TSR3

I'ver just finally watched the trailer. The graphics do look seriously improved over the (GC) original. But as it's multi-platform the trailer's probably from current gen. It'll be interesting to see Switch gameplay footage.

"Diablo clone"? You know nothing, @Diogmites !
Dark Alliance is an ARPG spin off for consoles from the OG Baldur's Gate RPG from the late '90's. It still follows AD&D 2nd edition rules, like PC BG. I never played Diablo 2 (looking forward to the remake), so I'll bow to your comparative opinion of the two.

@neufel What is the similar named game due out in a few weeks?

My partner and I absolutely loved this game on the ‘Cube, we played it through three or four times! I’m glad co-op has survived the port. I’ll stick it on my wish list and wait for a good sale discount (the other BG games have had discounts in the past).
I’d really hope for the sequel to be ported as well, but I remember reader there were licensing or rights issues which is why it never made it past Xbox and PS2.

@jrb363 There is newer tech - Nvidia released the original Tegra X1 back in 2015. Since then they've released two new models - the X2 and the Xavier (not counting the X1+ that went into the Lite and later homeheld Switches). The current Xavier would represent a worthwhile update if used in the rumoured Switch Plus, running in the same ballpark wattage wise. If Nintendo did produce something like that I could see them keeping momentum for a couple more years and potentially matching your expectations of 150m sales.

Nintendo don’t use software sales to subsidise their hardware. I can’t see Epic winning this case, but it’ll be interesting to see what else pops up. Maybe the Xbox boss can take the stand to show that he does know how to use the Switch the he keeps on his shelf?

@Steel76 I totally agree. I think there’s too many sequels and franchises in the movies these days. I really enjoyed the movie, but I’d fear a bad sequel would just spoil it

It’d be great to have some of the GBA catalogue available. But I’d fear if Nintendo did add Game Boy titles to NSO, they’d just restrict it to the rumoured new Switch Plus hardware.

@Xylnox @norwichred @EVIL-C There's a new video on the NL youtube channel featuring Kate and her Switch

@Fandabidozi Good shout, a remake or update of Nintendogs + Cats could add a few million fresh customers to the Switches base on it's own

@GrailUK my bad, I did mean the X1+. I'm really interested in the fate of the Lite, as I may get one in the future (I already have the OG, and I don't need the Switch Plus as I don't have a 4K TV).

@GrailUK My first thought was possible price cuts as well, but my second thought is that Nintendo may need to place big orders just to guarantee supplies in the current climate of component shortages

@Digimon24 there was a lone rumour about Nvidia ceasing Tegra X1 production at the end of this year, but I’ve not seen anything else. Where’d you see that they’ve already stopped?

Just ordered from the Nintendo Store with the free gifts for my offsprings birthday. Very happy and relieved as Nintendo Store had no pre-orders, and all the gift bundles were sold out on Amazon. And looking forward to playing myself, but I'll have to wait!

@electrolite77 I think you've hit the nail on the head with the Wii Classic suggestion. It was a much bigger console than 64 or GameCube, and would have a clear appeal to mass nostalgia.

Also pricing is important - nothing at the price level of the NES and SNES Classics is going to come out in the next few years thanks to component shortages. Even when you can get supplies (as Nintendo obviously are for the oncoming Switch Plus), you'd need to pay a premium. The bill of materials plus decent profit margin wouldn't add up for a sub £/$100 product.

I’m getting it for my offsprings birthday, and based on this review I’m looking forward to it as well

Is this the start of "games as a service"? (Furukawa - "We want to provide games that can allow communication between friends and families.")

@andjahiam like most Switch owners on this site, I'd bet! You've got over twice as may games as me anyway, so do you think folders would be any benefit to you?

It's pretty, but I don't see the point of folders unless you've got many dozens of games. And most Switch users won't. What's the average number of games owned? I guess it's under 20. Maybe adding a few extra Theme colours other than black and white might help. Some people read better with coloured backgrounds

@ALinkttPresent yeah, I was surprised by that as well. But then @Maxz made the point about Japan being a handheld dominant territory. Which throws the early PlayStations' relative success into even sharper relief. According to Wikipedia the Wii's lifetime sales in Japan reached 12.75 mill

I'm quite liking Manticore (about half way through at the moment), so would be very interested if this is as good as or better. A tenner's not much to ask, but I'd love to see a review (hopefully NL will review as they've covered it in news?)

I think Kate should splash out on that fancy new blue Switch Lite that was just announced, because ....
1) She can write an article on exactly what shade of blurple it is in real life
2) She could write another article about how to use two switches together
3) And another article commemorating her O.G. Switch after it dies
4) Write a piece about her feelings of buyers remorse once the 'Switch Pro' is announced
5) As a gaming industry professional new kit is a business expense she could use to deduct tax

My Switch with Dock is still going strong, despite being mostly used handheld by my 8 y.o. daughter, and been dropped a few times (screen protectors saved the day). No JoyCon drift either, but non of the family could be described as hardcore gamers. I don't have any other current gen consoles to compare to, but my 14 y.o. Wii did die a couple of months back (and that was still being used regularly)

@OnigiriSan a hypothetical new system is very likely to have 4K output as one of its main features. So as you've got a HD TV, I wouldn't think its worth waiting for a still rumoured device, and what seems like limited availability at launch thanks to component shortages and scalpers

@GrailUK great illustration of why Game Pass/Xcloud isn't coming to Switch, and movie tip combined! The only way I can see it happening is if Nintendo really thought XCloud was a great way to get their IP into the mobile space.
I think your favourite idea is the most likely as well. While MS really want to push GamePass and XCloud, getting Halo on Switch gives them a marketing opportunity in Japan ahead of Halo Infinity. I can imagine a Halo themed Switch console to go along with this as well.

How about Nintendo games coming to Game Pass?

Nintendo also let Ubisoft add Star Fox to Starlink: Battle for Atlas. They do seem to be sharing a bit more recently. They don't need a Sonic Mania moment because they're not Sega. But I totally love the idea of Nintendo supporting Indies by letting them rip with their IP, like Cadence of Hyrule. Maybe that's what they meant the other day by focussing on new IP and evergreen properties? They'll outsource lesser IP to smaller devs and indies?

The statement from Nintendo President Furukawa seems to be more at allaying stock market fears that component shortages will affect Nintendo, at least until their next financial statement. I wouldn't read anything into it regarding a potential switch upgrade.
However Nintendo still need to produce something that takes advantage of the growing base of 4K TVs in potential customers households. Otherwise it'll be like the later years of the Wii all over again. So yeah, there'll be a 4K Switch upgrade sooner rather than later, and I can't see it being delayed, unless component shortages stop 4K TV production as well.

And a quick bit of googling confirms couch co-op isn't supported (https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-02-19-blizzard-announces-diablo-2-resurrected)

@dojmin thanks, but my concern was if the game will support local co-op. That's why I (and my partner) enjoyed Diablo III so much

Looks more Morrowind than Skyrim!
I remember playing it’s predecessor Ravensword: The Fallen King, which wasn’t too bad for an early tablet game. Looking at the reviews for the mobile Shadowlands, I can’t see the ports getting more than a 6/10 at best

I never played the original Diablo II, but I loved Diablo III on the switch, so I'm looking forward to this. As long as it supports local co-op - I'm a little concerned about the comment 'the final version of the game "will permit off-line play" in the single-player mode'

Is this better than the Nintendo Pro Controller? Is it worth losing the HD rumble to get the extra's of the 8BitDo Pro 2?

I’ve imagined Nintendo could use Star Fox for their take on Eve Online. Call it ‘Star Fox Infinity’ and bundle in a months worth of NSO

Revive Star Fox, but with something new not just another remake of the first game. And lose Arms (‘cos it’s low hanging fruit for a cull)

Reading the source AP article, it looks like this is a prototype or design concept that Qualcomm are hawking around to OEMs and carriers. Going to market themselves with it is probably just one option they're considering internally (or just a justification to spend the R&D budget in the first place).
@Duffman92 I make you right. Apple with their Arcade subscription service are the only real competitor in the handheld console space to Nintendo

@QuickSilver88 a lot of people seem to have better fps at the top of their wish list. How far were you able to overclock your modded switch. Were you able to run any benchmarks?

@NEStalgia good point. I never had any of the 3DS's, I didn't realise the New versions had increased memory as well

@westman98 I picked up on Xavier as it's the only Tegra SoC available currently that looked like it could be DLSS capable. The Nvidia specs for the NX dev kit give 48 Tensor cores (https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/autonomous-machines/jetson-store/). But I take your point DLSS is a gaming tech, so was never made available for the enterprise focussed Volta GPU.
Nintendo could well have a bespoke SoC, based on Xavier (but using Turing graphics maybe??).

@andyg1412 @NielsNL could a New Switch Lite go clamshell? Now that I’d be interested in getting!

If the Bloomberg story is accurate, it's time to set your expectations ...
Anyone who's hoping for PS4 performance is going to be disappointed. Ignoring DLSS, a Nvidia Xavier NX SOC is going to be little more than half as powerful as original XboxOne.
Anyone who's hoping for non-exclusive games are also going to be disappointed. The Bloomberg article states there'll be increased memory (Xavier NX comes with 8GB). Which means any developers using more than 4GB will break compatibility with the original Switches.

@TheFullAndy actually this article is tagged by NL as News. Which is odd as the last Bloomberg story (the OLED 720p one) was tagged as Rumour.
My guess is the journo's do know what's coming out, but are just yanking our chains

I can't believe Advance Wars 1 & 2 are just at 18 & 19? I bought the GBA to play those games! Still, it's a good list, and is inspiring me to pick up Golden Sun again and try to finish it off (looks like I may have past those grindy first few hours already)

@pepepopo Yes, that was true for DLSS 1.0. With DLSS 2.0 Nvidia provides driver updates, but doesn’t need supercomputers to be trained for each game

@driftydrift see https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-03-04/nintendo-plans-switch-model-with-bigger-samsung-oled-display
Quote "Nintendo decided to go with rigid OLED panels for the new model, the people said, a cheaper but less flexible alternative to the type commonly used for high-end smartphones"
It does look like Nintendo's gone for the cheaper end of Samsungs product range

@MrGawain I'm starting to think the same. This new model could be more of a component refresh to replace the current version, rather than a premium model that was sold alongside and above the current models

@T0mizawa according to last weeks Bloomberg story Nintendo did go with Samsung's rigid OLED panels because they were cheaper. Cross fingers on both hands and hope it wasn't Nintendo's accountants making component decisions?

I thought the stumbling block for Game Pass on Switch was that it would bypass Nintendo's controls on selling individual games e.g. age ratings? (I know Nintendo don't set the age ratings, but they use those to control sale, and parental controls on the Switch itself)

I agree with those who say it's time for a major Switch revision to keep up. I remember the Wii losing support from 3rd parties in it's last few years when most households had upgraded to HD TVs. The rise of 4k TV reminds me of that.
How about 'Switch SP' or 'Switch i' for new names?

@Ventilator the AYA NEO Ryzen looks like it would be great for all those PC port mobile players, if it makes it out of crowdfunding (and the players can afford a second PC)

Re Nvidia - there's already two Tegra successors to the X1, the X2 and Xavier, with the Ampere based Orin due out sometime soon. However Nintendo are a big enough customer to get a bespoke design from Nvidia. Plus a couple of others on this thread have also pushed another X1 revision to a 7nm production process (Mariko was a shrink from the original 20nm, to 16nm).

@Socar yes, Nvidia can stop production. There may be harder evidence when their next financial statement comes out. They're still selling Jetson dev kits using Tegra X1s on their website tho', so it's not like they're pulling all supplies just for Nintendo.

This is a pretty weak rumour to be honest. It's not like Bloombergs industry contacts and analysis