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What's with the lack of third-party support for Switch?

We take a closer look at why there's very few third-party titles ready for launch and why there seems to be a distinct lack of exclusivities.

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There were no boasts of an unprecedented third-party support at the Nintendo reveal event last week. Sure, Nintendo put on a brave face and celebrated the fact that Bethesda will publish a game on a Nintendo platform for the first time, but even if Skyrim is exactly the sort of software Nintendo needs, it's hard to get overly excited for a game that will be more than four years old by the time it is out on Switch. And even Ubisoft, who have offered tremendous support over the last couple of major Nintendo launches (five titles on Wii and five titles on Wii U), seems to be hesitant in their support. Three ports, and only Just Dance at launch, isn't exactly overwhelming support. Activision brings Skylanders, EA will bring FIFA next fall - they tick the boxes, but it's hardly sending the message to potential Switch owners that they'll be catered for by the largest third-parties in the business.

The third parties themselves are naturally upbeat, as they tend to be at the launch of any new platform, but clearly something is amiss for third-party support to be this weak around the launch window. And so it is only natural to trust more in what you see as opposed to the reassuring promises of support you hear, but see little evidence of. There has been indications that Nintendo are managing things more so that titles are spaced out more evenly, but surely they'd want more than a handful of games at launch?

What's with the lack of third-party support for Switch?
Konami's Super Bomberman R is one of five confirmed day one releases in Europe.

There's better support from Japanese third-parties, however, which is understandable given Nintendo's standing in their home country and how well suited the Switch seems to be to Japanese gaming habits. Dragon Quest Heroes I & II may both be old in Japan, but to have that double pack at launch in Japan will certainly help.

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But there seems to be more to the lack of strong third-party support than just a natural hesistance towards Nintendo, given the failure of Wii U, and the relatively weak third-party sales seen even on the highly successful Wii. It was assumed early on that Nintendo's decision to turn to Nvidia and their Tegra chip would make it easier for third-parties to bring over their games to the platform, yet ports like Rayman Legends, Steep, Skyrim, Dragonball Xenoverse 2, and more won't make it out at launch when they're needed the most (and would sell the most given the sparse competition). That's not ideal for Nintendo who are trying to convince gamers that the Switch won't suffer from the same lack of support as Wii U, and not for third-parties whose best shot at selling ports is around launch time before there's a decent selection of exclusives and new titles out.

What could it be? Third-parties tend to shun things that are different, things that complicate their business model. The 32GB built-in flash memory is one such area. Where big third-parties are trying to push digital as much as possible, with both Activision and EA now relying heavily on digital income, it's not hard to see why they would be hesitant in supporting a platform where any sort of major digital sales will need to clear an extra threshold. These companies no doubt have all the data they need on what percentage of players are likely to expand their memory, and how the lack of internal memory will influence buyer behaviour.

What's with the lack of third-party support for Switch?

The online support is another area where Nintendo have lost third party support in the past. From what we understand, the once promised Battlefield game on Wii U never came to be as a result of DICE simply not being convinced by the online solution, and as we know, EA's support for Wii U went on to simply be a matter of honouring a deal of four titles they'd made with Nintendo early on. Now we don't have all the details on how Switch will work online, and perhaps it is something that third-parties will have an easier time to embrace (Nintendo accounts are a key component), yet the solution with an app will create some hesitancy. Again, it's different, and third-parties like things to be unison.

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Then we need to consider the technical side. Were we too optimistic in thinking that it would be easy to develop for the Switch thanks to the Tegra chip? Perhaps. The dual output solution is something that needs to be considered. Everything needs to work in both modes and perhaps this is why some ports are taking longer than what both Nintendo and the third-parties themselves would like. It may also be a consequence of dev kits arriving later than third-parties would have liked. This may certainly be a possibility, and it may also be that only a limited number were sent out, perhaps allowing smaller teams to finish ports, while bigger teams with more complex projects weren't able to work as efficiently as they would have liked on the new hardware.

What's with the lack of third-party support for Switch?
Breath of the Wild will carry the Switch on its shoulders at launch.

Are Nintendo rushing the Switch to market then? Possibly. They're well aware that Breath of the Wild is enough to sell in the console to early adopters, and while it's not ideal with this level of third-party support at launch, it may very well be secondary to Nintendo's dire need for a viable platform, as the Wii U is all but dead and the Nintendo 3DS had been struggling, that is at least until Pokémon Sun and Moon were released. The mobile market has proven successful for Nintendo, but not to the tune that they could delay the launch until the fall season in order to secure a more densely packed launch window. Nintendo found themselves in a position following the premature demise of Wii U where their hand was forced, but that's not to say the Switch doesn't stand a chance.

The distinct lack of third party exclusives is a worry, and is likely a result of a lack of faith in the platform as well as a lack of time from being clued in on what Switch is and receiving the dev kits to the actual launch. Without exact knowledge of the timeline, it's hard to say if this is a result of Nintendo being late in delivering information and kits, or simply the natural progression that more time is needed to produce games these days, particularly games looking to innovate.

What's with the lack of third-party support for Switch?What's with the lack of third-party support for Switch?
Rayman Legends are Skyrim are two ports we're going to have to wait a while in order to play once more, this time on Switch.

This is particularly troubling as the Switch offers new and interesting ways of playing games thanks to the many features of the Joy-Con. While Nintendo are likely the best at designing games with these features in mind, it would be nice to see interesting ideas from elsewhere as well. It may take some time to come up with this and perhaps some of the third-party ports will be enhanced with Switch specific features, but ultimately the Switch needs unique software to appeal to a broad audience and while Nintendo could do it by themselves, it certainly wouldn't hurt to have more support.

There is no doubt that there is hype behind the Switch. It's something new and different, and unlike the Wii U it is easy for people to understand how the new unit will be beneficial to them. That said, Nintendo has one huge problem and that's with software. If you own a Wii U, the first big exclusive reason to own a Switch arrives this summer with Splatoon 2, and even then it's a sequel that looks to be very close to the original in terms of gameplay. Third-parties could have been the solution here, but for one reason or multiple reasons they seem hesitant. If you're an optimist you might be saying that there's more to be announced, and while that is true it is hard to imagine much more will be revealed for the launch period and that's really crucial in terms of perception. Perhaps Nintendo rushed the Switch to the market, with a lack of software support as a result, or perhaps the software support is simply lacking as a result of how much faith there is in Nintendo at the moment. It's most likely it is a combination, nevertheless it creates a problem of perception that the new console could do without.

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