Topic: The Nintendo Switch Rumor and Speculation Thread

If you want the Switch revision at all before holiday 2022 at the earliest, try your best to preorder. For PS5 and Series X (not Series S), the easiest window to get the console (though still extremely hard) was when preorders went live in September 2020.

@Bolt_Strike I will say that I feel like this generation bump (XBSX / PS5) is honestly more noticeable than the last gen bump, if solely for the fact that they use SSDs and thus can mostly avoid loading screens. Not having to wait between gameplay segments is a huge, tangible upgrade.

That said... I don't really see them doing anything else that actually impresses me too soon.

How much more can they upgrade to the average person? I won’t notice most, save the loading times....

Ray tracing is the big thing I keep hearing about this next gen rather loading times but I’m honestly amazed by how accepted the loading times were last gen.

@link3710 The decreased loading time is definitely a more tangible upgrade, but in general, I don't see much on the horizon that could really justify a completely new console from scratch. Maybe if full body VR finally takes off, that would be a huge difference, but the industry has been largely resistant to VR and motion controls so far, so that might not ever happen. Other than that, iPhone model all the way from now until the end of time.

This is just me being me, but honestly the Switch is one of my favorite consoles of all time due to its flexibility, and the last "great" console that I thought really brought new stuff to the table was the Xbox 360 with the realization of the full Xbox Live experience along with the innovative (for its time) Xbox Arcade.

I just don't see any point in getting a PS5 or Xbox right now. I've had an SSD in my PC for many years. It's an awesome upgrade for console-only gamers, but for a lot of people it's kind of been par for the course for a few years now. I don't see any games I want yet, and otherwise it's the same song and dance when it comes to their online programs. I'm surprised people have been jumping for the consoles, but due to shortages it's probably still the hardcore fanbase buying them.

@Bolt_Strike
Honestly I do think the next and "final" stop for gaming will be full-body VR experiences, and that is quite a ways off.

There is the movie called Matrix direct hookup. Assuming we want someone splitting our head for it.

@Bolt_Strike
Honestly as a tech enthusiast the things that I am impressed by doesn't really translate to gaming. A high end GPU on a gaming PC? Well it's nice to be able to crank the details and get 100fps+ at 1440p on a modern title. But beyond that it's diminishing returns.

But the kind of performance faster storage, multi-gig networking and CPUs with 10s of threads opens up for web and database servers? Now that's exciting. Those kinds of applications just suck resources. Games don't anymore

Also ironically faster storage for games reduces the need for faster CPUs. Faster storage? Less compression and less CPU to decompress

Even if this thing turns out to be real I'd say there's about a 99% chance it won't be called switch pro. Then all you people calling it that can finally shut up. As for the rumors of exclusive games yeah that worked out real well for the new 3DS. Xenoblade was literally the only game that made it remotely worth getting unless you really had to have those Exclusive VC Snes games. Did we learn nothing from that or Wii motion Plus?

Still not buying one even if it's real and if it is watch it be nothing more than a redesign with better Joycons and nothing more. No more powerful hardware or no better screen or anything.

@Zeldafan79 No one is expecting it be called a Switch Pro it's just easier on the tongue than saying "a revision of the Switch that is more powerful than the current version and we are waiting for it's name to be announced" and people aren't really expecting that many exclusive games for it from Nintendo at least.

I sadly think Joycons are the only thing that the Switch Pro wont improve upon, the Joycon drift will still be with us and it's just a fancier version of the Switch

@Slowdive I think Tuesday with a Pokemon Presents on Wednesday or Thursday.

If they are planning on phasing out the current Switch model with a 'Super Switch', then I would have thought they plan on phasing out the Switch Lite with a 'Switch Advance' at some point to keep a certain parity between the two SKUs?

@GrailUK a new Switch Lite is the main reason I've been following all the 'Switch Pro' rumours. If the rumour about Nvidia pulling production of the Tegra X1+ SoCs is true (and I've only seen the one rumour, with no supporting evidence), then you'd expect an updated Lite not too late next year (e.g. March?).
I'm now thinking the rumoured name of 'New Nintendo Switch' makes and upgraded Lite more likely. I'd being preferring Switch Plus as a new name, but if you apply that to the Lite you end up with 'Switch Lite Plus'. Which is a bit stupid, to be honest Whereas 'New Nintendo Switch Lite' clearly communicates to the average consumer that this is just an update of the Switches they know and love.

@GrailUK
I know people are throwing around comparisons to the New 3DS but... it'll probably be similar to the New 3DS. When the New 3DS launched they pretty quickly phased out the regular 3DS but not the 2DS. The 2DS stuck around for a good couple of years... or at least that's how I remember it, I could be wrong.

@TSR3 Yeah, I can see sense in what you say. I have no preference on what they call it. I bought a Wii U for pete's sake hahah!

@skywake Hmm...you are probably right. If the point of the LIte is to be a cheap alternative, then I guess it doesn't make much sense to make a more expensive iteration of it hehe.

@Slowdive assuming the SoC for the New Nintendo Switch is similar to Nvidia Xavier, then I'd expect an undocked New Nintendo Switch will have similar performance to a docked OG Switch. You won't get increased resolution (the screen's still 720p), but you should get better frame rates. I've chatted with a few modders on this site, and their experiences are that unlocking the original X1 SoCs from Nintendo's conservative clocks made a significant difference to gameplay.

@WoomyNNYes looks up SoC. Oh, system on a chip. (in case anyone else wondered, but it may have only been me)

@skywake Well part of it is also that performance is only one aspect of gaming. Another aspect, what I consider to be a bigger aspect, is the actual gameplay concepts and mechanics, and performance hasn't been much of a barrier to that since what, 5th or 6th gen? I think for them to show that gameplay is evolving they need to look towards other aspects of the hardware besides just increasing specs, they should be looking towards new kinds of control schemes and hardware features. AR and VR are probably the biggest opportunities for that, they could also probably look towards AI. But then they don't really need completely new hardware for that, they could just add peripherals and updates that implement those things, so again we're at a point where a full break looks less necessary.

@DomGC
Well, at this point E3 for Switch if we do get the "Pro" model revealed beforehand, we really only need a big Zelda/Mario Kart/Metroid/Donkey Kong announcement to probably be deemed a "success" by most people. And if we get more than one of those big titles that would be massive, though I don't think we will.

They'll have lots of cool stuff to remind us of in the fall with the Pokemon remakes being at the forefront. They could also touch on the new Pokemon and Splatoon 3 early next year. They'll probably give a minute or two to Ace Attorney in July. There will probably be the obligatory Smash fighter announcement. Lots of indie stuff.

I do think we'll hear about some kind of Zelda collection for the 35th anniversary now that they've had some solid months of SS HD preorders to make sure they didn't overshadow that game. I just have this feeling that we're gonna see at least Ocarina released on the "big screen" in HD, maybe even 4k capable and plug a bit for the New Switch (though no actual gameplay upgrades, which is fine with me). If they upscale and throw some nice AA on the 3DS Ocarina, I think it would look pretty sweet.