Paradox Interactive surprised the world when it was announced that Cities: Skylines would see release on Nintendo Switch.
Their modern take on the classic city simulation is a demanding game, and, to port it to the portable home console, they turned to Tantalus Media – a studio that will be known to many thanks to their work on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, Mass Effect 3 Special Edition and Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director’s Cut on Wii U.
The port is an admirable effort, but critics scorned the fact that the city builder’s frame rate suffered as your city grew ever larger. Now, Tantalus Media has responded to those complaints.
“Not many people appreciate this, but it takes a supreme effort to port these kinds of games to the massively lower spec’d Switch,” Tantalus Media CEO Tom Crago explained to Gaming Respawn.
“On Cities: Skylines we really felt we could recreate the full PC experience on Switch without making too many adjustments. And to be honest, I thought we did an excellent job. The problem was some critics complained that in certain sections the game slowed down.
“Well… yes, it did. That’s because it was being made to run on a machine that fits in your hand rather than a machine that sits under your desk. The alternative, which maybe we should have taken, was to radically change the design of the game. I guess I didn’t think that Cities: Skylines fans would want that, or that newcomers to the game would prefer a different version to the original. I may have been wrong about that.”
When asked whether there were plans for a software update to improve the game’s performance or more downloadable content, Crago responded: “We don’t know for sure what the future holds, but no plans for either at this stage.”
Cities: Skylines Nintendo Switch Edition is now available on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo Switch worldwide.
