Topic: The Nintendo Switch Rumor and Speculation Thread

@gcunit More power = contemporary 3rd party games.

It's no coincidence the switch having the best contemporary multiplatform release track record for.... decades ends up also being one of the best selling systems for nintendo.

People want to continue and enhance the same switch experience with more than just "only nintendo games" they had 5 years ago that's all but dried up now.

That's exactly what switch 2 delivers. Everything you loved about the switch, but all the games you missed out on with switch 1 and even more contemporary multiplat games, that hold up even better.

The nintendo games only strategy gets you wii u and GameCube results.

You all can be talking until you turns blue or red about power.

But the facts remains intact forever that...

Playstation sold almost 3x most than N64 despite were massively inferior to N64 in specs.

PS2 sold 3x more than GameCube and Xbox together despite being massively underpowered.

Wii sold better than PS3 and Xbox 360 despite of that it was like Magnavox Odyssey vs NES as comparison.

Switch 141.5m in just 7 years and 2 months (it took PS2 11 years to sell 150m) despite being astronomically dwarfed by PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, Xbox Series blah, PS5, Xbox Series blahblah...

Games sells, not the specs. I think that PS4 is the only time which the most powerful console of that generation won. But it's difficult to placing Switch in which console generation it belongs to... So PS4 may lost to Switch or not...

That's the thread we're posting in, is it not?

My personal perspective is that Furukawa was hired at Nintendo as a numbers-man. I assume the numbers tell Furukawa that the Switch is a winning formula that should continue, not moved away from. Nintendo have carved out their niche. The best secondary device that core gamers wouldn't mind owning, regardless of their brand / platform loyalty.

To deviate from the golden goose seems folly to me.

@Keman Tbh, I'm happy with Switch, Steam Deck, Rog Ally et al being the first generation of hybrid. Let home consoles have their generations. And once again, Sony and Microsoft weren't there...

@Fullstack The next hardware will naturally be more powerful than the current hardware. Obviously. My point was that trying to disproportionately close the power gap with PS5 etc will increase the price beyond what the core Nintendo audience is happy paying isn't wise.

Nintendo's tried to sell hardware based on gimmicks that impact gameplay 4 times. They were successful only twice, with DS and Wii. That was largely because of them selling to a fickle audience of non-gamers that had never touched a video game system in their lives, and the majority of which haven't touched one since.

They failed with 3DS and Wii U. The 3D effect was quickly brushed aside as most didn't use it and it was arguably more of a novelty visual gimmick than something that dramatically impacts gameplay. The system became a success selling as a more powerful, next gen DS. Wii U was just a failure altogether.

With Switch they created a new hybrid form factor, but the system is largely a standard game system otherwise and not based around a gimmick the way the DS and Wii were.

Any sort of gimmick they might introduce with Switch 2 will very likely be superfluous like HD Rumble, rather than fundamental to the hardware

@BobLongRickTangle Let people dream, Bob. The only rule in this room is until Nintendo say it, it's just opinion and speculation. The only thing we technically know is Nintendo will announce it this fiscal year. If we simply poste about what Nintendo said then 1) We will have to rename the thread Nintendo Switch 2 Facts 2) Folk who like to imagine what could be next will have to go create a new thread (I would call it something like...hmmm...Nintendo Speculation and Rumour thread.) and 3) Yeah...pointless. So no harm no foul, let folk say what they want. Don't let it get to you

@gcunit The time for this manner of speculative discussion ended like over 2 years ago.

What Nintendo and Nvidia are doing, is already done, manufactured, and being shipped for assembly as of march.

It's a new switch, designed to fit in as a portable hybrid platform capable of playing ps5/series game, even better than switch could with ps4/xbone.

@GrailUK hey thanks. And good points.

To your point of letting others dream, the only reason I joined the conversation was because @skywake was attempting to shut down the opinion of anyone who suggested that the successor needed something more than a simple bump in power, assuming that their opinion on the matter was 100% correct.

Personally I don't know whether Nintendo will offer something more or simply stick to a power bump, I just wanted to provide some evidence to the contrary of their argument to illustrate that we just don't know with Nintendo; there's plenty of arguements to support both perspectives.

Imo to shut people's opinions down based on your own baseless speculation isn't a helpful take.

@BobLongRickTangle I know Skywake. He doesn't shut people down, he just presents well constructed arguements. Even if I disagree with him occassionally, I still respect his thinking. It's ok to disagree, it doesn't mean you hate the person

Honestly I don't even mind if the gimmick is something smaller this generation and I wouldn't be surprised (I'd prefer something bigger like bringing back dual screens, but something smaller yet still impactful is fine). Nintendo seems to have a tick-tock sort of hardware cycle when it comes to gimmicks/innovations, they seem to follow an innovative generation with a more iterative one (see: NES vs. SNES, N64 vs. GC, Wii vs. Wii U, now we've got the Switch vs. Switch 2), and we're all having difficulty imagining something that could be more on the innovative side so maybe the technology just isn't there yet for something bold and revolutionary. Whatever the case, just... provide something more than power please. If it's something like stereoscopic 3D or HD rumble, fine, that won't exactly light the world on fire but it'll provide enough potential to do something new here and there to keep their creativity and uniqueness afloat for a generation (especially if they can supplement it with more hardware-agnostic new game ideas which I can definitely see potential for this generation).

@GrailUK hate doesn't come into it. I honestly don't hate anyone. I was simply playing devil's advocate against his bias, assumptions, and frankly aggressive behaviour to others in this forum.

@BobLongRickTangle fair enough.

To be clear I never said there will not be some kind of gimmick. I said that I'm not expecting there to be one and it doesn't need one to do well. I never said that Nintendo will release all their games on Switch and Switch 2. I said that I expect them to continue supporting Switch for a few years and that there will probably be a cross-gen period

And I never said that Nintendo don't want people on Switch to migrate to Switch 2. I said that their primary objective is bringing people to Nintendo's platforms, whatever they are, and keeping them there. Because as it was elegantly put, kids tend to be different every year. The market of gamers in 2025 will not be the same people from 2017 or 2012. Nintendo's aim is to catch people on the way through and hold onto them as long as possible. A subset of which is migrating, sure, but that's not the main game

Now if you want to argue that you think Nintendo needs something more than just a more powerful Switch to continue to stand out? Then sure. I disagree and will cite the continued success of the Switch as a counter point but sure. It's an argument you can reasonably make. But that's not what was happening

If people want to play devil's advocate that's fine. I'm all for it. What I'm not for is people arguing with me by attacking arguments that I am not making. The definition of a strawman. And when I call people out on that kind of BS that's not "being aggressive"

Also heaven forbid someone speculate in the rumours and speculation thread

Fair argument. I think the thing you're maybe not considering is that at this point Nintendo is the dominant player in this space. Sony and Microsoft are the ones that need to disrupt Nintendo, not the other way around. Now you will, and are, arguing that they need some kind of Nintendo spice to keep people engaged. My view is that all they need to do is not give people a reason to dip their toes into their competitors offerings. A radical and wacky Nintendo-ism, I feel, could easily be a reason for people to jump ship to something more pedestrian

And as much as I like the idea of portable PCs Nintendo will always have an advantage there. I'm all for PC gaming but the software available for these portable PCs is, almost by definition, not designed for them. Dedicated hardware is always going to have an easier ride in terms of performance per dollar

Also, I've mentioned here backwards compatibility and cross compatibility. It's no accident I bring these up. If people are already invested in the Switch ecosystem, both developers and gamers, then the Switch 2 has a huge advantage in this race. The Switch library and userbase. If they can successfully leverage both? That's the hook

With that said, Steam already does this and I wouldn't be shocked if Sony/MS throw their existing library onto whatever they do. The difference again though, Nintendo has already captured the portable market. They just need to not give people a reason to jump

And for new people coming in? The hook is compelling software. Always is

So in regards to June, what do you think gets revealed? I mean quite frankly, even if they have stuff they’ve been sitting on, I don’t think it could be anything super big. It’s going to be easy to ship titles, the B-tier budget series games, and remake and remaster galore. Not that any of this stuff is bad, but I’m just interested what the holiday title is going to be without a Pokemon or a big Mario game.

@NarwhalKing Personally I think this thing's gonna be big. We only know about two upcoming titles this year, and this should reveal most if not all of the rest of the year's lineup. Maybe not as good as last year's June Direct or September Direct, but I think it'll still be really good.

Some things I think could be here:

• Luigi's Mansion 2HD
• Luigi's Mansion 1 port
• Kirby game
• NWC: NES Edition
• Metroid Prime 4
• filler things (smaller Square Enix games, farming simulators)
• NSO update(s)
• Splatoon 3 something
• Mario Wonder DLC (I've seen people mention this and I totally think this is a possibly. Pikmin 4 DLC is possible however extremely unlikely at this point)
• Possibly a tease for the next big Mario game for the next console (not talking about the next console or anything, just a tease for a game)

Maybe pull out some smaller projects as well to fill in the rest of the year. Maybe WW/TP HD ports, another smaller GameCube/Wii/WiiU remaster, etc.

Metroid Prime 2+3 ports could happen in the September Direct, a month before a potential Metroid Prime 4 release in October. (Similar to what they did with Pikmin 4, when they ported Pikmin 1+2 a month in advance)

These are just my thoughts, feel free to add anything you think could be here!

I've been wanting to try a Rhythm Heaven game for such a long time, that certainly wouldn't feel out of place in a year like this!

@PikminMarioKirby Aside from the listed above, I think more games from the Wii could use some love. For instance, Wario Land: Shake It. It's been years since we had a Wario Land game & I missed out this one sadly back then.
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (oh! Also Fire Emblem Path of Radiance too!) & Super Paper Mario.
Then...I guess...Yoshi's Wooly World or Kirby's Epic Yarn??? I know this may not be definite but it's does sound sensible too. Some of these games do deserve some love too tho.

I'm not expecting Nintendo to pull out new games but I think they do want to pad out more of the Switch's lifespan over the course leading up to the successor. But