Can you believe it, we are at the 3rd anniversary of the Switch, the little gaming platform from Nintendo that started out as a complete unknown, but quickly gained attention from everywhere. Developers were not slow to start supporting the platform either, we saw some amazing original games hit day one with The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild and things just kept getting better, but more than that, we saw a healthy number of titles brought over here from other platforms, something that Nintendo has issues with in the past. But what makes the Switch such a great place for these games, is it Nintendo being more open to developers than ever before, is it the Nvidia Tegra X1 chip that powers it, or perhaps it is falling onto the developers themselves, who are creating the content, regardless, there are now plenty of ports on Switch and it is a great thing.

Porting games might seem like the easiest thing to do, almost every developer does it, from one-person indie studios, to teams that span the globe, that are made up of thousands of people. It is common for some studios to port in house, but then there are studios, who amongst making some original content, are known for being able to bring games to other platforms, with tight turnaround times, and the more important part, being feature complete, but just what is the process for that like. I decided to find out and reached out to both Tantalus Media and Virtuos Games, studios known for bringing content to the Switch as well as others. If the names sound familiar to you, that is because both studios have been prominent in the porting scene for a number of years. Nintendo fans will know Tantalus Media, from their work on The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD, but on top of that, their recent efforts include Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition for PC and all the consoles editions of Cities Skylines. Virtuos Games is a name that has been on a massive number of games, including the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, but some of their more recent ports include Final Fantasy XII The Zodiac Age and LA Noire, both for consoles. Given that both studios have been hard at work, they have unique perspectives on things, including those crucial first steps.