Topic: Where does Nintendo go after Switch?

lol were you saying that before the rumors of a hybrid device came out? course not...

But truth be told the Switch is essentially the same idea as the PSVita just with a more modern SoC, HDMI-Out and no home console alternative.

that's like saying the PSVita is the same idea as the GBA but with more modern poop..!

_{watch the language please...-Joey}

Well as I said a couple of pages ago, I'm surprised it happened as soon as it did. But with the direction mobile tech has been headed something like this was going to happen. I remember watching a PC gaming stream in 2013 or so where they were talking about the PS4/XBOne. Their conclusion? The PS4 will be the last home consoles as we know them, the next generation of consoles will be built into either your TV or your phone. Miniaturisation has been a thing for a while, it was going to happen eventually.

With the "NX" itself? Sure, I was pretty firm against the hybrid ideas people were throwing around. I personally thought it would be a portable system I just thought that such a device wouldn't be powerful enough to overtake the Wii U spec. And if it was possible to make one it'd cost way more than a traditional portable system. I thought the Switch concept was likely just not in 2017.

It isn't because the GBA wasn't trying to be a home console. Nobody brought a GBA thinking it was as good as having a Gamecube in your pocket. The Vita however was marketed as a PS3 in your pocket. The problem with the Vita was that it was way too under-powered to do that convincingly. That and it was competing directly with Sony's home consoles.

So as I said, the Switch is the same idea as the Vita. The difference being that Nintendo has done it at a time when there are SoC's around that make that idea convincing. And with the other key difference being that Nintendo doesn't have the equivalent of the Vita's PS3/PS4 on the market. If you want Nintendo on your TV? You buy their portable console with the HDMI out. If you wanted Sony on your TV in 2012? You got a PS3.

That's an interesting thought. Since the innards of the Switch are basically mobile chips a "Switch compatible" mobile phone is certainly possible and would be desirable to some people. There is a niche of buyers that would pay through the nose for that (if you're reading this then there's a good chance you fall into that niche).

I suspect that it would be a hard sell to the mass market though. Plus it'd create a few big marketing challenges and could hurt relationships with Google & Apple that are essential for their mobile ambitions.

@skywake I've personally never seen the Fusion images before the Wii U, and the whole Fusion idea was absolutely only suggested well after the Wii U was released, there's no question about it.

I pasted some links in my previous comment that are proof of that. The first image I posted was also only ever used for what the NX might possibly become, and that then proceeded to evolve into the Fusion idea. The other two images I just added to it later on, but it's only the first image that matters in the Fusion/NX discussion.

@CosmicLight Aha... how amusing...
And I don't ramble. Rant sometimes, but other than that, I only use coherent and concise texts.

@ThanosReXXX
If you do a reverse image search of that first image it sends you to a bunch of sites going on about this fusion theory. That's definitely a thing. But the theory they come up with is complete and utter nonsense. And more to the point the image is pretty much identical to the other images you posted. Those images are from April 2011 i.e. just after the Cafe leak but before the Wii U reveal. All very "meh" in terms of predicting the Switch.... it's all very much in the wrong direction if you ask me.

But there were examples where people were on the right track. This video for one:

As I said, the Switch didn't appear out of nowhere. This concept had been floating around for a while. People were looking at their phones and tablets and seeing how fast they had advanced, the question of when they'd eventually replace consoles was asked by quite a few people. NVidia and Nintendo had the guts to actually go through with it.

@skywake Although I appreciate the effort of your research and the serious way you are responding to me, you are sorely missing the point. @FragRed asked if there wasn't also a rumor concerning a "Nintendo Fusion" and I responded and showed him the image that was used for it. The first image is definitely NOT from 2011, since it's a Fusion concept image, and the Fusion was only ever mentioned well AFTER the Wii U was released. The others might be older but that really doesn't matter.

Maybe I shouldn't have posted these other two from DeviantArt, but that is besides the point and regardless of it, didn't really do anything to take away from the intent of my response, although (apparently) it may have clouded it somewhat...

But in conclusion: where all these images came from and if they were or weren't spot on in relation to what console doesn't matter one single bit in reference to my comment.

And of course I agree on the whole Nvidia Shield thing, but that part of the NX/Switch story wasn't even something that was part of my comment, nor was I implying that this wasn't true.

I honestly think we could have saved a lot of text, time and energy between us, if you understood my first comment you replied to exactly in the way I intended it to be interpreted... '

The Fusion theory couldn't have been further away from what the Switch actually ended up being. And the image you posted was almost surely ripped from that other guy's mockup of Project Cafe. So you can argue that I missed your point all you want because I didn't. All I was doing was saying that that particular mockup was based on some very well known specifics about the Wii U and so wasn't very predictive at all. The fact that it eventually was tied to the ridiculous Fusion "rumour" doesn't make it any less predictive.

As I said, there are better examples showing that the Switch was easy to predict. I posted a video of a guy reviewing its direct predecessor. And in that video he makes a point that NVidia specifically told them that people like to hook it up to a TV via the HDMI port and connect to their network via an Ethernet dongle. It would only be more Switchian if it combined HDMI and Micro USB into USB Type C (which wasn't around yet) and had detachable controllers on the side.

And you know what else? That video stuck with me. When I watched it all I could think was that it would make a great 3DS successor. If Nintendo was to attach some controllers on the sides. That the Shield was a fantastic product idea held back by Android bloat. Nintendo would be the only ones willing to make it a thing. But alas, high spec portables? It's not really Nintendo's thing...... but then they do it anyways.

@skywake I know full well what you were saying, but what I am saying is that these mock-ups weren't the point. Like not AT ALL.

My ONLY point was to confirm to FragRed, who came up with that question in the first place, that there was indeed a rumor about Nintendo Fusion, nothing more, nothing less.

And no offense, but then you come in with your comment to derail that and move the discussion towards what these concept drawings were supposedly really about or how old they are and how Nintendo should have taken more advantage of the Shield or whatever, but none of that was either relevant or had any bearing on what I was saying to him.

So yes, you're missing my point MASSIVELY, or you're reading something into that comment that I directed at FragRed that wasn't there at all.

I'm definitely regretting the decision to post these images more and more. I should have just answered his question, but I thought the picture would illustrate nicely what the Fusion rumor was about.

Well, don't know about you, but I've said about all I wanted to say about this, so I'm done.

Laterrr...

@ThanosReXXX
Well ok, that may have been what you meant but it wasn't how it read on the page. The way it reads is....

Claim. "Nobody could have predicted the Switch"
Response 1 (me). "Yes they could have, it was fairly predictable"
Response 2. "Yeah, people have been predicting a hybrid since before the Wii. Remember Fusion?"
you. "Yeah, Fusion. That was a thing. Here are some images of it"
me. "That image is a mockup of Cafe. That wasn't predicting Switch"
you: "Yeah I know it was a cafe mockup, it's actually of the Fusion"
me: "Fusion was BS, nothing like Switch. If you want a predictor of the Switch look at the Shield"
you (now). "Why are you talking about Shield?"

because.....
Claim. "Nobody could have predicted the Switch"
Response 1 (me). "Yes they could have, it was fairly predictable"

Switch is a refined version of the Shield tablet. It's great that Nintendo actually went ahead with the idea and surprising they pushed as hard as this as early as this. But it wasn't that out of the blue.

@skywake Well, that's odd, to say the least. If you start reading the comments with the one that FragRed posted and how I replied to him, then it should have been very clear that I just answered his question, that's all.

I never claimed anything other than that there was indeed a Fusion rumor, and whether or not it was true or if the pictures were applicable, or feasible or not very inspired doesn't matter at all. Maybe re-read his and my comment and just ignore those pictures I posted.

I always say EXACTLY what I mean, so there's no reading between the lines in any of my comments, ever.

On a side note, now we're talking about it anyways: I don't think that most of us predicted that the EuroGamer/Nvidia rumor was true, considering all the shock and disbelief that erupted shortly afterwards. Iwata always talked about merging platforms, but more in architecture than actually as two devices in one. He was looking towards Apple and Android as prime examples of what Nintendo should become, and that is a family of devices all leaning on the same OS/architecture.

It is likely that the Switch trend is going to be continued with newer and more powerful versions in the future, but personally, I wouldn't be too surprised to see the Switch being followed up by a completely different kind of system, or systems since this is still Nintendo we're talking about after all...

@ThanosReXXX Well in the end Switch was just a battle of rumours/leaks. On one side you had Eurogamer for Nvidia Tegra and on the other side you had people like Supermetaldave suggesting AMD powerhouse.

@skywake I just browsed back to the page where it started, to see where the confusion could come from, but I honestly can't see it.

FragRed LITERALLY said:
"Wasn't there a mock up created called the Fusion by some fans?"
And I said:
"Yes there was, and it was actually quite a nice design:"
And proceeded to post some pictures underneath it, but that too doesn't seem
to create much confusion far as I can see.

I hope you can now understand my honest confusion on where the discussion has led to up to this point.

Well maybe for the people who thought it'd be something else. I for one had convinced myself that the "NX" was something between the Shield Tablet and Shield Portable. A 3DS successor that wasn't going to come close to the PS4 and was probably going to be less powerful than the Wii U. Which also meant I thought the Wii U would limp on for a bit longer. So when the Eurogamer rumour appeared my immediate thoughts were:

1. Well I guess I was right which is strange given that the Wii U is definitely dead now
2. I wonder how that controller actually works because clearly that's not the whole story

But that's beside the point. When I brought up that video I was talking about before the NX. I was thinking about 2014 when that video I posted was published. What NVidia had made actually looked like it was a good piece of hardware. I remember watching that video and kinda being a bit annoyed that it was an Android device. Being a portable device I thought how great the NVidia Shield Tablet would be if it was a proper console.

.... and that's basically what the Switch is. So we should have seen it coming.

@skywake You forgot to tag me. Good thing I was actively watching this topic otherwise I would have missed your reaction. Quotes do not send notifications to the "quotees"...

Totally agreed on having a feeling that Nintendo should have done something like that, because that was also my idea/feeling when I first saw the Nvidia Shield video, except my other immediate thought was that Nintendo would never do that because it seemed WAY to powerful for a Nintendo handheld, and its ability to stream triple A PC games also didn't seem like something Nintendo would do, so purely from a handheld perspective, going from the 3DS to that would seem like a leap to the Moon at that point.

I obviously expected any new hardware, whether console or handheld, to be more powerful, but what with all the comments that Iwata-san made, and the ideas he had on where Nintendo had to go, a hybrid device did not seem very likely to me and many others, so maybe because you had that thought all along it was logical to you and you feel that anyone could have seen it coming, but of course there are many other viewpoints, and just because they're different, doesn't mean they have to be wrong.

In the end, they were of course, but back then, there just wasn't enough evidence, especially with a lot of people involved not talking. And then there was also that other company, DMP (Digital Media Professionals) who also let slip that they were busy with a new powerful chipset, and seeing as they had also made all the 3DS and 2DS chips, a new collaboration between them and Nintendo wouldn't have been all that unlikely, so people were not just betting on AMD but also on them.

But that's all water under the bridge now, and we're getting off topic, so let's get back to that, shall we?

Where the Switch will probably go now is towards more powerful iterations, and possibly newer docks with extra hardware in them. The form factor will allow for that because right now, that dock is rather empty, so there's room to add stuff, maybe that infamous SCD, in some shape or form that'll fit inside the dock.

But then again: this IS Nintendo we're talking about, so don't be too surprised if their next console is going to be something completely new and pleasantly weird once again. They've done it so many times before, so bets are they might very well do it again...

And sometimes, they just completely blindside you with a sudden announcement, such as the New 2DS that they only just now revealed. And that is what and who Nintendo is, and that is also the reason that I like them so much. It is very much a love/hate relationship...

@ThanosReXXX It'll be interesting how they update the Switch if they choose to do so. Update the core tablet component so that both on TV and on-the-go gaming is better, or just update the dock so that it is easier to upgrade to (since I assume selling a standalone dock on eBay would be much easier than selling a standalone Switch tablet) but only more powerful on the TV.

@shadow-wolf @ThanosReXXX
They may update the dock but it's not going to do as much as people seem to think it will. The dock contains all the I/O and expands the Switch's internal I/O via the USB Type C port. The most a new dock will do is expand to a higher spec HDMI and have a larger USB 3.0 hub. Maybe off that hub they throw some stuff like Ethernet onto it. But that's about it.

So yeah, they could release a newer dock down the line but it won't be adding much to the current Switch itself. But it wouldn't really upgrade the Switch in any noticeable way. To actually build some kind of upgraded Switch they need more RAM, storage and a better GPU/CPU. That's what we'll get when an upgrade eventually comes. Though I'm willing to bet that we won't see it for a while yet. 2017 will be this Switch, 2018 might be a 64GB SKU of the same exact thing. Probably JoyCon variations. 2019/2020? Then they'll do a revision of some kind.

@shadow-wolf Indeed, it will be interesting to see what they will come up with and where it will lead to. Going to take some patience, though. The next few years will be for the current hardware, so whatever they're up to next will probably not be announced any time soon...

@skywake No, they could do more. You're just talking about upgrading the components that are already in there, while I specifically stated in multiple previous comments that the current form factor will allow for ADDITIONAL hardware to be added, because the dock is almost half empty inside, so there's room there for additional chips/hardware.

And besides that, they could also simply make a bigger dock to accommodate for additional hardware such as the infamous SCD, as long as it's compatible with the Switch itself, it'll work just fine.

Where does Nintendo go after the Switch? Apparently they go to the 2DS XL...........

Sure wish Nintendo would focus mainly on the Switch and phase out the very old 3DS/2DS

@Lethal But it's NEW!