@WaveBoy You summed up exactly why I've played Galaxy far less than any other 3D Mario.
Mario 64 is one of my favourite games ever and I even like Sunshine a lot more than most people.
Galaxy I wanted to love, naturally, but man the core gamefeel doesn't do it for me. It's exactly what you said - slow, clunk, floaty. I'm used to Mario feeling very energetic and agile, it's part of what makes the games so fun. When I see videos of Galaxy it looks amazing, geat level design and ideas etc, but when I play it, it simply doesn't feel good.
One of the reasons I love Odyssey so much and rank it as the joint best alongside Mario 64, is Mario feels incredible. His agility and moveset is unmatched. The agility and acrobatics is fun in itself, simply running and capping and jumping around the levels is a joy.
@RupeeClock Exactly the same for me with my SN30 Pro and Pro 2. Why do you think they've stopped Windows Bluetooth support with their newest controllers?
I'm a huge fan of 8Bitdo controllers generally - solid d-pads, sticks, build quality, comfort etc. But the best bit about them is arguably how versatile they are.
What he's saying is kind of fair enough, but on the other hand it surprises me any Nintendo games have performance drops tbh.
Nintendo produces arguably the most polished games out there, yet many of them are prone to framerate issues. Solid performance is part of polish, so you'd think Nintendo games would all run at a rock solid target framerate.
The combat is brilliant, and never gets old. This is one of the few games I felt like replaying straight after completing it. One of the best games ever.
And for the love of humanity, please play it with the original Japanese voice acting - the cast is superb, with some actual top tier Yakuza film actors like Riki Takeuchi.
It's an amazing game/series, with better voice acting and story than pretty much every other series around.
Even an average port of Yakuza Kiwami should be 9/10. One of the most fun games of all time, with a huge amount to do. Great story, great characters, great combat, side quests, minigames, everything about it is good.
@CielloArc Most of the players are on Steam, and after only 3 days it's become one of the most successful games of all time on Steam, even beating juggernauts like GTA 5 and Cyberpunk
@EaglyBird Ah that's interesting, we must be different types of gamer despite our shared love of Yakuza
For reference I'm a big fan of Street Fighter and racing games, turn based battles aren't really my cup of tea.
I really love the glorified beat 'em up gameplay in the mainline Yakuza series, and even the fact you can upgrade moves etc. I find it quite satisfying, especially after watching some cutscenes, to blow off steam furiously steamrolling some street thugs, especially being able to smash them with bicycles and various other objects with the Beast style
So it really took me loving Yakuza in general to be able to enjoy Like a Dragon and put up with the turn based battles.
But I guess it's a good thing that Like a Dragon was able to expand the audience of Yakuza, and get even more people to appreciate it.
As a long time fan of the series I always thought it was ridiculously underrated, so I'm glad Yakuza 0 was able to make it popular in the west and finally get the recognition it deserves.
I completely agree too on the amount of stuff being in Yakuza being completely unparalleled. And yes it's a good point, it's a wonderful mixture of being quite serious and convincing and emotional, and just absolutely ridiculous and light hearted. It's a nice contrast.
One of the things that struck me about Yakuza 0 in particular, is the sheer amount of effort put into all the minigames and side stories etc. More effort and attention to detail, than many main aspects of other games. Ryu ga Gotoku are certainly not lazy. An incredible, unique studio, and I really hope they can continue being this elite now that Nagoshi has left.
@EaglyBird Same here. At this point I consider it my favourite game series ever.
I recently finished Yakuza 0 and wow what a game, one of the best games I've ever played.
Yakuza is charming, funny, engrossing, and completely unique. It also has the best story and voice acting of any games I've played.
I've played 0,1,2,3 and Like a Dragon, and really looking forward to playing 4, 5, and 6.
Like a Dragon is a weird one for me as I hate turn based battles, and I miss playing as Kiryu. But it still has that unique Yakuza charm, great story, side quests, minigames etc, so ultimately I still love it
@anoyonmus Unity actually fares much better than Unreal on the Switch, perhaps unsurprisingly, Unreal is very demanding, even UE4.
Both Yooka Laylees are Unity and run well.
Both Ori games are Unity and run at 60fps.
Not to mention other stuff like Neon White and Dusk made with Unity and running at 60fps. The recent Bomb Rush Cyberfunk too, also 60fps.
It obviously can't quite compete with a very good in house engine, such as Nintendo's, but overall in the right hands I would say Unity performs very well on the Switch, and better than Unreal.
The Pro 2. I have an SN30 Pro too which I really like for its SNES aesthetics, lightweight size and nice sticks.
But the Pro 2's main advantage over the SN30 Pro is the d-pad imo, it's a huge upgrade. Much like the Saturn or MP30 d-pad is perfect for fighters, I think the Pro 2 d-pad is perfect for 2d platformers.
@120frames-please 100%. I also love the response times and fluidity of high frame rates, but yeah especially on a small screen, 60hz feels great. Even 40hz feels good as you said, it's a weird phenomena that 40 feels closer to 60 than 30. I guess it crosses a certain threshold of looking/feeling nice and smooth.
I also have a 165hz laptop and a 120hz OLED screen, but I'll be honest I'm generally satisfied with a solid 60fps. Anything over 120hz it's hard to notice the difference, and I think people just like the response times.
I also have a Steam Deck and love it, I don't regret not getting the Ally. And same, the next games machine I buy is probably a Switch 2 or Steam Deck 2
@Ponyolovesgames That's right, the "updates" are marginal at best and rarely what people actually want, which is exactly why I said most people are better off sticking with Unity 2021 on the old terms, at least in the near future until it's no longer viable.
Unreal 5 looks incredible, but I'm not sure how viable it really is now. Nanite and Lumen look stunning, but bring a SeriesX to its knees.
Which is exactly why new games like MK1 are still using Unreal 4.
I never said I love paying fees, I actually recommend staying on 2021 LTS for now to circumvent the fees.
It's got nothing to do with deserving either. It's to do with making a sensible decision that's not based on emotion or a kneejerk reaction.
Almost everyone who is currently using Unity, would be better off staying with Unity.
I like Unity the engine, I don't like Unity the company, the way it's managed is horrendous, it's been pulled every which way, it's overspent, and dug itself a hole. That's the situation it's in, and it clearly needs to do something to start turning a profit.
The way they pulled the rug from under everyone's feet was insane, but this new policy is a step in the right direction, it's fair and kind of necessary for Unity to survive.
@Guitario He really doesn't. The vast majority of existing Unity devs are better off sticking to Unity, rather than potentially spending months learning Unreal, and porting their existing C# codebase to C++.
The initial plan was inexcusable and insane, and if it stayed that way almost everyone should have jumped ship to Unreal.
The current pricing plan is fair, and really what should have been suggested in the first place.
@Ponyolovesgames Of course there is a defense, as what are the alternatives? For a professional game, basically Unreal. Which again, takes twice as much. So the 25k you think is a big deal from 2 million revenue, suddenly becomes 50k for the exact same indie team.
Not only that, but Unity is currently in the red to the tune of almost a billion a year. Clearly they need to do something in order to survive. They just chose the most absurd, out of touch, and obnoxious plan possible.
Luckily they've been rightfully shocked onto the right path by the intense backlash, with a revenue share that's actually very reasonable - half that of their only real competitor.
Regarding updating Unity - why is that ridiculous? Games that are making money right now on Steam for example, may never even get another update. They have no need to do anything, their game can continue to accrue income based on the existing terms - royalty free.
For new games they have to weigh up whether it's worth using Unity 2023+ and paying a revenue share, or just sticking to a good stable version like 2021. Unity 2023 is generally buggier and worse than 2021 and 2022. 2021 has everything you need especially for a Steam game - access to HDRP, ECS, Burst Compiler, multiplayer. Perhaps the biggest reason to update would be mobile devs, as there'll come a point where in app and purchases and ads will require a more current SDK than those in 2021 for example.
So there's nothing ridiculous about it, just like there's nothing ridiculous about the recent MK1 being made in Unreal 4 rather than Unreal 5. Older more battle tested versions of engines are often more desirable - less buggy, more performant.
And Unity has plenty of advantages over Unreal, just like Unreal has plenty of advantages over Unity. They're both very capable, but very different, with Unreal obviously being more AAA focused.
@Ponyolovesgames Yes it's 25k, and that's out of 2 million as the first million is royalty free.
25k out of 2 million? I have no problem with that, despite the absolute audacity of the initial proposal.
Your alternatives are basically build your own engine - which for a modern 3D game is extremely difficult and time consuming - or use Unreal, who take 5% over a million.
And by the way a slight correction to your post - devs who signed agreements under existing versions of Unity can carry on using Unity royalty free just as before, existing games compiled with those versions and those TOS. It's only versions of Unity being released in January onwards that are subject to the new TOS. Obviously that was a major gripe with the initial reveal, the retroactive terms essentially tearing up an existing contract. It seemed sketchy and snakelike at best, illegal at worst.
Thankfully that no longer applies. So for example a Unity game like Yooka Laylee can carry on selling their game without owing Unity any royalties at all, unless they suddenly decide to update it using a brand new version of Unity like 2023LTS or 2024 - which realistically, they'd have absolutely no need to.
A bit silly. The initial policy was absurd, arrogant, nonsensical.
But the backlash worked and the policy has now changed in a dramatic way for the better - you can choose to ignore the absurd "install" metric completely, and just pay 2.5% over a $1,000,000. Or in other words, half of Unreal.
@Woderwick Did you read the details of the new policy? It's essentially a flat rate revenue share above $1,000,000, just like Unreal, but with a 2.5% revenue share instead of 5%.
Mobile devs with high volume free to play games and monetisation nowhere near the level of Pokemon GO or Genshin Impact would be better off with the 2.5% revenue share, by far.
Pretty much all PC and console devs would be better off with the self reported installs.
The audacity and arrogance of this new new policy being sprung out of the blue, being retroactive and literally deleting their old TOS, as well as the sheer absurdity of installs as a metric - it was scary, and unnerving, I was ready to jump to Unreal.
But even though the company has been hideously run since going public, this turnaround is better than I expected by far. It's hard to argue with half of Unreal's revenue share, even when you take into account the Pro seat costs. Especially given Unity obviously needs to start turning a profit to survive.
For everyone saying "Oh that trust is gone, they'll just do it again!".
Well, do I trust them and their intentions? No, of course not. But I think this was a wake up call for them. They've now realised they can't try and ***** over their entire userbase, and that they'll all just bend over and take it no problem.
They were probably shocked and taken aback by the sheer intensity of the backlash, as well as how quickly their loyal devs were to jump ship to Unreal or Godot, and more importantly - some of the biggest mobile devs pausing ads in protest to cut a big chunk of their revenue stream.
The point being, it's unlikely they'll try this again, seeing as it was absolutely absurd and they realised it wasn't quite as simple as they expected.
@marcelominucelli Absolutely. I use my Switch docked almost 100% of the time, so I'd love a version that was cooler, quieter, and ideally with some extra horsepower
@Sputnik_Corner It's one of many examples of why I like the machine. Obviously I like the exclusives too, IMO it's actually Forza Horizon 4 that's the best driving game ever.
Is quick resume the main reason I like the SeriesX? Of course not But it's certainly a plus point and something unique that even a PC can't do. So with all other things being equal, it's a great reason to fire up the SeriesX instead of the PC or Switch or any Playstation, as I can just jump right into whatever recent game takes my fancy, halfway through a level or mission. It's extremely convenient and the ultimate QOL feature, especially given that I'm very busy with work and don't get much gaming time atm.
One thing I forgot to mention is backwards compatibility. That is amazing on the SeriesX too, seeing games like Sonic Generations retroactively enhanced, running at 4k60 is a sight to behold.
The 360 sold 84 million, the Xbox One around 60 million, and the Xbox Series consoles over 20 million. So yeah, quite a few people have Xboxes
I have a SeriesX and love it. Even though I have a good gaming PC and a Switch I tend to gravitate towards the SeriesX as my main gaming machine for a variety of reasons - it's convenient, fast, powerful, and quick resume is amazing I use it all the time to switch between games with no loading, and resume in the exact spot you were playing before. Basically like a Save State in emulators.
For me, GamePass and Quick Resume puts the SeriesX far above the PS5.
I'd be surprised if it was only as powerful as a base PS4, which is 1.8 TFLOPS.
The T239 rumoured to the in the Switch 2 is supposedly 4 TFLOPS, like the PS4 Pro or SeriesS.
It's possible that like the current Switch, it runs at half clockspeeds in handheld mode, which would put at at 2 TFLOPS, ie very close to the base PS4.
If it is only PS4 level in handheld mode, it's still great. I have a SteamDeck which is almost PS4 power, and it is an amazing handheld. Can run almost all but the newest AAA games at 60fps if you don't mind lowering the settings. For example it runs GTA 5 at a solid 60fs at medium settings.
Hopefully it is more powerful than a base PS4 in handheld mode though, especially as it's going to be launching a couple of years after the Steam Deck. I hope you get the full fat performance undocked, like the SteamDeck.
I know the game looks like an indie game, but to call it an indie game is very misleading. Mintrocket is simply a division of Nexon, a huge company that makes around a billion dollars a year - so the game couldn't be much further than than an actual indie game
@Dm9982 I would say the barrier to entry in Unity is easier than Unreal, because C# is easier than C++, and there are a significant amount of tools available for Unity, both from Unity and independent developers selling tools on the asset store etc. This can significantly help dev times for smaller teams.
But to use Unity well? That's another matter. It's possible that Unreal is more performant out of the box, but like I said - using Unity to its full potential can outperform Unreal Engine. Don't forget, Unreal Engine 4 games are notorious for struggling on the Switch, as well as having pretty bad shader compilation stutters on PC, even powerful PCs. It's been a bit of a blight on PC gaming this gen.
I do think the Unity performance issue is overblown on the Switch, it's one of those things that gets repeated and exaggerated. It's possible some games have been released with subpar peformance by teams who weren't great at optimising, or perhaps didn't know how to use Unity to the fullest.
But for all those games, there are plenty of Unity games that perform really well, that for some reason don't get talked about.
Inside, Subnautica, both Ori games, Dusk, Neon White, and the recent Bomb Rush Cyberfunk are all made in Unity and all perform really well with solid visuals. In fact, 5 of them run at 60fps which is somewhat rare on the Switch.
Conversely there are Unreal Engine 4 games on the Switch that have quite basic visuals and struggle to even hit 30fps like A Hat in Time. It's very developer dependent, and the reality is Unreal has a much better reputation than Unity so people automatically assume it runs everything better
Now that I think about it, I can only think of one Unreal Engine game on the Switch that runs at 60fps and that's Tetris Effect
@Dm9982 I know Unity doesn't have the best reputation, but modern day Unity is actually extremely good and powerful, and scalable. In the right hands and using some of its modern toolsets - the Entity Component System, Burst compiler, and Addressables (for asynchronous loading) - it's capable of outperforming Unreal.
@rushiosan It is a proper game engine. It has a very powerful editor, it can do almost everything Unreal can, and even outperform it if used to its max potential.
@Dazman Go and try to code a game in Visual Studio, without a game engine/physics engine/level editor, and let me know how it goes
@Moistnado The reality is not that simple. I've previously developed my own bespoke game engine as well as several physics engines, and the amount of work and upkeep of your own engine is immense. Especially in a somewhat modern workflow. It was a breath of fresh air learning Unity, and being able to spend more time actually working on games rather than core engine stuff.
To put it simply, there is a reason why even Nintendo uses Unity for their mobile games, as well Call of Duty Mobile, Pokemon GO, etc etc. These are some of the biggest, wealthiest developers in the world and even they realise the time and resources spent making a bespoke engine isn't really worth it when Unity is available, and actually more performant than most people think - in the right hands. There are notable and highly rated console games made in Unity too like Inside, both Oris, Outer Wilds, etc.
@JayJ I know it's easy to have a kneejerk reaction like this - and I don't want to sound like I'm defending Unity as they've made some very strange decisions recently, that are quite anti-dev - but they had to do something.
They're currently making a loss per year, as traditionally they've been quite generous and haven't obtained a revenue share etc like Unreal, so the reality is they HAVE to do something in order to turn a profit, otherwise they really would go bust.
I think they should have just gone about it in a much different and better way than springing random charges on devs, especially something as weird as a per download fee. Just take a revenue share like Unreal over $1,000,000 revenue, it's simple, it's tried and tested, and wouldn't cause any outrage amongst devs or players.
As a full time indie dev, this initially came as a real shock. Especially for freemium games on mobile, as believe it or not it's actually quite difficult to earn over $0.2 per download, unless your game is rammed with ads or has some fairly extreme gacha mechanics. But for games that want to avoid doing anything too spammy or predatory, it is honestly very difficult to hit or exceed that target per download. Not to mention people who pay for user acquisition.
But for some balance, it's not as bad as it initially appears, by a long shot.
You get a $200k buffer, so you only pay this after you've hit $200k/200k downloads, for every download you get after that threshold. At which point it's in your best interest to upgrade to Unity Pro, which raises this threshold to $1 million.
After that threshold though, it could be very bad for indie devs on mobile, as it's not unusual for a freemium game to earn $0.1 per user or less. Which would mean Unity's cut for the next million downloads would be 30%, and that would be on top of Apple's cut of 30%. Which makes Unreal Engine's cut of 5% look incredibly appealing in comparison.
The tables are turned for indie devs on Steam though. Let's say the game costs $10 and sells a 200,000 copies totalling $2 million. With Unity you'd only have to pay for the cost of Unity pro, which is 1800 Euros per seat, so for small Indie teams this won't be much. With Unreal you'd have to pay 5% of the revenue on $1 million, so $50,000.
I don't like the way Unity is being run at the moment, with surprise charges being slapped on at every turn (even analytics per monthly active user) but these new charges aren't quite as bad as they initially appear.
Ultimately though it does seem a rather absurd way of doing things, a charge per download, just take a % of the revenue over $1 million like Unreal, maybe 4% to make Unity more appealing.
I'm not usually one to jump on lists, but this might be one of the the worst lists I've ever seen Almost reads like a bunch of games plucked at random.
There are so many random indie games on it with completely unremarkable visuals while ignoring the games with the absolute best visuals on the Switch such as MK8 - which still looks amazing to this day - plus BOTW, Alien Isolation, DL Platinum Edition, Monster Hunter Rise, Xenoblade 3, Grid Autosport, Bayonetta 2, RDR, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Super Mario 3D World.
There really are so many games that look better than most of this list, it's just bizarre.
This is what the first trailer should have looked like, this does actually look stunning. Shame about the cringe English voice acting though, should have used Japanese voices for sure.
Mario Odyssey seems to be extremely underrated. I would have expected it to stay in the charts long term, just like Mario Kart, GTA 5, Animal Crossing etc.
And generally when a Mario Odyssey article appears here on NL, there's loads of comments from people saying they didn't like it.
It really surprises me. I absolutely love the game, it's relentlessly fun from start to finish, and pretty much the spiritual successor / true sequel to Mario 64.
@Pod Although they have the same CPU, by leagues ahead I'm talking about raw GPU power. The SeriesX is a whopping 3 times more powerful than the SeriesS, which has largely boiled down to resolution differences as advertised, but has sometimes manifested in the SeriesS being more gimped - ie lacking raytracing or lacking a 60fps mode of the SeriesX.
So if we're talking GPU, yeah it's absolutely leagues difference, a league being a GPU tier or generation. It's the difference between a GTX 1060 and an RTX 3060, two generations difference.
Regarding the potential mobile chip, yes you might be right, the cutting edge chips available in 2 years will probably be twice as powerful as a Gen 2 if they continue to increase by around 50% a year. I was partly thinking of cost, but the truth is it might be affordable enough - it's easy to forget that the Tegra X1 was actually pretty cutting edge for a mobile chip when released, at least on the GPU side.
@Pod I know it has seemed like Nintendo is in no rush for a successor, and Nintendo continued to dominate even when the PS5/SeriesX were released.
However suddenly things have changed a bit, hardware sales have slowed and there seems to be a consensus that the Switch is showing its age.
We could see one sooner than expected, and if it's released in say, two years, the idea of it being 10 times more powerful than a Switch is a tad unrealistic. That would make it twice as powerful as the current most powerful mobile chip. A fanciful notion, especially considering cost.
Coincidentally, the 10x you're estimating puts it pretty much exactly on par with a SeriesS (0.4 TFLOPS to 4 TFLOPS, with a similar ratio of memory bandwidth etc). And people are already grumbling about the SeriesS holding the generation back etc.
So even 10 times more powerful than the Switch, would still put several leagues below the SeriesX/PS5.
I agree it would be just about good enough though, if it came out soonish, given the SeriesS is part of the same generation and can run all the same games.
@progx I'm certainly intrigued to see what happens, as I said it's the efficiency of ARM cpus that is off the charts, so if that could translate to high power desktop CPUs, with a similarly modest power requirement ratio - they have a real winner.
@Pod How powerful are you expecting exactly? A few times more powerful was used loosely, but tbh I would expect "a few times more" to be more accurate than say, 10 times more.
Given Nintendo's pricing strategy and not going all out with hardware while taking a hit on each unit sold - a la Microsoft and Sony - I expect the hardware to be very good, but not blow all mobile devices out of the water good.
For some perspective the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was recently released and is the overall best mobile chipset available now, and it's in the region of 5 times more powerful than the Switch in real world benchmarks, not just on paper.
If the Switch 2 is released anytime soon, that's pretty much what I would expect, something like the Gen 2, for a 5 times performance upgrade. And that's nothing to scoff at, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has comparable GPU performance to the Steam Deck, with an excellent CPU.
@progx OK that's fair enough, I was responding to your explicit line of the A15 being able to crush the PS5's GPU, so thought you must have the wrong end of the stick and not realise the PS5 GPU was quite a bit more powerful than 1 TFLOP
I agree about ARM processors, I've been consistently amazed by their progress in recent years, bridging the gap to desktop level power, all the while with passive cooling.
It makes me wonder how long it will take for ARM to start becoming more of a player in the desktop/laptop field. The efficiency is amazing.
I'm a developer, my main test device on Android is a Snapdragon 870 due to the lack of thermal throttling and it does consistently amaze me what it's capable of doing at a TDP of around 5 watts with no active cooling. It can run the current game I'm working on, an open world driving game, at 60fps with the CPU temperature somehow staying at around 40 degrees celcius, which is slightly cooler than my Ryzen 5800 at idle
@progx The A15 SOC in the Apple TV 4k can crush a PS5 GPU?
Though you're right that the GPU is well over 1 TFLOPS, I'm not sure why you think that is good, or rather, anywhere near a PS5. For some perspective, even the Steam Deck is around 1.65 TFLOPS, and while it's a beast for a handheld, it's not really close to the power of a PS5 or Series X.
The A15 in the Apple TV is the exact same SOC as the iPhone 14, and I'd estimate it to to be around 1.33 TFLOPS. Which is excellent for a phone or mobile device, of course, but not even in the same stratosphere as a PS5, which has a 10 TFLOP GPU, the SeriesX being 12 TFLOPS.
So even if Nintendo came up with a beastly custom ARM SOC that was let's say similar to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it would be a few times more powerful than the Switch and a welcome upgrade, but still not even close to the same league as the PS5 or Series X which have fairly high end desktop level power.
Comments 123
Re: Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Super Mario Galaxy + Galaxy 2?
@WaveBoy You summed up exactly why I've played Galaxy far less than any other 3D Mario.
Mario 64 is one of my favourite games ever and I even like Sunshine a lot more than most people.
Galaxy I wanted to love, naturally, but man the core gamefeel doesn't do it for me. It's exactly what you said - slow, clunk, floaty. I'm used to Mario feeling very energetic and agile, it's part of what makes the games so fun. When I see videos of Galaxy it looks amazing, geat level design and ideas etc, but when I play it, it simply doesn't feel good.
One of the reasons I love Odyssey so much and rank it as the joint best alongside Mario 64, is Mario feels incredible. His agility and moveset is unmatched. The agility and acrobatics is fun in itself, simply running and capping and jumping around the levels is a joy.
Re: Review: Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2) - Absolutely Smashing, But Can It Beat Mario Odyssey?
Good review, and it's good to see someone who actually gives Mario Odyssey the respect it deserves, which is strangely rare
Re: 8BitDo's 'Pro 3' Controller Boasts Magnetic ABXY Buttons And A Charging Dock
@RupeeClock Exactly the same for me with my SN30 Pro and Pro 2. Why do you think they've stopped Windows Bluetooth support with their newest controllers?
I'm a huge fan of 8Bitdo controllers generally - solid d-pads, sticks, build quality, comfort etc. But the best bit about them is arguably how versatile they are.
Re: 8BitDo's 'Pro 3' Controller Boasts Magnetic ABXY Buttons And A Charging Dock
I love the Pro 2 and SN30 Pro, and I think I'll stick with those. Reason being, they have Bluetooth for both Windows and Switch.
For some weird reason their new Ultimate controllers and this Pro 3, only have 2.4g on Windows.
So for me who plays on PC and Switch in equal measure, the Pro 2 is better.
For people buying it exclusively for Switch 1/2, the GC colour is appealing, but might as well buy one of their other controllers for half the price
Re: Donkey Kong Bananza Director Acknowledges Performance Drops: "We Prioritized Fun And Playability"
What he's saying is kind of fair enough, but on the other hand it surprises me any Nintendo games have performance drops tbh.
Nintendo produces arguably the most polished games out there, yet many of them are prone to framerate issues. Solid performance is part of polish, so you'd think Nintendo games would all run at a rock solid target framerate.
Re: Review: Yakuza 0: Director's Cut (Switch 2) - A Series Highlight That's Never Looked Or Played Better
The combat is brilliant, and never gets old. This is one of the few games I felt like replaying straight after completing it. One of the best games ever.
And for the love of humanity, please play it with the original Japanese voice acting - the cast is superb, with some actual top tier Yakuza film actors like Riki Takeuchi.
Re: Yakuza Kiwami Is Supposedly "Selling Like Crazy" On Switch
Good. Yakuza 1 is infinitely better than the NL review score indicates.
Re: Review: Yakuza Kiwami (Switch) - A Decent Port Of An Ambitious, Frustrating Game
It's an amazing game/series, with better voice acting and story than pretty much every other series around.
Even an average port of Yakuza Kiwami should be 9/10. One of the most fun games of all time, with a huge amount to do. Great story, great characters, great combat, side quests, minigames, everything about it is good.
Re: Random: 350 Switch Carts Smuggled In Passenger's Bra Seized By Chinese Customs
Must have been a pretty huge bra, with watermelon size cups.
Re: Pokémon's Former Chief Legal Officer "Surprised" Palworld Got This Far
@Paraka It's currently the #1 game on Steam, and managed to achieve more peak concurrent players than GTA 5 and Cyberpunk put together.
Yes, it really has sold 5 million in a few days.
https://steamdb.info/charts/
Re: Pokémon Fans Set Their Sights On Palworld's Monster Designs
@CielloArc Most of the players are on Steam, and after only 3 days it's become one of the most successful games of all time on Steam, even beating juggernauts like GTA 5 and Cyberpunk
Re: Japanese Charts: Strong PlayStation Sales Can't Knock Mario Wonder From The Top Spot
@EaglyBird Ah that's interesting, we must be different types of gamer despite our shared love of Yakuza
For reference I'm a big fan of Street Fighter and racing games, turn based battles aren't really my cup of tea.
I really love the glorified beat 'em up gameplay in the mainline Yakuza series, and even the fact you can upgrade moves etc. I find it quite satisfying, especially after watching some cutscenes, to blow off steam furiously steamrolling some street thugs, especially being able to smash them with bicycles and various other objects with the Beast style
So it really took me loving Yakuza in general to be able to enjoy Like a Dragon and put up with the turn based battles.
But I guess it's a good thing that Like a Dragon was able to expand the audience of Yakuza, and get even more people to appreciate it.
As a long time fan of the series I always thought it was ridiculously underrated, so I'm glad Yakuza 0 was able to make it popular in the west and finally get the recognition it deserves.
I completely agree too on the amount of stuff being in Yakuza being completely unparalleled. And yes it's a good point, it's a wonderful mixture of being quite serious and convincing and emotional, and just absolutely ridiculous and light hearted. It's a nice contrast.
One of the things that struck me about Yakuza 0 in particular, is the sheer amount of effort put into all the minigames and side stories etc. More effort and attention to detail, than many main aspects of other games. Ryu ga Gotoku are certainly not lazy. An incredible, unique studio, and I really hope they can continue being this elite now that Nagoshi has left.
Re: Japanese Charts: Strong PlayStation Sales Can't Knock Mario Wonder From The Top Spot
@EaglyBird Same here. At this point I consider it my favourite game series ever.
I recently finished Yakuza 0 and wow what a game, one of the best games I've ever played.
Yakuza is charming, funny, engrossing, and completely unique. It also has the best story and voice acting of any games I've played.
I've played 0,1,2,3 and Like a Dragon, and really looking forward to playing 4, 5, and 6.
Like a Dragon is a weird one for me as I hate turn based battles, and I miss playing as Kiryu. But it still has that unique Yakuza charm, great story, side quests, minigames etc, so ultimately I still love it
Re: Video: Digital Foundry's Technical Analysis Of Sonic Superstars
@anoyonmus Unity actually fares much better than Unreal on the Switch, perhaps unsurprisingly, Unreal is very demanding, even UE4.
Both Yooka Laylees are Unity and run well.
Both Ori games are Unity and run at 60fps.
Not to mention other stuff like Neon White and Dusk made with Unity and running at 60fps. The recent Bomb Rush Cyberfunk too, also 60fps.
It obviously can't quite compete with a very good in house engine, such as Nintendo's, but overall in the right hands I would say Unity performs very well on the Switch, and better than Unreal.
Re: Poll: What's Your Switch Controller Of Choice For Super Mario Bros. Wonder?
The Pro 2. I have an SN30 Pro too which I really like for its SNES aesthetics, lightweight size and nice sticks.
But the Pro 2's main advantage over the SN30 Pro is the d-pad imo, it's a huge upgrade. Much like the Saturn or MP30 d-pad is perfect for fighters, I think the Pro 2 d-pad is perfect for 2d platformers.
Re: Wipeout-Style Racer 'BallisticNG' Cancelled For Switch Following Unity's Policy Changes
@120frames-please 100%. I also love the response times and fluidity of high frame rates, but yeah especially on a small screen, 60hz feels great. Even 40hz feels good as you said, it's a weird phenomena that 40 feels closer to 60 than 30. I guess it crosses a certain threshold of looking/feeling nice and smooth.
I also have a 165hz laptop and a 120hz OLED screen, but I'll be honest I'm generally satisfied with a solid 60fps. Anything over 120hz it's hard to notice the difference, and I think people just like the response times.
I also have a Steam Deck and love it, I don't regret not getting the Ally. And same, the next games machine I buy is probably a Switch 2 or Steam Deck 2
Re: Wipeout-Style Racer 'BallisticNG' Cancelled For Switch Following Unity's Policy Changes
@120frames-please Given your username I'm surprised you're not playing it on a Rog Ally at 120fps
Re: Wipeout-Style Racer 'BallisticNG' Cancelled For Switch Following Unity's Policy Changes
@Ponyolovesgames That's right, the "updates" are marginal at best and rarely what people actually want, which is exactly why I said most people are better off sticking with Unity 2021 on the old terms, at least in the near future until it's no longer viable.
Unreal 5 looks incredible, but I'm not sure how viable it really is now. Nanite and Lumen look stunning, but bring a SeriesX to its knees.
Which is exactly why new games like MK1 are still using Unreal 4.
I never said I love paying fees, I actually recommend staying on 2021 LTS for now to circumvent the fees.
It's got nothing to do with deserving either. It's to do with making a sensible decision that's not based on emotion or a kneejerk reaction.
Almost everyone who is currently using Unity, would be better off staying with Unity.
I like Unity the engine, I don't like Unity the company, the way it's managed is horrendous, it's been pulled every which way, it's overspent, and dug itself a hole. That's the situation it's in, and it clearly needs to do something to start turning a profit.
The way they pulled the rug from under everyone's feet was insane, but this new policy is a step in the right direction, it's fair and kind of necessary for Unity to survive.
What engine do you use?
Re: Wipeout-Style Racer 'BallisticNG' Cancelled For Switch Following Unity's Policy Changes
@Ponyolovesgames Yes I am, and have been for over a decade.
Re: Wipeout-Style Racer 'BallisticNG' Cancelled For Switch Following Unity's Policy Changes
@Ponyolovesgames The plan starts next year for new versions of Unity, it will be budgeted in the exact same way as Unreal. Only 2.5% instead of 5%.
Time to admit you have no idea what you're talking about, and move on.
Re: Wipeout-Style Racer 'BallisticNG' Cancelled For Switch Following Unity's Policy Changes
@Guitario He really doesn't. The vast majority of existing Unity devs are better off sticking to Unity, rather than potentially spending months learning Unreal, and porting their existing C# codebase to C++.
The initial plan was inexcusable and insane, and if it stayed that way almost everyone should have jumped ship to Unreal.
The current pricing plan is fair, and really what should have been suggested in the first place.
Re: Wipeout-Style Racer 'BallisticNG' Cancelled For Switch Following Unity's Policy Changes
@Ponyolovesgames Of course there is a defense, as what are the alternatives? For a professional game, basically Unreal. Which again, takes twice as much. So the 25k you think is a big deal from 2 million revenue, suddenly becomes 50k for the exact same indie team.
Not only that, but Unity is currently in the red to the tune of almost a billion a year. Clearly they need to do something in order to survive. They just chose the most absurd, out of touch, and obnoxious plan possible.
Luckily they've been rightfully shocked onto the right path by the intense backlash, with a revenue share that's actually very reasonable - half that of their only real competitor.
Regarding updating Unity - why is that ridiculous? Games that are making money right now on Steam for example, may never even get another update. They have no need to do anything, their game can continue to accrue income based on the existing terms - royalty free.
For new games they have to weigh up whether it's worth using Unity 2023+ and paying a revenue share, or just sticking to a good stable version like 2021. Unity 2023 is generally buggier and worse than 2021 and 2022. 2021 has everything you need especially for a Steam game - access to HDRP, ECS, Burst Compiler, multiplayer. Perhaps the biggest reason to update would be mobile devs, as there'll come a point where in app and purchases and ads will require a more current SDK than those in 2021 for example.
So there's nothing ridiculous about it, just like there's nothing ridiculous about the recent MK1 being made in Unreal 4 rather than Unreal 5. Older more battle tested versions of engines are often more desirable - less buggy, more performant.
And Unity has plenty of advantages over Unreal, just like Unreal has plenty of advantages over Unity. They're both very capable, but very different, with Unreal obviously being more AAA focused.
Even Nintendo uses Unity for its mobile games.
Re: Wipeout-Style Racer 'BallisticNG' Cancelled For Switch Following Unity's Policy Changes
@Ponyolovesgames Yes it's 25k, and that's out of 2 million as the first million is royalty free.
25k out of 2 million? I have no problem with that, despite the absolute audacity of the initial proposal.
Your alternatives are basically build your own engine - which for a modern 3D game is extremely difficult and time consuming - or use Unreal, who take 5% over a million.
And by the way a slight correction to your post - devs who signed agreements under existing versions of Unity can carry on using Unity royalty free just as before, existing games compiled with those versions and those TOS. It's only versions of Unity being released in January onwards that are subject to the new TOS. Obviously that was a major gripe with the initial reveal, the retroactive terms essentially tearing up an existing contract. It seemed sketchy and snakelike at best, illegal at worst.
Thankfully that no longer applies. So for example a Unity game like Yooka Laylee can carry on selling their game without owing Unity any royalties at all, unless they suddenly decide to update it using a brand new version of Unity like 2023LTS or 2024 - which realistically, they'd have absolutely no need to.
Re: Wipeout-Style Racer 'BallisticNG' Cancelled For Switch Following Unity's Policy Changes
A bit silly. The initial policy was absurd, arrogant, nonsensical.
But the backlash worked and the policy has now changed in a dramatic way for the better - you can choose to ignore the absurd "install" metric completely, and just pay 2.5% over a $1,000,000. Or in other words, half of Unreal.
Re: Unity Reveals New Pricing Model For Runtime Fee Policy
@Woderwick Did you read the details of the new policy? It's essentially a flat rate revenue share above $1,000,000, just like Unreal, but with a 2.5% revenue share instead of 5%.
Mobile devs with high volume free to play games and monetisation nowhere near the level of Pokemon GO or Genshin Impact would be better off with the 2.5% revenue share, by far.
Pretty much all PC and console devs would be better off with the self reported installs.
The audacity and arrogance of this new new policy being sprung out of the blue, being retroactive and literally deleting their old TOS, as well as the sheer absurdity of installs as a metric - it was scary, and unnerving, I was ready to jump to Unreal.
But even though the company has been hideously run since going public, this turnaround is better than I expected by far. It's hard to argue with half of Unreal's revenue share, even when you take into account the Pro seat costs. Especially given Unity obviously needs to start turning a profit to survive.
For everyone saying "Oh that trust is gone, they'll just do it again!".
Well, do I trust them and their intentions? No, of course not. But I think this was a wake up call for them. They've now realised they can't try and ***** over their entire userbase, and that they'll all just bend over and take it no problem.
They were probably shocked and taken aback by the sheer intensity of the backlash, as well as how quickly their loyal devs were to jump ship to Unreal or Godot, and more importantly - some of the biggest mobile devs pausing ads in protest to cut a big chunk of their revenue stream.
The point being, it's unlikely they'll try this again, seeing as it was absolutely absurd and they realised it wasn't quite as simple as they expected.
Re: Random: Modder Makes Switch OLED Run Cooler As A Dedicated Home Console
@marcelominucelli Absolutely. I use my Switch docked almost 100% of the time, so I'd love a version that was cooler, quieter, and ideally with some extra horsepower
Re: UK Charts: Mario Kart And Zelda Hang Tight As Starfield Drops Back Down To Earth
@Sputnik_Corner It's one of many examples of why I like the machine. Obviously I like the exclusives too, IMO it's actually Forza Horizon 4 that's the best driving game ever.
Is quick resume the main reason I like the SeriesX? Of course not But it's certainly a plus point and something unique that even a PC can't do. So with all other things being equal, it's a great reason to fire up the SeriesX instead of the PC or Switch or any Playstation, as I can just jump right into whatever recent game takes my fancy, halfway through a level or mission. It's extremely convenient and the ultimate QOL feature, especially given that I'm very busy with work and don't get much gaming time atm.
One thing I forgot to mention is backwards compatibility. That is amazing on the SeriesX too, seeing games like Sonic Generations retroactively enhanced, running at 4k60 is a sight to behold.
Re: UK Charts: Mario Kart And Zelda Hang Tight As Starfield Drops Back Down To Earth
@PinderSchloss What a strange post.
The 360 sold 84 million, the Xbox One around 60 million, and the Xbox Series consoles over 20 million. So yeah, quite a few people have Xboxes
I have a SeriesX and love it. Even though I have a good gaming PC and a Switch I tend to gravitate towards the SeriesX as my main gaming machine for a variety of reasons - it's convenient, fast, powerful, and quick resume is amazing I use it all the time to switch between games with no loading, and resume in the exact spot you were playing before. Basically like a Save State in emulators.
For me, GamePass and Quick Resume puts the SeriesX far above the PS5.
Re: Nintendo Reportedly Briefed Activision On 'Switch 2' Back In 2022
I'd be surprised if it was only as powerful as a base PS4, which is 1.8 TFLOPS.
The T239 rumoured to the in the Switch 2 is supposedly 4 TFLOPS, like the PS4 Pro or SeriesS.
It's possible that like the current Switch, it runs at half clockspeeds in handheld mode, which would put at at 2 TFLOPS, ie very close to the base PS4.
If it is only PS4 level in handheld mode, it's still great. I have a SteamDeck which is almost PS4 power, and it is an amazing handheld. Can run almost all but the newest AAA games at 60fps if you don't mind lowering the settings. For example it runs GTA 5 at a solid 60fs at medium settings.
Hopefully it is more powerful than a base PS4 in handheld mode though, especially as it's going to be launching a couple of years after the Steam Deck. I hope you get the full fat performance undocked, like the SteamDeck.
Re: The Indie Darling Of 2023 'Dave The Diver' Swims Onto Switch In October
I know the game looks like an indie game, but to call it an indie game is very misleading. Mintrocket is simply a division of Nexon, a huge company that makes around a billion dollars a year - so the game couldn't be much further than than an actual indie game
Looks good though.
Re: Unity To Charge Developers A Fee Each Time A Game Is Installed Next Year
@Dm9982 I would say the barrier to entry in Unity is easier than Unreal, because C# is easier than C++, and there are a significant amount of tools available for Unity, both from Unity and independent developers selling tools on the asset store etc. This can significantly help dev times for smaller teams.
But to use Unity well? That's another matter. It's possible that Unreal is more performant out of the box, but like I said - using Unity to its full potential can outperform Unreal Engine. Don't forget, Unreal Engine 4 games are notorious for struggling on the Switch, as well as having pretty bad shader compilation stutters on PC, even powerful PCs. It's been a bit of a blight on PC gaming this gen.
I do think the Unity performance issue is overblown on the Switch, it's one of those things that gets repeated and exaggerated. It's possible some games have been released with subpar peformance by teams who weren't great at optimising, or perhaps didn't know how to use Unity to the fullest.
But for all those games, there are plenty of Unity games that perform really well, that for some reason don't get talked about.
Inside, Subnautica, both Ori games, Dusk, Neon White, and the recent Bomb Rush Cyberfunk are all made in Unity and all perform really well with solid visuals. In fact, 5 of them run at 60fps which is somewhat rare on the Switch.
Conversely there are Unreal Engine 4 games on the Switch that have quite basic visuals and struggle to even hit 30fps like A Hat in Time. It's very developer dependent, and the reality is Unreal has a much better reputation than Unity so people automatically assume it runs everything better
Now that I think about it, I can only think of one Unreal Engine game on the Switch that runs at 60fps and that's Tetris Effect
Re: Unity To Charge Developers A Fee Each Time A Game Is Installed Next Year
@Dm9982 I know Unity doesn't have the best reputation, but modern day Unity is actually extremely good and powerful, and scalable. In the right hands and using some of its modern toolsets - the Entity Component System, Burst compiler, and Addressables (for asynchronous loading) - it's capable of outperforming Unreal.
@rushiosan It is a proper game engine. It has a very powerful editor, it can do almost everything Unreal can, and even outperform it if used to its max potential.
@Dazman Go and try to code a game in Visual Studio, without a game engine/physics engine/level editor, and let me know how it goes
@Moistnado The reality is not that simple. I've previously developed my own bespoke game engine as well as several physics engines, and the amount of work and upkeep of your own engine is immense. Especially in a somewhat modern workflow. It was a breath of fresh air learning Unity, and being able to spend more time actually working on games rather than core engine stuff.
To put it simply, there is a reason why even Nintendo uses Unity for their mobile games, as well Call of Duty Mobile, Pokemon GO, etc etc. These are some of the biggest, wealthiest developers in the world and even they realise the time and resources spent making a bespoke engine isn't really worth it when Unity is available, and actually more performant than most people think - in the right hands. There are notable and highly rated console games made in Unity too like Inside, both Oris, Outer Wilds, etc.
Re: Unity To Charge Developers A Fee Each Time A Game Is Installed Next Year
@JayJ I know it's easy to have a kneejerk reaction like this - and I don't want to sound like I'm defending Unity as they've made some very strange decisions recently, that are quite anti-dev - but they had to do something.
They're currently making a loss per year, as traditionally they've been quite generous and haven't obtained a revenue share etc like Unreal, so the reality is they HAVE to do something in order to turn a profit, otherwise they really would go bust.
I think they should have just gone about it in a much different and better way than springing random charges on devs, especially something as weird as a per download fee. Just take a revenue share like Unreal over $1,000,000 revenue, it's simple, it's tried and tested, and wouldn't cause any outrage amongst devs or players.
Re: Unity To Charge Developers A Fee Each Time A Game Is Installed Next Year
As a full time indie dev, this initially came as a real shock. Especially for freemium games on mobile, as believe it or not it's actually quite difficult to earn over $0.2 per download, unless your game is rammed with ads or has some fairly extreme gacha mechanics. But for games that want to avoid doing anything too spammy or predatory, it is honestly very difficult to hit or exceed that target per download. Not to mention people who pay for user acquisition.
But for some balance, it's not as bad as it initially appears, by a long shot.
You get a $200k buffer, so you only pay this after you've hit $200k/200k downloads, for every download you get after that threshold. At which point it's in your best interest to upgrade to Unity Pro, which raises this threshold to $1 million.
After that threshold though, it could be very bad for indie devs on mobile, as it's not unusual for a freemium game to earn $0.1 per user or less. Which would mean Unity's cut for the next million downloads would be 30%, and that would be on top of Apple's cut of 30%. Which makes Unreal Engine's cut of 5% look incredibly appealing in comparison.
The tables are turned for indie devs on Steam though. Let's say the game costs $10 and sells a 200,000 copies totalling $2 million. With Unity you'd only have to pay for the cost of Unity pro, which is 1800 Euros per seat, so for small Indie teams this won't be much. With Unreal you'd have to pay 5% of the revenue on $1 million, so $50,000.
I don't like the way Unity is being run at the moment, with surprise charges being slapped on at every turn (even analytics per monthly active user) but these new charges aren't quite as bad as they initially appear.
Ultimately though it does seem a rather absurd way of doing things, a charge per download, just take a % of the revenue over $1 million like Unreal, maybe 4% to make Unity more appealing.
Re: Best Nintendo Switch Graphics - The Most Beautiful Switch Games
I'm not usually one to jump on lists, but this might be one of the the worst lists I've ever seen Almost reads like a bunch of games plucked at random.
There are so many random indie games on it with completely unremarkable visuals while ignoring the games with the absolute best visuals on the Switch such as MK8 - which still looks amazing to this day - plus BOTW, Alien Isolation, DL Platinum Edition, Monster Hunter Rise, Xenoblade 3, Grid Autosport, Bayonetta 2, RDR, Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze, Super Mario 3D World.
There really are so many games that look better than most of this list, it's just bizarre.
Re: Random: The Pokémon Center's Official Wiglett Plush Looks A Lot More NSFW Than We'd Imagined
The fact that it specifies the length and girth is the icing on the cake
Re: Hands On: Pikmin 4 Promises Heaps Of Gorgeous Exploration For Fans And Newbies Alike
@JimNorman I remember reading that Super Mario Odyssey used Unreal Engine. Is that not true? Does Odyssey use its own in house engine like BOTW etc?
Re: Poll: Super Mario All-Stars Is 30 Years Old - Do You Prefer The NES Or SNES Versions Of The Classics?
@Olliemar28 You mean all of them, even SMB3 you think feels fundamentally different on the SNES?
Interesting, I haven't touched the NES version in years, but the SNES version feels good to me, I didn't immediately notice a difference.
Re: Review: Dordogne - A Watercolour Wonder, Imperfect Yet Touching
Great review, magnifique
Re: The FTC Doesn't Seem To Think Switch Is A Serious PlayStation & Xbox Competitor
The FTC only play games at 4k60 confirmed.
Re: Random: Artists Are Already Creating Elephant Mario Fan Art And It's Brilliant
The first one is actually really good, the Bowser one too.
Re: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Final Pre-Launch Trailer Is Absolutely Stunning
This is what the first trailer should have looked like, this does actually look stunning. Shame about the cringe English voice acting though, should have used Japanese voices for sure.
Re: UK Charts: Super Mario Odyssey Caps Off The Top Ten With Strong Sales
I'm glad.
Mario Odyssey seems to be extremely underrated. I would have expected it to stay in the charts long term, just like Mario Kart, GTA 5, Animal Crossing etc.
And generally when a Mario Odyssey article appears here on NL, there's loads of comments from people saying they didn't like it.
It really surprises me. I absolutely love the game, it's relentlessly fun from start to finish, and pretty much the spiritual successor / true sequel to Mario 64.
Re: Poll: Six Years On, Which Was Nintendo Switch's Best Year So Far?
2017 for Mario Odyssey of course
Re: Call Of Duty Will Run As You "Would Expect" On Nintendo Platforms, Says Microsoft
@Pod Although they have the same CPU, by leagues ahead I'm talking about raw GPU power. The SeriesX is a whopping 3 times more powerful than the SeriesS, which has largely boiled down to resolution differences as advertised, but has sometimes manifested in the SeriesS being more gimped - ie lacking raytracing or lacking a 60fps mode of the SeriesX.
So if we're talking GPU, yeah it's absolutely leagues difference, a league being a GPU tier or generation. It's the difference between a GTX 1060 and an RTX 3060, two generations difference.
Regarding the potential mobile chip, yes you might be right, the cutting edge chips available in 2 years will probably be twice as powerful as a Gen 2 if they continue to increase by around 50% a year. I was partly thinking of cost, but the truth is it might be affordable enough - it's easy to forget that the Tegra X1 was actually pretty cutting edge for a mobile chip when released, at least on the GPU side.
Re: Call Of Duty Will Run As You "Would Expect" On Nintendo Platforms, Says Microsoft
@Pod I know it has seemed like Nintendo is in no rush for a successor, and Nintendo continued to dominate even when the PS5/SeriesX were released.
However suddenly things have changed a bit, hardware sales have slowed and there seems to be a consensus that the Switch is showing its age.
We could see one sooner than expected, and if it's released in say, two years, the idea of it being 10 times more powerful than a Switch is a tad unrealistic. That would make it twice as powerful as the current most powerful mobile chip. A fanciful notion, especially considering cost.
Coincidentally, the 10x you're estimating puts it pretty much exactly on par with a SeriesS (0.4 TFLOPS to 4 TFLOPS, with a similar ratio of memory bandwidth etc). And people are already grumbling about the SeriesS holding the generation back etc.
So even 10 times more powerful than the Switch, would still put several leagues below the SeriesX/PS5.
I agree it would be just about good enough though, if it came out soonish, given the SeriesS is part of the same generation and can run all the same games.
Re: Call Of Duty Will Run As You "Would Expect" On Nintendo Platforms, Says Microsoft
@progx I'm certainly intrigued to see what happens, as I said it's the efficiency of ARM cpus that is off the charts, so if that could translate to high power desktop CPUs, with a similarly modest power requirement ratio - they have a real winner.
Re: Call Of Duty Will Run As You "Would Expect" On Nintendo Platforms, Says Microsoft
@Pod How powerful are you expecting exactly? A few times more powerful was used loosely, but tbh I would expect "a few times more" to be more accurate than say, 10 times more.
Given Nintendo's pricing strategy and not going all out with hardware while taking a hit on each unit sold - a la Microsoft and Sony - I expect the hardware to be very good, but not blow all mobile devices out of the water good.
For some perspective the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was recently released and is the overall best mobile chipset available now, and it's in the region of 5 times more powerful than the Switch in real world benchmarks, not just on paper.
If the Switch 2 is released anytime soon, that's pretty much what I would expect, something like the Gen 2, for a 5 times performance upgrade. And that's nothing to scoff at, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has comparable GPU performance to the Steam Deck, with an excellent CPU.
Re: Call Of Duty Will Run As You "Would Expect" On Nintendo Platforms, Says Microsoft
@progx OK that's fair enough, I was responding to your explicit line of the A15 being able to crush the PS5's GPU, so thought you must have the wrong end of the stick and not realise the PS5 GPU was quite a bit more powerful than 1 TFLOP
I agree about ARM processors, I've been consistently amazed by their progress in recent years, bridging the gap to desktop level power, all the while with passive cooling.
It makes me wonder how long it will take for ARM to start becoming more of a player in the desktop/laptop field. The efficiency is amazing.
I'm a developer, my main test device on Android is a Snapdragon 870 due to the lack of thermal throttling and it does consistently amaze me what it's capable of doing at a TDP of around 5 watts with no active cooling. It can run the current game I'm working on, an open world driving game, at 60fps with the CPU temperature somehow staying at around 40 degrees celcius, which is slightly cooler than my Ryzen 5800 at idle
That is incredible.
Re: Call Of Duty Will Run As You "Would Expect" On Nintendo Platforms, Says Microsoft
@progx The A15 SOC in the Apple TV 4k can crush a PS5 GPU?
Though you're right that the GPU is well over 1 TFLOPS, I'm not sure why you think that is good, or rather, anywhere near a PS5. For some perspective, even the Steam Deck is around 1.65 TFLOPS, and while it's a beast for a handheld, it's not really close to the power of a PS5 or Series X.
The A15 in the Apple TV is the exact same SOC as the iPhone 14, and I'd estimate it to to be around 1.33 TFLOPS. Which is excellent for a phone or mobile device, of course, but not even in the same stratosphere as a PS5, which has a 10 TFLOP GPU, the SeriesX being 12 TFLOPS.
So even if Nintendo came up with a beastly custom ARM SOC that was let's say similar to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it would be a few times more powerful than the Switch and a welcome upgrade, but still not even close to the same league as the PS5 or Series X which have fairly high end desktop level power.