Topic: Switch 2 Talk

@skywake Haha, not to offend you (don't think you are easily offended, but just in case), but I had to laugh (in the most friendly and gentle way) when I read about Furukawa's statement this morning about backward compatibility and thinking back to your comments about Nintendo taking to long and now seriously thinking about buying a Steam Deck. Keep you "threats" about buying a Steam Deck to Nintendo coming and I am sure they will feel the heat and announce it sooner than later, haha .
All individual morning laughter aside and a bit more on topic, I hope it is completely backwards compatible (as in every game, digital and physical) so I can take my huge backlog with me and can slowly transition to the new Switch when the time is right for me...so far there is no rush on my side (though I am always extremely curious about what Nintendo will do next and looking forward to the announcements, haha).
But I can also understand that people who are more sensitive to framerates, like certain high pace precision genres more than I do, play competitively online and/or want all the biggest new AAA-games on their favourite system are dying to know what performance-boost is on the way.
Good luck to everyone with the waiting game .

@Definitely-Not-Leon
I wouldn't call what I said a threat, more just a statement of fact. We're almost surely not getting an announcement this year which which would lend itself to a release later than I was otherwise expecting. And with Valve's intent to officially sell the Steam Deck in Australia? The fact that Switch 2 might not be out until September next year makes the Steam Deck an easier sell for me. As a portable gamer

To be clear, you only need to look at how old my account is on here to know I'll also be getting the Switch 2. Maybe I still get it on day 1, maybe I don't, maybe I wait for the big holiday 2025 release. However it plays out I'm at the point now where I'm not going to be in as much of a rush to pick it up. They've taken too long, I want an upgrade and there are other options available. Simple as that. My holiday game purchases will be portable friendly releases on Steam that either skipped the Switch or performed poorly on it. And my backlog will be my vast Steam backlog.......

The backwards compatibility and NSO announcements? I think it's a statement they needed to make. I would file it alongside Nintendo Music and the NSO Playtest as signals to make people more confident about NSO and Switch software in the short term. But I would also note in their report that most of their hardware sales decline is from the OLED model. The enthusiast end of the market. These people are waiting, moving elsewhere or both. And it's those consumers who will be the core audience for Switch 2

I still feel like they've dragged this out a bit too long. Although, again, the announcement today is good messaging and something they did need to do

What’s RRP?

@MrCarlos46
Recommended Retail Price i.e. the suggested price that they tell retailers they should sell it at. I'd also note that Nintendo hasn't moved the price of the Switch in the US since launch outside of bundles and revisions. And they're certainly not going to want to have to raise the price post-launch in response to tariffs

@skywake Yeah, I know you are not threatening (hence the quotation-marks and my remarks about not offending you) Skywake, you seem like a really good guy with very solid points and a lot of interesting and well-thoughout takes . It was just my waking-up head connecting your comments earlier with Nintendo making interesting announcement, as if your comments alone triggered Nintendo to speak up about at least something, in other words, that you alone have the power to trigger the Switch 2 announcement...just wanted to share that .
I hope the Steam Deck will give you a lot of fun and I am looking forward to your (potential) posts about it somewhere on this site so I can learn a bit more about it via your interesting perspective.

First I heard they wanna do it shorter time bewteen console's reveal and release then Nintendo Switch had aka that was 134 days, so if they reveal Nintendo Switch 2 like first full week of January aka between 6th to 10th day of that month, then if they wanna make it that period shorter even just by around week, then it soonest would come at May between 12th to 16th day of it! But it still depends on when will it will be revealed!

Aside from higher tariffs, wouldn’t the Switch 2 already cost more than the Switch, somewhere higher than $299 but not exceeding $399 (like around $349 like the Switch OLED)

@MrCarlos46
The Switch launched in 2017 and hasn't really had any price cuts. Due to inflation Switch 2 can be a fair bit more expensive and still be cheaper than the Switch was, inflation adjusted. And inflation adjusted Nintendo has pretty usually sold their consoles at around $400US

https://www.inflationstation.net/

Adding to this, article from Ars
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/11/tech-industry-fea...

Trump's proposed 60 percent tariff would cost tech companies four times more than that previous round of tariffs that the industry dodged when Trump last held office. A recent Consumer Technology Association (CTA) study found that prices could jump even higher than previously feared if consumer tech is as heavily taxed as Trump intends. Laptop prices could nearly double, game console prices could rise by 40 percent, and smartphone prices by 26 percent.

So, Americans, how does $550US sound for a launch price?

@skywake NOOOOOOOOOOO

Why did that $550US price mark remind me of those PS5 game bundles

Seeing as to how Switch games will work on Switch 2, imagine they keep the Switch 2 cartridge design similar to Switch cartridges, but add an extra notch on the side

Something like how it was done with 3DS cartridges

@MrCarlos46
If they want to make it physically incompatible it'll have to have some kind of additional appendage. But I don't think that's particularly exciting. Because even if they don't there's nothing stopping them from doing it in software anyways. Also we know from the prototype leaks that the Switch 2 game slot will have additional pins which could easily be used for the game to detect whether it's in the Switch or Switch 2

There's also another possibility. There might not even be such a thing as a "Switch 2" game card at all. It might instead just be a higher speed card that can work on Switch, assuming the game itself can run, but can run at higher speeds on Switch 2. It's just storage at the end of the day so in theory there's no reason why a less storage intensive but more graphically complex title couldn't be Switch 2 exclusive on a Gen1 card. Or a Switch compatible game couldn't come on a Gen2 card that opens up improved load times when running on Switch 2

@skywake Is it possible some early Switch 2 games work both on Switch 1 and Switch 2, with the enhancements applied when played on Switch 2

@NinChocolate What happens then as Mario Bros. plays on the screen

@MrCarlos46
No idea how they'll handle it, there are multiple ways they could tackle "cross-gen" titles. On the one end it could be strict kinda like DS/3DS where a Switch game plays like a Switch game on Switch 2 and Switch 2 games are Switch 2 games and entirely incompatible with Switch

At the other extreme the media itself will be entirely inter-compatible and when you put a Switch 2 game into a Switch it just looks at a different folder runs.... whatever the developer wants to put in there for Switch compatibility mode. Probably just something that says "hey, I'm a Switch 2 game" but in theory if they took that approach it could be an entire version of the game for Switch. In theory

These are basically just proprietary storage devices at the end of the day. Glorified SD cards with one game on them, more or less. I expect they'll have some kind of physical incompatibility for Switch 2 cards in Switch but.... they don't have to do that

I think something similar is done between original 3DS systems and New 3DS cartridges. An original 3DS detects a New 3DS cartridge, but will then give you this message (the message is based on the NA version, so it might differ from the EU/AU version): This is New Nintendo 3DS software. It cannot be used on this system.

I don’t see this releasing any later than September 2025 for sure, but it’s very likely it could be out by late spring/ summer 2025. This is basically just a superpowered Switch, they don’t need that much time to explain to consumers what it is compared to when the original Switch launched. A turnaround time of 3 months from official announcement to release seems likely (Switch had about 5 months and that was an all new concept). Official announcement will be made by end of March 2025 but could be as early as January or February, so it stands to reason it could release by summer

@shadow-wolf A May or June release may make the most sense if they want to do a similar amount of time between reveal and release like with the Switch

The extra power could also make it easier for more third party games to come on switch 2