Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Nintendo could be preparing something for Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom next week or in the coming weeks

Say, where is the article about 6th Anniversary of Nintendo Switch ?

@JaxonH The official Monster Hunter Youtube channel is hosting the Capcom Spotlight event which means we're getting info about the April update on March 9th.

Hey, @Giancarlothomaz Could you translate this? I get it says DLC and Legend of Zelda but not much else. Also, are they credible?

@TeaCatherine this jornalist is saying that Nintendo is showing all the informations regarding DLC/Switch Online, before they start focusing on Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom possibly begining next week, so in short the marketing campaing for the game will be more intense now, credible yes, he is the chief editor of Universo Nintendo, one of the best website in Brazil focused in Nintendo.

@Giancarlothomaz Sounds quite believable, Mario Kart the other day, now FE, seems to check out. So, we might get its specialised Direct either this week or next week?

@skywake Tbf pretty much everything you describe could apply to the vast majority of "leaks", and I agree with you there.

To elaborate on the source of my skepticism - it's not that I doubt that GameFreak is heavily outsourcing game development (in fact, I seem to remember a Youtube video digging a bit into this, finding that most of SV's credits were to external studios). And I don't doubt that they'd have some technical knowledge of the situation, e.g. patching the game for more powerful hardware.

What I do doubt however, is any knowledge of the "top-level" decisions / features that this programmers work is in support of. I don't know about how work is contracted out in the video game industry specifically, but it would make sense to me if a contractor was kept at arms length. They might have some internal deadlines that they have to meet (e.g. deliver coding package X by time Y), but they can only infer from that what Nintendo's, or even just Game Freak's, longer-term strategy is. Maybe they've heard something with their collaborators through the grapevine, but this is prone to misinformation.

Basically, if we're going to learn anything about new hardware (other than a simple indication of "it's coming eventually"), I really doubt we're going to hear it from a contractor performing a specific outsourced task.

@Buizel
I think where we disagree is in the nature of software development and contracted work. Obviously when you outsource work you're not going to outline the entire thing. For example you might internally be deciding if you're going to change direction, that's not something you'd tell an outsourced team. So you are right in that sense, you only give outsourced developers the information they need to do the work

I think where we disagree is in terms of how much information that would be. If GameFreak has outsourced development work for the purposes of developing a patch that can leverage new hardware? That outsourced team will have a scope/requirements document for the works, they'll have the existing code and assets, they'll have a deadline for release, they'll have a development kit for the new hardware. I mean at that point what don't they know? That's quite literally the entire thing

Speaking from experience, the main thing you keep from outsourced teams is whether or not you're going to pull the plug on the contract. Corporate political stuff is what you keep away from them. You can't feasibly keep things like what your product is, when you expect to release, what the target platform is. Those things are the bits of information you go out of your way to share for them to do the work effectively. And again from experience, the inability do effectively communicate those things is where outsourced work usually falls apart

The 4Chan leaker could be on-point regarding a Scarlet & Violet graphical patch for the Switch successor. But I think they could be off on the expected release date. Nintendo is known for holding finished projects. Keep in mind, the Metroid Prime HD Remaster was completed and held for over a year.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/11/rumour-metroid-prim...

@skywake Fair - I have some experience with outsourcing programming work, but that has been more "bite-sized" and not for consumer products, so probably quite different...

@TeaCatherine quite possible to happen, given that with Nintendo at Pax East 2023, they might have theme they booth around Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, just like they did in 2020 with Animal Crossing New Horizon, everyone expect a demo of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom at Pax East 2023 plus a focused Nintendo Direct for the game.

@Magician
That's certainly the main possible way it could be out while still being a "legit" leak I think. With that said, again, we're talking about Pokemon here. I know I'm a bit of a broken record in terms of the quality of their releases but.... they don't really strike me as the sort of studio that sets conservative deadlines. I suspect if you worked at GameFreak and they said the deadline was December 3rd it'd mean the game is in players hands on December 4th

I think there's a bit of a gap between the management/work culture at Retro vs GameFreak

Just got rid of my joy-con collection - cutting down from 15 joy-con total (pairs of Neon Red, Neon Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink and White, plus Purple L, Blue L and Orange R) to the bare minimum of two (now Purple L and Neon Red R).

It's actually kinda liberating. I built up the collection (and held onto them) thinking it would be nice to mix and match...but really that just ended up in choice paralysis and I'd stick to the same pair for the most part.

I definitely need to waste less money on gaming tat in the future x_x

@Buizel @Magician
They would know the patches they're working on, and would obviously have deadlines for when their target release is.

It's always possible they could be right on one thing and wrong on other. But there's no evidence to suggest that.

The person has proven beyond doubt they are who they say they are, or at least have legitimate info (it's always possible they actually work at Gamefreak and intentionally lied about being at a contract studio to hide their trail).

Why do people do the things they do is a hard question to answer. Many reasons. Regardless, leaks have been a thing for a long time, and will continue to be. The motives don't need to be known. All we need to know is whether it's reliable.

And from what they posted, they're definitely reliable. Is it possible they leaked credible info and then just threw in something wrong? Sure. I mean, it's not like that hasn't happened before. But the more likely scenario is, they're dead on- they are working on a patch (and I imagine many other studios) to take advantage of the next system's power.

There's no reason to doubt their information. That doesn't guarantee its all correct, but there's no evidence to suggest we should question their info. Reasonable skepticism is always advised, but outright refusing to give the leak any weight despite the rest of the info proving legit... that's ill advised.

I just think someone at the programming level has little to no insight into what would be management's final call.

@JaxonH We'll find out by sometime in May at the latest anyway whether it's true or not. If Nintendo passes through the fiscal year shareholders meeting without even mentioning a codename, we know it's not coming by the end of March 2024.

@JaxonH An internal programming deadline doesn't necessarily reflect the actual release schedule though. I'm with @Magician on this one. I still think there may be some element of truth to the leak...but that's about it. As you say, "It's always possible they could be right on one thing and wrong on other".

@Buizel
Always possible. But that doesn't mean likely.

Obviously you can't release a graphics patch without new hardware to run the graphics patch.

@Magician
They don't need insight into management's final call. They only need basic common sense to know a graphics patch needs hardware to run it. Ergo, if the graphics patch js scheduled to release with DLC2, then the new hardware has to be on store shelves by that point.

Sure sure.

We'll see.

@Grumblevolcano
I don't think that's the case. They could, but not mentioning it doesn't rule anything out. Unlike the Wii U generation, they have a LOT of sales to lose by allowing such information out to the public. It will be in their best interest to say nothing.

I expect to hear absolutely nothing about any of this until either Oct-Nov with a teaser, or Jan 2024 with a reveal. They may just wait til Jan 2024 so as to not diminish holiday sales.