BOTW2 Link
Image: Nintendo

Those good ol' Switch 'Pro' rumours have been back in force since The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2's delay a few weeks ago. And with the new footage that dropped alongside news of the delay, so too did discussions around just how good it looked. In their weekly discussion, the team over at Digital Foundry brought up those lovely visuals recently. It looks like Breath of the Wild 2 was running extra smooth — perhaps too smooth.

The DF chaps went on to discuss suspicions that Breath of the Wild 2 could potentially be a cross-generation game that straddles both current hardware and a Switch successor — much like Breath of the Wild did with the previous generation. After some very enthusiastic reportage from some corners of the internet, this week they reiterated that no, that doesn't mean BOTW2 is not coming to Switch.

In last week's video, Digital Foundry's question was "Is this actually running on the Switch?" with discussions revolving around clouds, anti-aliasing, and comparisons to the Xbox Series S and X differences. On this week's episode (below), the team — lead by the redoubtable Richard Leadbetter — reiterated that no, BOTW2 isn't "too big" for Switch. John Linneman added that the group was "basically discussing how the trailer appeared to be rendering at a higher resolution, and that's it". Check out their new discussion below:

Seeing game trailers rendered in higher-than-gameplay definition isn't uncommon (even if Nintendo rarely bump up the resolution of their trailers), so it's not too surprising to see Link explore these beautifully-rendered worlds apparently unencumbered by the Switch's sometimes-precarious performance. The DF team's discussion was educated speculation — Nintendo could just as well be using new techniques to help their clouds look that bit fluffier.

Regardless, it seems clear that Nintendo will be pushing the Switch to its limits with this one. The console is doing extremely well in the sales department, with no signs of slowing, so replacing with a new system now would be odd from a sheer business perspective — a point that we brought up in our Talking Point last week, which was spurred on by Digital Foundry's discussion. Then again, perhaps the console landscape will look different a year from now.

And if the reporting around DF's initial comments still have you whipped into a frenzy of Switch 2 hype, Inverse did some investigating and found that — surprise! — many experts agreed that Breath of the Wild 2 will still release on the current Switch. Whodathunkit.

So, no, while Breath of the Wild 2 is certainly an ambitious game and will absolutely test the Switch to the max, we can still expect to see it on the current console.

[source eurogamer.net]