Before launching back in March 2017, the Nintendo Switch was already receiving a sizable amount of third-party support. While that support includes a healthy combination of older games being ported and newer games being modified to function smoothly, given the system's technical limitations, Bethesda has arguably been the Switch's most enthusiastic third-party supporter. And Bethesda is convinced that its support of the Switch has played a prominent role in driving console sales over the past two and a half years.

Speaking with GamesIndustry.biz, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Bethesda Pete Hines stated many Switch owners have looked to one of the developer's many games as their "entry point" onto the console. Early on, both The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Doom were brought over to Switch, establishing a strong first impression for Bethesda.

"Nintendo can see what is the first thing people play on a new Switch account, and when it's Doom or Skyrim, they're like: 'Somebody got a Switch and decided to play your game before anything else.'"

That type of support for Switch will continue to echo through the end of 2019 in a big way. Both the sequel to the Doom reboot, Doom Eternal, and Wolfenstein: Youngblood will be coming to Nintendo Switch this Fall and Summer, respectively. Other games to come to the Switch thus far include Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus and Fallout Shelter.

Of course given the limitations of the Switch compared to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, these games have launched with their share of compromises. For example, when it launches later this month, the physical version of Wolfenstein: Youngblood will not include a game cartridge, but rather a download code for a digital copy of the game.

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While Bethesda and Nintendo have established a healthy relationship, the partnership between Bethesda and developer Panic Button may be just as pivotal to the success all three parties have seen. Panic Button has become one of the leaders in optimizing games for Switch, having worked on every Switch port of Bethesda's games excluding Skyrim and Fallout Shelter, and the studio is at the helm of both Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Doom Eternal.

Bethesda appears to have the hot hand it regards to making itself comfortable with releasing Switch games, and the process of downscaling these games graphically and making them playable on a technically inferior gaming system without any widespread issues is quite the accomplishment. While the launch of even more powerful consoles in the coming years could further compromise Bethesda's vision of getting all their games on every system imaginable, it's made the right impressions with Nintendo thus far.

Source: GamesIndustry (via Nintendo Life)