Topic: Nintendo Switch 2 Direct

Seven hours? This is going to be good. I can't wait for Monolith Softs's fantasy RPG, which they have been working on.

Man I hope they show that the Eshop has music again it would be so cool.

Hello! Here's my bingo card for the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct! Whaddya think?

Yeah anyone who thinks this is just going to be hardware focused has been proven dead wrong here. No way in hell they bring back Treehouse unless there's a ton of games to show off. We are seeing games tomorrow, and a ton of them. Lock it in at this point.

I am loving that they're bringing back Treehouse for this. Really makes this week feel like an E3 throwback of sorts. The floodgates are about to open and this is going to be a memorable event for sure.

My last prediction (yay!)

SW2 will be nowhere near as those ridiculous fake "rumors" and "leaks" so no 4K/60 then. Also no AI chips, it's against Nintendo's ideology, they're the best in the gaming industry on compressing and programing. So why would they suddenly take a shortcut then?

They said by themselves that affordability of SW2 is very important. So forget SW2 being as powerful as PS4 Pro or PS5 like surprisingly many now believes in. Why should SW2 being "cheap" yet being vastly superior over Steam Deck which is much more expensive? This makes zero senses.

Not a chance that Nintendo leaps from 720p-900p 30fps for the mostly to 4K/60fps. Not even Sony/Microsoft has made that leap.
4K/60 is a huge overkill for Nintendo's own first-party games, heck even the power of PS4 is almost too much since it's around 5x more powerful than the original Switch.
Perhaps Retro Studios and Monolithsoft wants the power of PS4, but Nintendo always makes consoles for their own games.

Don't forget the "Project Reality" or "NX" hype which in the end ended up being massively below of what the rumors claimed.

Many will no doubt clamoring after Switch 2 Pro or Switch 3 after the full reveal direct. Switch Pro has been a thing since 2018 because so many were disgruntled by the specs of Switch. But Nintendo is not Sony or Microsoft, they're just Nintendo.

Otherwise the reveal of SW2 is no doubt the most interesting console reveal I ever has witnessed and I has been a gamer since 1987... IF Switch 2 is INDEED (not a chance!) as powerful as PS4 Pro or even more, so I'll terminate my account here then.

It's not impossible that SW2 may be comparable with PS4 but don't forget that affordability, battery-life (Steam Deck's is awful), Joy-Cons are expensive (SW2's version may be much more advanced + are bigger), bigger screen, those magnetic rails and more plays a role here too. So SW2 can't being so much more powerful otherwise it easily will cost +800 then. There're some other handhelds on the markest who're 2-3 times more powerful than PS4 and costs +$1000 or even $1500... Just be reasonable and not falling for those fake rumors from those attention seekers.

Switch will be comparable with Xbox One which still is a HUGE leap from the original Switch, so 3-4 more powerful then. Don't forget that Steam Deck is just a bit above Xbox One. Too many are too spoiled now and just wants fancy specs who can run all those ultra-generic western "photorealistic" games who all are the same instead of actual real GAMES!

@Keman I mean, we basically already know the specs thanks to info from shipping manifests. Here's a link to a reddit post that explains it well if you're curious.

Last one here!
Also many ignores the facts that SW2 uses similar gaming media as Switch. No secret that you can count by one hand of Switch games who used 32GB game pak since it's extremely expensive to use, heck even many refused to use the 12GB or 16GB one to keeping the costs down... 4K/60fps is insanely demanding so not even 64GB is enough for a western 4K/60fps game.

So with this fact counts out 4K/60fps on SW2, also no way that SW2's internet is much better than SW. So forget it then, no chance that Nintendo will letting us to download +50GB or +100GB games from their eshop.

1080p to 1440p with the sharpness of PS4 is more than enough actually! The obsession of 4K/60 is actually killing the western gaming industry, so why on the earth should Nintendo following that trend then? The leap from 720p-1080p to 4K is impossible for Nintendo.

@Keman
no AI chips, it's against Nintendo's ideology, they're the best in the gaming industry on compressing and programing. So why would they suddenly take a shortcut then?

Tensor cores are simply part of Nvidia's chips, so it's going to have cores for DLSS whether they want it or not. And there's no reason not to want it. You can compress and still reap the advantages of upscaling. Without it games would top off at 1080p docked, 720p handheld. But with it they can reach 1440p docked (maybe 4k for certain less demanding titles) and 1080p handheld. It's free performance. No reason to not use it. If a game can run 1080p natively docked then DLSS can upscale that to 1440p or 2160p, while a handheld game rendering 540p can upscale to 1080p. Just think of all the 540p handheld Switch games... those would all be 1080p handheld with DLSS.

Now raytracing? Forget it. Yes it will be capable with those Tensor cores but it would be far too expensive, and for marginal perceived benefit.

NSW2 will easily match PS4 handheld (PS4 Pro docked) after factoring in DLSS. Steam deck is what, like 3 years old at this point and uses inefficient PC architecture, and even that only costs $400. The chip being used as a base is known (T239) and the power of the chip is known. PS4 released nearly a decade and a half ago, and mobile ARM chips have seen a massive breakthrough in performance and efficiency in recent years. The chip will actually be far more powerful than PS4- it's only because Nintendo will handicap it for battery life and long term reliability that it'll yield results approximately equivalent to PS4.

Windows PC handhelds aren't comparable because they're not running ARM. And they include 2TB NVMe drives, 1440p OLED screens and draw 40W of power with 60 min battery life. Steamdeck is the better comparison even though it's not ARM.

Every generation has been able to produce handhelds on par with previous gen consoles, and at prices around $200-250. 8th gen Switch = 7th gen PS3. 7th gen Vita = 6th gen PS2. 6th gen PSP = 5th gen PS1. Even the GBA, which followed the SNES/GBC generation, could run SNES games (albeit with lower sound quality).

It should be no surprise 9th gen Switch 2 = 8th gen PS4. And it would likely just be PS4, but thanks to 12gb LDDR5 RAM @7500 mHz on par with PS5 and DLSS upscaling, it should produce results closer to PS4 Pro. It also costs $400, unlike the $300 Switch.

If someone were expecting PS5 power, that would be crazy talk. But PS4 power- a console from nearly 15 years ago, in a handheld that costs $100 more than the Series S? If it didn't match PS4 power it would be rather disappointing. There's no reason a $400 ARM handheld can't match a $400 console from 2013. Even phones have been outclassing the PS4 for many years now.

I do agree many are spoiled and want fancy specs for ultra realistic games, but that doesn't change where technology is at in 2025.

@Keman
"SW2 will be nowhere near as those ridiculous fake "rumors" and "leaks" so no 4K/60 then"
The Display Port to HDMI chip in the Switch 2 dock does support upto 4K/120Hz or 8K/60Hz with display stream compression and 4K/60Hz and 8K/30Hz without. So the hardware will support those output resolutions. Period. Now whether or not Nintendo supports these resolutions at an OS level is another question, certainly I doubt the need to bother with 8K at all so there's that. But even that is a different question again from games actually rendering at this resolutions and framerates which.... will be the rare exception

With that said, rare exceptions is not never. I do kinda half expect Shin'en to drop a game doing 4K/120Hz near launch just to show off. Because that's what Shin'en do. But yeah, I think it's fair to say that the whole question of resolution/refresh rate regarding Switch 2 is one that..... for some reason people can't really wrap their head arounds. It's odd

"Also no AI chips, it's against Nintendo's ideology, they're the best in the gaming industry on compressing and programing. So why would they suddenly take a shortcut then?"
Skyward Sword HD used AI upscaling on its textures. Also there is no shortage of games on the Switch, some first party even, that use FSR for temporal upscaling. Given the Switch 2 has hardware level support for DLSS, the most advanced temporal upscaling tech on the market, it seems absurd to suggest that they'd just..... ignore it..... so just no....

"heck even the power of PS4 is almost too much since it's around 5x more powerful than the original Switch"
It has been 8 years. Even the jump from Gamecube to Wii, which was the smallest jump in spec Nintendo has done, was around a 1.5-2X jump in spec. And that was with the GC pushing the spec hard followed by the Wii changing track and going out of its way not to advance the spec. It was also after 5 years not 8

I mean, it has been all but confirmed you're off your rocker here. It is a portable that outclasses the PS4, comfortably. It just is. Deal with it. But even so, the idea that some people think that fact (yes, fact) is hard to believe just..... completely baffles me. I kinda feel like somewhere in the last few console generations people have just forgotten that tech is still advancing. It's odd

"Also many ignores the facts that SW2 uses similar gaming media as Switch. No secret that you can count by one hand of Switch games who used 32GB game pak since it's extremely expensive to use"
So the largest DS games were around 512GB but those larger cartridges were more expensive and slower so not many games used them. Then the 3DS launched and its largest cartridges were 4GB but they were expensive so not many games used them. Then the Switch launches and it has 32GB and more recently 64GB cards, but they were expensive so not many games............ you see a pattern there?

I would also note that the PS5 uses multi-layer BluRays for its physical distribution media. Those are 100GB. And the thing about 100GB is that it's not really that much more than 64GB. Interesting. I think it's fair to say that this isn't the gotcha that you think it is

One hour long plus 7 hours worth of Treehouse footage. I think it's clear they're going all out this week.

Thinking the Direct will be ~15-20 minutes total for hardware, accessories, NSO, and release details, leaving ~40-45 minutes for pure games.

Anyways, any last minute guesses for release date and price? My guess is June 5th at $499. Choosing to be pessimistic on the price so that way I can be pleasantly surprised if it's $399 or $449.

@Bolt_Strike The length does make me more optimistic about the potential quantity of games shown. Granted, there is a chance Nintendo pulls a 2018 + 2016 where half of the Direct is solely about Mario Kart (half of E3 2018 Direct was solely about Smash) and Day 1 of Treehouse is solely about Mario Kart (outside of a small Pokemon segment, day 1 of E3 2016 was solely about BotW) but I think that's unlikely.

I generally agree with your post but I think this is a bit too strongly worded. Now, do I think with the size and power constraints of this SoC that we'll see fully path-traced games at a high level of detail? Almost surely not. But in terms of RT capabilities it should be able to hold its own when lined up against the XBox Series S and Steam Deck

I can certainly see a scenario where a Luigi's Mansion 4 uses some light RT effects as part of it's generally very tightly controlled (and therefore performant) environments. Or a RT version of Wind Waker which builds it into the lighting model to show off a bit in an otherwise fairly easy to run title. Or even a scenario where a game that has RT requirements and is built around RT lighting, like that Indiana Jones game, gets a port to Switch 2 that's only possible because it has some hardware support for RT

@skywake
That's fair.

It's just not something I'm excited about or want to promote as a potential feature because a large portion of ppl would interpret "a few select games may use limited RT" as "NSW2 games will have RT, I now expect it and if I see games without it I'm gonna a be upset"

Even Spiderman Remastered on PS5 only had RT on reflections and rendered them at half the resolution of the game. Which don't get me wrong, it's cool, it's just not exciting to me without RT lighting. That's where games transform. But who knows, maybe a game like LM4 could handle that if it rendered the game at 1080p 30fps. It would look amazing too, I'm sure.

Word is Cyberpunk 2077 will be announced (surely not with RT). That would be dope. A good showcase title for the new system.

Oof, what a night...

Dreamt they announced 'Mario Paint 2' which just looked exactly like Microsoft Paint regardless of how much Miyamoto bigged it up.
And then Mario Kart was revealed with actually a really cool trailer set to Proud Mary by Tina Turner which fitted amazingly well...still only showed that one desert track though lol

Sorry folks...
The absolute last one which I forgot to add.

I don't think that Nintendo will upgrade their original Switch games on Switch 2, they're not Sony which makes HD-remasters of an already HD game twice.
Also probably no cross-generational games here too. Metroid is not a system seller no matter of how good it looks or plays.

But in the end Nintendo is always being Nintendo, you never knows!
Of course I hope that SW2 will be powerful, no doubt. But Nintendo is not Sony who sells their consoles at loss (PS3 almost killed Sony).

Nintendo can't sell a high-end console with a high-end price to their base customers , Nintendo has always (almost) been about being affordable. They tried to sell Wii U and 3DS with price tags which were higher than a normal Nintendo price tag. Everyone knows what happened... Nintendo had to slashing off the prices of Wii U and 3DS shortly after its release.

Just be reasonable....
I may eating up my own words in the end, or not... Who knows!
I still stands for my words that SW2 is comparable with Xbox One, no 4K/60, no ray-tracing, no AI chips, no huge leaps in graphic wise like 5x or 10x better compared with Switch, but it will be a big difference of course.

Almost here!

I am so pumped for the "connect" button - can't wait for some dual-screen action once again!

And no, I'm not joking! Only if I'm wrong lol

T-minus two hours.

The hype is real.

Out here feeling like a Hulk Hogan promo on a whole bag of booger sugar.

i just woke up early for this so if i see more than one farming sim im gonna flip out anyways o hope everyone has fun watching, so excited 🫶🏼

The hype is very real. The timing of this Direct is perfect. It will be 8pm where I am.

All I hope for is a noticeable leap in graphics. I'll be gutted if there isn't. I know they're going to deliver the games, I have no worries there. But I expect a generational leap. Wii graphics were much the same as GameCube graphics, Switch graphics are much the same as Wii U graphics. We're due a generational leap. If Switch 2 can deliver PS4 Pro levels,.Nintendo games are going to look unreal. Aliasing in one of my pet peeves with Nintendo games. Has been since the Wii days. Will Switch 2 have enough power to make jaggy edges and immersion breaking flickering lines a thing of the past?