The last two generation of Nintendo consoles, the Wii and the follow-up Wii U had a strong first-party core of games but they had lacked third-party developer support. This is something that the company has introspected upon and is keen not to repeat with the Switch.
As such during launch, much coverage was given to Nintendo’s efforts to market the portable-home console to third-party developers. One of the potential partners were Bethesda Softworks. The company had announced Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim for the Switch early on and in yesterday’s Nintendo Direct presentation the game was dated for release on the 17 of November.
The company also showed off in-game items for Skyrim inspired by Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda franchise which is exclusive to the Switch edition of the game. These are namely the Hylian Shield and Champion’s Tunic which can be unlocked by finding treasure chests in-game or via using the relevant Amiibo figurine.
This was followed up by a double whammy announcement of Doom and Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus for the Switch. Although both titles were published by Bethesda, they were developed by ID Games and MachineGames respectively. Both games are from the first-person-shooter genre which is not a flavour commonly associated with Nintendo’s console’s but being strong single-player titles they might be able to reach out to a whole new segment of players and honestly, this might be the closest we get to experiencing visceral first-person campaigns on portable consoles in some time.
It is being speculated whether these announcements corroborate to Pete Hines’, Vice President Marketing, Bethesda earlier statements of working on a yet unannounced game.
Both Doom and Wolfenstein 2 are running on ID Games latest ID 6 game engine which is biased towards providing a fluid 60fps experience irrespective of the hardware you run it on, so it just might be that although the Nintendo Switch editions of these games might not feature the same level of visual flair they would at least provide a smooth and slick gaming experience.
