Topic: Next Nintendo Direct?

@Pastellioli All NSO games that have been announced at some point have already released with the exception of NES Tetris. Regarding Pokemon NSO, the current situation is:

• Pokemon Snap - Announced in September 2021 (Direct), released in June 2022
• Pokemon Puzzle League - Announced and released in July 2022
• Pokemon Stadium - Announced in September 2022 (Direct), released in April 2023
• Pokemon Stadium 2 - Announced in September 2022 (Direct), released in August 2023 (reappeared in Pokemon Presents as a shadow drop)
• Pokemon TCG - Announced in February 2023 (Direct), released in August 2023 (reappeared in Pokemon Presents as a shadow drop)
• Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team - Announced and released in August 2024

@Grumblevolcano Thank you as well! The dates you added are super helpful.

@Pastellioli Not from my recollection. Other than spin-off titles.

@skywake might be right. FFXVI could be coming to Xbox alongside the PC version in September (Xbox release is usually what happens when a big recent PS 3rd party exclusive gets put on PS+) and if exclusivity is over then that almost certainly guarantees it'll come to Switch 2 but you can't announce for a system that doesn't exist yet.

I doubt XVI would come to the Switch 2. The Switch 2 isn't going to be nearly powerful enough to actually run the game, and CBU III isn't going to compromise the vision of the game for it to run on Switch 2. It would effectively cause them to have to retool the graphics and cinematic cutscenes, given how a huge part of the game is the blending of CG and in-engine scenes that are hard to tell apart other than a few minor differences.

On top of this, Switch 2 most likely won't have an SSD, which makes it harder for any of the games to end up being on par with current gen versions of games. @Grumblevolcano

Heh, you have no idea do you?

@skywake From what I've heard the rumors about the successor mentions that there's not a very wide power-gap between the current switch and the switch 2. Mainly just Ai upscaling which'll help with bringing things up to 4K, but not much else.

@VoidofLight
You've heard very, very wrong and are in for one hell of a suprise

@VoidofLight
Just to add to the "Switch 2 is way more than what you're expecting" bit. Here is what we know with a fairly high level of confidence:

Storage Bandwidth:
UFS3 i.e. ~2900MB/s. Comfortably above the <100MB/s on Switch and <100MB/s on the 2.5" mechanical HDDs on the PS4/XBOne. Under the ~5500MB/s on the PS5 but honestly not that far off

Hardware accelerated file compression:
It has it on the SoC. The PS5 and XB Series also have this and it's what all of that marketing regarding storage in this generation has been about. Having this, in effect, allows storage capacity and bandwidth to go further

RAM:
12GB and as I understand it ~100GB/s. 3x the amount and 4x the speed of the Switch. In terms of memory bandwidth all of the current-gen consoles outclass it, and so do the PS4/XBOne. But in terms of capacity it sits comfortably above last gen and is notably quite a bit higher than the XB Series S

In terms of power? That's a bit harder to judge and even harder when you consider there are two different modes to deal with. But the general view is that it's going to be a touch under PS4 Pro/Series S. But with DLSS, more memory to play with, faster storage, hardware file decompression and enough modern NVidia features to support some light RT effects

So yeah, I think you might need to adjust your assumptions on what we should expect here. I'm sure some stuff that's targeting the current gen stuff will skip it, even if not for power just simply because of the resources involved in porting to a fairly different platform. But as a general rule, if someone is porting it to the Series S? Switch 2 almost surely could run it given the development effort

@VoidofLight I doubt the only difference Nintendo has made in the last 8 years is a little AI upscaling. Even if they've only doubled the RAM (which @skywake points out is likely an underestimation) that's a huge difference. Let alone the change in chip architecture in the last few years. They could release a Switch with 2020 chips, 4 years behind the curve, and still be well ahead of what the Switch could do. And I think without the boost in power, Nintendo are gonna be hard pressed to differentiate between the two and could have another Wii U on their hands.

Nintendo released a new trailer for Echoes of Wisdom today. That and the Mario Party news coincide with the games being playable at PAX West this weekend.

I hope Switch 2 will have some new Mario spinoffs instead of Mario Party, Golf, Tennis and Kart that they been releasing for the past few generations. SNES introduced Kart and Paint and N64 introduced Party, Tennis and Golf. We need new spinoffs instead of new entries in these games. Some new Pokemon spinoffs would also be great although I don’t mind another Snap or Stadium.

@skywake sorry if you have mentioned it earlier in the thread, but whats the source on the possible RAM specs? I would like to read more; RAM has been all over the place in the rumors that I have read and that seems to be a new variation.

@skywake Ahhh. That actually seems insane if true. A handheld with the power-level of a PS4 Pro or Series S. Makes me wonder how good the first party games are going to look on something like this- or what the battery life is going to look like.

@VoidofLight
As I understand it the more accurate thing to say would be that it has the potential to be PS4 Pro/Series S adjacent but with a more modern storage config, more RAM and shiny new features. It will probably reach that level of performance while docked. In portable mode it'll almost surely wind things back to preserve battery life but even there it would maintain the nice and shiny things that don't consume much power like the RAM and faster storage

@ProPAIN
There are really only two reliable "leaks" that have happened in terms of the Switch 2 hardware. The first was the NVidia hack which opened the door to a lot of details about the T239 SoC the Switch 2 will use. Eurogamer went over it here. The second source has from shipping manifests, cross referenced and discovered to include the T239 SoC. 12GB LPDDR5X, 256GB of UFS 3.1 ..... and a few other bits and pieces but those were the two important bits

There haven't really been any other major and believable leaks about the Switch I'd argue. Well, I guess maybe the Matrix Awakening Demo/BotW one which seems reasonable enough, but not much else

@Grumblevolcano Definitely makes sense to have trailers/announcements beforehand so PAX West doesn’t reveal that stuff.

So far I don’t think this makes a September Direct less likely, since this stuff was almost necessary for Nintendo to reveal before the end of the month (due to PAX West). It’s likely there wouldn’t be too much focus on Echoes of Wisdom in the Direct anyway (probably just a short recap trailer), and Mario Party Jamboree essentially got a character reveal trailer, so we’re probably still waiting for another big trailer before an overview trailer.

If Echoes of Wisdom gets an overview trailer internationally before a potential September Direct happens, I think that’ll make the Direct significantly less likely (and would likely point towards a Switch Successor announcement being imminent)

@skywake If the Switch’s Successor is that powerful that’d be awesome! I’d hope it’d have backwards compatibility and takes advantage of the power to maybe upgrade some Switch games! I believe Paper Mario TTYD had 4K in the game’s code, so could that be hinting at something?

People keep forgetting that we haven't actually gotten a second trailer for Mario and Luigi despite it releasing in November. Definitely either a random trailer drop or direct coming.

Soo, are we still getting a September Direct?

Between the indie/partner direct and the new Zelda trailer, I think the only remaining options for September are Switch 2 reveal or nothing.