XCOM 2 Collection is coming to Switch on May 29, alongside the Borderlands Legendary Collection and BioShock: The Collection. While the latter two are collecting games from the Xbox 360 and PS3, XCOM 2 started life as a PC exclusive before eventually coming to PS4 and Xbox One. In a new interview, port studio Virtuos has talked about how they brought the game to Nintendo’s system–and what they think is possible on the system.
Talking to Nintendo Life, Virtuos senior producer Zhang Chengwei has spoken about the process of bringing the game, complete with all its DLC, to Switch. According to Chengwei, they “developed a clever general-purpose rendering library that allows XCOM 2 to be rendered directly on the Switch without changing the original rendering module from Unreal Engine 3,” which helped to deal with the Switch’s reduced memory (4GB–the PC version requires 7GB). “I’d say that we spent half a year just to optimise the memory, and we used many methods throughout this period, including using more efficient formats for files, removing needless memory usage, and even modifying and optimising the original console’s memory system,” he says.
Virtuos also developed the Switch port of Bioshock: The Collection, as well as the upcoming Switch port of The Outer Worlds, and Chengwei talks generally about their processes. He outlines what he calls “Virtuos’ Solution,” which involves discussing expectations with publishers and figuring out what to prioritize. “We propose the best solutions for how to fully use the Switch’s best features and really make the game shine, not just as a game, but specifically as a Switch game,” he says.
“Off the back of our work on Starlink: Battle for Atlas, Dark Souls: Remastered, The Outer Worlds and the coming XCOM 2, we now have no doubt that Switch adaptations can be worked for games on any of the current generation of consoles,” he says.
While we might not see a Switch port of, say, Red Dead Redemption 2 any time soon, Virtuos’ statement lines up with the caliber of current-generation titles we’ve seen ported to Switch, including The Witcher 3 (Saber Interactive) and Wolfenstein II (Panic Button). “The more games we develop for Switch, the better we get and the more we can squeeze out of the hardware,” Chengwei says.
Other big upcoming Switch ports include Doom Eternal and Burnout Paradise Remastered.
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