Square Enix and Xbox

[Roronoa_Zoro90]

@LucasTaves

I’m not talking about Nintendo here. But rather a service Ms could sell to publishers to ease porting games to switch through cloud, and offer discounts if the game was launched to xbox.

But those games would be sold as switch games, just as they are right now

It’s clear Nintendo doesn’t want a cumbersome middleman like MS for its limited cloud offerings, Ubitus is more than enough and it’s not big enough to possibly leverage its influece against Nintendo own goals.

[LucasTaves]

@Roronoa_Zoro90

Ubitus

I may be wrong, but those cloud versions for switch are done by Square Capcom and others dealing directly with Ubitus, Nintendo doesn’t participate in any way in the discussion.

What I’m suggesting is for Ms to undercut Ubitus pricing and availability for these publishers, in exchange for Xbox ports,

[Roronoa_Zoro90]

@LucasTaves

I may be wrong, but those cloud versions for switch are done by Square Capcom and others dealing directly with Ubitus, Nintendo doesn’t participate in any way in the discussion.

What I’m suggesting is for Ms to undercut Ubitus pricing and availability for these publishers, in exchange for Xbox ports,

Who knows, anyway it’s not a “missed opportunity” in any way, shape or form when the cloud offering on Xbox itself is still in beta and far from a complete product, moreover it’s tied exclusively to Game Pass, which I’m skeptical believing Nintendo would want on its plaform, possibly undercutting its own games.

[javycane (Javier Ruiz)]

MS should be leveraging its xcloud solution to potential xbox clients and not whatever Nintendo needs.

Anyway this Cloud only thing speaks of Square Enix being LAZY and Nintendo content with the bare minimum. Cant tell every game until 2.8 cant be done on a cartridge to run natively. It doesnt need any Microsoft solution of any kind.

[pg2g]

The suggestion is MS could sell xcloud infrastructure as a service to third parties. Has nothing to do with Nintendo, Game Pass, etc.

[javycane (Javier Ruiz)]

@pg2g

The suggestion is MS could sell xcloud infrastructure as a service to third parties. Has nothing to do with Nintendo, Game Pass, etc.

Shouldnt do that either if thats the question too.

[Resist]

@GoroMajima

I mean the low budget ones that are shovelware that is easier to throw them on the switch and pc.

I would hardly call Triangle Strategy and Bravely Default 3 shovel ware…

[LucasTaves]

@Roronoa_Zoro90

Who knows, anyway it’s not a “missed opportunity” in any way, shape or form when the cloud offering on Xbox itself is still in beta and far from a complete product, moreover it’s tied exclusively to Game Pass, which I’m skeptical believing Nintendo would want on its plaform, possibly undercutting its own games.

Xcloud is tied to gamepass as a MS product to customers. The technology is there and they can enable other businesses opportunities.

For a hypothetical service to publishers it obviously wouldn’t be tied, just like the Ubitus solution isn’t.

And it’s still in beta but again, their customer service, the platform works very well and has way more availability than the solution used by Ubitus that is Japan only

[LucasTaves]

@javycane

MS should be leveraging its xcloud solution to potential xbox clients and not whatever Nintendo needs.

And that’s exactly what I’m suggesting, there’s no Nintendo in my pitch except that I’m saying that publishers should use it to port to switch.

I’m talking about Ms reaching the publishers directly and offer a service that’s better than the one they are using for bringing cloud games to switch. One that Nintendo has no part off (just checked, Capcom, Square and others paid Ubitus directly for their cloud services)

Which is also something Phil himself said they would do. I just think they should be more aggressive there and offer discounts on exchange for Xbox ports.

[PhantomThief]

@GoroMajima

I mean the low budget ones that are shovelware that is easier to throw them on the switch and pc.

In what universe are games like Octopath Traveler or Triangle Strategy shovel ware, lol

[GoroMajima]

@pg2g

Microsoft offers their cloud as the back end, games need to be developed to support Xbox to support it. Xbox gets games as a result.

What games are you talking about?

[GoroMajima]

@PhantomThief

In what universe are games like Octopath Traveler or Triangle Strategy shovel ware, lol

When did I say those were shovelware?

@LucasTaves

Companies want to make switch versions of games switch can’t run natively.

So said companies make their own infra to stream the game to switch only, sometimes even exclusive to japan to offer this version.

When Ms has a fully working solution and deployed to almost 30 countries already, that just need some small tweaking to allow publishers to use it to offer standalone games on switch.

So Ms should be levering xcloud as a solution to those publishers in exchange to getting ports for Xbox (and xcloud/gamepass)

Granted, the games launching as cloud version on switch usually already are on xbox, but there are a plethora of multiplat games on xbox that are not on switch, mostly on power/porting costs.

Cloud Gamepass on Switch is a far better solution. Not individual games.

If Ms have a Cloud gamepass tier for Switch/Mobile say at 5 bucks a month then that would increase subs for the service. 3rd parties are more likely to put those games on Xbox period.

Releasing individual games through MS’s cloud is an awful idea. What do MS get out of it really?

[PhantomThief]

@GoroMajima

Cloud Gamepass on Switch is a far better solution. Not individual games.

If Ms have a Cloud gamepass tier for Switch/Mobile say at 5 bucks a month then that would increase subs for the service. 3rd parties are more likely to put those games on Xbox period.

Releasing individual games through MS’s cloud is an awful idea. What do MS get out of it really?

Then what games are you talking about? The only Switch exclusive Square games are either Team Asano stuff, or… actually that’s the only Switch exclusive Square stuff there is.

[LucasTaves]

@GoroMajima

Cloud Gamepass on Switch is a far better solution. Not individual games.

If Ms have a Cloud gamepass tier for Switch/Mobile say at 5 bucks a month then that would increase subs for the service. 3rd parties are more likely to put those games on Xbox period.

Releasing individual games through MS’s cloud is an awful idea. What do MS get out of it really?

Getting Xcloud on switch requires convincing Nintendo and its a deal that benefits Ms more than Nintendo so they might be unwilling.

Ms already has a cloud solution, already has said that will rent this solution to 3rd parties and some 3rd parties are already using competing services to provide the games.

What I’m suggesting is for Ms to be more aggressive and use their synergy to win more clients and support for Xbox.

[LucasTaves]

@GoroMajima

What games are you talking about?

Any game that they might want to switch and port easier.

See the mess DQ XI became due the switch port (The console didn’t run the original version, so they had to remake the entire game under a new engine downgrading some assets and that version became the base for the complete version).

Instead, they could just have ported to Xbox, which is far easier and run on switch through the cloud. And if Xcloud existed back then and had they done it, the Xbox version would have launched years before than it did.

[Roronoa_Zoro90]

@PhantomThief

Team Asano

I don’t know the team, what games did they develop?

[PhantomThief]

@Roronoa_Zoro90

I don’t know the team, what games did they develop?

Bravely Default, Bravely Second, Bravely Default 2, Octopath Traveler, Triangle Strategy, Dragon Quest HD2D

[GoroMajima]

@LucasTaves

Any game that they might want to switch and port easier.

See the mess DQ XI became due the switch port (The console didn’t run the original version, so they had to remake the entire game under a new engine downgrading some assets and that version became the base for the complete version).

Instead, they could just have ported to Xbox, which is far easier and run on switch through the cloud. And if Xcloud existed back then and had they done it, the Xbox version would have launched years before than it did.

DQXI wasn’t a mess. It ran pretty well on one X and Series X. Yeah could have looked better but resolution was 10x better on Xbox than Switch.

I do agree its a waste of time putting that many hours into a downgraded switch port but DQXI was a sort of exception. IT was gonna make bank in Japan.

Now if only Atlus had the same sort of view in regards to Persona 5…

[PhantomThief]

@LucasTaves

Any game that they might want to switch and port easier.

See the mess DQ XI became due the switch port (The console didn’t run the original version, so they had to remake the entire game under a new engine downgrading some assets and that version became the base for the complete version).

Instead, they could just have ported to Xbox, which is far easier and run on switch through the cloud. And if Xcloud existed back then and had they done it, the Xbox version would have launched years before than it did.

Sorry, but this is only something you can believe if you are unaware of the context of Dragon Quest and its importance in Japan specifically. This is a series that routinely sells 4.5-5 million units per entry, and 3-4 million of those are Japan alone. Square was never going to a) not have a native Switch version b) prioritize an Xbox version (in the Xbox One days, sot he absolute nadir of Xbox’s relevance in Japan) over a Switch one.

More importantly, the game isn’t a mess because of the Switch, the game is a mess because Square Enix’s project management was a total disaster and they failed to account for the direction of the Japanese market. They originally greenlit the game as a PS4 exclusive in early 2012, when it was assumed PS4 would be the dominant platform in Japan. By 2014-15, it was clear that was never going to happen, so they hastily greenly a 3DS companion version as well, essentially developing two separate games as one (2.5, really, given the 3DS version is top down and over the shoulder simultaneously)

However, because of this poor planning, DQXI ended up releasing late in Japan - by the time it did, 3DS was on the decline, and PS4 had never reached the heights it had been expected to. So the game underperformed in Japan. Square had already committed to an NX version of the game back in 2015, presumably because they figured that one will actually do well in Japan (the first good call made with the project). Unfortunately, what they had done with DQXI on PS4 is make a bespoke fork of UE4 that not only wasn’t compatible with Switch, it was incompatible with anything except that specific code base on that specific hardware (this is why localization was delayed, and the localized DQXI, the original one, I mean, is a totally different code base from the Japanese one).

That codebase couldn’t be ported to Switch, so they had to develop the game again for a fourth different codebase. This time they were smart (finally), and future proofed their fork, and that one was subsequently ported back to PC, PS4, and Xbox One as well.

But DQXI’s mess isn’t Switch’s fault, it’s Square’s project management combined with poor tech and product planning practices.

[GoroMajima]

@LucasTaves

Any game that they might want to switch and port easier.

See the mess DQ XI became due the switch port (The console didn’t run the original version, so they had to remake the entire game under a new engine downgrading some assets and that version became the base for the complete version).

Instead, they could just have ported to Xbox, which is far easier and run on switch through the cloud. And if Xcloud existed back then and had they done it, the Xbox version would have launched years before than it did.

How about Nintendo just out out new hardware and we can ignore this awfu cloud solution for switch

The switch isn’t being used docked all the time. Nor does it have 5G capabilities or any capabilities outside of awful tethering and shoddy wifi.

I understand the solution. But Its not worth pondering. Cloud gaming the way it is on switch will just die out just like Stadia.

We aren’t in a world where people will pay money for cloud only games. Thats NOT happening.