NBA Playgrounds just came out this past week and released across not only the usual PS4, Xbox One, and PC platforms, but also the Nintendo Switch. With the Nintendo Switch, the system is still very young and development of third parties on the system is still a question mark. According to one former developer that worked on NBA Playgrounds initially though, the Nintendo Switch is easier to develop for than one of its competitors.
Originally being developed by Virtual Toys, NBA Playgrounds was completed by Saber Interactive that was founded by a former member of Virtual Toys after it got shut down during the development of the game. With the game’s recent release, a member of the team when the game was at Virtual Toys named SaffronCR on Reddit held an AMA, after being verified as being legitimate by the Nintendo Switch subreddit moderation team.
SaffronCR discussed how the Nintendo Switch version of the game was rushed a bit, but that the team that completed the game is working on optimizing it through patches. At one point the topic of if they came across any trouble with development on the Switch came up, in which they responded by saying:
“From what I know, the switch version was even less problematic than the xbox one! great news for developers and gamers :D”
They went on further to say that while certain engines like Unreal Engine 4 help with the Technical Certification Requirements on Xbox One that are tough to deal with, Unreal Engine 4 itself is more difficult to deal with on Xbox One than PS4, though Epic is working on that.
Considering the number of games we see release on Xbox One that also release on other platforms, the fact that the Switch is even easier will hopefully mean stronger third party support this generation for Nintendo. That has been one of the biggest struggles for years for Nintendo, so having that turn around could be huge for the Nintendo Switch, especially with the portable nature of the system.
