thedicemaster

and in the meantime rocket league lost switch 2 compatibility...
(mandatory EULA/privacy policy update popup crashes the game)

@UltimateOtaku91 they mainly provide concept art and art assets for other studios and studios.
only game i know where they are listed as developers is hirogami, which they did together with namco bandai studios malaysia.

do not visit the linked tweet...
didn't expect so much hate under a non-controversial nintendo tweet.

@SillyG it's not at "blasphemous" as it might appear.
depictions of religion, religious characters, and religious concepts aren't meant to represent the actual religion.
they're a child's twisted misinterpretation of the religious stories his mother told him as he's becoming delirious.

@JohnnyMind game developers didn't patent game mechanics in the past.
then gambling machine manufacturers sued game developers for game mechanics, so the game developers had to join in and protect their own game mechanics.

game mechanic patent lawsuits aren't common despite so many games sharing similar mechanics, game developers don't like using game mechanic patents as a weapon.

got pokemon legends Z-A S2e physical pre-ordered at only €42

@Truegamer79 there's is no switch 2 edition.
only a Switch 1 version, and supposedly a patch(but may just be running in BC mode with unlocked resolution and framerate)

@Sonicka switch 2 displays whatever internal resolution a game is set to use for switch 1 games, so for a game that isn't too demanding it should be possible to get 4K without a patch.

some games are already known to render on switch 1 at 1080p in handheld and docked mode, and those run in 1080p handheld mode without patch.

the amount of detail this article goes into when describing the patent is a lot better than what's usually done, but stil pales in comparison to the novel that the writer of the patent wrote.

it's far from vague, and definitely does not cover most summon mechanics.
in part because very few, if any, summon mechanics have a mix of automated and menu based combat for summons.

this patent also is not nintendo "going after" any particular game(patenting to target a specific competitor's game is really hard, getting it to stick is even harder)
this is them recording specifically the combat mechanics of pokemon legends Z-A, which like usual they do very close to the game's release.

@user0 there is a difficulty option, but it's hidden behind a button combo.
in extras, up - down - up - down - left - right - left - right unlocks hard mode.

@Tomo1977 the upgrade pack is to go from the switch 1 version of silksong to the switch 2 version.
the switch 2 version(listed as switch 2 edition) is a bundle of the switch 1 version and the switch 2 upgrade.

there is no upgrade from the original game to silksong, they're separate games.

they may say to rely on switch 1 backwards compatibility, but they're also interfering with that by withholding dev kits.
Jens Andersson(collectingsmiles) can't fix several bugs in colors!live on switch 2 because he can't get a dev kit yet.(sonarpen not detected, several actions cause crashes)

if he had access to a dev kit he could not only fix those issues, but add features like 1080p120 handheld, 1440p120/4k60 docked mode, mouse input for docked mode, collaboration through gamechat/gameshare.

what 3D tech are they using?
eye tracking doesn't give you 3D, it just gives you something to aim your 3D at.

@anoyonmus porting to switch and switch 2 takes a bit longer.
xbox and playstation systems nowadays run on PC-like hardware(x86_x64), switch and switch 2 both have less power than home consoles and run on "mobile" hardware(ARM) requiring more "translation" of code and more optimization for good performance.

@sethfranum not being part of the chip-making industry it's impossible to get exact numbers, closest we can get is by comparing comparable products on the market.

it's pretty much a certainty that the switch 2 uses 3D nand for cartridges, and for those you can look up microSD prices.
every SD express card uses 3D nand for storage, and some smaller SD cards with 3D nand exist.
the interesting thing is that these smaller sd cards(32GB and below) do not carry "express" branding and are limited to the same speeds as cards that do not use 3D nand.

if you look up spec sheets for 128GB express cards you'll see they have 2 sets of 64GB, overlayed and connected to a single controller to achieve the card's full speed.

it is likely anyone who can give more specific information is either not directly connected to gaming(and thus not inclined to come here), or under an NDA preventing them from going into details.

@roboshort it's not just cost, it's cost/benefit.
32GB and lower switch 2 cartridges would lose their speed benefit compared to switch 1 cartridges, and would still be more expensive to make.

@sethfranum a 32GB switch 2 cartridge would functionally be a 32GB switch 1 cartridge but more expensive to make.

the 3D nand tech they use in these cartridges technically requires 128GB(2x64GB) to work correctly.
the 64GB they use is already a compromise, cutting read speed in half because they can't benefit from having 2 overlayed storage clusters.

it's with good reason that microSD manufacturers don't even bother with 64GB microSD express.

"This item isn't available in your country."

why?

@DsheroX @Medic_alert the right analog trigger does give analog input in the game, but it's weirdly calibrated.
it seems to have 4 stages, with a 25% deadzone.
0-25% pressed - deadzone(no response)
25-50% pressed - weak input, fludd gives charging sound, sputters, and quickly dies down.
50-75% pressed - fludd sprays strong with charging sound, then dies down quickly.
75-99% pressed - fludd sprays strong with high pressure sound(psh), dies down slowly.
100%(click) pressed - same as 75-99, but goes into aiming mode.

it could use a smaller deadzone.

again, this is from someone who has only played the all-stars version and has never touched the original gamecube version.

@Lizuka what exactly are you missing?
i tried it when i first got the new gamecube controller and it seemed to work like should, but I've never played the original so i can't compare.

@The_Nintend_Pedant the issue is one you can't just fix with a minor change.
it's the destructible terrain.
it is very cpu intensive, so no toning down of any graphical effect or detail is going to help because that primarily reduces strain on the gpu.
since destructible terrain is a core gameplay feature, it's also one they can't skimp out on.

do you want them to delete all enemies?
turn the terrain into big Minecraft blocks?
or just remove destructible terrain completely?
that's the kind of change they'd have to make to eliminate all the edge cases where you get frame drops.
the average quality of the game would go down significantly, just for a few imperfections that are unlikely to get in the way.

people here are underestimating the performance requirements for fully destructible terrain.
large scale unscripted terrain destruction will cause frame drops on any hardware.
it's not a matter of whether you get frame drops, it's a matter of how many frames you drop and how much destruction before frames start dropping.
and it's also only in relatively short bursts that this happens, while the system is recalculating every bit of terrain surrounding the destroyed area to determine the destroyed sections, the falling debris, the new shape of the remaining terrain, and how to texture it.
it's one of the most demanding gameplay mechanics, so it can't be compared to relatively simple games where nearly every interaction is either scripted or single objects interacting.

for other games with fully destructable terrain:
minecraft sticks to simple blocks, and still nearly crashes on any hardware if you set off too much TNT.
lego worlds: I've only ever seen this run poorly on any hardware, even before destruction starts.

@Jhena while the main "competitive" modes like turf war can't be played against bots, they can be played offline through local wireless and there's a single player story mode(and a few more in the dlc) for both splatoon 2 and 3.

@Divide_and_Wander supposedly steam OS can make a big difference.

@Dimjimmer calling someone an insect has a different meaning in Japanese(less harsh from what i could find)
he's not very proficient in English, which is why he doesn't like people addressing him in English and why he may not know how insulting it is to call someone an insect in English.

under the DMCA, even "legitimate" use of a mig switch is illegal.
yes there is an exemption to copyright for personal backups, but this unfortunately explicitly does not permit circumvention of copy protection mechanisms.
which is exactly what you are doing by extracting the key file from the cartridge and copying it to your mig switch microSD.
this is 1 of the things that got yuzu in trouble.

on top of that, any company has a right to deny you service unless it's based on you being part of a protected class.
a right they remind you of in their EULA.

@Rob3008 it's grey import, which causes several issues.

stock shortages in the regions the games/hardware is pulled from.
no factory warranty on defects.
DLC requiring a foreign account.
promotions not lining up(had this with my current smartphone, couldn't sign up for the promotion in my country because my phone was intended for a different country)
game defaulting to distant servers for multiplayer(bad ping, lag, low activity during daytime, many unfamiliar languages)
localization for a different region(even if the language is the same, jokes, references, and censorship are often different between regions)
sometimes the content is drastically different(some regions lose out on characters, game modes, voice acting)

and if not clearly marked and sold as a separate product(Amazon likes to put 3rd party stock from different 3rd parties together if they appear to be the same, just a few days ago i got a wrong product because of this) all of this will come as a complete surprise to customers.

all this trouble, because a few companies want to undercut their competition with an unfair advantage.

@WhiteUmbrella I'm just someone who actually read up on patents in the gaming industry, after the palworld lawsuit started.
because i don't want to rely on false information, and baseless panic.

@WhiteUmbrella they've filed many patents yes, primarily as a defence against patent lawsuits.
they almost never file patent lawsuits.

and ray tracing has been possible on computers for over 50 years, it's not some fancy new technology only the newest most powerful computers can use.
it's just being used in a very demanding manner in modern games.
and switch 2 has dedicated ray tracing cores, so it shouldn't have significant performance demand.

with how videogame companies usually handle patents, it's unlikely these patents will stifle innovation in other companies.

@WhiteUmbrella nintendo is far from a patent troll.
from what i could find they filed only 2 patent lawsuits, both over patents they've actually used in games. (and one of them ended up protecting other companies that used the patented technology without permission)

@WhiteUmbrella DS didn't even have custom firmwares to install.

and R4 definitely had more legitimate uses, because it could run homebrew.

and the lawsuits actually led to import bans in several countries.

@WhiteUmbrella nintendo won several lawsuits against R4 cards for enabling piracy.
mig cards have less legitimate uses than an R4 card.

@GoldenSunRM they'll likely patch the importing and add a sanity check to the switch 2 edition.
that will prevent all the "impossible" builds from working.

@Duncanballs excuse me, princess.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0832330/

@Ashina cheating prevention.
with cloud saves you could trade away rare pokemon, then reload a save to restore them.
only way i can see how they could allow cloud saving without enabling easy cheating is to require you to be connected to the internet when trading/transferring pokemon if you make use of cloud saves.

@garfreek you can't have game saves on the sdcard without a modded system.
another thing they did to prevent cheating, and hacking.

@Samalik 3rd parties already improvised their own game key cards om switch 1, by buying 8GB cartridges for 16-32GB games and putting almost the entire game in a day 1 patch.

@Samalik the alternative would've been most 3rd party games being digital-only, and far fewer games on store shelves.

it's more consumer unfriendly on the part of the 3rd parties using it, than on nintendo.

@DTfearTheBEARD with the newer folds removing it is less problematic.
with the first ones, taking it off would immediately destroy your screen.

@demacho that's just selfish.
dynamically interactive npc's can never exist in any form because you don't like AI voices.

characters with deliberately written dialogs to further a carefully crafted story will continue to be put into video games, and those will still rely on real voice actors.
cutscenes will still use real voice actors.
player characters will still need voice actors.

this is a new type of character to exist along such story characters, that will offer smart banter as a gimmick or background filler.

by all means fight for your right to control who can and can't use your voice, but don't demand people stop creating new technologies just because they can't use your voice.

@demacho how do you think this should've been handled?
have a current union member have his voice recorded for the AI?
or have one locked up 24/7 in a recording booth?

AI replacing voice actors can be an issue, but for this particular "role" AI was functionally mandatory.
even if a sound-alike was hired, he still would've had to train an AI to make this "role" work.

@Serpenterror 32GB would probably save them $1 in costs, going from $16 to $15.

below 128GB microSD costs(non-express) from the same series go down by only $1 when halving capacity.
with the 3D nand used for the Switch 2 cartridges you almost certainly have the same diminishing returns going for lower storage capacities.
so following the way microSD prices scale you'd have prices like:
8GB - $13
16GB - $14
32GB - $15
64GB - $16
128GB - $24
256GB - $50

maybe after some time they can get 64GB prices down to something like $10, and they end up with 128GB at $16, and 256GB at $22, and it becomes reasonable to offer different sizes.

indies probably would benefit from releasing their games as "switch 2 editions", releasing a full switch 1 game on an 8GB switch 1 cartridge with a free patch to support 1080p120/4k60, mouse input, and gameshare on switch 2.

@JohnnyMind the patents are allowed because they do not functionally change anything from the parent patent.
it's not like they get to describe a whole new way to make the same thing work, they added things like a summary, and a list of games with similar mechanics and explanations on why those game's mechanics are different.

you can take all those additions away, and what you're left with still describes the exact same mechanic.

saying these child patents shouldn't work retroactively is like saying a rule or law cannot be applied because someone just corrected a 10 year old spelling error.

@gsilver you mentioning dragon breed perfectly shows the problem with all this misdirected outrage.
1 look at a blurry screenshot already tells me it couldn't possibly be related in any way to the patent from this case.
dragon breed is a 2D game!

patents are very specific about what they protect, in the case of these patents they go into detail about things like game environment(2D/3D, open/closed areas, action/turn based, etc.), menu layouts, button presses, game genre, automated elements, how the involved items/creatures are aqcuired, and more.
patents aren't about how it looks, or what the end results are, but about exactly how it works.

nearly every creature collection game people reference either is 2D, turn based, or uses very different mechanics to achieve similar results.

and the concessions pocketpair are making are the cheap way out.
they dumb down their game to now comply, even though they could instead could come up with better or more interesting methods that still look similar but work very differently under the hood.
i don't know wether that's them being lazy, rushing a fix, or trying to garner sympathy with a message of "look how the evil big company makes us make our game worse" even though they could just make something better. (imagine being able to freely jump between different pals that are out at the same time!, that would solve the patent issue too)

@Scollurio <Sasaki admitted that it was partially due to some "very fussy developers" preferring digital shoulder buttons, while Kawamoto said that his team decided that the instant input of digital triggers was a better fit for the Switch 2 over the brief lag that comes with analog ones.>
from an interview with the people responsible for the switch 2.

so devs and tech guys, not some ceo's wife.

@OwenOtter octopath traveler is a turn based game.
the patents nintendo is suing for are specifically for direct action game mechanics.

nintendo may or may not have patents for turn based versions of those mechanics, but with the age of pokemon red/blue/green any patents they may have had would have expired already.

@Ogbert prior art.
you need to register a patent before making your invention public, or at most a year after.(amended patents get a larger window, because they're backdated to the original patent's filing date)
if pikmin used one of pokemon's mechanics as described in the patents, then nintendo would have had to file the patents during development or shortly after release of pikmin.
it wouldn't have mattered though, as any patent filed for pikmin would have expired by now.

wether this works as a defence depends on how similar the mechanic is in pikmin compared to the patent and palworld's use, and how strict the judge is in judging this similarity.

a lot of people make the mistake of comparing the mechanics very generally(and pocketpair hopes the judge will do the same), but the patents have specific details on how the mechanics are executed in the game beyond just the rough concept.
in patent lawsuits those details matter a lot.

@KazooieTooie missed the part where it has hardware raytracing?
it's not going to eat much performance, because they added dedicated GPU cores that handle it.

@JayJ can't call it price gouging if they increase prices to match increased costs from having to buy at higher than wholesale prices to meet demand.

@SillyG scopely considers $99.99 a good standard price for a microtransaction.
and if you don't buy new content for that price, you have to wait 6 months for a free option that slowly unlocks content over the course of 3-4 months.

scopely will make it worse, not better.

@Toastmaster lenovo does it differently though.

and the original right joycon can already work as a mouse, but i think that only works in labo.