Topic: Nintendo Switch 2 Predictions

That's fine if they're not stressed, but the game could still easily crash and burn. Or just do well, but nowhere near gta5 well (which is basically what I expect for the next Mario Kart).

Tbh, the new trailer looked awful to me and I never had any interest in the older games so I don't have a good unbiased prediction 😆

@FishyS It looked the same as it ever has to me. (Full disclosure, I've never really been into it.) But the game has had enough time (and funds) in development to please the target audience (school kids.)

ah, yes, the most famous 18+ game which has a large percentage of age 10-16 players 😆

@FishyS It's why it keeps selling (y'know, how folk keep wondering who is buying it after a few years.) Yeah, every fresh year there are more school kids lol.

... sure?

I can almost hear how hard you're reaching for this one lol

GTA VI is the most anticipated game of the generation.

But if it isn't coming to PS4 it probably it isn't coming to the Switch successor either.

As someone who knows basically nothing about the series but thought the trailer sucked, it's a pretty easy reach 😛 But also a completely uninformed one. Although Wii Sports to Switch Sports is a good example of how a big rich company which knows how to make games can take one of the top ever selling (and transformative) games and make a sequel which is much less popular. It doesn't take knowing much to think of a zillion examples where sequels didn't reach their hype.

Anyways, Nintendo has plenty of the top selling game franchises (and games) regardless of GTA which was really my point. I doubt Switch 2 missing out on a couple popular games will change all that much.

@FishyS
lol ok so what I’m getting from you is, “I don’t know this game series at all, but I’m gonna go ahead and make a really broad statement that can technically be true for pretty much anything.” We all have our specific forms of entertainment I suppose lol

Ok sooooo… the GTA games have consistently been very well-received, even the non-mainline games. GTA 5 has sold over 100 million copies. It came out like 10 years ago and people are still playing it in droves. It’s a cultural phenomenon.

GTA 6 has a very, very, very high chance of being another excellent GTA game, and for Switch 2 to totally miss out on it would be a big loss no matter how you cut it.

@rallydefault I think GTA5 is near 200 million. Still not near the Minecraft queen of course, but more than twice even MK8. And almost 10 times higher than GTA4. It will be interesting to see if 6 can keep that level; we honestly don't have that many examples where one sequel skyrockets to that extent and then the next sequel does just as well. People are fickle beasts.

Regardless, seems like a fair chance it either won't be on Switch 2 or will be highly degraded quality. I guess we'll find out.

I'll put my hand up as not particularly looking forward to GTA6.

I've played a few of the games over the years, right back to the first one, but they never really grabbed me. It all feels a bit like the lowest common denominator of modern gaming. They've obviously thrown a huge budget at the games and the worlds are incredibly detailed, but the stories all seemed a bit cliched, the humor decidedly low brow, and the combat does the job but no more.

While we're at it, GTA games - and Rockstar generally - have never had a great time on Nintendo hardware. The, originally DS exclusive, Chinatown Wars flopped commercially, despite critical acclaim and the less said about the GTA Trilogy port to the Switch, the better. I'd have the Wii port of Bully down as their best effort.

Ah well, there's enough of a fanbase that I don't think that Rockstar have to worry, which is just as well seeing as they appear to have given up making new games in all their other series to throw the kitchen sink at it. So, don't mind me, it's mostly just a case of not being able to please everyone.

To be fair, the Switch 2 isn't the PS4. Switch 2 will be able to do things the PS4 can't that'll help with a game like GTA. Even before we talk about the relative raw power, which is a battle Switch 2 likely wins, we're talking about a console that has hardware acceleration for RT, fast storage, more and faster RAM

But the key difference would be that the PS4 is an old console that people will be moving on from. While Switch 2 will possibly end up being the dominant platform through the period when GTA6 has the opportunity to sell. Basically, Switch 2 could be the GTA5 equivalent of the PS4 in terms of market share

I still don't think it's happening, I expect Rockstar will want to push for a higher spec. But I don't think we should be so quick to dismiss it. This is the most favorable position in terms of "porting GTA to Nintendo" that Rockstar has been in since probably the GC

@Qwertyninty
I agree with your sentiment but by the very nature of the arrangement Nintendo can't control what third parties do. By definition I'd argue. And it is and has always been true that if you want to play all the games you need all the platforms. Will that be less true for Switch 2? Probably. It was already less true for Switch than it was for 3DS and Wii U. But it was still true

And, to be blunt, it's also true of other platforms. The PS5 might be a powerhouse but that doesn't help at all if you want to play BotW. And even when games do exist, are you really getting the best experience playing Civ on a Switch? Almost surely not

@skywake The point I’m making is Nintendo can’t give a publisher/developer a reason not to bring a game to their console. That has been the reason for most generation and the majority of that has been technical issues. Yes you can always make sacrifices (madden on Wii) but they need to make a concerted effort for these game to be on their console and have the hardware to make it happen. There will always be outlier games that get exclusive rights or something but a Nintendo consumer should be able to buy their console and feel confident they will be able to play the latest COD, GTA, Madden, NHL, etc. That’s all I’m asking for.

I suspect the reason some games (possibly GTA, possibly not) will be still be missing will again be technical reasons with Switch 2. Fundamentally, Nintendo can't squish a PS5 Pro into a nice little comparatively cheap portable device. I more expect Nintendo to make a platform that is welcoming to all third party games that can run reasonably on the hardware... which should be a larger percentage with Switch 2 than Switch 1 but definitely won't include everything.

I'm sure that Nintendo won't want to be making a machine that's difficult to port to, but the technology to make a device that's a lightweight handheld with a great battery life, has the power of a PS5 and sells at an affordable price just doesn't exist.

Something has to give somewhere, and it's entirely possible that the developers of the most demanding games are going to pass over it because it would mean compromising their games by too much.

It's specs for sure. But it's also development tools and the size and nature of the userbase. I think the Switch largely resolved most of those issues/concerns already and I don't think Switch 2 will be a backwards step

Basically, the Switch audience is generally more inclined to purchase a less "casual" titles than say the Wii or DS userbase was. I don't think Switch 2 will go backwards in that regard. The install base is also much larger than Wii U and, again, I doubt we're going backwards to that degree. But also, as I understand it, the tools NVIDIA have developed for Switch development are far better than what existed for Wii U and Switch 2 is still NVIDIA so we're getting the same deal there again

So the only part of the equation really left is the spec. And that's certainly advancing. So I don't really understand why people would be concerned about this

@FishyS we are at a time in game development where almost anything can be ported reasonably well. If a developer really wants it to happen they just need to put in the work. I don’t see that being an issue with rockstar. Most people expect switch 2 to sell for 400. I don’t think that’s cheap. It also will have some VERY modern tech in it.

@skywake

No disagreement.

My perspective is that the Switch successor won't be as capable as an Xbox Series S, as a minimum barrier of entry. Will the next Nintendo platform be in that ballpark in regards to performance? I haven't a clue.

Xbox Series S specs
10 GB of RAM.
512 GB storage drive (360 GB of usable space) or 1 TB storage drive, depending on the model.
224 GB/s of memory bandwidth.
4 TFLOPS.
3.6GHz CPU speed
1565 MHz GPU clock speed.

@Magician the specs can’t be compared 1 to 1. The switch 2 will punch way above its weight. The switch 1 is the best hardware Nintendo ever had in a console imo. Switch 1 hardware was off the shelf hardware. This will be custom made. The switch 2 will be just fine to get any third party game a developer wants to make for it.

I agree that is definitely not a concern. The real issue is whether it is worth trying to port a game the developer chose to originally make for PC or PS5 Pro or whatever that was chasing specs.

Not a prediction, just a hope, but I hope that there will be the ability to text chat (if not voice) over online multiplayer. I can understand Nintendo's reluctance with them being far more family friendly and the dangers it can bring, but could be restricted by parental controls & only allowing it to happen between friends who have swapped codes.