Topic: The Nintendo Switch Rumor and Speculation Thread

I think Nintendo will naturally make a lot of games which simply don't need Switch 2 plus some which run fine on Switch but would be improved in Switch 2. Between those categories, I think Nintendo will be pretty prolific for Switch 1 for awhile still.

Lets think of the games this year:

Another Code - No real reason for more power but maybe could have higher resolution version?

Mario vs DK - same as above

Peach - pieces of it definitely could have looked or run better on a Switch 2 version

Endless Ocean - Switch 2 improvements could have been OP for this game since it is all about graphics

Paper Mario - already looks beautiful, you would get 60 fps

Luigi - ??

Nintendo World Championship — clearly doesn't care which console

Will Switch’s successor use ray-tracing? I remember people saying TTYD looks like it uses ray-tracing which led to speculation about the successor. Is this likely?

@FishyS It would be a sad sad day if Nintendo went all in on AAA experiences (christ, that expression still makes me vomit! It's so corporate buzz wordy.)

Unrelated to an extent but Midori is Japanese for Green. I know this because one of my OCs is named Dori, which is short for Midori, and yeah, I don't know why I bothered saying this lol.

@CaleBoi25 I wonder if Midori goes by this name because she gives Atlus/Sega news and rumors, and Persona 6’s color theme is rumored to be Green, since each persona game has a color theme (P5 was Red, P4 was yellow, P3 was blue, etc)

(Oh yeah, atlus is the persona publisher, meant to include that)

@skywake It's true that the simple ratio between resolution and frames renders DLSS less vital and more supplemental, but what about adding in other features, like ray tracing?

@Ulysses
Ray Tracing is just another feature they can add. In terms of the discussion around performance it's not really that much different to having more RAM that allows higher resolution assets

Also my point wasn't to say DLSS isn't important. It is. I just think people are both underestimating the number of games that could hit 4K natively and overestimating the resolution that DLSS will be useful at. DLSS will be hugely important.... in getting very demanding games upto a full 1080p output

If Switch 2 wants to play AAA titles or 1st xbox/ps console games they will need to go DLSS/RT with the T239 custom chip and maybe a eGPU on the dock to help with more cooling. They can no longer just sit and wait and hope AAA/1st Party games come over. And no 140Mil wont go on sale as they work find with standard Switch games. People are over hyping the Switch loss for their own gains to sell their own multiple Switch v1, v2 OLED and hope there are suckers out there. And you can still play if true your Switch games in a Switch 2 not reverse so that still means they can have the same account on both consoles and play one or the other and download the games if they have a NSO and start where they left off. So NO just because Switch 2 comes out the Switch market won't do a Black Monday crash. This will always be a drop on older consoles when a New console comes out or a more powerful that can play aka BOTW/TOTK with higher fps with more details but the rest of the games can and will still work for the older Switch.

@SwitchForce
What a ramble.... lets unpack that....

AAA games on Switch 2
There are already developers who make high budget games that are making the effort to port their games to the Switch. The Switch 2 will be significant jump in spec. It doesn't really need to do anything more than that for these games to come. So your first concern here is, IMO, complete nonsense

DLSS
Regarding DLSS I suggest you have a look at my post on the previous page. DLSS isn't magic, it's a (very impressive) upscaling technique that takes time to do. But for it to work you need to be able to render the game at a resolution and framerate that you are upscaling from. You can't really magic out 4K/60fps if you can't render natively at like 720p/30fps. That's not how it works, or the capabilities we're likely dealing with. How it will work will be more like you can render at 720p/60fps and we bump that upto 1080p/60fps via DLSS

RT
There will be some RT, sure, but it's not going to be the defining feature. It will be nice when they use it but it'll be at the margins and I doubt most people will notice it much outside of DF

eGPU in the dock
Nope

Something, something Black Monday Crash
Honestly I have no idea what you're really trying to get at here. There will be new hardware and, over time, people will move onto that new hardware from the current platform. That's just how things go. People will sell their old consoles so they can buy the new hardware. Those people aren't trying to swindle people, the old hardware will still have value. But again, that's just how it always goes with a console transition

Dropping some "DLSS maths" up in here again. If the DF guestimate is right and a 4K upscale takes ~20ms then, on paper, DLSS will allow the following:
480p/30fps native can turn into 720p 30fps
480p/60fps -> 900p 45fps
720p/30fps -> 720p 60fps via 480p
720p/60fps -> 900p/90fps via 480p, 1080p/45fps or 1440p/30fps via 720p
1080p/30fps -> 1080p/45fps via 720p
1080p/60fps -> 1440p/60fps via 720p

If we (optimistically) halve the compute time for DLSS that becomes:
from 480p the story is largely the same
720p/30fps -> 900p 60fps via 480p
720p/60fps -> 960p/100fps via 480p, 1440p/45fps via 720p
1080p/30fps -> 1080p/60fps via 720p... very almost....
1080p/60fps -> 1440p/80fps via 720p

of all these scenarios we're most likely to see:
SD resolutions being pushed into HD resolutions
games that can run well at 720p being bumped up to 1080p or 1440p
games that can hit or push beyond 1080p/60fps not using DLSS

@skywake good info. We just don’t know what they will do. Also variables like clock speeds and the fabrication. Nintendo enthusiasts are really excited. There is a lot of talk about this machine outperforming series s. Everyone should have a little caution because the disappointment would be off the charts.

What are the chances that the Switch successor could potentially have a dual-screen set-up? I remember that patent a while back that was basically holding the idea of a switch-like console with a secondary screen that folds into the main console unit- but I know patents largely don't tend to mean that they'll actually commit to it. It's just coming up with ideas for future reference.

This being said however- I was thinking with a friend on how they could actually pull something like this off. How could they make a dual-screen console that can be docked into a TV or played in tabletop. Those would be the two largest hurdles which the console would need to over-come.

My thinking is that if they were to make a new handheld console with dual screens utilizing the Switch concept, they could try the concept that the Wii U had again- where there's a gamepad-like device (albeit far less bulky than the Wii U Gamepad) which acts as a secondary screen for the console. The screen could fold into the console for ease of storage, and possibly even detach from the system itself for docked-play.

The streaming that the gamepad had was one of the larger flaws of the Wii U, with the inability to take the screen with you on the go like others wanted. You couldn't even really leave the room with the gamepad, making it to where you pretty much were bound by being right next to the console. With the concept being used in this hypothetical successor though- I would say that it could possibly be more efficient? I feel like since the main console would actually be portable this time around, the secondary screen would be able to be taken anywhere without issue. Need to go into another room because someone's wanting to watch TV? You'll be able to do so by connecting the secondary screen to the main console. It would mostly only be needed as a "gamepad" separate from the main console if you're basically looking to play on a TV or monitor.

The only real negatives I could see in this concept are the following:

Having to keep both the top screen and bottom screen charged somehow.

Developers of games not being thrilled about utilizing the bottom screen- with it falling into how third parties ended up handling Wii U support.

Children disconnecting the bottom screen from the top and getting it lost (something which probably happens with Joycons, but is much easier to replace than a secondary screen).

Benefits:

The return of things like having your inventory screens and map screens open at all times.

Ease of porting/remaking 3DS and DS titles.

Do you guys think this is likely? That there's a possibility that they could ever go back to dual screens? I kind of hope they do- given that the concept was probably the pinnacle for gaming. Having a massive ease of access, or touch-screen specific experiences was one of my favorite things about the 3DS. Games like Tomodachi Life and Nintendogs.. or things like Fossil Fighters. Games that made heavy use of the DS touch-screen, and made unique experiences due to it.

@VoidofLight Even though the brief 'Switch Attach' rumour was probably just nonsense, I still like the idea of an optional accessory second screen attachment that just clips onto the normal Switch 2.

@FishyS One thing I think is almost certain is that the magnetic rails for joy-cons are on all sides of the console, so that you can naturally put it in tate mode to support DS and 3DS games — and new games where that configuration makes sense. And if that were the case, then clipping on a second screen isn't entirely unlikely either. The voltage for a passive OLED screen isn't actually that high, especially not for a 1080p resolution one.

@RygelXVIII I feel like the only thing that would be stopping them is the price of the screen. In order to get a screen on a gamepad-like device, they would have to effectively spend a bit more than the expenses of the joycon. I feel like they might attempt it- but it feels like they probably wouldn't given how they already lose a good bit with manufacturing the normal switch consoles. Hope I'm wrong though and that they do end up making some sort of secondary screen you either can slot in to play games with, or that the screen ends up being the main gimmick of the console this time around.

@RygelXVIII Hadn't thought of that use-case for the magnetic joycons - that would be a really cool idea. I have never owned a DS (Switch is my 1st ever handhold) and would love to catch up on those games.

@VoidofLight Yeah I'm not sure how viable an additional, optional display would be as a default peripheral. But thinking about how they like to use weathered technology, I can buy small 720p AMOLED passive displays (no internal chips, just a display requiring soldering that can be powered by low voltage) for hobby projects from China for ~$25 per screen including shipping, and considering Nintendo's channels and bulk ordering, I'd bet we're talking maybe ~$0.25 per screen. For it to work with the magnetic rail concept it'd need a solid frame and some internal power converter chips, so maybe ~$3 mass-produced? Just off-the-cuff rough estimates, I might be wildly off. But it's not impossible, at least.

@RygelXVIII That could be the case. I hope they end up doing something with this. Either via a main gimmick for the console, or just a side attachment. Something that can bring back the DS days with this HD hybrid console.

@VoidofLight Yeah I hope they do something wacky at least. I will buy a "Switch 2" either way, but Nintendo really is at its best when it pushes hardware in fun directions as well — and at the time, the Switch did that.

@RygelXVIII I agree, just as long as it's not too gimmicky to the point where devs are put off by it more than they are inspired by it. I like when Nintendo gets wacky and innovative, so long as they don't force it into absolutely everything they do. (Much as I love the Wii, plenty of games had motion implemented when they simply didn't need to, you know? It felt like a bunch of devs were like "Well, it's the Wii, so we HAVE to have motion integrated somehow.")