Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Peek-a-boo Did I say they lied?

What I said is that Digital Foundry released this information in July (26th), not long after the trailer, We know since then more iterations of the Dev Kit have been released & leaks indicate both a power & battery improvement (battery from 3-5 hours to 5-8hrs). So Venture Beat's rumour is confirming what is in an extremely early Dev Kit as final hardware?

Do you see what I mean though, Digital Foundry is blameless, the Venture Beat rumour is very fishy.

@WebHead Indeed, she has claimed that the Eurogamer report lines up with what she's been told by one source. However, her leaks have mostly been vague and confirmed already speculated rumours.

I'd like to add, I am not stating the report is definitely wrong. All I am saying is that using a very unreliable source (the Venture Beat rumour) to confirm old information based on an outdated Dev Kit (which could have completely unfinished/different hardware to the final product) is not necessarily the best of reporting.

@DanteSolablood I was only saying that Digital Foundry have been around for a long time and are known to know their stuff, that's all. I didn't imply you were fibbing, quite the contrary!

In other news, going by the article on Eurogamer, the jump between the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch GPUs is actually even smaller than the jump from the GameCube to Wii GPUs (40% to 50%).

I know that that is based on unofficial news, but if it's true...

:EDIT: Laura has only just confirmed the news on Eurogamer: - https://mobile.twitter.com/LaurakBuzz/status/810835370162135041

@Peek-a-boo Lol, I know... but again, the Digital Foundry information was based on a Dev Kit from 5 months ago & we already know the Dev Kit they were basing that information on has been replaced with one that has better battery power & performance. They know their stuff!

If we went on everything Eurogamer reported Breath of the Wild would be cancelled (they quickly pulled that one when it was found to be based on a single pen drawing by a troll).

Edit: Again, Laura has been extremely vague: "Basically expect a relatively modern powered console when docked, but when portable games will need to run a LOT less intensive.". This could mean PS4 power, could mean XB1 power, could mean Wii U power. Hedging bets. As I said, she has stated the Eurogamer report was "about what one source told her" to paraphrase.

I will save everyone a headache: It will get some AAA and others it won't. It'll mainly be for Nintendo games and you most likely already have a device that can play said AAA games anyway. Fin.

@DanteSolablood Go ahead and read my Twitter link again. I accidentally posted the wrong one the first time round.

@WebHead Lol, a little unfair but I can't deny most of that comment is dead on.

@Peek-a-boo Cheers, I thought it was odd as she'd posted a MUCH better "confirmation" already.

That's a much more confident statement, but I will note that she still uses "likely" when referring to the accuracy. She's giving no new information & still allowing herself a way out if her source is wrong. I will note however that the Dark Souls 3 footage someone posted on those approx specs isn't bad at all.

DOOOOOOMMMEEEEDDDD

Well, someone had to do it.

Anyhow, who the hell cares? So long as it's fun right? The graphical plateau approaches, and all that stopped developers from the Wii U, apart from a poor CPU, was the lack of access to the newer modern development middleware. Except CryENGINE. Screw CryENGINE. Seriously. Looks good, but bugger that for a game of tennis.

Anyone wondering why Prey wont run on Switch, its CryENGINE. An engine based on using future technology. Know the Crysis joke? Basing an engine on the future cutting edge tech is great, but it's still FUTURE tech you cant sell much, and so few things use it.

I have no stance on this neverending flops argument. Ever since Scorpio was mentioned there has been an a-bun-dance of people waving their terafloppers about, in the newest form of the teraflop waving contest.

As long as it's fun, and fits into my life as a consumer, I'll get it. The games follow the money after all.

And hey, does anyone remember the good old days where multiplatform games were almost completely different between consoles to fit with it's hardware? God knows how many Rayman 2s there are from back then.

Ah...back when creative integrity and effort were a thing. Good times.

Way I see it:
Portable Mode Power: New Wii U basically.(Like 3DS to New 3DS)
Console Mode Power: Difference between Switch and Xbox One same as between Xbox One and PS4.

Oh how I miss the days where graphics isn't as important as it is now. It was all about the experience back then. Hopefully the Switch would balance between the graphics and gameplay.

@BLP_Software You make a good point, though I would point out that Crytek have not ruled out making the CryEngine available to the Switch. Though yes, they've not confirmed they will either. Dang PR people!

Personally I don't care much about the flops & polygon counts, it's just the whole "DOOMED" thing people are going on about. Saying the Switch won't be more powerful than the Wii U when the now ancient Vita was almost there feels a little doom mongerish to me.

@Peek-a-boo the problem with the Wii U's hardware was the fact that it was still using an old architecture(PowerPC) whereas the other consoles were x86 which created problems with programmers programming their games to the Wii U(hence why the system got some buggy ports). The Switch uses ARM which along with x86 are standards in the industry and some game engines allow simple transitions in coding between the two architectures so the problem for the 3rd parties porting their games to the Switch won't be as much of a problem compared to the Wii U. We know that the Switch will support Unreal Engine 4 and the recent version of Unity as well as Nvidia creating a new API for the Switch called NVD which will probably allow devs to easily get the most of the system. Also, just saying but some big AAA games on PC still look good on certain low settings. Since we've been hearing rumours that the Switch will be on par with the Xbox One, I think Nintendo's new system will probably be powerful enough for developers to bring their games

@BLP_Software Indeed. It will ultimately come down to pricing, marketing, and software. Nintendo's developers had best be on their A game this time.

@Aeleron0X Just to point out that x86 is an older architecture than PowerPC, Nintendo actually chose to run the Wii U on a very low power use & hard limited it's performance. Still A4 Games (Metro Last Light) is quoted as calling the Wii U CPU as "horrifically slow". Only bringing this up because someone pointed it out to me... just with more f-words & s-words.

Graphics and power have always, always, always been a point of debate since as long as consoles have been a thing. It's just easier to see them now with the internet. This is nothing new.

https://twitter.com/JesseLaythe/status/810850407543148544 tru...

This is no longer the case, especially after today's news.

It is still about the experience today! That element will always be the main de facto in this industry.

@Peek-a-boo You say "todays news"... you mean "todays rumours" surely?

@DanteSolablood @WebHead

Success for this comes down to everything else, beyond third parties.

People say they need third parties to be successful...well, no that's not true. It needs to be successful for the third parties to pop off and bolster a lineup. Success doesn't come from them, they come to success, which in turn, means a system has in essence been a good system. Yes, third parties help sell a box, but it wont be wh the box sells, you know?

And with regards to Nintendoom.jpg.png.gif etc., have you been on the internet lately? Part of my brain keeps looking at that Zelda canned rumour and how fast every main site was screaming it, and it struck me that either fake news sells, people are stupid, or some folks just really want Nintendo out. I think it's all three, because I'm no betting man, but that Nintendoom crowd has either been getting bigger, or louder. Or both, again, it could be.

I love the teraflipflopscoobitybop argument. As I sit here with my beast PC and laugh as power has never been a factor in my enjoyment of a console. Yeah, I can play any game at max settings, but why do I want to? The power doesn't sell me, its the relative and comparative fiddling and tweaks you need to do that makes me go "I'll just use a console". Because every system has its perks, but its never the power that sells it.

Does it matter? For a developer yes, and for those inadequate with their endowments, most definitely, I live with someone like that, but it doesn't lead to success. The only instance I can think of outside of the 16-bit/8-bit era where the most spec heavy system sold most is the PS4, and it wasn't power that sold it. It was the cock ups of the others.