Subnautica & Subnautica: Below Zero Coming to Nintendo Switch - Subnautica
System
Join Date: 2013-01-29 Member: 182599Members, Super Administrators, Reinforced - Diamond
Subnautica & Subnautica: Below Zero Coming to Nintendo Switch - Subnautica
Hello, Subnauts. If you tuned into the Nintendo Indie World Showcase today, you already know our big news: Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero are coming to the Nintendo Switch in...
Comments
We shipped an Xbox update earlier in the year. We've discussed in a few places that the same patch for PS4 was blocked by a complicated save/load bug that prevented us from shipping. That bug was recently resolved and the patch is currently in QA testing. Once it passes testing and is signed off, we will be shipping it. After that, PC, Xbox, and PS4 will all be on the same version, with the hope that we will then be able to do more frequent updates across all three platforms.
A lot of the work that has gone into optimizing the game for Switch, as well as bug fixing, is also work that will be rolled out on all other platforms. We haven't given up on Playstation or Xbox.
You know I was referring to Below Zero and you completely avoided it. The only reason I've stuck around so long holding out hope that you'd drop us a bone is that Subnautica is an INCREDIBLE game, despite it's multitude of bugs. If Below Zero is half as good, I'll love it but as far as I can tell it's not getting released for consoles PS4/XBOX anymore.... What. Is. The. Deal.
The deal is the same as we posted before a few months ago; we're trying to simultaneously ship PC with Xbox and PS4. We might not be able to do it, but that's the goal. As for dates, we dont know yet. Once we're closer to finishing BZ, we'll have a better idea of 'when'.
Moreso than excitement my first thought on this announcement was "can switch even run this game at an acceptable frame rate?"
I hope y'all can make it work, and if you do I'm happy to buy the game again, but the performance is my biggest fear and will be that deciding factor towards whether or not I purchase.
The overhead of the Unity platform is already painful, as loading the base engine for something simple, like a menu screen, is already painfully slow, and has a tendency to crash-out. Add ontop to that, the level loading is also slow on the switch.
Optimizing Subnautica the game is one thing for various platforms, optimizing Unity itself for the switch is a totally different ball-game. I see it's in co-operation with other companies, who hopefully know what they are doing and how to improve Unity for the Switch.
It looks like Subnautica is getting a physical edition, but Below Zero may be digital only.
They are "in partnership with Shiny Shoe and Unity Professional Services" so much of the work is probably being outsourced. And, even if not, as they stated, much of the performance work for the Switch will translate to better performance on other consoles as well.