Report: Third Party Companies Are Changing Their Tune On Nintendo Switch Rather Quickly

So, in case you missed the numbers earlier today, Nintendo Switch is doing incredibly well. The system is already expected to surpass the Wii U’s lifetime sales by the end of its first year of release, and flourish even further into 2018 based on a number of high-profile games. With that, some gamers can’t help but ask – where’s the third party support?

There’s actually a pretty good reason for that – a lack of faith. The Wall Street Journal recently had a chance to speak with Hirozaku Hamamura, who serves as chief executive of Japanse game magazine publisher Gzbrain – a unit that handles publications like Famitsu. He noted that the big thing with the Switch is that the games are coming, but they’re taking longer to do so. And why?

Again, lack of faith. A lot of third party developers were expecting the Nintendo Switch to take the same route as the Wii U, which only performed meagerly on the market. (In case you’ve forgotten, the Wii U had ample support from companies like Activision and Electronic Arts, before they eventually gave up on it.

We noted Capcom’s somewhat limp excuse for not making more games on the Switch, something that it may be reversing its course on next year, depending on how well Resident Evil Revelations does when it releases next month.

That said, some companies do have total faith in the Switch, like Bethesda with its forthcoming ports of Skyrim and Doom. On top of that, Koei Tecmo only had praise for the console as well. Yoichi Erikawa, chief executive for the company, noted, “We bet big on the Switch as a game changer so we began making games before the Switch’s launch, but many software companies showed reluctance in releasing Switch games before they witnessed the current success.”

So does that mean 2018 will be an even bigger year for the Switch? It’s certainly looking like it’s in the cards, though no one’s made any announcements yet. We’ll just have to see what happens next year – and hopefully that means a number of franchises making a return. Fingers crossed some good ones are in there.