Thoughts on Switch from third-parties
Polygon published a pretty big feature on Switch today. The site has a ton of comments from third-parties (and other industry members) about the new system, including general thoughts, why they’re supporting it, and more. Suda51, Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono, and SEGA’s Takashi Iizuka are just a few of the people who participated.
We’ve picked out some highlights from the piece below. You can find a ton of additional comments in the full article here.
On the system itself
Omar Cornut (Co-founder, Lizardcube, programming Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap on Switch)
For me the big thing was local multiplayer. I love the spirit, and the console shipping with two Joy-Con, as well as being portable, makes it a strong contender to be the queen of local multiplayer consoles.
Yoshinori Ono (Series producer, Street Fighter, overseeing Ultra Street Fighter 2 on Switch)
When Nintendo gave us a presentation on the Joy-Con that attached to the side, showing that you can remove and play on small controllers like with the NES and SNES, I remember thinking, “Oh! If it looks like this, we can create an environment where players can casually enjoy fighting games [anywhere].”
Mobeen Fikree (Owner, Vertex Pop, designing and programming Graceful Explosion Machine on Switch)
The one thing we were really intrigued by is the HD Rumble. … Generally rumble has been a very low fidelity output device. It kind of rumbles or it doesn’t, and you don’t have a lot of control over how it feels. And you also don’t have a lot of control over directionality. But with HD Rumble, you can make something come out of the left motor but not the right one — you know, the left side of the device can rumble but not the right. … It’s kind of like surround sound.
Goichi Suda (CEO, Grasshopper Manufacture, directing untitled Switch game)
I’ve worked with Nintendo on lots of different projects, and I think most of the time Nintendo does a good job of challenging developers with new ideas. … That’s kind of the essence of game design. So this time, I feel like Switch is new and offers something really interesting. … Being able to go from a handheld to a console hooked up to your TV is pretty cool and revolutionary. For example, a game like The Silver Case [an adventure game Suda is working on, which has not been announced for Switch] would be perfect because that’s something where the story makes you want to keep going and take it with you.
Takashi Iizuka (VP of product development, Sega of America, overseeing Sonic Mania and Sonic 2017 on Switch)
When I first heard about [Switch back when it went by the codename NX], I felt there was a lot of appeal in being able to enjoy a console gaming experience whenever and wherever you wanted. … [In the future] I’d like to see them further expand on the diversity of the hardware by maybe making a smaller, more shock-resistant version for younger gamers, a supercharged docking station for additional performance or even a larger size screen version of the Switch that would all be compatible with the same software.
On the return of classic games
Omar Cornut (Co-founder, Lizardcube, programming Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap on Switch)
SF2, Bomberman, Puyo Puyo are probably here mostly because they are brilliant local multiplayer games, and that works out well on [Switch]. Also maybe the fact that they are big, established, Japanese publishers with long-running ties with Nintendo helped to get them onboard early? As for us, we started showing our game to Nintendo last year and eventually they came to us and offered to [let us develop for Switch].
Takashi Iizuka (VP of product development, Sega of America, overseeing Sonic Mania and Sonic 2017 on Switch)
We first heard about the other Switch titles at the Nintendo announcement event, and we noticed that same point about the lineup. For Sonic Mania, the concept for the title came out of our conversations surrounding the 25th anniversary of Sonic the Hedgehog and how we wanted more than just a port of the classic titles, but a brand-new title with the design and gameplay aesthetics of the original. It was just a coincidence that it was announced alongside other classic franchises; Nintendo never approached us about that.
Tetsu Katano (Producer, Sega of Japan, working on Puyo Puyo Tetris for Switch)
The fact you can share the controllers, which is called “Osusowake Play” in Japanese … that was a big factor [in why we ported Puyo Puyo Tetris to Switch]. … This is a competitive puzzle game, and the ability to easily invite your friends to play by simply handing them the controller makes it particularly suited.
Noriaki Okamura (Producer, Konami, working on Super Bomberman R for Switch)
While I can’t share specifics about our discussions with Nintendo due to confidentiality reasons … the Switch’s multiplayer features, including its social abilities to play with friends … played a big role in [why we made] Super Bomberman R. … I wanted to make a Bomberman game like the SNES Super Bomberman series because it was simple and fun for everyone. But I knew I couldn’t just port the game. In order to develop it for a new console, I had to make it new.
Yoshinori Ono (Series producer, Street Fighter, overseeing Ultra Street Fighter 2 on Switch)
When Nintendo presented their concept for how to enjoy the Switch, I interpreted it as, “This is a platform where you don’t have to be restricted by opportunities, places and situations where you play games.” I’m sure there were a lot of creators and team members that felt the same way, so I imagine that inspired them to bring other popular games from the past back. … At the very least, that’s how Ultra Street Fighter 2 came to be. … Since Street Fighter 2 spread around the world on SNES … we thought it made perfect sense for us to develop Ultra Street Fighter 2 for the Switch and get as many players as we can to play Street Fighter 2 again on a Nintendo console.
On third-party support
Christian Svensson (Chief Operating Officer, Sixfoot, publishing Rime on Switch)
I think it’s still early. That’s the big thing I would say. … The other part of this is the nature of ports depends on how ambitious you’re gonna be. The minute you start adding new inputs, you’ve almost changed what the game is … and the design has to change for it not to be a bolted-on gimmick. … You know, we gave some thought to, could we make any use of the touch-screen elements [on Rime]. But we backed off of that in the end. We felt it would be a little too forced for what the game was, and instead we opted more for a straightforward play.
Mobeen Fikree (Owner, Vertex Pop, designing and programming Graceful Explosion Machine on Switch)
We started working on GEM before there was a Switch. There was just an NX, right? So I think that now that we’re working on it, we’re thinking of new ideas. Like, “Oh, this would be so neat. We should do this for the Switch.” And so I think a lot of the games now, apart from the Nintendo first-party games, are games that are asking themselves, “How can we best take advantage of the Switch?” Whereas in the future are going to be like, “We should make this idea [specifically for the] Switch.”
Christian Svensson (Chief Operating Officer, Sixfoot, publishing Rime on Switch)
Our reasons for [porting Rime] were we wanted to reach a broad audience, and it’s the type of game that feels like it belongs on a Nintendo platform. I don’t know that you could say that for every game out there. Everyone’s gotta have their own reasons for porting. From a technical perspective, the amount of work is not trivial. There are definitely easier platforms to get to. Without getting into details, a lot of it has to do with RAM limitations relative to the PS4 and Xbox One, as an example. So it’s a trickier — even notwithstanding processing differentials between those platforms. As far as why more people are doing it, here’s an obvious one: better support for certain engines. Obviously Unreal never existed on Wii U or 3DS, and it exists — or will more properly exist eventually — on Switch. … That’s a huge thing. I think there are certain tools that exist on Switch, for performance and optimization, that never existed on Nintendo platforms before. It’s a huge step forward on those fronts. So maybe that’s what’s giving developers a little more confidence to say, “You know what? We can figure this out. We’re not sort of feeling our way through the dark.”
Mobeen Fikree (Owner, Vertex Pop, designing and programming Graceful Explosion Machine on Switch)
Our experience with Nintendo has been great. They’ve been a good partner. The tools have been really good. The development tools have been — I’ve worked on a lot of different systems, and this is up there. It’s really good. It was really easy to get started with. The tools are really good. The documentation is really good. …
I think that Nintendo — people will be like, “Oh, they don’t reach out to third parties” or whatever. But we actually got started talking to Nintendo because I tweeted Damon Baker. That was it. And he was like, “Yeah, sure — we can meet.” And that was it. So I do think they’re pretty approachable.
Takashi Iizuka (VP of product development, Sega of America, overseeing Sonic Mania and Sonic 2017 on Switch)
In 2015 Sega of America formed the “Sonic Pillar” encompassing all elements of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise into one business unit with the directive to bring the appeal of Sonic to as many people as possible. Since the Sonic Pillar goal is to engage the worldwide audience in the characters and content from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, we are broadly supporting the development of a TV show, mobile games, licensed products and theatrical content with various partners for international markets, in addition to developing multiplatform console titles to reach as many users as possible. …
This shift [didn’t have anything to do with low sales], but a shift in the direction of where to take the brand. We want to bring our games to as many people as possible, which is driving us to multiplatform development for our titles.
Goichi Suda (CEO, Grasshopper Manufacture, directing untitled Switch game)
It wasn’t so much that we intentionally skipped the Wii U so much as we already had other games in development, and we didn’t really have the manpower or the resources to do anything else. So it just kind of happened that most of our time was naturally spent finishing Let it Die. And as luck would have it, towards the end of that game’s development cycle we heard Switch was coming so the timing gave us a good reason to connect with Nintendo again. It really wasn’t that we wanted to skip the Wii U!
Josh Taub (Senior vice president of product management, Activision, overseeing Skylanders Imaginators on Switch)
Game development requires careful consideration to ensure fans have the best possible experience. The digital library was no different. Arguments for doing it included that Nintendo has done a great job with the console and gives people a slick way to bring toys into the game. On the other side, as the pioneers of the toys-to-life experience, we taught fans how to bring toys to life in a certain way [and weren’t sure we wanted to abandon that].
