Bethesda have never actually supported Nintendo systems much, outside of a few odd games that can best be described as shovelware. It’s been something that’s always been a point of discussion- and with each new system Nintendo release, the question of potential Bethesda support for Nintendo consoles always comes up.
So it was that Metro UK decided to ask Pete Hines of Bethesda about potential Nintendo NX support- Nintendo are slated to launch their new system, and the question of third party support for it is one that keeps looming over it, especially given the complete lack of meaningful third party support on the Wii U.
“We talk to Nintendo about games! We talk to them about what they’re up to!” Hines said, in response to a question about what Bethesda are talking to Nintendo about. “It’s not like we’ve never done anything on Nintendo. We haven’t done anything on Nintendo in a very long time, but we did some Star Trek stuff back in the day. Star Trek: Tactical Assault or something. Look, our philosophy is we want to make our games, as they’re designed and built, available on as many platforms as possible. And so Nintendo, as a maker of a platform, you want to constantly be in touch with them, to see what they’re doing, where they’re headed, and whether or not there might be some opportunities down the line, with where they’re going.”
Alright, but do Bethesda see much opportunity on Nintendo hardware? Or do they find that the audience simply is not there for the kinds of games they make? “It’s usually been one of a technical… hardware issue,” Hines said. “It’s just, what it is that the devs are making and what are the hardware requirements that they’re looking at, to support what they’re making? And what fits? And anything that is below the line is, ‘Well, we can make it work, but we’d have to cut this or that or do it like…’ But no, that’s not the point. The point is to take the game, as you designed it, and to get it working on those platforms. Not make a bunch of cuts and a bunch of changes and bring out some other version of it.”
So if Nintendo were to, hypothetically, come out with a system as powerful as the Xbox One, Bethesda would support it? Hines response was emphatically positive. “Then it will absolutely be something that we consider. Okay… let’s say they come out and say tomorrow it does X, Y, and Z. Well, Dishonored 2 is way down the road, it’s not in the conversation. But anything that is in development, I think we’d take a look at and see if technically does it line up with what they’re doing?
“And then to your point, of course we always want to look at what we’re doing from an audience standpoint. But I think that we have any number of things that might appeal to the Nintendo audience. Maybe it’s not as appealing as Super Smash Bros., or it doesn’t appeal to that exact same audience, but that doesn’t mean that there’s not still an audience there.”
So, it sounds like Bethesda are no longer opposed to Nintendo support like they used to be- it also sounds like NX support from them may even be incoming. All that is needed now is for Nintendo to unveil what the NX actually is, so we know once and for all who’s on board with it (and who is not).
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