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

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oldpuck said:
I've lost the thread a little bit.

I don't see any reason for new hardware to have much of a relationship to Zelda re: release date. I know others have felt otherwise - I've seen some folks say that this hardware and Zelda have been linked for a while, but that's been purely in terms of fan speculation, there is no insider indication that they are connected.

Did the release date announcement for Zelda change the calculus for anyone in any way?
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It's pretty simple. We're told that Drake is launching sometime between now and early 2023. This year is looking very unlikely due to no announcement/rumblings so we assume it'll be next year. But probably not too early next year or else they'd need to announce it this year.

They like launching hardware with big games, especially Zelda. If we're still believing it will launch early 2023 then Nintendo would be foolish NOT to launch it with Zelda. Doing so would divide attention between those two events.

Now, I agree there was no reason to think it had to be tied to Zelda, but now that the window for Drake is narrowing it seems exceedingly likely that this window will overlap with Zelda's, and at that point it's obvious they'd launch together.
 
Skittzo said:
It's pretty simple. We're told that Drake is launching sometime between now and early 2023. This year is looking very unlikely due to no announcement/rumblings so we assume it'll be next year. But probably not too early next year or else they'd need to announce it this year.

They like launching hardware with big games, especially Zelda. If we're still believing it will launch early 2023 then Nintendo would be foolish NOT to launch it with Zelda. Doing so would divide attention between those two events.

Now, I agree there was no reason to think it had to be tied to Zelda, but now that the window for Drake is narrowing it seems exceedingly likely that this window will overlap with Zelda's, and at that point it's obvious they'd launch together.
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Ah. I don’t buy this logic but I do understand it. I had wondered if there was data I was missing

(I don’t think it absolutely won’t release with Zelda either, I just find lots of possible scenario’s compelling)
 
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No 3D Mario being announced gives me hope that it'll release along side the Switch successor....whenever that'll be. It's also cool how we got a release date for the new Zelda game. It's hard to really know what Nintendo will do next.

N64: 2 Zelda games in the same gen. No crossgen for obvious reasons
GC to Wii: 2 Zelda games in same gen, totally different and the latter was crossgen
Wii: Skyward Sword
Wii U: BOTW crossgen
Switch: BOTW and now TotK


So if they position fr Switch successor as backwards compatibility, does this automatically give credence to TotK being crossgen launch title?
 
Pavolink said:
So, IF Drake comes alongside TotK in May 2023, Nintendo can announce it in March. Close the FY with the announcement.

FEngage and Kirby remaster as the last first party games for the Switch before Drake’s announcement.

March and April can be filled with third party games and DLC for Splatoon, Xenoblade, Switch Sports and Mario Kart.
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I don’t think Nintendo’s going to go three months (between Kirby and Zelda) without a retail Switch release, even if they are launching new hardware alongside Zelda. That’s, like, a Wii U-level of hardware abandonment and the Switch is not a Wii U. The 3DS was not a Switch-level success and it still saw retail games in the weeks leading up to the Switch.

Momentum going into a new console is important. Especially since all indications are that this new hardware will be marketed as an expansion of the Switch family – it’s not a completely new paradigm that’s replacing the Switch with something else. Kids still have birthdays in March and April, people will still be buying Switches.
 
It makes sense for March. If they can have a new Mario, Zelda, and Pikmin in launch window that will be nice.
 
I think anyone getting hung up on May not being "early" is being really fuckin' picky. May 12 is 36% through the year.

Kise Ryota said:
Just a fraction of the Switch's users will be able to get a Switch 2 in the first 6 to 12 months. Why make the version they can sell the most (by far) to look so bad (in comparison with the next-gen one) at its release date? I wouldn't do that.
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The only way to "solve" this would be to have no base Switch games look better on the new hardware. As an end user I would very much hate this.
 
JoshuaJSlone said:
I think anyone getting hung up on May not being "early" is being really fuckin' picky. May 12 is 36% through the year.
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if i’m 36% of the way through a meal i wouldn’t say i’m in the early stages of that meal, the cutoff for that is precisely 33.3% of the way through the meal

/s
 
I find it interesting that No Man’s Sky, a game that’s been in development for Switch and therefore ARM for the past 2 years is getting a macOS and iPadOS port the same year with Apple’s own MetalFX Upscaling, while Resident Evil Village is getting a macOS/ARM version with MetalFX Upscaling this year as well. Kinda makes me wonder whether Capcom’s efforts on adding a new upscaling solution and porting to ARM isn’t just for the Mac.

Edit: Forgot that GRID Legends is getting a macOS/ARM version as well, ported by Feral Interactive that did the Switch versions of Alien: Isolation and GRID Autosport. 🤔
 
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Just re-visited the og switch, switch lite, oled, and the current special edition oled switches announcement trailers and realized a trend:
the average timespan between announcement dates and the actual release is about 2-3 months with the 2017 switch being the single exception clocking in at a bit over 4 months after the 2016 announcement.

If we estimate the announcement for the new hardware at about late december 2022 or early january 2023, nintendo would have:
  • closed or nearly reached the end of the fiscal year (march 31st 2023) - which corroborates to the whole "no new hardware on this fiscal year" stance made recently
  • gave at least some time for the special edition pokemon OLED switch to sell units
  • allowed the switch enough time to surpass the ps4 in lifetime sales, probably even the GB (which I know, is probably not on their priorities list but it should be at least enticing for them given how investors would start thinking about a console that released just 3 years later and managed such a feat)
  • made the new platform ready and available before the killer app (botw2) released
 
If anyone is still thinking we're getting new hardware this fiscal year, Nintendo already put the kibosh on that notion definitively, so the Zelda cross-gen launch title hypothesis looks more likely, especially if you're on the train of thought (based on rumours) that software was being planned to be ready for the first half of 2023; holiday 2023 would push it way further off than what they've allegedly communicated to development partners.
Pavolink said:
So, IF Drake comes alongside TotK in May 2023, Nintendo can announce it in March. Close the FY with the announcement.
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I think 2.5 months might be too tight of a window for 3rd-parties to show off and build interest in their own titles for the new hardware, never mind that it gives a highly condensed window for Nintendo to do the same. With Switch, it was a lot easier since there really wasn't much 3rd-party content to promote for launch (or 2017, for that matter), but we have enough reason to suspect things will be different for this new hardware. Nintendo don't have just themselves to consider with timing on this announcement anymore, it should factor into the conversation.
 
So, if Nintendo's current production, suppliers and logistics teams really do in fact take ~3 months to ship out a new product, I really think late December 2022 or early January 2023 will be the most likely announcement date candidates for the new switch.
Specially January 2023 since I think they'd want their share of the Christmas eve sales hype train (I mean, new hardware wouldn't release until 2023 anyways, so why talk about it during your second peak sales time of the year?).
 
Dakhil said:
I wasn't trying to speak for anyone else, but myself. Hence why I've added "personally" after "I" to emphasise that I was speaking only for myself and nobody else.

And I've assumed when Tron1 used "we", Tron1 was referring to anyone in this thread.
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sorry, I meant to quote the original poster, not you.
 
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Everybody is set on Drake and Zelda releasing at the same time, but would it not be more suitable to give another game the spotlight?

Zelda is proven. It’s going to sell in excess of 20 million unless they stuff up. Perhaps a game scheduled for March would make far more sense - something we’ve yet to see. The release schedule has a pretty large gap for major releases between January and May, and there’s no way it’s staying like that.
 
karmitt said:
Everybody is set on Drake and Zelda releasing at the same time, but would it not be more suitable to give another game the spotlight?

Zelda is proven. It’s going to sell in excess of 20 million unless they stuff up. Perhaps a game scheduled for March would make far more sense - something we’ve yet to see. The release schedule has a pretty large gap for major releases between January and May, and there’s no way it’s staying like that.
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Right. Like, for all we know, Super Mario Odyssey 2 is coming out on March 24 and they’re planning on announcing it in January. If we knew that game was coming, would we all be so sure the new hardware is bound to launch in May? We just don’t know, which is why all the “well, so-and-so said the new hardware would be released in early 2022, and Zelda just got announced for May, and that’s not early” stuff is hilariously premature.

They could launch the new hardware in March with Everybody’s 1-2-Switch and a Metroid Prime remake. Or Donkey Kong and Nintendogs.
 
A possible sweet spot for Nintendo to reveal Drake is Jan, or early Feb before the spring Direct. It gives enough headroom for 3rd parties to advertise Drake enhancements before their game are released, assuming the console is released in Apr or May. Nintendo themselves can use Drake screengrabs and clips for their own games featured in the spring Direct. Hell, even announcing that the Direct is available in 4K format is already enough to make an impression imo.
 
kimbo99 said:
No 3D Mario being announced gives me hope that it'll release along side the Switch successor....whenever that'll be. It's also cool how we got a release date for the new Zelda game. It's hard to really know what Nintendo will do next.
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I don't think they would launch new 3D Mario so close to new Zelda game, but its possible new Zelda at launch and new 3D Mario game for holiday season,
basically same what they done with current Switch and with Zelda BotW and Mario Odyssey.


IamPeacock said:
Maybe Pikmin 4 in March, Zelda in May.
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Tron1 said:
It makes sense for March. If they can have a new Mario, Zelda, and Pikmin in launch window that will be nice.
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From shown, Pikmin 4 looks more like H2 of 2023. than H1 release.


niconiconick64 said:
So, if Nintendo's current production, suppliers and logistics teams really do in fact take ~3 months to ship out a new product, I really think late December 2022 or early January 2023 will be the most likely announcement date candidates for the new switch.
Specially January 2023 since I think they'd want their share of the Christmas eve sales hype train (I mean, new hardware wouldn't release until 2023 anyways, so why talk about it during your second peak sales time of the year?).
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Yeah, December is strongest month for Nintendo, they will not announcing it in December certainly,
january-february is real possibility.
 
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I think Nintendo could something similar to what they done with current Switch,
announcement of hardware in January-February alongside new 3D Mario that will be launched during Holiday season and new Zelda like launch title.
 
I think the absence of Metroid and Zelda ports also gives some evidence to a new Switch to coincide with TotK because 1. Metroid remake has been rumored to have 4k stuff (right) and 2. why re-release HD Zelda ports for less (or face backlash) when you can release 4k ports for $60 each? Plus from a marketing perspective it makes the ports more distinct.
 
lucapfstr said:
I think the absence of Metroid and Zelda ports also gives some evidence to a new Switch to coincide with TotK because 1. Metroid remake has been rumored to have 4k stuff (right) and 2. why re-release HD Zelda ports for less (or face backlash) when you can release 4k ports for $60 each? Plus from a marketing perspective it makes the ports more distinct.
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I think that’s just been speculated. Nothing with actual weight behind it.
 
Nintendo is not stupid to mess their holiday sales period, that's why before Feb 2023 Direct is the suitable time to announce Drake
 
Tron1 said:
So do we think new hardware will release before or around the new Zelda game?
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Dakhil said:
I personally think there's a possibility Nintendo could release new hardware before Tears of the Kingdom's released.
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There is absolutely no reason to tie this Drake power model sku with ToTK.

This isn’t a new console, it’s a new power “optional” model in the Switch family. It doesn’t need 3D Zelda to help it’s launch.

The new hardware can launch between now and next May and it wouldn’t make any difference. Not to ToTK, not to the new model option.

Heck, I still expect the Drake model to be announced at the end of this month. Why not? It wouldn’t need a new Zelda to help it sell.

I can easily see the Metroid Prime remake announced later along with the new Drake console. It can function like Metroid Dread did for OLED (announced just 3 weeks apart)

Now, I concede this new model might not release in 2022, but to think Nintendo is delaying either the Drake model or the ToTK game just so they can be released together… is asinine, imo. It makes little sense to do that. No reason to.

Gay Bowser said:
They should, goddammit.

Everybody who bought the weird cloud versions of Kingdom Hearts or Resident Evil should just get to download the native Drake versions day one. I know that probably won’t happen. But it’s just asinine.
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If they decided not to put a native version of a ps3 game on the current Switch models, they sure as hell aren’t going to bother with Drake. You should give up on that now. Publishers will still choose the cloud route even after Drake exists.
 
Dark Cloud said:
Nintendo isn’t launching 3D Mario in March and 3D Zelda 2 months later. Please already
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I mean, none of us thought they would ever release a 15M+ selling mainline Pokémon game and then another 15M+ selling mainline Pokémon game two months later, either…

I wouldn’t say I think it’s the most likely outcome, by any means, but we already know their 1H 2023 isn’t going to go by their ideal original plan, because Zelda got delayed into it.

Console launches make companies do weird things sometimes. BotW2 and MK8D launched less than two months apart and those are two of the best selling Switch games period. We don’t know what we don’t know.
 
They launched the best selling Switch game 1 month after BotW. I don't think Nintendo really cares about overcrowding console launches.

That said, I have no real horse in this race. Just launch this console H1 next year so that I can finally stop speculating.
 
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Speculation, as of now, i'm not aware of a March 2023 game from them. So many games dropping on Feb 24th feels a bit strange, not that i mind it as that's my birthday and i would like to have some better memories of my 2023 birthday than i have from my 2022 one (....)

So, how would we feel if Drake is being announced end of Jan 2023, shortly after FE Engange's release for a late March release?

Technically, TotK and Drake don't have to launch close to each other (or together), but would end of March to May 12th be close enough to be "launch window"?
 
GriffMendez said:
If this thing ends up being a slight revision that just has incredible battery power (these Capcom cloud games seem telling), I'm gonna laugh.
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I mean I understand maybe being prepared for a modest power improvement vs what’s being rumored because “the Nintendo tradition”. But to deduct something like this from cloud releases is simply being a pessimist especially given they just released a “slight revision”.

Maybe the next iteration of the Lite will be what you speak of but generally achieving incredible battery power akin to gaming handhelds of old will never happen simply bc Switch will always have to have enough beef to provide, at minimum, a decent docked experience as well. “Incredible“ battery power in this hybrid form will likely always top out where Mariko already is.
 
Skittzo said:
It was a misunderstanding based on a bad translation. The English article came out a week later and said nothing remotely like what was reported.
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That was a different article. The original wasn’t translated afaik, the second article was just a a different article.

@fwd-bwd even mentioned it before that it didn’t exactly debunk the first article.
 
It's helpful to pinpoint details of said article instead of just calling it "an article". For example, are we discussing the Nikkei interview with Furukawa from the beginning of August this year, where Nikkei wrote it in such a way that there was questions about whether Furukawa stated it himself or if it was Nikkei speculating on the matter?
 
ReddDreadtheLead said:
That was a different article. The original wasn’t translated afaik, the second article was just a a different article.

@fwd-bwd even mentioned it before that it didn’t exactly debunk the first article.
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Wait what? It was the English version of the previously paywalled Japanese article I thought.

Regardless, several native speakers debunked that part of the original article hours after the reports went up.
 
Gay Bowser said:
They should, goddammit.

Everybody who bought the weird cloud versions of Kingdom Hearts or Resident Evil should just get to download the native Drake versions day one. I know that probably won’t happen. But it’s just asinine.
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Thats what i thought too. It would be in my opinion the best solution to bring the huge Third Party Games like RDR2 to the Switch 1 as Cloud Versions and Nativ for the Drake Switch.
 
I had read somewhere that Microsoft had taken over the expenses regarding current-gen patches for many (third-party?) games, I don't know if it was a rumor or confirmed news.
If it was confirmed however, I wouldn't expect the same from Nintendo, since they don't have nearly as unlimited funds as the Redmond house.
 
Teal'c said:
I had read somewhere that Microsoft had taken over the expenses regarding current-gen patches for many (third-party?) games, I don't know if it was a rumor or confirmed news.
If it was confirmed however, I wouldn't expect the same from Nintendo, since they don't have nearly as unlimited funds as the Redmond house.
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To be fair, i wouldn't even expect many patches from Nintendo. They might do the evergreens and (maybe) more recent games like Xeno 3, but outside of those, nah.

For example, i don't expect a patch for Astral Chain.
 
Bonejack said:
To be fair, i wouldn't even expect many patches from Nintendo. They might do the evergreens and (maybe) more recent games like Xeno 3, but outside of those, nah.

For example, i don't expect a patch for Astral Chain.
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Maybe with the announcement of Astral Chain 2? In that case they might beguile the wait with a small graphics upgrade.

However, I don't expect many upgrades for the old titles either.

Xenoblade 3, Mario Kart (maybe) and a few others. Less if Drake pushes the resolution of current games to the max with a decent result.
 
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I’m pretty sure Nintendo already announced the titles that will be patched, if there is one.

it’s just a theory though but I’m confident that the games that will get a patched have already been shown.
 
ReddDreadtheLead said:
I’m pretty sure Nintendo already announced the titles that will be patched, if there is one.

it’s just a theory though but I’m confident that the games that will get a patched have already been shown.
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I'm not entirely sure if you're joking but... yeah obviously they've been shown, the vast majority of games that will get patched are out and have been for years.

Unless you mean they've given indications of games that will specifically be patched (I can only assume you mean games with DLC through 2023 or 2024) but otherwise, yeah most games have been shown of course.
 
Skittzo said:
I'm not entirely sure if you're joking but... yeah obviously they've been shown, the vast majority of games that will get patched are out and have been for years.

Unless you mean they've given indications of games that will specifically be patched (I can only assume you mean games with DLC through 2023 or 2024) but otherwise, yeah most games have been shown of course.
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Bonejack said:
Context and / or additional details please as i'm unsure what you're talking about.
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The games that have waves of DLC attached to them that they end at some extremely long date later on, are most likely the titles Nintendo will patch and use as the show piece titles for the next system whenever that releases. The update for that can just be rolled into that patch.


By this I am also saying that do not expect every title to receive a patch to function with any of the new feature sets or exceed their limitations already present on the switch. Hell I’m already expecting Fire Emblem Engage to have a long wave of the DLC that stretches into 2024.

And it’s not just a coincidental because some titles have had a long wave, it’s that they are all around the same time have long waves of post release support to them. Mario Kart especially had a support way later than it originally released on the switch, and it’s just a port of the mobile game for the most part.

If anyone has a list of the games right now, you can probably identify which ones are the titles that Nintendo specifically wants to showcase for the new system.
 
Kise Ryota said:
Don't kill me,
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Too late, to the guillotine!

Kise Ryota said:
I'm just genuinely curious: are you guys ready for a 2024 release? No 'smartphone model', just a traditional next-gen hardware with BC, in 2024. If that happens, are you all ready or is this place going crazy?

Not asking if a 2024 makes sense or not, just if you have considered it and won't have a stroke if that happens
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That would be weirdly long even for Nintendo standards.
 
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