Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

jornalist/insider Jeff Grubb, has stated Nintendo will treat the sucessor of Nintendo Switch, the same way they treated Game Boy to Game Boy Color so a intermediate generation

https://www.thegamer.com/insider-feels-new-console-may-be-bet...

@Giancarlothomaz I think Nintendo's days of a hard restart are over and each Switch will simply be an iteration much like iphones etc. No idea how they will market it, but it's probably not that meaningful anymore debating the difference between successor or intermediate pro.

@GrailUK
probably not that meaningful anymore debating the difference between successor or intermediate pro

Pretty much this

Nintendo has finally found their permanent end-game place in the market. From this point onward, expect new generations to entail another hybrid console with more power.

Call it a Pro, call it a Switch 2, call it whatever you want. Labels won't change what it is- a newer, more powerful Switch. Its still gonna play games on TV, handheld and tabletop. That's never going away. The one constant Nintendo knows is that portable Nintendo systems always sell, and hybrid Nintendo systems sell even better. So that's what they're going to continue doing.

It's now become an iterative game.

@neonpizza
I know you're into super high framerates and all that, but Im telling you now, it's best to just forget about it.

Ain't gonna happen.

That's not Nintendo's focus, and likely will never be the remainder of our natural lives. If that is what you seek, best to look elsewhere. Expecting ultra-high framerates from a Nintendo hybrid is like expecting your next Honda Civic to have airplane wings.

Expect it to be exactly identical to Switch. 60 when the game can handle it, otherwise 30. The only difference is we should see fewer games struggling to hold base 30. That's it. Everything else will probably be exactly what we saw this generation.

The increase in power will be essentially spent running games of higher graphical fidelity, holding more stable framerates at 30 and 60, and increasing resolution. One need only look at PS4/X1/SD to get a rough approximation of what to expect. None of those systems are known for ultra-high framerates. They're known for 30fps gaming at 1080p for AAA, and 60fps 1080p for nearly everything else (720p for SD). In the rare case of a game being extremely undemanding, resolution is almost always increased beyond 1080p rather than framerate increased above 60.

My expectations are essentially what we see with SteamDeck. 720p locked 30-60 fps in handheld, 1080p locked 30-60 fps when docked, and in the best case scenario, maybe DLSS/FSR2.0 to upscale resolution when docked for notable releases.

100%, I've been saying this for years. Seems like the only reasonable way forward. The distinction between "successor" and "revision" is going to get real blurry. Though I think inevitably the marketing and perception of it is going to sway people one way or another. Because people like to categorise this kind of stuff

Kinda like how the Switch is not a home console or a portable, it's something different and also both. But people still for some reason want to force it into one of those two boxes. To the point where I suspect before the Switch Lite released there were probably still people out there wondering when a 3DS successor was going to release

In terms of marketing and things like backwards compatibility, I suspect they're going to want people to think that it is still "Switch"

I just wanna be surprised and make funny joke at new Switch.

@Kermit1
It'll be like the DS line and branding which started with DS in 2004 and by the end we had New 2DS XL. 5 years from now we'll probably have a thread on here discussing the merits of the New Switch Lite OLED LR vs the New Switch OLED Mini.... or something. And the transition might even be more seamless than it was from DS to 3DS. Might literally be in this same thread

@skywake I think Ninty will play it safe, I think they're done taking huge risks for now. If I had to bet on a name I'd pick Pro but I'm still not sure about that one.

@Kermit1
I would think in terms of name they're going to want something that clearly communicates what it is. If it's what I think it is that'll mean both convincing people it's worth upgrading to but without people thinking its an entirely new platform they'll need to invest into. Which are kinda conflicting messages and we've seen both successes and spectacular failures with it

The Wii U branding succeeded in convincing people it was still a Wii maybe too well. To the point where people just thought it was another Wii. On the other end, I think its amusing the GBC was mentioned on the previous page because I feel like the GB line was the most successful branding. If you had a GameBoy you wanted a GameBoy Color so you could play your games in Colour. Clear upgrade, clear branding. And when you looked at GB games? Well, you could see clearly that these games were only for GBC, these other games worked on GBC, these games were regular GB titles

The GBC is what I think they want to emulate in terms of branding. How they do that I don't know. Switch 4K? Switch HDR? I'm not so convinced. Switch 2 is kinda lame. New Switch kinda works I guess, Switch Pro also kinda works. I'm sure whatever they come up with will be lost in translation and we'll wonder what on earth they were thinking.... before, like the Wii, we get over how odd it sounds to say out loud

@skywake Wii would like to play... lol

Eh, they'll announce it, we'll question the name, then we'll start saying it 12 billion times drilling it into our brains.

They'd do well to just call it Switch 2 and be done with it.

Let ppl know it has new games that can't run on Switch, but also let people know it's more of what you loved about Switch, but better.

Simple is best.

I will be surprised if Switch 2 = Switch + 3DS.

20 bucks says it will be something lame like New Switch or Super Switch.

They should call it YAS, Yet Another Switch

Well we have seen how Microsoft handled the Xbox line. Xbox > Xbox 360 > Xbox One > Xbox One X > Xbox Series X/S. Microsoft managed somehow to convince people each time yes this is the next generation hardware in our platform but it can (sorta in regards to original Xbox & 360) run old generation games. If the next Switch is somewhere in the ballpark of PS4 power then it shouldn’t be hard to convince people just based on the graphics alone. That’s what marketing should push, the leap in terms of graphics because to your average gamer that’s the easiest and best way to understand why they need the upgrade outside of exclusives.

Or Switch Too.

While I understand Nintendo's proclivity to not use numbers (they never have), I think it would behoove them to rethink that strategy.

There's really not that many options for the next Switch with regard to names. They must keep "Switch" in the name. It's become their brand now, much like Xbox is Microsoft's brand and PlayStation is Sony's brand. Switch is now Nintendo's brand.

But how can they modify it for the successor? Well, I can almost certainly say it won't be "New" as much as it might be funny to meme. After the 3DS line used that term for a simple family revision, it's been tainted for use with a successor.

If you look at Switch Lite, it gives us the clues. The name is short, catchy, and conveys purpose, much like the name "Switch" does in the first place.

I think "Switch 4K" is a possibility; however, I think the fact not all games will be able to run at 4K, even with DLSS, and nearly none or them would run native... pretty much rules this name out.

The name must convey the generational leap. Just as "Lite" conveys the handheld only device and "OLED" conveys the OLED device, the next generation needs to convey the fact it's Switch, but the next generation system.

I honestly think Switch 2 is a hard name to beat, as gamers are accustomed to numbering from PlayStation. However, irrespective of my own thoughts, it's clear Nintendo doesn't like numbering schemes.

They could channel their retro glory days and go with "Super Switch", though I suspect it would be a risky move. On the one hand, it's a more flashy and catchy name than Switch 2, and if the stars align could propel the system to similar heights as Switch reached. On the other hand, it's not as clear as to exactly what it is- a better revision with more features but in the same family? If so then in what way? A more powerful "pro" model in the same family? Is it a successor? These are the kinds of questions higher ups will be discussing.

This isn't just some 2 yr revision for a handheld with separate console and portable hardware. This is a crucial transition. The entire company's future hinges on them getting this right. They're not like MS or Sony where video games are just a portion of their overall business. Nintendo Switch accounts for 95% of their total revenue. Unlike past generations, they don't have separate console and handheld lines, much less a 3rd pillar. They must get this right. And I think they obviously know that.

But for that reason, I wouldn't rule out Nintendo deciding to change policy and go with a numbering scheme hence forth. Not doing so may prove too risky for them at this point. As unsexy as a numbering scheme is, it may prove to have the most efficient risk/reward profile.

Naming of the system plenty of times has a connection to the name of the biggest launch game (e.g. Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Advance, Super Mario 64 DS, Wii Sports, New Super Mario Bros. U), so I'm guessing Nintendo Switch Prime. If it's a GBC type situation, Prime 4 would definitely be big enough to be the big launch title and Nintendo seems to have a lot more faith in the Metroid franchise nowadays.

I think this is a very pertinent point. But I think context is also important.

When the Wii U released, Wii had been losing steam for years. The casual market that was widely associated with the Wii had lost interest in the Wii and would have no interest in a more powerful version of it.

The Switch, however, is still going strong. If Nintendo were to ride this success and market the successor simply as a better way to play your Switch games (think more-or-less Xbox's current model, or the iPhone model)...then I think it could work. Heck, I'd even argue that a name like "Switch U" (not U specifically, but in that format), would work reasonably well at this point.

@Grumblevolcano
The games were named after the console not the other way around. Also for most of those consoles the naming was tied very much to what the hardware was. The N64 had a 64bit CPU which mattered in terms of marketing because the previous generation a lot of time was spent talking up the jump from 8 to 16bit. The DS had Dual Screens, the 3DS had 3D, the GBC had Color, the GC was a Cube. I don't think naming the new console after Metroid Prime 4 makes much sense.....

I think the name should be something Nintendo-ish. Some English word that sounds "cool" in Japan because it's English but then we all sit here going "but why?". Something stupid. With that said, and speaking of stupid, there is a very small window where I do very slightly like the idea of them calling it the Switch 2. Because I kinda want to buy a 2.5Gbps network Switch and post it on here like maybe a week before release. Just so I can make a post I finally got a switch with a 2 in its name, then post an iPerf result showing a >2Gbps transfer