Topic: The Nintendo Switch Rumor and Speculation Thread

Definitely on the home stretch now. Nintendo actively talking about how they'll handle the transition and third parties outlining what the spec will be. Hasn't changed my view, infact it's making me more confident. Release in the first half of next year. Lock it in!

@skywake I have family employed at NoA in WA. Obviously they don’t let on to specifics (and i don’t pry at my age) but I have a feeling something is pretty darn close from their telling smile on the topic.. ha!

@FragRed eh those were just examples. Nintendo makes more money rereleasing those games anyways

My uncle works for Nintendo. He says an announcement is coming in Septemberish

@ZeldaFan83 for sure the uncle meme makes having a connection to a Nintendo employee seem like a big deal!

@ZeldaFan83 @NinChocolate My uncle also works at Nintendo. His name is Brian and he told me to always look on the bright side of life.

My debit card was lost in front of Nintendo’s headquarters, and 7 days later, a Nintendo employee mailed it back to me with a written note attached to the card saying that the new console will arrive in 20XX. If you read this spoiler, I’m so sorry but these my uncle works at Nintendo jokes are too easy to capitalize on.

@FragRed 10/10 reference

@TheBigBlue ah, you lost yours too, I was there when they had the sale. The funniest thing happened, I was looking at buying one game then I ended up buying 7 games 4 of which I might never play, then I saw a sign saying "spoiler" I clicked it and before long I remembered that my uncle jokes are still funny.

@TheBigBlue @OwlHighway1Revisited I was just walking when my wallet jumped out of my pocket,and then
I never would've thought I would actually experience a Nintendo relative moment, amazing!

I know it's a meme as old as time but I'm sure my nieces talked about me at school as if I actually was the uncle who worked at Nintendo. Given I'm a developer and seem to have all the Nintendo things. I'm sure if I told them I worked at Nintendo they would've believed it

@skywake works at Nintendo confirmed.

@skywake By 'Release' do you just mean a reveal/launch announcement, or do you expect an actual launch/on sale 1H 2024?

@TSR3
By release I mean release

@skywake 😏 ok yeah, re-reading my own question it kinda mangles the terminology
I really was having a bad day yesterday! A better way of asking would have been - Do you think they’ll announce this year?

Since their last financial report I’ve been expecting they’ll keep 2024 to be the year of the new model, and will avoid any marketing for it at all this year. So I’d be assuming a release later next year, late Q2/early Q3

I'm not convinced we see new hardware (let alone release it lol) firt half of next year. Nintendo are going after sales this holiday season (and Mario is going to do very well) as well as having a couple of games in development. I wonder (pardon the pun) if we'll see a Mario edition Switch. They have a clear strategy of prolonging the lifecycle (and they had this road map when they were projecting a 10 year lifecycle.) Mario Movie and Tears of the Kingdom have made Nintendo very high profile and in a place any game developer want's to be in. 130 million userbase (and rising) still buying games! Stll. No. Price. Drop!!! And I reckon Metroid Prime 4 will be it's swan song. I dunno, there is a strong sense of closure with that game.

Sony and Microsoft let the third party tail wag the dog decades ago (look at the FTC case lol.) It's a little frustrating to hear folk wanting Nintendo to chase specs. I get it, the Switch is popular, so it's drawn in that crowd too. But they are making games for one system. It used to be 2 so they likely have the resources for some to be working on the next system while the Switch has more handheldy (probably more derogatory than I wanted it to sound - but better than 'low effort' etc etc) types games. I can't see their next console releasing without a 3D Mario a new Splatoon, Mario Kart and a teaser for the next Zelda game and that doesn't sound like next year to me...as always. very happy to be proven wrong so I can buy one lol! But something I haven't seen anyone mention is how long any transisiton phase would last. I reckon folk are using Ps4 -> PS5 as a metric but it doesn't ring true due to Covid etc. It will be shorter than that I would have thought.

@GrailUK I never understood why people take so much stock when anyone says their current console will have a 10 year lifecycle. They almost all last 10 years, it’s just that they’ve long since moved onto the next console way before it gets there.
As for next Zelda game, if Nintendo are waiting to have a trailer ready we could be waiting years. I don’t see that game coming out for a long long time. Perhaps right at the end of the next console.

@FragRed You think it will be that long for Zelda? Really?

@GrailUK Development time is getting longer and longer with each new generation and they’re going to have to redo all assets and I imagine create a whole new world. Plus they will always be needing to outdo the last game which is going to be a massive undertaking.

I've got a pitch for the next Zelda game that will wow people, is a logically next step and not take decades to make. It's like Breath and Kingdom Sad still but you now have a fishing rod like you should have done in the last games!