Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Dev893
WHAT ?!
So there will be a revision model of Original Switch with better battery life ?

Glad for a new model, battery life improvements are welcome, hopefully theyve made some tweaks to the joycons as well. Looks like we will be getting 3 new swicthes in the next couple months.

Also really like that Blue on the new joycons, wish we could get that color rather then the neon blue!

Yeah, due to Nintendo and Nvidia changing the SoC development process from 20nm FinFET to 16nm FinFET, better battery economy. It makes me wonder if and how this'll affect the Switch hacking scene. I wonder if the Tegra X1 hardware exploit is still present in the newer model?

Wow, a Nintendo game not launching on a Friday. Halloween is Thursday this week.

Confirmed on the USA release too!

Looks like I wasn't the only one that noticed! 😅

Those 3rd party games on 29th October are even more doomed now.

New Switch refresh is pretty cool. Very impressed with the battery improvement. I'll skip it and wait for either a cool Switch Lite design or for any other hardware upgrades down the line

Luigi's Mansion 3 isn't getting delayed, thank goodness. It's probably my most hyped title for the whole year. Well, that or Astral Chain, but still.

As for the new refresh, it's certainly nice for newcomers. That improved battery life takes away one of the Switch's few weaknesses. Now, if they could just fix the Joy-Cons with better sticks and a headphone jack, and do something about NSO's weak offerings the system would be in amazing shape.

Also, when the heck did we get sorting of games in the home screen? I just noticed it the other day, and it's been an absolute lifesaver. Folders dropped from a must-have to a nice-to-have just from that being implemented so well.

Update 8.0 back in April.

@Tsurii When you click 'View All Software' you can press... R I think? To sort either the standard way (most recent), alphabetically, by play time or... I forget the fourth option.

EDIT: Thanks Magician, guess I'm just blind.

I just feel the need to say publicly state that every time I see the countless posts about a "Switch Pro" where everyone thinks Nintendo's going to suddenly do an X1X and release an all powerful Switch as a parallel platform when even MS stated they don't want to do that again with the next gen, makes me conflicted between the desire to find the nearest organic life form and pulverize it with a lead pipe, and the desire to stick my head into a cement crusher.

That is all.

Not sure that's what anyone expects, @NEStalgia .... An upgrade on current main model, though?

Well here is hoping that pretty DQ Edition is the revised switch as I will try to get that one.

@NEStalgia Hahaha, such a way with words

I too love Twitter Directs that I COMPLETELY miss out on because I literally just woke up.

@NEStalgia - Hmm, sensitivity towards Switch Pro discussion? Interesting. I'm not as opposed to the idea. Especially after previous mid-gen hardware refreshes from all the big console developers (New 3DS, PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, etc). The next iteration of the Switch will arrive eventually, it's inevitable.

But whether that's next year or officially Nintendo's next-generation platform five or six years down the road, that's the question everyone wants answered today, or if not today...tomorrow at the latest. Which is why you'll always see the question asked.

@BruceCM Everyone expects Nintendo to release a Switch with a power level equal to or superior to a PS4 Pro, "so it can compete with PS5/Scarlett", even if it's a home-console only, because they want the games other platforms get but want to only buy a Nintendo console, missing entirely that 3 platforms already compete in that space, and that space makes up a single digit percentile at best of Nintendo's market.

At the same time they seem to miss entirely that getting games that one Switch can play and the other TWO models can't isn't going to happen (even X1X hasn't done that) and expecting developers to test and optimize games for a whole different variation of the unit for two different user experiences isn't going to win any publishers over. It works for XBox because it's largely a PC build dropped-in. It works for Sony because the PS4 Pro isn't markedly different from a base PS4 other than 4k support. What people want in a Switch Pro is basically a different platform with a different market focus, because they don't actually like the Switch and wish it was a GameCube 3.

What I can see them doing in a refresh, which they partially may already have done, is a more efficient chip with possible a bit faster CPU/GPU speed to maintain more stable frame rates in games that currently push hardware (like N3DS), a chip update that features 4K (checkerboard/upscaled) output to look better on newer 4K TVs than using the TVs cheap $1 converter for 1080p upscaling (NOT 4K rendering...just basically onboarding the 4k upscaling so it's controlled rather than up to the TVs cheap interpolator) - and maybe a refreshed exterior - cosmetic upgrades like glass, upgraded Joycons (also sold separately), or a slightly larger or improved brightness screen. Maybe 2 years from now. Or when PS5 launches. Nothing that really changes the switch but some minor tweaks to make it "new."

I could also see a "PS Vita TV" type home-console-only bundle to compliment the Lite....a cut down screen-less non-portable normal Switch for $199. Basically, Wii Mini 2 that plays Switch games. But only when sales start sagging.

Switch "Pro" or Switch X is the most absurdist idea imaginable, and wouldn't have even been discussed were it not for Sony and MS blundering through the generation with do-overs. Plus Switch is already a WiiU do-over. The "Switch Pro" everyone is looking for will likely be "Switch 2" (I like "Super Switch" for retro reasons... with a separate game library)

@Magician I'm not opposed to the idea, I'd buy one if they made it. I just think it's an absolutely absurd idea with about as much chance of happening as a WiiU 2.

Microsoft already said they basically hated having to do the 1X and don't intend to repeat that next gen. It was an error correcting step, not a strategy. PS4 Pro....honestly I'd argue it wasn't really necessary or even a huge upgrade. They did it for the 4k TV support, and sure, it added better FSAA for everyone else, but beyond that it wasn't particularly eventful, they didn't even market it heavily until X1X pushed the "mid gen bump" idea forward. N3DS is much more appropriate a comparison. It wasn't a "pro" version - it was a replacement revision with mostly minor improvements and new cosmetics. On 3DS it mattered because of the 3D going from "annoying implementation" to "actually works reliably." Other than that it wasn't substantially eventful, and wasn't sold as a premium model outside when they were both on shelves, it was a replacement model. Very different from PS4 Pro and X1X. A "NEW" Switch, (by a different name) I absolutely expect. Nintendo's been doing that since the NES-101. A Switch "Pro", not so much.

But as you described, the Switch "Pro" everyone keeps discussing is really more likely to be the Switch 2 - the eventual next platform. Mostly the musing people about "Switch Pro" just don't like Switch at all. They just want a traditional console and keep dreaming Nintendo will approximate that for them this generation. So they keep going on and on about "Switch Pro." The frustrating part is they refuse to see how little sense such a device would make both from a business perspective, and from a consumer perspective outside that small "Nintendo hardcore" niche. And more importantly how sales in Japan would look WiiU-esque.

I certainly don't... Anyone expecting anything like that is living in a weird fantasy, which I honestly wish I could join them in
I'd expect a modest upgrade (mostly in internal memory) & perhaps it could focus on performance docked, without sacrificing ability to play handheld? But I certainly don't want a New Switch with games you can't play on existing models or anything