Topic: The Nintendo Switch Rumor and Speculation Thread

@Bolt_Strike
Frankly I agree and it's why I've previously suggested the idea of a Switch Micro that was a super paired back design. Even if it was relatively constrained the idea of a truly pocketable Switch is something I'd be interested in. The Lite is not far off but, if I'm being honest, there are too many issues with multiple consoles using one account for me to bother

What I tend to do is carry around a GBC sized Anbernic portable as a properly portable machine. Then my Switch is mostly a "home" console except for holidays when I take it with me in a bag. I still use it undocked a lot... but at home. Curled up on a couch or in bed usually. Which is also how I used the Wii U

Honestly for me for the vast majority of the time I actually use the Switch in the same ways I used the Wii U. The only real upgrade being that "off-TV" got boosted from a compressed 480p to a full signal 720p and I don't have to think about which rooms have a good signal to the console under the TV

edit: with that said, I think this tangent is somewhat dramatic. The difference in physical size we're talking about here vs the original Switch is insignificant in terms of how it'll impact use. The original comment was made in jest because I made a typo and said it was 3m wider not 3cm....

I've been enjoying seeing how much mileage people were getting out of that 🤭

But I've also been enjoying imagining Switch Successor power in a N3DS (reg) body.

Random tangent, I noticed that Digital Foundry has been pushing the "don't get your hopes up for 4K" bit again. And while I think they're right in terms of 4K via DLSS, especially for demanding titles, I think it's a tad too simplistic to say this. Especially given a lot of the sort of games Nintendo tends to make. Now I don't have the Switch 2 so it's hard to make clear comparisons. But what I do have is a 1660Ti which while clocked higher than the Switch 2 will be (will get to that) with an older architecture it, overall, isn't TOO far off where we're going to land

To make a bit of a point here, I have this card in the machine I'm sitting behind now. GPU clock at 1.5Ghz, able to boost to ~1.75Ghz. What do you think happens if I spin up a Wii U iso in an emulator and tell it to render at 4K with all of the emulator settings cranked? I'm talking high detail models, high detail shaddows, 16X AF, the lot. Well..... it hits the framerate cap. I didn't test all the (legally acquired) isos I have here but Mario Kart 8 and Smash Bros sat at ~40% usage with 4K/60fps and Bayonetta 2 sat at around 15-20% usage. So this isn't even a "4K/60 just" this is a "this could probably do 4K/120" or, more importantly, "this could probably do a stable 4K/60 with a 50% underclock"

Now is this card "for 4K gaming"? Well.... I'd say no. When I had this card under my 4K TV, where it lived for a good while, it was usually running stuff at either 1440p or 1080p. A lot of 1080p with sliders to right for most stuff. But even then, there's a LOT of content and some of it fairly shiny stuff that isn't that hard to render. And VRR goes a fair way towards hiding stuff that's just barely stable. There was a fair amount of stuff, especially anything pre-PS4 era, that I ran at 4K

Is 4K DLSS going to be a thing? I mean maybe not. I think that DLSS is mostly going to be used to push really hard to run games that can't hit a stable 1080p upto 1080p. That's where it'll shine because the cost, in time, to do 4K DLSS just isn't worth it. But I'd imagine that if the Switch can do it at something approximating 1080p/60 then the Switch 2 will be able to comfortably achieve the same thing at a native 4K. And if a game along those lines isn't 4K on Switch 2? It'll be because the developer, IMO rightly, has decided that a higher level of detail somewhere else was a better use of the GPU's time than 4K

There were those rumours of BotW running at 4K from a couple of years ago. Frankly, I don't doubt those rumours. I think that's possible. Do I expect that to ship? Well no. What I expect would be something more along the lines of a BotW that runs at 1440p or 1080p assisted by DLSS with a stable 30fps but maybe with a bit of RT shadows, longer draw distances, higher texture quality and so on. But BotW at 4K as it was on Switch? Sure. Why wouldn't it?

/slightly off topic rant

@gcunit Ironically, there are a lot of internet threads about whether a 3DS can fit in a pocket and/or whether it can without damage. There was even one a few years ago on NintendoLife: https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/3ds/what_3ds_can_fits_in_...

But yes, you definitely inadvertently created a tangent 😝

I am skeptical there is really much of a market for 'pocket' consoles (as opposed to handhelds) ; to the extent that category exists, phones seem to own it. I doubt Nintendo would bother competing in that space.

There’s at least enough of a market that multiple Chinese firms can regularly pump out revisions to pocket handhelds that can only play old games with bad graphics,

Nintendo also did their own test of the pocket system market with the Mario Game & Watch system. It must have done well enough because they issued a Zelda version a year later.

I also think the Asian market takes very well to small systems (when Sega did their game gear mini for Japan they were practically microscopic), so I think that market alone could be enough for a renewed effort to put out a pocket system from Nintendo.

But then I don’t think it’s the marketplace that’s stopping Nintendo on this front, I think it’s simply their own R&D finding the right technology that also fits within their communication. The Switch Lite showed that, and definitely they could come back with an update on that

@NinChocolate surely no one actually carries a game and watch around in their pockets?? I feel like people bought them because they are a neat display item. 😅 Also, they are a bit thick for pockets and could easily be scratched; for a limited item, I would be scared to harm it.

Yeah, as much as I'd like a truly pocketable console that can run more modern even just indie-like games and 2D stuffs..... I'm happy with my Anbernic 35XX+ with GB, GBC, GBA, NES, SNES, some N64 and occasional single screen non-touch friendly DS

Oh, and Cave Story, DOS shareware nostalgia, Sega Master System, Mega Drive....

You get the idea

@FishyS well hey, as long as Nintendo sees fit to make them I don’t care what people do with their handhelds, stick them on their shelf or beside their throne, lol

Time Extension just put up a post that Ayaneo will be showing two new handhelds based on the game boy and game boy micro. The market is there for sure. But as said, I don’t think Nintendo is waiting on that aspect of it

If it was up to me personally, I’d have the engineers in Kyoto fit the switch into the dimensions of the vita 2000, not any more, but with an extra contour for the triggers. Boom. And if an oled screen can be stuck in there too, bing bang perfection

I'd be interested to see what price point the Switch 2 will come in at, and what people feel like they'd be prepared to pay. I think it's one of the big potential banana skins for a console launch. I'm certain it'll be priced more than the current OLED (£310 €350 $350 approx) but I'm not sure how much higher Nintendo will go.

Well, a brand new original Switch price is at around 400 dollars CAD base price, and a brand new Oled switch is roughly 450 CAD (both according to Nintendo’s website) I imagine since the demand is so damn high for this new console, at base starting price, Nintendo could get away with something like 550 CAD so it isn’t too expensive, but makes sense considering the amount of extra strength the new console most likely holds over the original switch

Everyone (almost) here forgets that...
3DS, Wii U, PS3, Saturn botched its launch despite being a huge jump from its predecessor. because they were all expensive at the launch.

Well 3DS and PS3 recovered a bit after some heavy price-cut, but were nowhere close to their predecessor NDS and PS2.
Switch was a huge success because of its price.

$350 is max, but I think that they won't launches a base "Switch 2" for anything higher than $300, while a "premium" version will cost $350. Don't forget that Nintendo isn't like Microsoft/Sony/Valve etc. Nintendo has always (almost) been about being affordable.
Heck, even Gamecube which were so much more powerful than PS2 were really cheap. N64 was also pretty affordable despite insane specs for that time, 93.6Mhz vs 30Mhz, 4MB RAM/8MB with expansion pak vs 1MB RAM and numerous otherpizzazz which PSX could only dream about. Well that N64 were cartridge based actually made it cheap, but still those specs were absolutely insane at its time.

It will be interesting to watch everyones reaction when they realizes that every so called leaks were faked so fast when Nintendo fully unveils their next console.

It happened before especially with NX and Project Reality.
Project Reality which latter became Ultra 64 and then changing its name again to N64 were so insanely hyped up from the gaming press. It was like 2-3 console generations ahead from what N64 actually became in the end.

99.9% of leaks are not real. Seriously every "Switch 2" leaks has beens so vastly different from every "leakers", it was either at like Switch Pro level, PS4 level, PS4 Pro level or PS5 level.
Don't trust on anyone until Nintendo opens their mouth. "Pyora" had 100% wrong everything about "Switch 2" this so far.

It will 100% be different from all "leaks" just like with NX and Project Reality.

@Keman Pyoro hasn't said anything regarding Switch 2. Their leaks are only about impending video announcements/Directs, of which they have a 100% track record due to said nature of the leaks.

I'd be willing to bet that the leaks we've heard about Switch 2 are pretty much all correct.

It'll be slightly more expensive than the OLED but I don't expect them to put much "clear air" between the two.

Presumably they'll retire the vanilla Switch and very slightly lower the OLED price. I can't see the Switch Lite disappearing. If they kept the 2DS around for years as an access point into the Nintendo ecosystem they'd be stupid not to keep Switch Lite alive.

I've always thought that they should bundle something in digitally with the Switch Lite (Mario Kart or Mario Wonder would be logical choices) whilst keeping it at the same price to make it a more attractive prospect and to really push it into the "I want a toy for my kids but I probably don't want to ever pay extra for them to have more games" market. The software sales from capturing that market might not be worth it but I'd always argue that you get the console in hands and played and you're halfway there to a future software sale - even if it doesn't seem immediately likely.

I'm expecting $400 honestly. Seems like a good sweet spot.

@IceClimbers

Don't forget to pile on another $100 cad for a Switch 2 Pro-like Controller.
Even if S2 is backwards compatible with the Switch Pro Controller, i still wouldn't use it personally as there wouldn't be any sense of newness, plus it's a little high in the latency department compared to something like the Duel Sense or even Nintendo's own Joy-con's.

If the Switch Pro controller had low latency, combined with the Duel Sense's Superior Haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, a more reliable D-pad(As great as it feels to the touch) and included a reference/sensor bar for Gyro motion aiming, it would be a 10/10 in my eyes. As long as it's the neon pink & green handled Splatoon 2 edition. As is, it's like a 7 at best.

I'd be shocked if this puppy is under $350.

$400USD, $600AUD

And they'll likely shuffle around the Switch lineup to make it more appealing to lower budget consumers. I don't expect Switch, especially the Lite, to disappear from shelves anytime soon

edit: Also I didn't really think inflation needed to be pointed out given how the global market is. But here in this thread some people are setting their price expectations for Switch 2 based on Switch and even older consoles. So I guess it does need to be pointed out afterall

Amazon's US site, in case anyone didn't know, made pre-orders unavailable for upcoming games such as Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It has been closed ever since that happened about 2 months ago, saying that it's currently unavailable.

Several weeks later, many people reported that their pre-orders cancelled on Amazon US. Both the cancellation and the unavailability have affected not only Paper Mario TTYD, but seemingly Luigi's Mansion 2 HD and Endless Ocean: Luminous as well.

Recently, it has seems Amazon US also shut down being able to get eShop cards. This was likely a huge money-maker for Nintendo as US is a key market, and that's how many people got eShop currency. (Another website has reported this)

This is getting increasingly worse. We currently don't know what Nintendo/Amazon is doing. However, this does effect the Switch and could imply some partnership issue.