NBA Playgrounds Update For Switch Is Held Back By Nintendo Guidelines

Developer Saber Interactive and Publisher Mad Dog Games have released their new sports game NBA playgrounds. the game has an arcade-style setup with 2 versus 2 basketball action similar to NBA Jams and NBA streets. it has been more than one month now since its release and has received mostly positive review from the community.

But the owners of the Switch version of the game are not having a good time. the devs of the game received the switch kit after the development of the game started. so to meet the simultaneous release date as the other platform they ported it quickly for the switch and as a result, it had a lot of issues like the poor resolution on the switch, nonsensical shot timing, bad A.I and clunky gameplay.

but the major problem was the lack of online feature in the game. the devs said that they will add the online feature in just a week after the launch. but it has been over a month now and there is still no update. this may seem like the Devs have just lied to the face of their customers and are just not supportive at all but it is not the case.

According to a Reddit post, the developer of NBA Playgrounds Matthew Karch stated that the update for the switch has been ready for a week now. but they are unable to release it because the patch is somehow violating the guidelines and so Nintendo is rejecting it which has frustrated the developers from Saber. Karch full statement:-

Unfortunately there isn’t much update I can provide. There are certain elements of our patch that are absolutely essential but that are out of normal Nintendo guidelines. If Nintendo were to approve the patch it would be released immediately, but we are in the midst of a long process of back-and-forth to get small matters waived. It isn’t that we aren’t working on this. In fact, getting this relatively simple patch out has consumed more of our time than making further improvements in additions to the game. When I say it is entirely out of her hands I mean that. We were put in a position where we needed to get this game out at the same time as the other consoles and because the platform was so new, it suffered in certain areas. There isn’t even a change log at this point – is the same patch that has been sitting there for weeks.

When he was asked what is the reason for the disapproval of patch he said

The simplest one is patch size. There are certain size requirements that you can’t exceed in a patch. It took us almost 3 weeks to get an exception to allow our patch to be larger than the normal size. And the reason it is larger is due to the technology we are using and is beyond our control. In fact, we proposed reducing the entire file size of the game from seven gigs to 3 1/2 gigs but because the platform is so new it doesn’t support it now and that can’t be done.

I agree that the devs are at fault of releasing an unfinished game but they have done everything as promised other platforms like PC, PS4, and Xbox One have already received they patch with major fixes plus additional content like more tournament, playgrounds, and additional 34 players and if you see the reviews on steam it is mostly positive. which does indicate that devs are fully supportive and listens to the community.

The situation for NBA Playgrounds for switch looks grim right now the devs have already done what they can do and as stated above the patch cannot be further reduced in size. so now everything depends on Nintendo decision.