Zen Studios working on better optimising Pinball FX3 for Switch
Update: Mel Kirk from Zen Studios has contacted us and provided a bit more context. The response from the Zen Studios on twitter was specifically in reference to the game being played on a very large projector screen, and not necessarily the game on Switch in general. Nonetheless, they admit that it could be better, and appear to be striving to improve the experience anyway, which is fantastic to see. We’re always happy to see post-launch support from a company that has been a strong supporter of the Switch. The original story follows.
It’s not every day that a game developer says that their game looks bad, but it seems today isn’t any old day.
In a surprisingly candid conversation with twitter user MajesticFlame, Zen Studios admitted that their latest release, Pinball FX3, doesn’t look as good as it could on Switch. MajesticFlame says that tables that previously looked good on Wii U are jaggy, blurry, and just generally pretty horrendous to look at, with the worst offender being the Bob’s Burgers table.
Not the best photo in the world but you can see how bad Bob and Gene look. This carries through other tables too. pic.twitter.com/WZ7fVV6Hly
— Ryan Kimber (@MajesticFlame) December 13, 2017
Zen Studios agrees, and that’s why they’re working on a patch for the game. They say the patch will bump up the frame rate to 60fps in handheld, as well as hopefully bring docked gameplay up to a 1080p resolution.
Yep, looks terrible. We are formulating a patch to get up to 60FPS in handheld, and hopefully bump up docked to full 1080. We’re on it. Thanks for your help here.
Advertisement— Zen Studios (@zen_studios) December 13, 2017
This kind of honest admission is certainly rare, but it’s nice to see a company be so honest with their customers — and to see them address the issues that players are having.
Why do devs release games that they know look terrible then? Fix then release.
How many sales are lost because potential buyers have been put off by the initial release that won’t be back after it’s fixed?
At least they are fixing it though, that’s good.
I can’t say I disagree.
I appreciate that they’ve stepped up and admitted that it wasn’t of acceptable quality, and that they’re doing something to fix it, but it shouldn’t have launched that way in the first place. As Miyamoto once said, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.” More devs need to take that to heart.
To be fair, you need to take this in context. This shot was taken on a 100 in projector screen. Many games would look like this on this type of display.