Nintendo have always had trouble attracting and then keeping third party support for their consoles- and while the situation appears to be better for the Nintendo Switch so far, there are still a lot of questions about exactly what games will make it on the Switch, and whether third parties will actually take the system seriously, unlike what they did with the Wii and Wii U.
Michael Pachter has long said that unless Nintendo can get third party support for their system, they will be doomed to a niche, and he still maintains his position. In an exclusive interview with GamingBolt, he pointed out that unless Nintendo were to get games like Red Dead Redemption 2 on their system, they wouldn’t stand a chance in the market.
“I think Nintendo is about to embark on its second effort to be different, and I think their second failed effort,” he said. “I just don’t see NX being successful if third parties don’t embrace it. So if I were Mr. Kimishima, the first thing I would do would be to make sure that Red Dead launched on the NX. You need Madden on there, you need Call of Duty on there, you need FIFA on there, and you need Red Dead on there. And if those were all on the NX, I think the NX would be phenomenally successful. If we’re stuck with just Nintendo content, that’s a problem.”
The thing is, so far, third parties do seem to be taking the system seriously- companies like Bethesda, Ubisoft, 2K, Activision, and even EA are all on board with it. The question of this one specific game, Red Dead, making it to the system is up in the air, but if Nintendo were to get all other games on their system, then I can hardly see Red Dead‘s absence breaking the system’s shot at success all by itself.