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Companies that focus on porting games say Switch business is booming, Panic Button teases more projects

by rawmeatcowboy
21 February 2018
GN Version 5.0

The Switch was the biggest success story for gaming in 2017. Nintendo bounced back from the Wii U in a huge way, and so far, the platform shows no sign of stopping. While Nintendo is certainly making money hand over fist, it turns out other game companies are as well. Gamasutra talked to some studios which focus on making Switch ports, and they're benefiting in a big way from the platform.

Adam Creighton, director of development at Panic Button

“You know that meme? With the dog? Drinking from a sprinkler? That’s me right now and we might have some other titles for that platform, and maybe some other games for other platforms, in the works. In terms of volume, I’m in this amazing place where as a studio we get to choose how we want to grow, and with whom, and with what projects. My biggest challenge lately is not which projects do we pick to retarget to other platforms, but managing the other parts of our portfolio, picking the different projects that are exciting to different people in the studio, and being responsible about what I want to work on, versus what is best for the studio.”

Tony Cabello, CEO of BlitWorks

“We’ve recently experienced a big increase in the amount of work. Even though we’re always very busy, we’re now working on more projects at the same time, especially indie games which are our speciality. This is mainly because nowadays, indie studios see that publishing their games on consoles is a possibility, that was not so easy to do in the past because the access to the market was more restrictive. So we now have more developers reaching out to us to get there.

It’s a good time to be a port house, everyone wants to have their game published in every available platform, and even though many developers don’t know they need a porting service they end up realising it requires a whole different skill set.”

Ted Staloch, the executive VP of publishing at Aspyr

“With so many powerful, capable devices, there is simply more opportunity for brands today than what our partners typically have resources or expertise to fulfill. It’s a need Aspyr is very happy to fill, as gamers have demonstrated they don’t want their favorite games tethered to only one device.”

[Link]