{"id":98702,"date":"2019-08-14T16:33:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T16:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pockettactics.com\/articles\/nintendo-switch-strategy-games-mobile\/"},"modified":"2019-08-14T16:33:22","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T16:33:22","slug":"opinion-the-nintendo-switch-is-beating-out-mobile-to-some-of-our-favourite-strategy-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2019\/08\/14\/opinion-the-nintendo-switch-is-beating-out-mobile-to-some-of-our-favourite-strategy-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: The Nintendo Switch is beating out mobile to some of our favourite strategy games"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Joe Robinson<\/span> 14 Aug 2019<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

The Nintendo Switch represents an interesting question for an Editor like myself. It\u2019s not a new question – Nintendo\u2019s hand-held consoles have always kind of been a potential new area to look at for a website that focuses on \u2018mobile\u2019 gaming, even though I\u2019d argue that \u2018mobile\u2019 has a more narrow definition than \u2018handheld\u2019. Still, it\u2019s \u2018close enough\u2019 territory and a place where we could try to grow our audience if we felt the need.<\/p>\n

In the past, we\u2019ve been saved from having to address with this issue because the 3DS and the handhelds before it pretty much didn\u2019t cater to the same people we did. Every now and then you\u2019d get one decent game but generally what I\u2019d consider \u2018serious\u2019 strategy games largely didn\u2019t appear on the 3DS. Not enough to warrant dedicated coverage anyway.<\/p>\n

\"nintendo<\/p>\n

When the Nintendo Switch release in 2017 I still largely overlooked it on the same grounds as before (and also because it was being billed as a home console as much as a ‘handheld’ console), but in the past couple of years there\u2019s been a steady trickle of games porting themselves over that you wouldn\u2019t have seen before on the handhelds of old. Civilization 6<\/em>, Bad North<\/em>\u2026 even board games like Pandemic<\/em> are making the crossover. We\u2019ve been expecting a mobile port of Bad North since it was announced, it\u2019s worth pointing out. In general I\u2019m noticing a trend where Switch ports are now more likely than a mobile port.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible that the Switch, with it\u2019s quasi-handheld status, is a more attractive proposition than even an iOS port. There\u2019s a much narrower hardware set, and despite the wonders of modern tablet and phone technically the Switch is a more bespoke gaming machine, so I imagine development is easier. It\u2019s a closed ecosystem like iOS, but it\u2019s one where anyone who owns a switch is happy shelling out premium money for a copy of their chosen game. As a new game Fire Emblem: Three Houses<\/em> is selling for \u00a340-\u00a350. Would an iOS user pay that if it suddenly turned up on iOS?<\/p>\n

\"civilization<\/p>\n

Fairer examples would be to look at games like Civilization 6<\/em> and Bad North<\/em>. 2K have stuck to their guns with regards pricing of Civ 6<\/em> on iOS, which is to their credit – I wonder how many people have bought the game at that price on Switch vs. iOS. Bad North<\/em> is available $14.99 as a digital download from the Switch. It\u2019s not unheard of for mobile games to cost this much but if Bad North<\/em>\u2019s mobile version ever does turn up it\u2019ll be interesting to see what its price-point will be. Again, I can\u2019t help but wonder at the different demographic attitudes towards pricing.<\/p>\n

Our friends at Touch Arcade and Pocket Gamer have long embraced consistent Switch coverage, and I hope it\u2019s served them well. I\u2019m not against the concept myself, but I know it\u2019d stretch our resources and a part of me still sees the value in being a website wholly dedicated to iOS and Android games. But I think we might start paying closer attention to the Switch.<\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RqD6qJZlW90?controls=0]<\/p>\n

Don’t expect any big changes overnight – for now I\u2019ll leave the heavy lifting to our sister website Strategy Gamer. Everyone\u2019s been talking about the new Fire Emblem<\/em> lately, but I hadn’t fully appreciated the calibre of strategy games available on the Switch<\/a> until I had one of my writers put together a list for us. Some, like Valkyria Chronicles 4<\/em>, is probably a bit beyond the specs of your average tablet or phone, but there\u2019s still plenty on this list that we also have on mobile (or we were expecting but hasn\u2019t turned up yet.) Maybe we’ll experiment with some one-off features here on PT, but we’ve got our hands full keeping top of the mobile-first release schedule to worry about reviews.<\/p>\n

What are your thoughts on the Switch, as a console on its own and as a potential rival for iOS\/Android gaming?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joe Robinson 14 Aug 2019 The Nintendo Switch represents an interesting question for an Editor like myself. It\u2019s not a new question – Nintendo\u2019s hand-held consoles have always kind of been a potential new area to look at for a website that focuses on \u2018mobile\u2019 gaming, even though I\u2019d argue that \u2018mobile\u2019 has a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile-game-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}