This is a big week for Nintendo Switch ports.
BioShock: The Collection, Borderlands: The Collection, and XCOM2 Collection are all being
released for the hybrid console, bringing new meaning to the word “portable”.
Publisher 2K Games has released plenty of games on the Switch up to this point, but
these three new collections are among the most beloved games of the past decade and
a half.
While some of the games in these collections, such as the original BioShock and Borderlands,
are pushing fifteen years old, others, such as BioShock Infinite and XCOM2, are so technically
complex that it’s impressive anyone managed to squeeze them onto a handheld device.
This incredible achievement is all thanks to the unsung heroes of Nintendo Switch ports:
the incredible team at Virtuos Games.
Founded in 2004, Virtuos focuses primarily on game ports, and thus is often overlooked
by the gaming media as a whole.
This is a shame, as the team has been responsible for some of the best ports in recent years.
According to Virtuos CEO Gilles Langourieux, work on the PS3 port of Final Fantasy Ten
and Ten 2 led the studio to discover a passion for creating impressive, challenging ports.
He said: “We realized that there was a lot of value
in bringing AAA titles to new platforms if done well.
Meanwhile, our partners also began to understand that our ability to line up a larger number
of artists and engineers than traditional developers allowed us to be more thorough
in our adaptations.”
Indeed, the company’s size is one of its greatest strengths.
Virtuos has over 1,600 employees across the globe, with its largest studio space located
in Shanghai, China.
Any company that chooses to work with Virtuos knows that they’re getting top quality work
from an expansive team of talented developers.
This large studio is necessary for some of the company’s trickier projects.
It’s not easy getting an expansive HD game to run effectively on the Switch.
What’s more, according to Elijah Freeman, Vice President of Games at Virtuos, older
games can often be more difficult than newer ones.
But, with enough effort and resources, anything is possible.
Says Elijah: “We often have this conversation with partners
who developed their original game for PC or HD consoles and think that it won't run on
the Switch.
Give enough time to a specialized team, and they will find enough technical and content
optimizations to make it play seamlessly.
It's simply a matter of priority: How do you balance the distribution of tasks for the
GPU and CPU to achieve the expected results?
This can be especially challenging if it were a classic game with an antiquated code base,
but it's totally feasible.”
“This requires creative thinking when it comes to frame-rate and memory optimization,
especially for the larger maps with complex environments.
We have a strong team of technical artists who are rearranging and streamlining workflow,
and we've set up a VIP -- a Very Important Place -- in the room, which is basically a
table with TV sets where we constantly cross-compare the Switch version with other SKUs.
We are excited about our progress, because we feel that we're pushing the limits of what
is possible on the Switch.”
In 2018, Virtuos created Switch ports for Dark Souls: Remastered and Starlink: Battle
For Atlas.
The quality of these ports made developers sit up and take notice: it turned out that
more could be achieved on the Switch than many had realized.
Enter 2K games, who had released several games on the Switch up to this point, but were looking
for something more ambitious.
Fans were desperate to see some of the publisher’s iconic back catalogue make its way onto the
handheld, and so, the company decided to dump a bunch of ports onto the system at the same
time.
According to 2K Chief Creative Sami Thessman: “Well, we’ve had a huge demand for these
games on Switch for some time now, so it was actually because we felt bad that we’ve
kept everyone waiting this long.
In announcing and releasing all these games at the same time, we were able to pull this
necessary partnership together even more effectively and really establish it.
We didn’t necessarily have some kind of marketing goal or something like that in mind,
but I’m sure it wasn’t just a happy coincidence either.”
Virtuos worked their magic on these games, trying to crunch down art assets without compromising
quality.
Ultimately, if there was one thing even this talented studio couldn’t do, it was make
three chunky BioShock games fit on a single Nintendo Switch cartridge.
So, while the games are releasing physically, this is mostly for show, as the games require
a large update in order to run.
Regardless, the work that Virtuos is doing is incredibly impressive.
The moral of the story is that even if something seems impossible, if you’re willing to get
creative and rely on other people where necessary, you can still make it happen.