Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Kermit1 Hey, you found the one flattering picture of him. I’m impressed.

Nintendo Ninjas have been creating false resignation letters ready for action.

@HotGoomba I understand this sentiment. The Switch OLED is my only way on playing games on an OLED screen, and I love it. I did shop around for an OLED TV for months after getting the OLED Switch but came to the conclusion that it wasn't the best use of my money at this point.

@FragRed remind me to never google pictures of boris johnson... i've seen things....

@Kermit1 You think you seen things? Imagine us poor citizens of the United Kingdom these past decade as he makes his way from London Mayor to PM!

@FragRed i saw a photoshopped picture of him with his fly down................. (i feel bad for you but in canada we have trudoe)

@FragRed on the plus side Nadine Dorries is getting bumped up soon with the rest of the cabinet quitting. She is so down with the kids!

@jump criiiiiiiiinge

@jump OH MY GOD! Why would anyone put that out to the world? It’s like some form of torture device.

A Chinese moderator, the same one who leaked the Switch Lite shell picture months before the Lite was announced, leaked the Splatoon 3 OLED limited edition and the time it would be revealed, and also says a new model is coming. They speculate it could be this year, but stress that is not confirmed.

I'm inclined to believe it, and here's why.

1) Nintendo is likely to release a "New 3DS" like model at some point to stretch the last couple years of Switch lifespan
2) It's a fact Nintendo has doubled their spending on materials, which doesn't make sense given sales projections aren't increasing, and certainly not by double
3) Lots of smoke from other sources, such as NateDrake who insists a new model is coming

What form that hardware takes, how much more powerful it is, when it releases... who knows.

At this point, I'm not really worried about it. If it comes, it comes, and I'll gladly buy one. If it doesn't, then it doesn't, and I'll gladly continue playing the crap out of my Switch OLED.

One thing I do know, is that Splatoon 3 OLED is absolutely sick. They finally learned how to do a proper limited edition. Those joycon... wow! I gotta have it. No way am I passing up on displaying that beauty.

@JaxonH i think Nintendo is preparing for the launch of Switch sucessor.

I'll be pretty blunt here. At the end of this year it'll be about 6 years since the Switch launch. Their hardware sales numbers are past their peak and while you might argue "supply constraints" their software sales have also flattened. All the while Nintendo have been stockpiling parts for the last year. Parts that haven't been turned into Switch units, which they would be doing if they were concerned about Switch supply constraints. So you would expect them to be preparing to pull the trigger on something significant fairly soon

Then at the same time there are these persistent rumours. Now sure, a lot of them are people chasing clickbait. As I mentioned a few posts ago, there are some YouTube channels in particular which are particularly guilty of this. A lot of that is complete BS. But there are also some leaks from places where there doesn't seem to be any particular. Eg these leaks starting to come from China

When you combine all that? I think it's hard to argue that there won't be something new relatively soon. And soon as in at least announced this FY. Because if they don't I would think shareholders are going to start wondering what on earth their medium term plans are

As a side note, I dug into my super recently. It turns out that technically I am a Nintendo shareholder. Probably only to the tune of 10s of $ at most but still. So worth remembering in these discussions that shareholders aren't necessarily some kind of mythical entity. They're just randoms. And the vast majority of them are probably completely unaware of which specific companies their fund has allocated their money to

@Ryu_Niiyama 55 inch or more. I only somewhat recently got a budget 4K LED TV for my bedroom, but I'm waiting for my probably-decade-old 1080p living room TV to die or break or something like that and for 55 inch OLEDs to not be 1K. I know they'll eventually go down in price like 4K TVs did, or maybe I'll eventually just bite the bullet and spend 1K on a TV.

@HotGoomba
When I got my first 4ktv, I bought a $500 Hisense (which at the time 7 years ago, was a pretty good deal for a 55").

I never thought I'd spend more than $500 on a TV, but once you get turned onto OLED, it makes LCD seem so flat. It became just... unenjoyable. All I could think about was how much better things look on OLED. So I said screw it, I'm buying one. It's been over 5 yrs, I'm due for an upgrade. And oh boy lemme tell ya, I don't regret it for a second. Worth every last cent.

I got my 55" LG C1 OLED 4KTV for around $1500, which again, at the time was pretty good. But recently I've seen them on sale for like $1296 on Amazon, which is a spectacular price for what you're getting. Not just being OLED, but also having FOUR FULL 48 gbps HDMI 2.1 ports. Even the far more expensive Sony OLED tvs were only offering 2. And 2 doesn't cut it. Not in this day and age. PS5, Xbox Series X, PC... that right there is 3. And obviously you'll want to future proof for the next Switch, so 4 is needed.

But ya. It's expensive, but I don't think you'll regret it once you see the picture you're getting in return. Switch OLED was the best thing to happen to us as gamers. It's embarrassing how much crap the OLED revision got for what it wasn't all the while ignoring what it was and is... the best dang screen we've ever seen on a portable gaming device, bar none.

I feel like Nintendo could go another year before announcing a successor and unless they are getting dev kits/3rd party deals out, I feel they should. Graphics (because it won’t match the twins anyway and if Nintendo doesn’t make another hybrid I will be shocked) aren’t going to guarantee 3rd party buy in, Nintendo partnerships (and money) will. They need that third party buy in as first party games sell well, but if not the major titles they don’t get the buy in they really need (or gamer confidence…look at non mario kart nintendo sports games) and 3rd parties have been helping with that.

I do do feel with the supply constraints that they should hold off as they are actually able to get stock on shelves even if it is less than demand. That is going to flip if a successor comes out. That being said if they do have a successor on it then BOtW2 needs to be a launch title. Or a new Mario. They will have to come out swinging to ensure consumers will be enticed to chase a system that will be harder to get vs one they can just walk into the store and buy. I say take advantage of MS and Sony’s supply issues as long as possible. Gamers may have hardware fatigue but it doesn’t seem like consumers do yet.

All that said I ignore rumors (how long have folks been screaming switch pro?!) so my focus is on BOTW2 and hopefully the LE OLED they will announce with it.

@HotGoomba Ah your comment makes more sense as you need both a larger TV and a lower price point. My Xbox one disc drive died around when the system stopped being sold so I am sorta eager to get a new TV and then a series x. Good Luck!

Why does it have to be an all-or-nothing thing? There are degrees. We're getting close to 6 years and a lot of things in tech double per $ around every 2 years. On that trajectory, on average, we're looking at something that's 2^3 or 8x more from something the same price. That's not PS5 sure, but it's far from insignificant

We're talking about a portable slightly above PS4. Probably going a tad more than 8x for storage and a tad less than 8x for RAM given where the Switch ended up. For a portable which probably will still be rocking a 720p screen? That's heaps. Especially if you combine it with modern tricks like DLSS and VRR that can improve perceived performance without any extra power. That'd open up an entire library of potential ports and new releases. And it'd increase the appeal of existing ports by not having releases like Fall Guys which runs at something like 15fps with frequent crashes

Really, I don't see how Nintendo can coast along with the Switch hardware as it is for too much longer. Not when there's this vast performance gap between what they are selling and what they could sell. And if they don't? Someone will capitalise on it, or at least attempt to. Valve sure as hell is giving it a go already

It doesn't have to have a 3090 in it for it to be an improvement that'll move the needle

@Rambler I'm morbidly curious, how bad are her books? I remember everyone ripping on them for the bad shamrockese but there's not a chance in her hell I would give money to that idiot.

@Rambler So you shoplifted the book then? Good idea! We need to get as many of her books out of circulation as soon as possible

I'm kinda disappointed. I was hoping her books would be proper crazy in the so bad it's good category. Still it's impressive she's knocking a book out a year, she can teach the likes of Salman Rushdie and Hilary Mantel a thing or two!

Nintendo will need several titles launch year to ensure the Switch successor is a big success assuming it were to launch next year:

The Sequel to Breath of the Wild and Metroid Prime 4 - much like how they did with the original BOTW, release it for both current and successor platforms
Mario Kart 9 - this is Nintendo’s biggest selling franchise right now. It just continues to sell millions. But with 8 Deluxe getting DLC until end of next year, I doubt any new game would be launching until 2024.
A big Mario game like Odyssey for the same reason Mario Kart is needed. It sells huge numbers, more than Zelda.
Ideally Splatoon would be there too but they’re launching it this year so I don’t think there would be anything to launch on the next console until 2024 onwards.

I just remembered that Nintendo swaped the releases of Xenoblade 3 and Splatoon 3.. The Splatoon Special Edition was probably the reason. Took them longer to produce.

It'll be interesting to see how folks who're asking for a full-on successor now will react if Nintendo instead offer a half-step upgraded Switch? I'm certainly interested, but that interest comes with caveats. Rumors are that the half-step Switch would run MHR at 60fps. How is that performance improvement implemented and would it extent to other games? Are we simply talking about an overclocked Tegra X1 or is it a new SoC?

So many questions.