're starting to take notice and do stuff. Perhaps USF2 was a proving point for that tier. They sold in a matter of only part of a financial quarter nearly a half million units and they expected very little at all -- so now they're looking to not ignore Switch with Monster Hunter and we've got RE Revelations 1 and 2 remasters confirmed too. Then you throw other big fix like Bethesda with Skyrim vs ignoring WiiU and doing some kids medieval knights cartoon gamey thing for Wii and I'd call that a short term win so far. It just needs more short term wins to sustain a long run of it. Nintendo owners this time more than anything need to stop being 1st party blowjob masters and not just talk shit up and back it up, buy third party, prove them wrong. It can make change when they start pocketing a lot of change (which USF2 did.) They care nothing for whiny petition.org stuff or project rainfall crying, they care about cash. Pay up, they let you play up some more. Talk a lot of garbage, get garbage in return (if that.) Hopefully that finally has sunk in to the Nintendo groupies who have been screwing over people who want a bit more since the Wii and lesser extent Gamecube too on the back half of its life.

[omegadot]

With the Switch acting as part portable I'm not surprised. I tend to buy heavy hitters like Zelda, Mario, etc, on a physical medium but something like Sonic or Bomberman that are more quick jaunts I just go digital. The convenience when it's traveling with me is a pretty big pull.

 

At least it's not like the Xbone where the game is installed / basically downloaded anyway. The disc there is practically a liability.

[Mord]

At least it's not like the Xbone where the game is installed / basically downloaded anyway. The disc there is practically a liability.

 

To be "fair" to microsoft, they never wanted you to do anything with the disc beyond install the game to the harddrive to begin with and just have you connected to the internet every 24hrs or they'd brick yer console. (Not very portable friendly! )

[godslabrat]

I'm absolutely not happy about this, but exactly how mad I am still rests on what Nintendo does with their account system. I heard it was being revamped, but don't know much about the details.

 

In short, I worry about a portable being dropped or lost. If that happens, what happens to my digital games? On the Wii or 3DS, they'd be gone forever, unless I talk to a CSR who got laid the night before and is in an extra good mood. Has the Switch made things better?