Discussion In your opinion, who supported the Switch the most and who'll be supporting the Switch 2 in the first year.

[Steve]

The Switch has gotten some fantastic support from third party developers, but who do you think has supported it more.

Since over the week there's been discussion how the Switch 2 support will look and before the Midori twist reveal, a lot of people were confident in Japanese support, since the Switch is the biggest market.

But after this and the MH hint thread, i have been thinking ,,who has actually supported the Switch the most''. and i'm quite confident saying it's the Western dev, especially Ubisoft and Bethesda.

Also in recent news Lego Horizon and Civil 7 will be receiving Switch ports, meanwhile there hasn't been much surrounding the big Japanese Dev, with the exception of Square (maybe) Like Atlus not releasing Persona 3 reload on Switch, was a quite surprise, especially considering the game is able to run on most machines.

and the main question is who'll be supporting the Switch 2 the most.

Or do you think it'll be equally supported.

 

[kirbyfan407]

I'm going to quote a post I made in the Switch 2 Speculation thread below that may be useful for conversation. I documented the first game published on Switch by a number of different publishers. It at least gives you a sense of the kinds of games different publishers prepared and how long it took for them to get onto the platform. It also gives my thoughts on a similar idea to your thread.

Currently, I'm expecting early support from Japanese publishers to show signs of growth compared against Switch. I'm unsure about comparing different companies against each other, though.

Incoming long post that maybe should be its own thread and coincidentally pairs well with @praisethesun's post above mine.

What do you think will be the first retail game from any or each of the following publishers on Switch 2? To give examples, I pulled the first retail game I could find on the Nintendo Fandom wiki's software list (example page), using multiple regions and their earliest dates as reference, which means some of these games had different release dates or never released in different regions. I'm not looking for games that will get Switch 2 patches (of which there may be many) unless you think they'll get a new retail box with a Switch 2 label.

• Ubisoft: Just Dance 2017 (3/3/17)
• Activision: Skylanders: Imaginators (3/3/17)
• Square Enix: Dragon Quest Heroes 1+2 and I Am Setsuna (3/3/17)
• Konami: Super Bomberman R (3/3/17)
• Sega: Puyo Puyo Tetris (3/3/17)
• Nippon Ichi Software: Disgaea 5 Complete (3/3/17)
• Nicalis: The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+ (3/17/17)
• Koei Tecmo: Romance of the the Three Kingdoms XIII (3/30/17)
• Warner Bros. Interactive: Lego City Undercover (4/4/17)
• Capcom: Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers (5/26/17)
• Marvelous / XSEED: Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star (7/20/17)
• Bandai Namco: One Piece: Unlimited World RED (8/24/17)
• 2K Games / Take-Two Interactive: NBA 2K18 (9/15/17)
• EA: FIFA 18 (9/29/17)
• Bethesda: DOOM (11/10/17)
• Rockstar Games / Take-Two Interactive: L.A. Noire (11/14/17)
• Xbox Game Studios: Minecraft (6/21/18)
• Nihon Falcom: Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA (6/28/18)*
• Blizzard: Diablo III: Eternal Collection (11/2/18)

*This one released earlier in the US on 6/26/18 under NIS America, whose first published retail game on Switch was Disgaea 5 Complete on 5/23/17.

Personally, I expect most major Japanese publishers to bring bigger games to the platform earlier. In particular, I expect Square Enix, Sega, and Capcom to show increased AA or AAA support within the first few months. I think Capcom's early Street Fighter II re-release on Switch provides the biggest potential for a gen-on-gen jump in profile with their first Switch 2 retail release.

I'm interested in seeing how EA and Take-Two Interactive's support changes, though it may stick to annual franchises at the time of their typical annual release. If Dragon Age: Dreadwolf is coming this holiday, could we see something Dragon Age or perhaps Mass Effect Legendary Edition early in the Switch 2's life?

Circumstances have obviously changed for Activision, Blizzard, and Bethesda, so I wonder what the first games (if any) will be from those publishers. Could we see a late release of the latest Call of Duty at launch? Without knowing the launch date of the console or what many publishers have planned for the rest of this year and early 2025, I know it's hard to say anything for sure. For example, will there be a new DOOM game to port? I also wonder what the first Xbox Game Studios game to get released will be and when. Could Sea of Thieves arrive on Switch 2 within the launch window?

I'd love to read any thoughts!

 

[Beanstar40]

I definitely see Mario and rabbits 2 getting another shot at life with a native port

 

[Lant_War]

Western had some really big AAA ports while smaller western companies all jumped head first into the Switch. That said, I expect Switch 2 to have PS5/XSX tier third party support.

 

[Dekuman]

Pretty equal with a slight edge for western support. Western 3rd parties significantly improved support, but it;'s the mid-tier and indies who showed up. Devolver/Annapura/THQNordics and all the indies put in a lot more work than Japanese devs on the Switch

This is offset by Japanese devs having significant support from the big brands, especially Square-Enix, Atlus , Sega and Cacpom.

 

[Barely Able]

I think it is hard to classify because it all depends if you mean major publishers or indies/lower sized operations. If it’s including all things, I would say western, but for the bigger publishing houses it was fairly equal. Lots of support from Square, Capcom, BandaiNamco, KoeiTecmo, Sega (can argue what level of support but games were there), but also had a lot of Ubisoft, Bethesda, TakeTwo, and ABK support from the western publishers. All in all, I think it was pretty good and will be even better going forward if the XSS/PS4 made games can be easily ported.

 

[Comic Obsessed]

I can see Square Enix being if not day 1, around launch.

 

[uncleoptimus]

Microsoft has been their top third-party partner

This is before the Acti-Blizz acquisition, which will further cement that once the "Call of Duty Support Clause" kicks in.

In other words, it will be Microsoft again in the Switch 2 era, hands down. They are just too dang big now.

After MS, this current gen's biggest supporter is probably Ubisoft or Square-Enix in terms of original title support. The latter had a good amount of Nintendo publishing support as well (Dragon Quest 12, Octopath 1, Triangle Strategy), dunno if that counts as a plus or minus.

 

[Aufhebung RPG]

It's still expected to be mostly Japanese developers. Capcom may once again make a portable monster hunter series for switch2

 

[rick_C]

The support come from 3P is depends on how much money they made from the platform. That is why i think Japanese developer are more willing to support Switch 2 (if you divide the devs as West/East only).

Indies sale are crazy on Switch, their sale on Switch is even more than PS and Xbox combined. so indies games love Nintendo the most.

Those AAA may not change their decision as AAA mostly don't sell well in Nintendo platform. Although the crazy cost may change some of them, but i still keep my expectation low.

 

[PixelKnight]

The bigger multiplat Western devs tend to show up with early ports, but the bigger Japanese studios are way more consistent.

The real answer is indies, worldwide

 

[Yavga]

I thought this thread would be about a competitive event where we assert our dominance over who is the bigger Nintendo fan, in that case the answer is me.

 

[gonanzir]

Although I think it's not good to simply divide game companies into Japanese and Western ones, if I have to choose one, I'd go with Japanese.

 

[Vantell]

I would say both equally. I think on the AAA side - Japanese studio's were more prominent I would say on the indie side western developers were more prominent.

 

[marialionza]

man i remember how much the doom and witcher 3 calmed and reassured the community. After those games, anything was possible and it was all up from there. still havent played them lol