Nintendo Switch Sure Has Turned out to be a Ports Machine

[Nz17]

Seriously, there are far too many games for the Nintendo Switch which are just ports from another console or computer. Sure most of these have additional content, or they're running at a higher resolution, but there are far too few original games. Have you seen the Nintendo news lately? They just finished announcing several new ports of games from the Wii U to the Switch beyond just Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. And if word is right, they will also be releasing Pokemon Ultimate Sun and Ultimate Moon on Switch which is basically Pokemon Sun and Moon but with an alternative storyline, and they're supposedly releasing Super Smash Bros. 4 with all the DLC included on-disk for Switch as a "Deluxe" variant.

I realize that this is a cheap and effective way to quickly bolster your number of games, but with so many big and indie ports being released for the Switch, it feels like it's just reheated leftovers from the other consoles. OK, sure, you might say that about a lot of games that got ported to the current PlayStation or Xbox, but with so many of these games being either so old now - or conversely - games which seem like they should have stayed on their original consoles, it just appears like the Switch is a great way to spend a lot of money to play a bunch of games that you could have played much more cheaply on other consoles/computers, and that people are buying these games as justification for their expensive console's purchase and so that they have something - anything - to play.

[SparTonberry]

Ultra Sun/Moon is for 3DS as is probably going to be the Gen 7 analogy to Black/White 2: same world (maybe some new places to explore) but different story and probably different Pokemon and probably some new game feature.
We'll have to see if that turns out an improvement (still disappointed they never gave us the "Z" version Gen 6 needed to fix things like the crap difficulty curve. And thus the Gen 6 legendary got any story-relevance pushed into a Gen 7 sidesquest :P )

[Nz17]

Ultra Sun/Moon is for 3DS

I'm referring to this "clerical error" which was retracted from Nintendo's Web pages earlier:


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DBpTE0TXkAE0HpS.jpg

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, basically. Publishers are trying to cash in on the desperation of Switch owners for anything they can play on their new purchase.

I like the Wii U ports, though. I still don't own a Wii U and still don't see a persuasive reason to get one. But if I get a Switch someday, it'd be nice if whatever marginally interested me on Wii U I can pick up for that instead. Pikmin 3 is the one I'd most like to see.

[WulfeLuer]

It's a combination of a recent console release, Nintendo's existing predilection of having more ports than most large coastlines, and third-parties working on their dubious relationship with Nintendo. Cranking out a port can give some needed trailblazing for a brand new game. This is doubly true for Nintendo and their proud tradition of WJT console hardware and it's attendant technical headaches.

[kupomogli]

To be fair, I bashed the PS4 for the first year for being a port machine, but it was nothing like this, and atleast, many of the ports were rumored or announced prior to the release of the game on the PS360, games like Dark Souls 2, Diablo 3, The Last of Us, and although I still bought it on the PS3, GTA5. With Switch though, it's almost nothing but ports, and aside from a few major releases, most of these ports are indie published games.

The games that aren't ports aren't exclusive to the Switch either, and I've pointed out that with Nintendo no longer using the akward resolution and screen size, now conforming to the standard, is doing more harm than good. Switch still isn't getting the bigger budget multiconsole titles the PS4 and Xbox One are getting, but the games that the Switch is getting, even games that have been promoted by Nintendo, are still on other consoles. Even the New Harvest Moon franchise which has never been on anything but the 3DS is getting a Switch/PS4 release.

The Switch has Octopath Traveler which is from Silicon Studios and the new SMT game if they're actually exclusive are games I'll eventually get maybe two to four years down the line when I actually pick up a Switch, but right now there's no reason to get a Switch. The system seems to be selling so well due to the NES Classic releasing previously and all that money Wii U owners had saved up due to having nothing to buy on the console and hoping the Switch turns out different(that and it's a portable as well.)