Certain Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games Will Require Internet Connection

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Crummylion
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Certain Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games Will Require Internet Connection

Postby Crummylion » September 1st, 2017, 10:14 pm

We all remember the controversy surrounding Lego City Undercover on the Switch, now it's actually happening starting with NBA 2k and potentially other games. Even worse is you *need* internet for this to work. Honestly, what caught my eye from the Switch was the ability to just buy the cartridge and play it right off the bat. Now I'll probably have to wait 5 hours just to be able to finish Super Mario Odyssey.
Source:
http://m.ign.com/articles/2017/09/01/so ... mory-cards

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Certain Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games Will Require Internet Connection

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 2nd, 2017, 12:06 pm

I think the topic subject is a bit misleading. The article discusses how players may need an SD card to hold downloadable content to experience the "full game".

In my experience, this means the online multiplayer part of the game, which is subject to constant updates and introduces features nobody wants. If that's the "full game" they are referring to they can keep it.

I should also mention (got my programmer hat on) that it IS possible for developers to reduce the size of their code to something reasonable. However, thanks to the PS4/XB1 model becoming the norm, developers have been pushing out their cross-platform bloated code everywhere, consuming our hard disks and bandwidth in the process. I really don't want that garbage clogging up my Switch. I'll probably take a pass on these games with the extra requirements.

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ptdebate
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Re: Certain Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games Will Require Internet Connection

Postby ptdebate » September 2nd, 2017, 5:24 pm

Not that coding can't be to blame, but isn't this a case of bloated content rather than bloated code?

The most space-consuming items in a game have always been music and graphics. When Final Fantasy and other big-budget series moved from SNES to PS1 to take advantage of the added storage of CD-ROMs, game file sizes went from at the absolute most 8MB to more than a gigabyte--that's a more than a hundred fold increase! The complexity of the games from a coding perspective increased only minimally. Nevertheless, the storage demands skyrocketed along with consumer expectations for high-quality visuals and sound.

There was similar jump from 7th gen to 8th gen. HD and ultra-HD textures, high quality surround sound, and full voice acting have ballooned the storage requirements for these games. And at this point, there's no reversing the trend.

No matter how redundant your code is, mere text cannot account for gigabytes of space.

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pacman000
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Re: Certain Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games Will Require Internet Connection

Postby pacman000 » September 3rd, 2017, 1:37 pm

There are some techniques which can really bloat code quickly. For example: import Java.packageINeed.* instead of import Java.packageINeed.exactClassImUsing

I'm not sure how much programming is involved when making modern games; from reading Gamasurtra modern development sounds like Mario Maker w/the ability to program new objects. Great for creating games, but probably bad for using resources efficiency.

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Rev
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Re: Certain Upcoming Nintendo Switch Games Will Require Internet Connection

Postby Rev » September 3rd, 2017, 1:39 pm

I'm a bit confused on what the extra space is required for. I would assume that since the Switch games come on little cards, big games might require the extra space to have everything available. Is this for main modes of the game or simply the online portion? It is very possible it could be completely different for each game. Would suck if you have to have several SD cards so you can keep the downloaded content for multiple games.


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