So last week, it was announced that SteamWorld Build would be receiving paid “Mechanized” DLC. However, the Switch was conspicuously absent from the lineup of platforms, and it’s since been confirmed that there are no plans to put the DLC on Switch at this time, even though the Switch will still receive free seasonal content updates. I find this very disappointing for a few reasons:
\- At no point was it advertised that the Switch version may not receive all content added to Build post-launch, so I now regret my choice of platform for the game.
\- The actual content itself doesn’t appear to be beyond the Switch’s capabilities. (If there’s a good reason for it being unable to run on Switch, I’d at least like to know.)
\- The SteamWorld franchise as a whole got off the ground on Nintendo platforms, and remains synonymous with them. Being treated like second-class citizens now is really not a good look at all, and makes me less inclined to check out more games in the series – at least beyond the ones that do generally interest me. Especially because Thunderful owns what I believe is the only third-party distributor for first-party Nintendo products: Bergsala.
Don’t get me wrong – I like a lot of what Thunderful’s doing and want them, the SteamWorld series, and the other indies they publish to thrive. It’s impressive they managed to get Build on the Switch to begin with while retaining the near-instant switches between the surface and the different mine layers. I just think they should be more honest with us about their support of the Switch, especially because they grew out of a few companies with longtime associations with Nintendo (Image and Form, Zoink, and Bergsala).