One of the biggest pieces of news in the last few weeks was the announcement of the Nintendo Switch coming to market. The new console, which is priced at $299.99, had many salivating as always is the case with the announcement of a new system. For fans of sports games, the appearance of NBA 2K18 in Nintendo’s announcement trailer and 2K’s confirmation that the game will be featured on the system was a revelation that had many talking.
EA Sports jumped into fray and announced that a version of FIFA will also be brought to Nintendo Switch. One of the questions that was asked of EA’s executive vice president Patrick Soderlund from IGN was whether Madden would be making an appearance on the system. His answer was a mix of optimism and a wait and see approach.
“We’re supporting the platform. We are not announcing anything [else] yet, but you can expect us to be there once the platform launches and takes off,” said Soderlund.
So we have NBA 2K18 and FIFA in the pipeline as well. With all the excitement with the Nintendo Switch and the sports games that are included, all was well. This was until a tweet from Tom Phillips, a deputy news editor from Eurogamer.
I've heard FIFA Switch is based off of the 360/PS3 versions which still get made.
— Tom Phillips (@tomphillipsEG) January 13, 2017
We know the Switch is not on the level of the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox One, but it’s disappointing to learn the Switch edition of FIFA will not be made using the amazing Frostbite game engine, but on the last-gen PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game engine instead. This will bring the quality of the games down immensely from the current-gen versions of the games and make them almost unplayable. For FIFA fans that already own a PS4 or Xbox One, the Nintendo Switch has little appeal.
The success of big titles like FIFA on the Nintendo Switch will dictate how invested other sports title developers will be towards making games on the Switch. The better games like FIFA and NBA 2K18 sell, the more likely they are to get updates, DLC support, sequel titles and possibly even exclusive games.
With the launch of a new console, it was a coup for Nintendo to get two of the biggest sports titles on the market. Now it’s a matter of whether FIFA and NBA 2K will be successful on the Nintendo Switch. With rumors of a dated game engine for FIFA, it may be a hard sell, but here’s hoping it works.
