Topic: Why is everyone talking about a “Switch 2?”

It's a disscussion that excites people for what is next and like said before, Switch is nearly 7 years old or so now.

I wouldn't always trust rumours but Nintendo's history does give off this idea that a Switch 2 could come out as early as next year and I'm actually someone who thinks it's very possible as well.

But it is still interesting to see what happens for the Switch in 2024, a new console yet or not.

What I do know is that Nintendo has purposely chosen not to give us the anwser yet. Not with complete clarity anyway. Lol, but that does make sense from their standpoint.

Let's wait until the next new Kirby game releases for Switch, then add one-ish year and then maybe that will be the end for this current Switch. Half joking, half serious with that, as NES, SNES, N64, Wii, GBC, DS, and 3DS have a curious correlation where Kirby games either are the swan song, or release within 1-ish year of the official final Nintendo series game (going off of North America here).

-NES ended in 1994 with Wario's Woods, and Kirby's Adventure released about 1.5 years prior. Some people consider KA to be the quasi-swan song of the NES.

-SNES ended in 1997 with Kirby's Dreamland 3 (Only counting multi-region releases, so no Fire Emblem Thracia 776)

-N64 ended in spring 2001, with Kirby 64 releasing summer 2000.

-GBC ended in summer 2001, with Kirby Tilt N' Tumble releasing in Spring 2001.

-Wii ended in 2012, with Kirby's Return to Dreamland releasing in Fall 2011 and Kirby's Dream Collection (Fall 2012) being the final Nintendo series game on Wii.

-DS ended in 2012, with Kirby Mass Attack releasing in Fall 2011.

-3DS ended in 2019, with Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn releasing in 2019, Kirby's Blowout Blast (2017), Kirby Battle Royale (2017), Team Kirby Clash Deluxe (2017). 3DS was mostly considered dead by the 2nd half of 2018.

Considering Nintendo wants 1st party games this is a non-starter to start with. BOTW and TOTK and Witcher 3 area already pushing the 2015 chipset beyond what it can do. And change is going to have to happen whether people think it or not this is to keep Nintendo relevant in 2024 and beyond and to keep existing. Why people think 2015 chipset is better then a T239 with DLSS/RT/RTL is beyond ludicrous here. They either update or die that is the name of the gaming system here and a portable DLSS/RT/RTL is what will keep them ahead of the pack especially since this will be a Hybrid that will do it Portable or Docked Mode. People don't think about these small things that can make or break their market share. A Switch 2 is coming or not this is Nintendo only console nothing else is coming to replace it in the near future. And that won't come out for a long time as R&D isn't a over night success.

@ChameleonBros I mean.. 2022 to early 2023 had tons of Kirby. So seems like 2024 is the year by your method.

The longer Nintendo waits to longer people will not get the upgraded console. Switch is already showing it's age on demanding games and as mentioned if they want to get 1st party games to come to Switch they will have to release in sooner then later or loose AAA games market share. This is about keeping your Switch relevant and expanding library not doing so will be disastrous to their market share. They stretch 2015 chipsets far enough that a new system needs to take it's place regardless and waiting for '25 or '26 isn't in their business interests nor shareholders bottom line. Game development is not overnight and not having a Switch replaced isn't going to get more shares.

I personally as an older gamer I’m 46 now ain’t waiting for a new switch anytime soon. I just got my OLED in October 2023 and im loving it to death. I don’t know why people are in such a hurry for a switch 2 or whatever comes next when the current system does and has plenty of games to play.

@Atomic77 Nintendo needs to bring performance games to bear. 2015 chipsets can only go so far. Take BOTW that's pushing the graphics. And if Switch is to remain ahead it needs DLSS/RT/RTL to stay competitive and bring AAA games over. COD anyone this should tell all one need to know.

I had a bit of a realisation over the last few days. I mean, I knew this already logically but it hits a bit different when you see it play out. Happened a few times

Firstly I had a bit of eShop credit and was looking for something else to pick up, I ended up grabbing Howl but before the Indie Showcase there was a sale on and I was considering grabbing something from that. WRC 9 was on sale for $9AU and I almost got it. But before I pulled the trigger I looked at the review on here and it got a 6, largely due to its poor performance.

I mean, I I have a 1660Ti hooked up to the same TV and I have various Racing Sims on Steam. By no means a powerful machine by modern standards, the rumoured "Switch 2" SoC would trade blows with it. But still, the performance I can get out of that in something like Dirt Rally 2 squashed the value of WRC9 to being just a compromised portable rally game. And, frankly, Mario Kart 8 does an ok job at covering my portable racing fix. So I got Howl instead

Then Howards Legacy released on Switch and, to be honest, it doesn't look to bad. My sister had been holding out for it to release on Switch so she got it on day 1 and is pretty happy with it. Certainly a playable version of the game, more than I expected it to be. She brought it around to show it off and I consider buying it. So my first thought is to put it on my Steam Wishlist... and then it hits me again. I just keep instinctively going for the PC version of these multi-platform titles

And I know, I'm a bit of a hardware enthusiast. I'm the sort of person who has their local PC retailer as one of their top 5 visited websites because I like to browse components and see what's available. So you might just dismiss what I'm saying as me just being "high end PC graphics" or something. But really, a 1660Ti isn't "high end" and during the Wii U era I gladly brought titles like Assassin's Creed on Wii U. And I had a PC that outclassed the PS4 before the PS4 launched. My PC now is far from being that far ahead, so what's different?

I feel like at some point we crossed a line. Where for some games to get them on Switch you're compromising the game too much. It's kinda like how on the DS back in the day occasionally you'd get a game like Trackmania ported. You'd see the trailers and just think "wow, this shouldn't be possible". You'd buy it for the novelty and think it was amazing because, I mean it's running on the DS how cool is that? And for a pocketable version of Trackmania at the time? I mean it was, I put hours into it. But... if you had the option you would play it on pretty much anything else....

The Wii U was underpowered. The Switch is different, the Switch is further behind. The Switch isn't just underpowered compared to contemporary devices. The Switch is a different class of device. During the Wii U I'd buy most stuff on Wii U and then buy the 3DS stuff for portable experiences and occasionally buy something on PC if there was no hope of a Wii U version. That line has shifted, the Switch for me didn't take the place of the Wii U, it took the place of the 3DS

What people don’t realize is that the Switch even though being an old chipset is actually pretty capable of a lot of games. Take a look at this years game of the year nominee The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom.

People do realize that, but they want more. Nintendo is certainly able and sometimes willing to spend a bunch of time to hyper-optimize their own games (e.g. TotK) to actually run well on old Switch hardware, but new third party games often aren't willing to do that and even when they do, the games typically look or run strictly worse than on PC or a different console. Of course there are plenty of old or simpler games which run on Switch also, but some people like new fancy games.

@FishyS @Atomic77
I'd also add that when what we see on Switch is generally the stuff that worked. Tears of the Kingdom doesn't feel like a game that they had to remove features from or compromise fidelity to get on the Switch. But also, Switch is the only version of that game. If the Switch hardware had more headroom we would've got a different game. If Nintendo's developing a game and they want to go in a direction that's not possible on Switch? I mean, they can't. Because Switch is the platform they release on

And it's the same thing with third party titles except they have the luxury of other platforms to release on. A game like Hogwarts Legacy, if Switch was the only platform it wouldn't have existed in the form it originally existed in at all. But other platforms do exist and people who own those platforms want games that take advantage of that hardware. In the case of Hogwarts Legacy mostly taking advantage of the higher storage speeds and higher memory bandwidth. It's just with those games we can see what the other version is like

To go back to the Wii U comparison back then third parties were straddling between a spec around about the same as the Wii U (360/PS3) and one ~4-5X higher. And alongside the Wii U Nintendo had the 3DS which was ~10X further behind again. Now? Third parties are straddling between a spec that's ~10-20X higher than Switch. There is no 3DS in equivalent bellow the Switch, Switch IS the 3DS equivalent. And you know, as great as the 3DS was you weren't running GTA5 on it.....

Hmm. I think the Switch is supposedly more powerful than the Wii/WiiU. I could be mistaken though.

Cause we are bored

Also, Switch 1 is already outdated.
Time for upgraded machine.

Switch is more powerful, but technology has gotten significantly better in the last 17 years since Wii was made. And note that Wii was pretty under-powered for its time. Just as a comparison, the CPU of a PS5 is 38X faster than a Wii, there is 258 times more RAM, floating point operations (which has a lot to do with graphics) is around 1,000 times better. So basically modern consoles are unbelievably more powerful than a Wii. Switch is also much better. A PS5 only has 4 times as much RAM as a Switch and the floating point operations are only 10X as good. In lots of different ways modern hardware is 4X or 10X better than Switch and all that adds up. So yes, Switch is simultaneously significantly better than Wii and also significantly worse than modern quite affordable hardware (you can currently find PS5s selling for only about $100 more than Switch OLED).

I honestly don't know how anyone can watch some of those Youtubers that have been making videos about a Switch Pro, then a Switch 2 for the last 4 years or so (probably longer tbh.)

@Atomic77
Bit of a strawman there, not sure how that was your takeaway from my posts. But to be clear it's more powerful than the Wii U in a similar way to how the Wii U was more powerful than the 360. That is to say it technically is but not to such a degree that it fundamentally changes what can be made for it in any significant way. But again, the Wii U existed during the transition from PS3/360 to PS4/XBOne. It sat in the lower range of the spec developers were making games for, but it was in the range

The Switch isn't in that range. It's still sitting at around the same ballpark as the Wii U spec but the competition has now moved on. So again, the best analogy isn't to describe it as like the Wii U alongside the 360 and behind the PS4. The XBox Series S is this generation's "Wii U" tier console, the Switch is more like the 3DS

I'm not saying Nintendo needs to release a PS5 tier console. This isn't me in the dying days of the Wii U saying their next console has to beat the PS4. What I'm saying is that Nintendo should have a console that's trading blows with the current minimum spec. Otherwise when third party titles come out people like me will continue to shop elsewhere

Doesn't have to be the highest performing platform. It is a portable console after all. But the difference should be more "the framerate is lower" and less "they fundamentally restructured the game and created a new definition of minimum just to get 25fps"

The Point is the Switch is successful because it’s different from anything else out there. Nintendo knows this that’s why they are not in a hurry to upgrade the console. Enough said.

@Atomic77 Switch was certainly unique when it came out. Now that more-powerful devices like Steam Deck have partially copied Switch, Switch is less unique.

@FishyS

Steam Deck and other portable handheld PC's haven't partially copied the Switch! There have been powerful handhelds for decades Sega Game Gear, Atari Lynx, PlayStation Portable etc.

And the Steam Deck doesn't have the ability to plug into a dock connected to the tv like the Switch. The Switch is still unique in that regard.

The Switch sucessor will be a hybrid handheld/console. But could have something else as well, Nintendo do like to try unusual ideas.