StarTopic Future Nintendo Hardware & Technology Speculation & Discussion |ST| (Read the staff posts before commenting!)

[N75]

A couple of AR-related patents from Nintendo where published today that where filed back in Nov 2021.

United States Patent Application 20220152493
United States Patent Application 20220157029

The patent drawings demonstrate the claims using smartphone/tablet-like devices, but I guess the math behind the patents could run on anything with a processor and a camera.

I don't even know if it's something already being used in a mobile app by Nintendo (I'm out of the loop in that area), and I don't find them too interesting tbh, but I'm just posting them here because AR is being brought-up occasionally.

I haven't gone through them in detail, but from what I gather one talks about creating "virtual doors" and the other one placing "virtual objects", in the environment.

The second one could be easily mistaken as NINTENDOGS for smartphones, but yeah, it is what it is.

This was actually for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. The staff matches up and here’s a video of it.



The JP patent was filed a year earlier.

 

[CM132]

We still don't know if new Switch is PRO or next generation. If it is a new gen then we will hear about it from Nintendo at least 10 months before release.

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

We still don't know if new Switch is PRO or next generation. If it is a new gen then we will hear about it from Nintendo at least 10 months before release.

Regardless of if it is Pro or New I expect the timeframe from announcement to release to be relatively short.

 

[Hermii]

We still don't know if new Switch is PRO or next generation. If it is a new gen then we will hear about it from Nintendo at least 10 months before release.

Doesn’t have to be one of the other. It could act as a pro with some occasional third party exclusives at the first phase of its lifecycle, then gradually transition to be the main dev platform. This is what a lot of us believe.

 

[Bosintang]

What actually happened to the "We should get some leaks after GDC?". There has been absolutely nothing after GDC wich was like 2 month ago? There is too little smoke for me right now anymore to be optimistic about a release this FY.

Yep. I'm still thinking that end of 2023 or early 2024 is the likeliest timeframe for releasing this new console, even though having such opinion used to make people very upset on this topic.
And it's all good, there's a ton of great games coming to the current switch and 18 months isn't that much to wait, all things considered.

 

[Dakhil]

Nvidia's confirmed to host a presentation on Orin during Hot Chips 34 on 23 August 2022.

 

[Skittzo]

What actually happened to the "We should get some leaks after GDC?". There has been absolutely nothing after GDC wich was like 2 month ago? There is too little smoke for me right now anymore to be optimistic about a release this FY.

It has been surprisingly quiet, yeah. Either Nintendo clamped down very hard (in combination with this being a very toxic subject for insiders) or something behind the scenes has changed with regards to this product.

 

[Kevin]

Nvidia's confirmed to host a presentation on Orin during Hot Chips 34 on 23 August 2022.

I hope this gives us some kind of indication on what we could hope for with the next Switch hardware.

 

[ILikeFeet]

I hope this gives us some kind of indication on what we could hope for with the next Switch hardware.

I don't think there's anything left about Drake that we can divine from Orin. the tech sheets and reference guides are all out there.

 

[Dakhil]

I don't think there's anything left about Drake that we can divine from Orin. the tech sheets and reference guides are all out there.

Although that's true, there's still information Nvidia hasn't revealed directly about Orin (e.g. which process node is used for Orin, which was mentioned indirectly, not directly).

 

[bixente]

It's surprising more hasn't come out yet. Devkits have been out for a while. There would be games very far in development by now. It's been some time since Bloomberg's report about 11 kits being out in the wild surfaced.

 

[metonight]

Not trusting any assumptions about the release date until we hear more from Nate. (in the case that his new info are related to the release window)

 

[Disorientator]

This was actually for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. The staff matches up and here’s a video of it.



The JP patent was filed a year earlier.

Ah good catch!!

 

[Mr Swine]

It’s either coming out relatively soon (in the next 5 months or more) or Nintendo has decided to go with switch till late 2024 or early 2025 (doesn’t seem likely) and scrap the drake

 

[Raccoon]

It's surprising more hasn't come out yet. Devkits have been out for a while. There would be games very far in development by now. It's been some time since Bloomberg's report about 11 kits being out in the wild surfaced.

the fact that everything stopped on a dime when Nintendo denied their existence really has me thinking that the whole thing was a hoax or misunderstanding

 

[Blue Monty]

It’s either coming out relatively soon (in the next 5 months or more) or Nintendo has decided to go with switch till late 2024 or early 2025 (doesn’t seem likely) and scrap the drake

The cost of scraping a new console is insane, Nintendo isn’t scraping Drake especially when they made Nvidia make a custom chip for it, if it releases in 2024 it will still be an evolution of the Drake in any case

 

[ILikeFeet]

the fact that everything stopped on a dime when Nintendo denied their existence really has me thinking that the whole thing was a hoax or misunderstanding

bloomberg hoaxing 11 companies and even naming one sets them up for a lot of (legal) problems. as for the misunderstanding, this is something that can be solved with multiple reiterations of the question. if Bloomberg can't even get that kind of clarification right, then there's a bigger issue with the publication.

not trying to make a counter argument. but I feel like if there was any issue with Bloomberg's intel gathering, we'd be seeing are larger systemic issue that could result in legal consequences or multiple instances of this happening. I'm not sure if I can believe they're that bad yet

---

a user (I think techpoweredup?) tested the UE5.1 build of the matrix with DLSS. once again, DLSS exhibits lower power consumption and better IQ than Epic's own temporal super resolution

 

[LiC]

What actually happened to the "We should get some leaks after GDC?". There has been absolutely nothing after GDC wich was like 2 month ago? There is too little smoke for me right now anymore to be optimistic about a release this FY.

There was never any reason to believe GDC should be the catalyst for news about the new model. It only became part of the Nintendo Rumor Pattern Canon that GDC = hardware leaks this year, mostly because of the (imaginary) scenario where Nate and MVG had delayed their podcast to gather more info about the hardware at GDC.

Eurogamer's article entitled "Nintendo NX is a portable console with detachable controllers" was published July 30, 2016. "Nintendo Switch CPU and GPU clock speeds revealed" was published December 19, 2016. If that was the timeline for concrete info about the already announced and massively speculated over NX, I have no idea why anyone thinks they can say we're far enough into 2022 to know anything about the timeline of a new model that doesn't have nearly the amount of mainstream interest as there was back then.

 

[ShaunSwitch]

I don't think the lack of new leaks is any indication of release timing.

As soon as Nintendo announces a successor device, switch sales will decline rapidly. We know Nintendos priority is migrating its user base over to the new platform, so they recognise their past failings in doing this. Its for these reasons they may want a short announcement to release window even if this is a switch 2.

A long marketing cycle and build up helps when launching a new product, it helps shape the publics perception about what said product is and why they need to buy it and gets people excited for it so stock doesn't stay long on the shelves. If you are releasing a new product in a family of systems, one that's very similar to the predecessor in function and just better, do you need a long reveal to release period?

The original switch had a long period between reveal and release because the WiiU was already practically dead, plus switch was a completely new product with 0 user base.

This new switch, will likely be almost exactly the same as its predeccesor outside of processing power. The user base for the switch family is already at almost 110,000,000 and engagement is still high according to sales of hardware and software. So the focus when launching switch 2 will be to migrate that user base over to the next generation over time and engage new customers.

The switch concept is well established so they don't need to advertise its premise for a year before console release. 1-3 months is fine and will keep regular switch sales on their current trajectory rather than slowing them down like it would if they had a long reveal period.

Also the places we normally get leaks from are devs via insiders, which we have already had via Nate and Bloomberg and then manufacturing which we may have also had with reference to the backplate testing that was quickly deleted. Manufacturing may start anywhere from 3-6 months before a release date so we could hear something anytime really if its late 2022 or a bit later this year if its early 2023. Or, we may not hear anything at all if Nintendo has clamped down on the sources of said leaks.

 

[davec00ke]

Bloomberg is about as credible as SuperMetalDave64

 

[Pokemaniac]

Bloomberg is about as credible as SuperMetalDave64

They're not even comparable. One is a big newspaper with actual journalistic standards, and the other is a random, AMD obsessed YouTuber who burned the one source he ever had in a rather spectacular manner.

 

[mariodk18]

If you think about it, we already know more about Drake relative to its potential release compared to the original switch. What else is there left to learn other than release timing? More specific specs will be leaked closer to release.

 

[Tentacle-tropes]

I don't think the lack of new leaks is any indication of release timing.

As soon as Nintendo announces a successor device, switch sales will decline rapidly. We know Nintendos priority is migrating its user base over to the new platform, so they recognise their past failings in doing this. Its for these reasons they may want a short announcement to release window even if this is a switch 2.

A long marketing cycle and build up helps when launching a new product, it helps shape the publics perception about what said product is and why they need to buy it and gets people excited for it so stock doesn't stay long on the shelves. If you are releasing a new product in a family of systems, one that's very similar to the predecessor in function and just better, do you need a long reveal to release period?

The original switch had a long period between reveal and release because the WiiU was already practically dead, plus switch was a completely new product with 0 user base.

This new switch, will likely be almost exactly the same as its predeccesor outside of processing power. The user base for the switch family is already at almost 110,000,000 and engagement is still high according to sales of hardware and software. So the focus when launching switch 2 will be to migrate that user base over to the next generation over time and engage new customers.

The switch concept is well established so they don't need to advertise its premise for a year before console release. 1-3 months is fine and will keep regular switch sales on their current trajectory rather than slowing them down like it would if they had a long reveal period.

Also the places we normally get leaks from are devs via insiders, which we have already had via Nate and Bloomberg and then manufacturing which we may have also had with reference to the backplate testing that was quickly deleted. Manufacturing may start anywhere from 3-6 months before a release date so we could hear something anytime really if its late 2022 or a bit later this year if its early 2023. Or, we may not hear anything at all if Nintendo has clamped down on the sources of said leaks.

I’m not sure if it will rapidly decline especially if they cannot adequately supply it for a bit, much like we are seeing with the current gen. Doubly so if there is a lengthy cross-gen period.

 

[davec00ke]

I’m not sure if it will rapidly decline especially if they cannot adequately supply it for a bit, much like we are seeing with the current gen. Doubly so if there is a lengthy cross-gen period.

It will decline rapidly look at the DS and PS4

 

[Skittzo]

the fact that everything stopped on a dime when Nintendo denied their existence really has me thinking that the whole thing was a hoax or misunderstanding

Nah what's far more likely is that Nintendo cracked down extremely hard on developers with devkits after that. Like revoking some, threatening to sue some devs, stuff like that.

The 11 devs thing was not fabricated, that feels utterly impossible. And I'm not sure what kind of misunderstanding it could've been.

Bloomberg is about as credible as SuperMetalDave64

This might be the most absurd statement I've read on this website.

 

[Dekuman]

Bloomberg is about as credible as SuperMetalDave64

need receipts

 

[CastletonSnob]

Why can't Nintendo just make a traditional home console?

 

[Blue Monty]

It will decline rapidly look at the DS and PS4

Look at PS2 or PS3 if you want to see what happens when a platform still gets important support post-release and keeps being made. Switch will keep selling for a while if games are still made for it and the console itself It’s still on production, it all depends on what Nintendo decides

 

[Dekuman]

Sony cut production for PS4 for PS5, it dropped to 0, basically, a huge mistake IMHO as they abandoned the sub $300 price range to Nintendo for an entire year until they decided limited production late last year.

It was a terrible comparison in anycase.

 

[Skittzo]

Why can't Nintendo just make a traditional home console?

Nobody will buy it.

 

[CastletonSnob]

Nobody will buy it.

Why not?

People would if it didn't have any stupid hardware decisions like cartridges for the N64 or mini-discs for the Gamecube. How hard is it to just make a console on par with the PS5 or Xbox Series X without any stupid hardware decisions?

 

[Dekuman]

Why not?

People would if it didn't have any stupid hardware decisions like cartridges for the N64 or mini-discs for the Gamecube. How hard is it to just make a console on par with the PS5 or Xbox Series X without any stupid hardware decisions?

I'm not as pessimistic, I think once they establish the Switch they can expand back into a home only device. But no one is really excited for Apple TVs, but they do sell to a market, and the device itself exists mostly as an extension of the iOS ecosystem, where the centre of gravity is in ther iPad/Phone space.

I can see a home device in that vein. But probably not anytime soon.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

It will decline rapidly look at the DS and PS4

DS is a good example. PS4 seems mostly to be Sony shifting resources to PS5.

Why not?

People would if it didn't have any stupid hardware decisions like cartridges for the N64 or mini-discs for the Gamecube. How hard is it to just make a console on par with the PS5 or Xbox Series X without any stupid hardware decisions?

Dude, you already had this thread and it went on for pages.

 

[Skittzo]

Why not?

People would if it didn't have any stupid hardware decisions like cartridges for the N64 or mini-discs for the Gamecube. How hard is it to just make a console on par with the PS5 or Xbox Series X without any stupid hardware decisions?

I repeat, nobody would buy it. Mini discs and cartridges were not an issue for prospective GameCube and N64 purchasers, that's quite frankly a ridiculous notion. And acting like third party support hinged solely on those factors is equally ridiculous, third parties flocked to PS mainly because they were tired of being bullied by Yamauchi's Nintendo.

A traditional stationary console by Nintendo would not magically get full third party support, because publishers would be wary that nobody would buy it. And therefore since it won't have that support nobody indeed will buy it.

 

[davec00ke]

Why not?

People would if it didn't have any stupid hardware decisions like cartridges for the N64 or mini-discs for the Gamecube. How hard is it to just make a console on par with the PS5 or Xbox Series X without any stupid hardware decisions?

Its colossally exspensive in R&D and both Playstation and Xbox spend huge amounts moneyhatting 3rd parties, there's a reason Nintendo is neally twice as profitable as Playstation.

 

[Instro]

There was never any reason to believe GDC should be the catalyst for news about the new model. It only became part of the Nintendo Rumor Pattern Canon that GDC = hardware leaks this year, mostly because of the (imaginary) scenario where Nate and MVG had delayed their podcast to gather more info about the hardware at GDC.

Eurogamer's article entitled "Nintendo NX is a portable console with detachable controllers" was published July 30, 2016. "Nintendo Switch CPU and GPU clock speeds revealed" was published December 19, 2016. If that was the timeline for concrete info about the already announced and massively speculated over NX, I have no idea why anyone thinks they can say we're far enough into 2022 to know anything about the timeline of a new model that doesn't have nearly the amount of mainstream interest as there was back then.

In person events have always been a source for leaks and rumors in this industry. People talk, things spread around a bit, and breadcrumbs about software or hardware eventually make it into the hands of reporters. It doesn't really have anything specifically to do with people like Nate.

As far as NX rumors there was a significant amount prior to that Eurogamer report. In particular Emily Rogers had dropped a bunch of stuff months prior, including software specifics and general hardware performance, information about Nvidia's involvement was out there, and Zelda being cross platform had leaked out. A lot of that came between GDC and E3, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the info came as a result of GDC 2016.

 

[Raccoon]

Why not?

People would if it didn't have any stupid hardware decisions like cartridges for the N64 or mini-discs for the Gamecube. How hard is it to just make a console on par with the PS5 or Xbox Series X without any stupid hardware decisions?

the world has moved on and frankly so should you

who would buy a $500 x86 Nintendo machine

 

[CastletonSnob]

the world has moved on and frankly so should you

who would buy a $500 x86 Nintendo machine

It just feels like Nintendo has given up on home consoles.

Nintendo could make a successful home console.

 

[CastletonSnob]

I repeat, nobody would buy it. Mini discs and cartridges were not an issue for prospective GameCube and N64 purchasers, that's quite frankly a ridiculous notion. And acting like third party support hinged solely on those factors is equally ridiculous, third parties flocked to PS mainly because they were tired of being bullied by Yamauchi's Nintendo.

A traditional stationary console by Nintendo would not magically get full third party support, because publishers would be wary that nobody would buy it. And therefore since it won't have that support nobody indeed will buy it.

Nintendo could cater to third parties, make their consoles easy to develop for, and give third parties devkits.

 

[mariodk18]

Nintendo could cater to third parties, make their consoles easy to develop for, and give third parties devkits.

Oh you mean like they’re doing now?

 

[Hermii]

It just feels like Nintendo has given up on home consoles.

Nintendo could make a successful home console.

That's not just a feeling, its a plain factual statement.

 

[kimbo99]

2024 or later imo. The Bloomberg stuff was in line with a new switch, just wasn't a next gen switch, rather a slight revision, so they're somewhat credible.

 

[Skittzo]

Nintendo could cater to third parties, make their consoles easy to develop for, and give third parties devkits.

That's what they currently do and have always done. What they won't do is pay out the nose for third party support (i.e. pay the publishers directly) like the competition does and like those publishers now expect.

Give up, it's a nonstarter.

 

[davec00ke]

It's not just about a puttting a powerfull box out. Both Sony and Microsoft spend huge amount's moneyhatting 3rd parties.

 

[mariodk18]

2024 or later imo. The Bloomberg stuff was in line with a new switch, just wasn't a next gen switch, rather a slight revision, so they're somewhat credible.

2024 and “not when Switch is selling so well!” and “but the global chip shortage!” are memes perpetrated by certain fans on why Drake isn’t coming soon. No single rumor, credible or not, points to a release that late.

 

[CastletonSnob]

It's not just about a puttting a powerfull box out. Both Sony and Microsoft spend huge amount's moneyhatting 3rd parties.

Nintendo has the money to moneyhat third parties.

 

[ShaunSwitch]

It just feels like Nintendo has given up on home consoles.

Nintendo could make a successful home console.

Why would they want to take that risk when their portable hardware has pretty much dominated the market for 30 years?

The switch is the perfect form factor for Nintendo. Their handheld market is more engaged than ever as they now have a device with the added option of playing on the TV as well as home console experiences on a handheld along with traditional handheld experiences.

The home console crew still get a home console, just not a massively powerful one and they were always a smaller market to Nintendo anyway.

 

[davec00ke]

Nintendo has the money to moneyhat third parties.

But why bother when they can sell 100m + Switches without doing that.

 

[Serif]

Why can't Nintendo just make a traditional home console?

I'll copy paste my post from the thread you made about this:

Let's say Nintendo (or Nintendo's hardware engineering team, etc.) takes the suggestion "should make a powerful console" at face value.

Ok. Two paths:

(a) Make a stationary box with similar hardware specs to PS5 and Series X. It's a dedicated home console priced $400 - $500. Cool, but Nintendo isn't going to abandon their portable line. I can guarantee they won't. So they're back to supporting a home console and dedicated handheld, the handheld in this case being... the Switch. So if Nintendo's 'portable' and 'home' development teams are unified, are these two boxes going to play the same games?

In one scenario, Nintendo makes a home console while continuing to supporting the current Switch, and they share the same library. In that case, how powerful can the dedicated console be, if the games being ported to it also have to work on the Switch? The Switch is still doing well and Nintendo will not abandon it to shift resources to an unproven dedicated home console. So Nintendo's games will not push the home console to its limits. That's fine - there can still be third-party exclusives that skip the base Switch. That's sweet but is this third-party support worth the investment of engineering this dedicated device? And how big is the audience they expect to capture, considering the Switch is portable, cheaper, and also plays Nintendo games and many third-party games on a television?

... or are they going to have entirely different architectures? So now Nintendo is back to having to develop for multiple platforms, except now it's multiple HD platforms. Can't see this happening so I'll discount this possibility.

Or... will Nintendo release both a more powerful Switch, and an even more powerful dedicated home console with similar architecture that plays the same games at higher fidelity? If there's a more powerful Switch then why spend any R&D on the dedicated home console, especially when the former is a proven and successful concept and can be used as a home console? That's the catch... if out of thin air, Nintendo produces a Switch Home that is as powerful as a PS5 and has third-party support, of course I'd buy it, but in reality it'd be a huge investment that IMO is better spent on a more powerful Switch with DLSS.

That would lead into the second path which is:

(b) Make a more powerful Switch, only, while continuing to support the base Switch and its variants

... which we kind of know they're doing already. Even if you choose to ignore the Nvidia leak, it's a safe assumption. If you're worried about sufficient power for third-party ports, the Series S exists. It obviously can't be as powerful as that, but I think it can get within striking distance.

 

[mariodk18]

Nintendo money hats, just not as much as the other third parties. Partly because they don’t need to, but also because there are less opportunities.