Complacency and business relationships can always turn on a dime over longer periods of time, but the level of importance that the Nintendo Switch holds in legitimizing Nvidia's Tegra business on a grand scale can't be understated. This next iteration of Switch will only improve this since Nvidia doesn't have a major footprint in the mobile market. As the years go by and Tegra SoC's manufacturing process moves to more advanced nodes, the prospects of other customers outside of Nintendo looking to Nvidia for a SoC solution becomes greater. Especially if a product like the Drake Switch can fully Trojan horse Nvidia tech like DLSS into the mainstream against AMD's offerings...
Excellent post. Once more, I have been saying they'll go hard with the next platform because AMD/Samsung stole a march on them with the Xclipse GPU being the first RT mobile GPU to retail, and FSR doing the same in the console market. RT & DLSS are certain lock-ins, and higher performance will be, too. It was in my series of questions, that "If the expectations of Nintendo are so low, what do you think Nvidia's interests are in this partnership?" (words to that effect). I don't believe that they agreed a deal with each other to make backward-thinking, unambitious hardware, and what we know from the horse's mouth is aligning with my posts to date.
I’m personally hoping for a “Prepare to Die” edition of Elden Ring. Switch gets the game with dlc and the other platforms get the dlc upgrade on the same day.
Bandai Namco has a fantastic relationship with Nintendo and I can see them wanting to make that happen.
Quietly confident over here that Elden Ring is a lock-in for yet another late-to-the-party BN Switch port (This has been typical BN form on the Switch - a publisher which failed hard at reading the room on the Switch, Warriors titles aside. Oh, and Code Vein, where art thou? Cowards...). BTW, That much has been known since the review scores dropped, and Nintendo put out a tweet about it - They don't retweet or post tweets about games which aren't coming to their platform "for the love". Their partners have to bring it, or market it themselves. Elden Ring is no exception, so, I strongly suspect it's a lock-in. When? We don't know, but it'll come, for sure.
I almost mentioned Elden Ring in my post too!
Yeah, something like Resident Evil 4 day-and-date with other platforms in March, Diablo IV day-and-date with other platforms in April, TotK in May, and a late-but-enhanced port of clear 2022 GotY Elden Ring would make a pretty big statement in the first half of 2023. And there’s basically no overlap with Nintendo’s franchises and RE/Diablo/Elden Ring; Nintendo could release their own launch window software too.
I think Nintendo pretty much has all “the Nintendo audience” on Switch. They’ve clearly reached the lapsed fans who didn’t buy a Wii U or 3DS, and I think TotK will be very successful in starting to move that audience over to the new hardware. But it we’re looking at avenues for growth, if we’re looking at ways for the new hardware to not just be as successful as Switch but more successful, trying to make further inroads into the core gamer market does make some sense. They’ll mostly focus on growing their own properties, of course. They’ll try to figure out a way for Splatoon 4 to be an even bigger success than Splatoon 3. But I don’t think Nintendo looks at a follow-up to a console that’s sold 120M and sets a goal to also sell 120M, I think they set a goal to sell 160M. Or 120M, but in fewer years. And some of that is going to come from trying to expand the idea of who the person who buys a Nintendo console is. So far, that really hasn’t included a lot of the AAA enthusiast console gamers. But I think that might change, in a big way. With the Switch we’ve already seen Nintendo be hungrier for that audience than they’ve been in a long time, prominently featuring Skyrim and NBA 2K in the Switch reveal trailer. I think that’s only going to grow with the new hardware.
A lot of PS4/Xbox One owners haven’t upgraded yet. And with the new Switch hardware, Nintendo is positioned to offer those gamers a different kind of upgrade. That’s a little different from last gen, where the Switch arrived later after the PS4/Xbox One came out and those consoles weren’t supply constrained in the same way the PS5 and new Xbox consoles are now.
See, I would be on board with much of this post, but I was told by others that I was extremely optimistic - It raises the question "HOW would they achieve this?", and my answer to that is not by matching PS5/XSX spec for spec, but by delivering a system capable of playing its games competently, without downgrades which are detrimental to the gameplay. It puts my expectations for the successor in perspective - this would require them to engage in games of disruption, to go harder on performance, and perception would also play a big part.
So, That is to say, if one wants to convert XB1/PS4 owners into future Switch owners, they aren't going to be impressed with more XB1/PS4 performance because it's "So 2013" to them. Even where they're willing to make trade-offs for a definitive portable experience, that portable performance has to have better RT than Steam Deck, Aya Devices, S22 Series, and others - The leaked GPU suggests they might well be able to achieve 720p and 30-60FPS with RT & DLSS regularly, especially if we weigh that up against existing titles in the PS5/XS libraries. Achieving that in portable mode means a neat option with no meaningful sacrifices. Docked mode is interesting because 1440p/45-60FPS with RT & DLSS might well be achievable when weighed up against the same existing titles, then it can be upscaled to 4K. So, it becomes a case of Cosmetic QHD or 4K/45-60FPS with RT & DLSS VS Native 4K/45FPS with RT and no DLSS. THAT, right there, is the "disruption" part. If you don't have a 4K TV set, and they haven't been adopted as quickly as HD ones were (In fact, they aren't even the standard across multiple screen sizes), then the 4K part won't mean the most, but the option of playing games anywhere without meaningful sacrifices will). The current Switch is set to eclipse the PS4 before the end of 2022, and finish in the top 3 best-selling platforms of all-time - It will have achieved that without a COD or the latest GTA or a Madden, or permanent price cuts. If they can convert a small fraction of those owners, they eclipse the PS2 and the DS. Even more, and 200m becomes a prospect.
There are some really fantastic things that Nintendo could do with the inference power of nvidia Tensor cores in conjunction with the camera and mic array you mentioned.
With Nintendo positioning switch as a platform that will endure for decades, people's digital libraries are only going to get larger and larger. Consider the Tensor cores are largely dormant when using the OS, Nintendo could use that inference power to give the OS a voice assistance. Being able to just say Hey Mario launch YouTube instead of having to browse for the icon would be a great quality of life feature.
Fun little things like using the camera and microphones for advanced motion tracking to animate your avatar picture and set poses for your mii. Nintendo could even setup avatars of their biggest characters and use the inference performance to have you able to use the camera to track your own face and voice and have the character also say your words and have their faces animate the same way. Could be recorded and added to your Nintendo account. This would have to be heavily policed though.
Games that don't need DLSS could make use of it as well. With the camera tracking the position of the player the next iteration of ring fit could have dodging mechanics implemented and do away with the leg strap altogether as an AI enabled camera could just track where your limbs are.
The camera could also serve to track where the players hands are to enhance motion control accuracy.
Just scratching the surface here, there is a lot that can be done with AI in conjunction with camera and audio inputs for games and operating systems.
Quoting for extra visibility. Love a lot of what was posted here.
Now, As for the name of a successor, I don't like "Super Switch" at all. It was of its time, and while relatively successful, it didn't match of surpass its predecessor. I feel the same about "New Switch". I don't like "Switch 2" - Once more, it would represent an era of predicatbility, and nothing about it screams "imagination" or "daring to dream of new possibilities". That might be fine and well for PlayStation, with its successive variants of the same controller from 1997, but it doesn't say "Nintendo" to me - For all the Wii and DS's success, you could see similar sentiments echoed in their branding; For many, the word "Nintendo" was written in red or against a red backdrop. Bringing that back for the Switch was part of reconnecting with the idea of a specific brand. I don't know... There's something in colour and art psychology, and perhaps a name should speak in similar ways. I might be wrong. For what it's worth, I love the idea of "Switch Advance", but would even settle for the relatively safe "Switch Ultra". I feel it will be very safe. Something among the lines of "Nintendo Switch (2nd Gen)" - But if they're going to do that, I would expect them to speak more about the specs, and what they mean for the gameplay possibilities, with more, in the way of infographics spelling these out. Compared to earlier product iterations, We've seen, over time, the likes of Apple speak more boldly about specs when they unveil a new product, for example, and I suspect they'll take some cues from that. I feel it communicates the idea of something new while being safe, and it would suggest that the 1st Gen will be supported for some time, but the transition to 2nd Gen Switch is now in motion. With software momentum, it shouldn't be forgotten that all of the teams which were on the 3DS have had to transition to the Switch. I suspect most output from them will still support the 1st Gen with one more title before transition, whereas the teams that were on home consoles will be on the 2nd Gen Switch as we speak. So, that would be their dovetail. I also feel that more form factors sharing the same library are possible in their future.