2K Games set up a second team that was dedicated to developing NBA 2K18 on Nintendo Switch after it had emerged that developer Visual Concepts would be tasked with bringing the basketball game to the portable home console as well as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
NBA 2K18 senior producer Rob Jones has also spoken about how their president had requested that it would be “the same exact game” as that seen on other platforms. That means that the Nintendo Switch version has feature parity with other consoles, with the only being caveat being a lower graphical fidelity due to the difference in hardware.
“Well the main thing that our president said from day one is that the Switch had to be the same exact game that was on PS4 and Xbox One, so by starting there, you know, the bar was already set extremely high, because we were already working really, really hard just to get it on platforms we already knew, and then suddenly to take that and miniaturise it for the portable, you know, the portable Switch (obviously it also plays when it’s docked), but to get all those features working on there was kind of a gargantuan task,” Jones explained to Gamereactor.
“We actually had a second team just dedicated only to doing the Switch version just because it would have been impossible within the confines of Visual Concepts […] So obviously we delivered a good experience. It’s not the same exact graphics because the Switch can’t push them, you know, but the experience itself – you’re not missing out on anything from the Switch version [compared] to the main consoles version.”
NBA 2K18 will release on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch on September 15th, with physical copies at retail on October 17th.
