The 'Hardware Limitations' of the Nintendo Switch

The Nintendo Switch is being blamed for the shortcomings of Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, which very clearly released in an unfinished state...

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[Antigen__]

The only thing the PC emulator argument proves is that a mid spec PC can just brute-force through the shit software and make it run well through strength alone. It's the developers' job to make your software run as effortlessly as possible on the intended hardware, not just hope more powerful hardware can make up for how poorly it's put together.

[Mbadcraft]

Gamefreak need to choose between being a small game studio or making a pokemon game every 1-2 fucking years

[sonusmeister]

Based on the clipping glitch, Gamefreak only applies distance based LOD, but not occlusion based one. So at the same time it render the cities and plains, it also renders caves and building underground including the shadows that taxing the GPU. Lower fps for animation in the distance like what the Gamefreak did really helps the CPU, but still burdens the GPU because it still needs to render the model.

Another game like MH Rise just swap the models with ultra low poly models or straight up swap it with an empty object if it's far away or covered by something else but still have something that needs to be calculated like AI or stats.

[squidgybuffalo]

To be fair it's 90% on gamefreak for not giving their devs time to optimise, polish and finish the game.

[duke_]

I think the problem is they don’t have any incentive to make the game any better. They know their game will sell regardless of what they output. Until fans start holding GameFreak accountable nothing will change.

[TheMocutMiester]

It's easier to hide an unfinished Pokemon game with the old 2D art style. The new 3D art style makes it a TON harder to hide bugs. They also probably rushed it for Christmas.

[loganb]

Breath of the WIld shows you how amazing an open world game can be on the exact same system when you give the developers enough time to actually complete it

Edit: Despite this I know it's still time for an upgrade. Making good games on a 5 year old tablet can be done but it won't be sustainable forever.

[A-Spoto]

Thank you WULFF DEN for holding the Pokémon company responsible for not optimizing their game for the only console it was released for.

[CosmicFrenzy]

These "hardware limitations " somehow didn't stop much heavier games from performing much better than Scarlet and Violet. Yes, hardware plays a part, but the devs play the biggest part.

[Technonova]

The fact that the game has sold 10 million copies is not only shocking given how unfinished it is, but also frustrating since I could think of *so* *much* other titles that deserve that kind of success.

[CryoCrow]

Another odd thing I found is that for some reason they removed the option to change the battle style to "set". Also despite adding a pokemon that needs you to use a move x times they removed the option to disable battle animations! Like why was it even considered to remove these options that have been in the games for the longest time let alone actually remove them? I can't recall a game that had LESS settings than its predecessor.

[Saicofake]

I always felt hardware limitations was a bullshit reason when the Switch has consistently shown that it can run a lot of great looking games smoothly.

[firebirdstark]

I have been hearing “this Gen is a great step to that next game that will be the best pokemon game ever” since Gen 6. We’re now at Gen 9, and it feels like a net regression in many ways

[drivillain]

This is 100% on Gamefreak and The Pokemon Company in general. They need to end the three year cycles for Pokemon and give Gamefreak more time to work on the games.

[tristanneal]

Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Persona 5 Royal, and Nier Automata all released on Switch this year with nearly no performance issues. This isn't a Switch issue, it's a Pokémon issue.

[bubmario]

I’m surprised you didn’t compare it to “Legends: Arceus” at all. To me, that is the nail in the coffin here - that game eschewed so many issues with the Pokémon formula and here they reverted back in some frustrating ways.

[gingersnap]

It seems to be a common theme now with some devs that they would rather release an unfinished game and patch it then delay the game and make it an finished game. Pokemon 100% should have been delayed but they clearly wanted a xmas release

[MichaelCutts]

I think there is a domino effect of decisions here that led to the poor performance and technical issues:

1) S/V started and ended development in the pandemic era, the Devs having to work from home presumably for the majority of development time.

2) Almost all major studio games developed during this time suffered long delays (6 months-1 year) to compensate for the WFH transition. GF did NOT delay the release because that would put S/V after Christmas sales

3) Pokémon seems to now be in a 3 year cycle, as they shuffle between games (Spin off year/remake year/Mainline year). Delaying would mean they would have to push back future plans.

4) New Pokémon cards and merchandise would be delayed as well if the game was pushed back.

5) We all know that with a new or upgraded switch will be coming sometime for Nintendo, presumably the next Mainline Pokémon would be targeting that system. This would require either updating the existing engine or building a new one from scratch. Giving more development time for S/V would cut into development R&D for the next mainline game.


This was a calculated move. This game will sale more than enough to recoup development costs, but they need to know that the next game would need to take full capabilities of the next Switch because otherwise the blowback would be even worse.


This is all my guess. We’ll see how this shakes out

[Vash.Baldeus]

I recall reading a while back that originally during the early R&D for the Switch, Nintendo planned on 2GB of RAM, the developers convinced to upgrade to 4GB. In my honest opinion, should've tried to convince for 8GB, would've been a bit better idea.

[danytalksmusic]

We should've seen this coming when they announced 5 Pokemon games releasing in the span of one year!