Elite Dangerous for Nintendo Switch, is it possible?
- Thread starter Tuze
- Start date
Id buy it tbh
I think its a good question and really comes down to cross-platform play, my thoughts/wishlist are :
1. FRONTIER ACCOUNT/CMDR BEING LOGGABLE IN EVERY PLATFORM; PC players can log into XBox, PS4 players can come to PC, etc, etc. Frontier account is all that is needed and your CMDR and all assets are there regardless of platform.
2. GENUINE CROSS-PLATFORM PLAY. Open is open now to all players, PS4, XBox, PC and any others Nintendo Switch, etc.
3. NINTENDO SWITCH PORT IS NOT A BAD IDEA, but should not take devs away from their job of 2020 improvements and the current bug-fixing efforts. IF its worth the money to Frontier, hire new guys by all means, I cant see it being not profitable as long as the licensing/Nintendo issues are dealt with. I have heard Nintendo are a b**ch about licensing etc and FDev would definitely have to jump thru a lot of hoops. They dont have any other titles on the Switch as of now(far as im aware). And for Elite to run it would have to be close to minimum graphics settings, Switch is nowhere near as powerful as XBos or PS4. It probably adds more of a can of worms and almost definitely makes 1 and 2 above a lot more difficult. The more players the better, though and going to more platforms is always great. Hopefully they can go back to the Mac one day also.
There is a real problem of PS4 or XBox CMDRs coming to PC and losing everything except credits. There should be REAL CROSS-PLATFORM PLAY and any CMDR ACCOUNT should be able to log in to ANY PLATFORM. Its not right CMDR losing ships/rank/engineers etc when they cross platform, and absolutely no technical reason for it. ONE ACCOUNT -> ALL PLATFORMS.
Now that there are no more technical barriers to doing this as Sony have authorised cross-platoform play without any restrictions this is a real possibility with the only hurdle now being developer will and programming rather than contractual.
Up until recently it has not been possible due to Sony's policies but now is a genuine possibility and I think really aught to be in that list of things Frontier are working on right now, bug fixes, quality-of-life etc, and Cross-Platform play is a big one, does not change game in any way but adds a massive amount. And is not so tough to do, either. Netcode is basically going to be the same across platforms. Should be no big hurdles to 1 and 2 above, 3 takes a bunch of time and money. And I think the time/effort for 1 and 2 is very well spent.
Signing off,
CMDR Gavin786
1. FRONTIER ACCOUNT/CMDR BEING LOGGABLE IN EVERY PLATFORM; PC players can log into XBox, PS4 players can come to PC, etc, etc. Frontier account is all that is needed and your CMDR and all assets are there regardless of platform.
2. GENUINE CROSS-PLATFORM PLAY. Open is open now to all players, PS4, XBox, PC and any others Nintendo Switch, etc.
3. NINTENDO SWITCH PORT IS NOT A BAD IDEA, but should not take devs away from their job of 2020 improvements and the current bug-fixing efforts. IF its worth the money to Frontier, hire new guys by all means, I cant see it being not profitable as long as the licensing/Nintendo issues are dealt with. I have heard Nintendo are a b**ch about licensing etc and FDev would definitely have to jump thru a lot of hoops. They dont have any other titles on the Switch as of now(far as im aware). And for Elite to run it would have to be close to minimum graphics settings, Switch is nowhere near as powerful as XBos or PS4. It probably adds more of a can of worms and almost definitely makes 1 and 2 above a lot more difficult. The more players the better, though and going to more platforms is always great. Hopefully they can go back to the Mac one day also.
There is a real problem of PS4 or XBox CMDRs coming to PC and losing everything except credits. There should be REAL CROSS-PLATFORM PLAY and any CMDR ACCOUNT should be able to log in to ANY PLATFORM. Its not right CMDR losing ships/rank/engineers etc when they cross platform, and absolutely no technical reason for it. ONE ACCOUNT -> ALL PLATFORMS.
Now that there are no more technical barriers to doing this as Sony have authorised cross-platoform play without any restrictions this is a real possibility with the only hurdle now being developer will and programming rather than contractual.
Up until recently it has not been possible due to Sony's policies but now is a genuine possibility and I think really aught to be in that list of things Frontier are working on right now, bug fixes, quality-of-life etc, and Cross-Platform play is a big one, does not change game in any way but adds a massive amount. And is not so tough to do, either. Netcode is basically going to be the same across platforms. Should be no big hurdles to 1 and 2 above, 3 takes a bunch of time and money. And I think the time/effort for 1 and 2 is very well spent.
Signing off,
CMDR Gavin786
That would be really cool, although I see some issues...
The hardware may be sufficient to run ED, but probably only with low detail and at low resolution (see Witcher 3, which runs at 540p with low detail). This would make reading text in the HUD or menus basically impossible. And then there's the small screen as well.
Being able to only play docked kind of defeats the purpose.
Also, not sure if the joy cons together have enough buttons to control everything?
The hardware may be sufficient to run ED, but probably only with low detail and at low resolution (see Witcher 3, which runs at 540p with low detail). This would make reading text in the HUD or menus basically impossible. And then there's the small screen as well.
Being able to only play docked kind of defeats the purpose.
Also, not sure if the joy cons together have enough buttons to control everything?
I'm more curious if we will ever see ED come to Google's Stadia cloud service. I know some MMOs, such as Eve Online, prohibit playing the game via a cloud service. I don't know if Frontier has a stance on that yet. But it would be neat to be able to play it on any platform via the cloud.
Cloud based gaming is a really bad idea for games that rely on good connection between players - combat in Elite Dangerous is very reliant on low ping between players and/or player to server.
That is a good point to consider. But it might still be a viable option for solo play.
If a base PS4 struggles with the game, how is a Tegra powered tablet going to cope? Plus, ED has too much text for a small screen and would only be suitable for docked mode (so Lite owners would be out of luck).
It's Mario who would be jealous.
This argument holds no ground. I know this a common complaint/argument on the internet but not much changes when using a gaming service. Now you connect to AWS. Why would it matter if your connect to google Stadia instead of AWS? We still rely on the quality of the users connection. Not the aws or statia connection. If any a move like this might open up the game to all platforms.
Switch has the following specs:
NINTENDO SWITCH SPECS (AS CONFIRMED BY DIGITAL FOUNDRY)
CPU: Four ARM Cortex A57 cores (theoretical max 2GHz)
GPU: 256 CUDA cores (theoretical max 1GHz)
Architecture: Nvidia second-generation Maxwell
Texture: 16 pixels/cycle
Fill: 14.4 pixels/cycle
Memory: 4GB
Memory Bandwidth: 25.6GB/s
VRAM: Shared
Storage: 32GB, max transfer rate 400MB/s
USB: USB 2.0/3.0
Video Output: 1080p60
Display: 6.2-inch IPS LCD, 1280x720 pixels, 10-point multi-touch support
I suppose as long as the hardware supports it it's within the realm of possible. Bit of a stretch for Nintendo though... they're not exactly well known for cutting edge games that are less than 10-year old friendly, but it has been a very long time since they were relevant to me.
NINTENDO SWITCH SPECS (AS CONFIRMED BY DIGITAL FOUNDRY)
CPU: Four ARM Cortex A57 cores (theoretical max 2GHz)
GPU: 256 CUDA cores (theoretical max 1GHz)
Architecture: Nvidia second-generation Maxwell
Texture: 16 pixels/cycle
Fill: 14.4 pixels/cycle
Memory: 4GB
Memory Bandwidth: 25.6GB/s
VRAM: Shared
Storage: 32GB, max transfer rate 400MB/s
USB: USB 2.0/3.0
Video Output: 1080p60
Display: 6.2-inch IPS LCD, 1280x720 pixels, 10-point multi-touch support
I suppose as long as the hardware supports it it's within the realm of possible. Bit of a stretch for Nintendo though... they're not exactly well known for cutting edge games that are less than 10-year old friendly, but it has been a very long time since they were relevant to me.
Doom 1-2-3-2016, the latest two Wolfenstein and The Witcher 3 are cutting edge enough and 10 year old unfriendly enough.
Still can't see Elite as a viable title on Switch, for practical more than technical reasons.