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

[lemonfresh]

bloom EVERYWHERE

so windwaker hd

 

[ReddDreadtheLead]

Not if @ReddDreadtheLead has anything to say about it.

We will rise from the ashes!

 

[eye0h]

Nobody is staking their lives over a release date and nobody will remember you being right about the release date whenever they have the shit in their hands. People being open to a possibility isn't the end of the world and there's no reason to lord over people about it when 2023 is barely even being mentioned. Release date wars are lame.

 

[antonz]

Hardware Production can be a very random thing and most of the time there is no actual reveal of when it happens. Wii was really unique in the fact IBM made a big deal out of the first shipment of Chips etc. arriving at Nintendo. I still keep track of a guy in China who leaked the internal hardware images of the 3DS before launch but he hasn't said anything on Switch 2

 

[ReddDreadtheLead]

This thread really turned into....something.

jfc

What’s goin on? I’m not reading the last 10 or so pages so idk what’s happening

 

[Deleted member 5146]

What’s goin on? I’m not reading the last 10 or so pages so idk what’s happening

Basically a big name tweeted that they can't wait to see and play all the new things coming to Xbox, PlayStation and Switch 2 over the next 12-18 months so what will those new things be? Also purple, AI, and 2023 ain't over yet

 

[darthdiablo]

Basically a big name tweeted that they can't wait to see and play all the new things coming to Xbox, PlayStation and Switch 2 over the next 12-18 months so what will those new things be? Also purple, AI, and 2023 ain't over yet

And Nate stating that FFVIIR going to Switch 2 isn't in the plans currently but that can change (or was that more than 10 pages ago? I lost track)

 

[TomNookYankees]

He's right about the numerous options nintendo has.

Still I dont see Nintendo wanting to do both an announcement and release before the next May shareholders meeting. Smoothest transition for shareholders would be if they announce early next year and launch either in the summer or fall so that they have time to inform shareholders before launch.

 

[AshiodyneFX]

And Nate stating that FFVIIR going to Switch 2 isn't in the plans currently but that can change (or was that more than 10 pages ago? I lost track)

This is ancient news, we already discussed how IamAHeroToo is full of shit

 

[kimbo99]

Speaking about Metroid AI concept art, I thought it would be funny to ask Bing with its new Dalle 3 engine what next-gen Zelda and Mario Kart could look like... it's definitely... interesting.

Next-gen Zelda:






Mario Kart 10:

Mario Kart looks like it was ripped out of the Mario movie

 

[eye0h]

Mario Kart looks like it was ripped out of the Mario movie

because it was. that's all ai is

 

[Hocot8]

Interesting. "Switch 2 is being released soon", prior to Gamescomm articles, never crossed my mind, and I come from a private Nintendo FB group - it was never mentioned there either. (I wasn't a member around here back then)

I don't recall watching 2022 Directs ever feeling like Nintendo is winding down. Not with TOTK release date announced, and eventually Pikmin 4.

When Eurogamer and VGC released their Gamescomm articles, I saw that as setting things into motion for myself and folks in the private FB group I'm in. This is Nintendo, they like to control the narrative. They showed demos behind closed doors. They knew that would create buzz out there. That was intentional/strategic on Nintendo's part. I'll probably be pooh-poohed at this particular bit, but I'd stick to that notion, there's a reason for Nintendo doing the demos behind closed doors. If they didn't want buzz out there, they would have controlled this more closely.

My post was in no way directed to you fwiw. I do believe this time is different but that only pertains to a H1 release, personally. I think there is some decent support there based on what we've seen from reports and even the upcoming lineup next year. It feels like what was coming out in the run up to switch and even post switch on the 3ds but maybe with more effort from Nintendo because of backwards compatibility.

 

[darthdiablo]

My post was in no way directed to you fwiw. I do believe this time is different but that only pertains to a H1 release, personally. I think there is some decent support there based on what we've seen from reports and even the upcoming lineup next year. It feels like what was coming out in the run up to switch and even post switch on the 3ds but maybe with more effort from Nintendo because of backwards compatibility.

no worries, i know you weren't directing. More of me saying I'm surprised to hear it has gone on as long as it had. I was then racking my mind for any hints in the past that Nintendo was shifting gears into a timeline that involves the successor, I couldn't come up with anything - nothing I could remember seems to stand out until Eurogamer/VGC came out with the Gamescomm articles. When I have some spare time I'm planning on reading over old discussions to get full context of how expectations unfolded. Also "binge" to bring myself up to speed on some subjects I am not familiar with. "funcle", "mod uncle", nvidia leak, Poygron, etc.. the "highlights" over the last 2 years.

 

[CalmMind]

Purple is a good color. I think Nintendo can and should do things that aren’t driven by nostalgia.

It's a good thing you're knowledgeable in other things.

 

[BreakAtmo]

I'm somewhat skeptical that a Switch Pro ever really existed. There was never any kind of credible leak to any kind of actual chip the way Switch 2/Tegra T239 has.

The other thing is really if Nintendo did want a bit of a performance jump they really could have just allowed the Mariko Switch model to clock higher and gain probably a fairly decent performance boost just from that (as they held back the Tegra X1 chip as is). Probably could've let it clock at a point where it could run 393 GFLOPS undocked/600 GFLOPS docked, but they opted not to.

I think Nintendo made the decision to go for Switch 2 in 2020, probably a custom TSMC 4nm version of the Orin Tegra drive tech and that was basically that. No Switch Pro.

I think the common belief is that the Switch Pro wasn't going to use an entirely new chip, it would've used a further die-shrunk Tegra X1 with the clocks bumped up, possibly to the max. The X1 caps out at 500GF, I think, so it would've made for a substantial improvement, especially in the handheld mode.

 

[TLZ]

My eye twitched immediately if by instinct.

Hold on.... the next gen Switch is called..


Twoitch!

 

[Raccoon]

It's a good thing you're knowledgeable in other things.

...are you saying that purple isn't a good color? like, objectively?

 

[karmitt]

Nah I think square is done with nintendo at least with big releases , you will get your small games like octopath and triangle strategy type games but the big games you will most likely not see them on switch also when they did try with stuff like kh3 they had to do a cloud version and they got a ton of shit for that. Stuff like ff7 rebirth is literally on 2 discs so no way are they going to fit that on a cartridge

Exceedingly pessimistic take in light of the very positive leaks from Gamescom, Tom Henderson’s tweet about other day-and-date third party launches on Switch 2, and generally diminishing returns in visuals.

FF7R being on two discs is absolutely a marketing gimmick. Not sure how that’s relevant. For a Switch 2 it would likely see them commit more effort to compression and using lower resolution assets, and a large portion would be downloaded.

You’ve already mentioned previously that you won’t use the Switch 2 for third party / multi platform titles, or that you aren’t especially interested. I just don’t think that’s going to ring true for a lot of consumers moving forward, even for bigger budget titles.

 

[BreakAtmo]

FF7R being on two discs is absolutely a marketing gimmick.

What? No. They already confirmed that the game is on two discs because it's 150GB. That requires either 2 discs or a forced download like Jedi Survivor. A Switch 2 version could still be possible with reduced asset quality and such, but the PS5 version is already significantly more efficient with compression than Remake due to Kraken and the removal of duplicated assets.

 

[VagrantValmar]

I would love a return to 3D. I'm probably in the minority, but I loved the effect on 3DS, and especially new 3DS. I played with it on all the time.

I have amblyopia. I hope they don't. It makes me miserable to think my eyes don't work. I have a hard time enjoy the 3DS now because it reminds of my eyes being shit

 

[karmitt]

What? No. They already confirmed that the game is on two discs because it's 150GB. That requires either 2 discs or a forced download like Jedi Survivor. A Switch 2 version could still be possible with reduced asset quality and such, but the PS5 version is already significantly more efficient with compression than Remake due to Kraken and the removal of duplicated assets.

Yeah sorry I don’t buy it. I’m not saying they aren’t using the space, I’m saying the choice to deliver it on two disks is in part marketing. “Look at this our game is so big.”

Companies don’t hesitate to put large portions of games as a download these days, and games are rarely (never) truly complete at launch. I appreciate that they’ll be helping some customers out, but it’s absolutely been a deliberate and effective talking point as seen in this thread.

Anyway, the point was originally that it being 150GB on PS5 does not preclude it from being on a Switch 2 in some form

 

[Look over there]

FF7R could be a case of waiting for the trilogy to finish before ports start being a thing.

That little Swan Lake robot's making me eye R.O.B.
Buddy, for the world of the 2020's, you might have to step up your game somehow.
...and despite me saying 2020's, my approach is to turn back to the past... yes, yes, channel Michigan J. Frog. Throw on a top hat. Carry a cane. Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal!

For a little more detail on the narrowing down of CPU:
The Linux commit specified one cluster of eight cores. There was also a lack of extra code necessary to support heterogeneous computing, so it's most likely eight cores of the same architecture. Ruling out A55's due to how nonsensical that would be, A78C's really the only choice that fits the timeline.

For rough and easy ballpark/generalization purposes, think of A78 as comparable to Zen 2 clock for clock. So the surface level shorthand's just compare the ratio of clocks... whenever we actually find out the NG's clocks, of course. Emphasis on ballpark; it's like using the 1 US Dollar for 100 Japanese Yen mental guesttimate...uh, before recent inflation.
"What about the lack of Simultaneous MultiThreading?"
Don't over rate it for dedicated gaming system purposes.

...shit, mucked around and wiped out quotes I wanted to insert from... over the past week? Yowza.

Ok, CAMM standard. Both CAMM for DDR5 and LPCAMM for LPDDR5 are new ideas for form factors for the RAM.
The reason for CAMM for DDR5 is because laptop makers can't get SO-DIMMs (current form factor for DDR RAM in laptops) to run above 6400 MT/s. So Dell developed CAMM as a way to stick RAM in laptops such that the physical distance that data needs to travel from the memory chips in the modules to your CPU/memory controller is shortened, relative to the SO-DIMM form factor. The shorter distance means that it's easier to maintain signal integrity with the same amount of energy. (in turn, I assume desktop space doesn't have this issue, because hey, we don't give a fuck about however much energy we need to spend to maintain signal integrity, I guess?)
LPCAMM addresses something else. You see, LPDDR is normally soldered. The con is the lack of upgradeability, but the pro is being able to stably hit those higher transfer rates at lower power. LPCAMM than gives up some of the max transfer rate in return for a user replaceable form factor.
So, neither are relevant to Nintendo. Or any dedicated gaming console really. However, it would be nice for LPCAMM to make it to desktop... could always use more bandwidth for integrated graphics

@chocolate_supra
There was some joke you made about how the new architectures would justify Nintendo in recycling the NEW label!
I wanted to respond with something about how the New 3DS didn't use new architectures though, so the New 3DS shouldn't have been called New then.

 

[CalmMind]

...are you saying that purple isn't a good color? like, objectively?

It's the worst color for Nintendo. Anything resembling the North American Super NES and the GameCube should be treated as a threat and eliminated on sight.

 

[Dark Cloud]

I would love some different colors at launch. But I have little hope on that nowadays.

 

[karmitt]

I would love some different colors at launch. But I have little hope on that nowadays.

Different from what? Current Switch? I’d always assumed the base system colors would be unique to Switch 2, and that they’d also go with two options for joy-cons.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Different from what? Current Switch? I’d always assumed the base system colors would be unique to Switch 2, and that they’d also go with two options for joy-cons.

We’re not getting purple or translucent like I want. It’ll be some basic standard colors that you’d except.

 

[karmitt]

We’re not getting purple or translucent like I want. It’ll be some basic standard colors that you’d except.

Oh yeah for sure. I expect something pretty vanilla.

 

[Charamiwa]

Just going to save time here and say, you can either prove yourself not a troll by actually reading through the very well curated OP by Dakhil or continue being extremely fun at parties.

Yes, some here entertained 2023 as a possibility....at the beginning of the year. When we only had speculation based on tape-out dates which alone a system production to launch pipeline do not make.

Once production-side rumors heavily leaned towards a Late 2023 Full Production Start Date (Then even further towards Nov/Dec) that pretty much firmly put the focus towards 2024.

It's not goalpost moving, it's refining the range of release as shadow dropping a console is not a thing you do (Unless you're SEGA with the Saturn), nor do you start production and hold onto units for almost/over a year until release because Warehouse costs get expensive. And it wouldn't even help with supply as they are 99% Guaranteed to sell the whole volume within Launch Window no matter how many units they have.

Discussions about 2023 dominated the thread until at least the June Direct, and even then it continued until August. Remember when Nintendo releasing Metroid Prime and Xenoblade DLC in a crammed H1 was so weird it had to mean something for 2023? Of course nothing happened here and the same people moved on to now seeing every signs imaginable pointing to Q1 2024. With my issues being that these discussions overwhelm the thread.

I don't mind speculation and hope in this thread obviously but if we don't learn from when we're wrong we're just repeating the same patterns until one day we'll be right by default.

 

[MSnap]

So I heard that the reason Nintendo revealed the original Switch so close to release was so that people wouldn’t be able to copy it before they got it out. I don’t know how true that is, but I think it’s something to consider.

 

[Hermii]

So I heard that the reason Nintendo revealed the original Switch so close to release was so that people wouldn’t be able to copy it before they got it out. I don’t know how true that is, but I think it’s something to consider.

That exact thing happened with the Wii U. They revealed it at E3, and at the next one Sony and MS had a second screen solution. None of them ever cought on, but the point was stealing Nintendos thunder and that they probably achieved.

Second screen console gaming all the rage at E3 2013

Game makers are feverishly developing apps meant to offer players new ways to interact with console games in real-time via their tablets.

financialpost.com

 

[Dark Cloud]

That exact thing happened with the Wii U. They revealed it at E3, and at the next one Sony and MS had a second screen solution. None of them ever cought on, but the point was stealing Nintendos thunder and that they probably achieved.

Second screen console gaming all the rage at E3 2013

Game makers are feverishly developing apps meant to offer players new ways to interact with console games in real-time via their tablets.

financialpost.com

We have Switch like systems now. Idk what the Switch 2 could have that people will copy (scrollders? Camera? Errr?) Sony and MS never made a Switch copy.

 

[MSnap]

We have Switch like systems now. Idk what the Switch 2 could have that people will copy (scrollders? Camera? Errr?) Sony and MS never made a Switch copy.

Lenovo did though. It’s coming out soon.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Anything resembling the North American Super NES and the GameCube should be treated as a threat and eliminated on sight.

 

[Hermii]

We have Switch like systems now. Idk what the Switch 2 could have that people will copy (scrollders? Camera? Errr?) Sony and MS never made a Switch copy.

They didn't but Nintendo probably had that experience fresh in mind and still do. Better safe than sorry.

 

[Saturnman789]

Gamecube didn't spill the milk because of its purple color, it didn't do so hot because it wasn't a cheap dvd player that could ALSO play games like ps2 was. That stuff was really important in the early 2000s. Remember, Gba was also purple and it SOARED!

 

[Hermii]

Gamecube didn't spill the milk because of its purple color, it didn't do so hot because it wasn't a cheap dvd player that could ALSO play games like ps2 was. That stuff was really important in the early 2000s. Remember, Gba was also purple and it SOARED!

PS2 was my first DVD player. It was a huge selling point.

Edit: and I imagine it also was a pervasive argument for parents.

Can I have the new PlayStation 2?

We have PlayStation at home.

It plays dvds

Let's go.

 

[BreakAtmo]

Yeah sorry I don’t buy it. I’m not saying they aren’t using the space, I’m saying the choice to deliver it on two disks is in part marketing. “Look at this our game is so big.”

Companies don’t hesitate to put large portions of games as a download these days, and games are rarely (never) truly complete at launch. I appreciate that they’ll be helping some customers out, but it’s absolutely been a deliberate and effective talking point as seen in this thread.

Anyway, the point was originally that it being 150GB on PS5 does not preclude it from being on a Switch 2 in some form

They explicitly said it wasn't about "nostalgia" or marketing or whatever in a recent interview. You can call them liars if you want. Also, FFVII Remake was also on two discs, so it's nothing new.

Square Enix Answers 6 Burning Questions About Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Find out why the game is two discs, if you can transfer data from Remake, and more.

www.gameinformer.com

"Hamaguchi explains the decision to split Rebirth in this way had less to do with rekindling nostalgia and more as a method to preserve the team’s lofty vision for it. Square had always envisioned Rebirth as a massive, highly detailed world more immersive than Remake’s revamped Midgar. Thus, squeezing it on a single Blu-ray would have forced the designers to scale back on content and ideas, so doubling up on discs became the obvious solution."

A Switch 2 version would likely be possible as long as it has fast storage, but I would expect reduced asset quality. That can really cut down on space, I think there are some PC games where the highest quality assets are responsible for more than half the install size.

 

[carbvan]

Companies don’t hesitate to put large portions of games as a download these days, and games are rarely (never) truly complete at launch.

I'm gonna be that guy, mostly because I think it's wild that they actually did this, but Kirby and the Forgotten Land and RTDLD launched and never saw an update. I haven't seen a game launch 100% feature complete and not get a patch in such a long time. Nintendo loves updating their games post launch to add little things or fix bugs, but HAL is on a roll with Kirby games launching finished. I know this isn't a fair comparison but I just wanted to share this bc I truly haven't seen games launch and not see updates besides Kirby in like a decade lol, plus it's fun trivia.

 

[Dekuman]

He's right about the numerous options nintendo has.

Still I dont see Nintendo wanting to do both an announcement and release before the next May shareholders meeting. Smoothest transition for shareholders would be if they announce early next year and launch either in the summer or fall so that they have time to inform shareholders before launch.

It's stating the obvious. There's no patterns. The only thing for sure is Nintendo will likely give enough time between announcement and release to get a proper hype cycle going, pre-orders in place and inventory to be manufactured ,built up and shipped to North America and Europe. So 6 months seems reasonable.

I'm for the record 2024 H2 person, but I keep an open mind. They could announce next Monday for a March release.

 

[Hermii]

It's stating the obvious. There's no patterns. The only thing for sure is Nintendo will likely give enough time between announcement and release to get a proper hype cycle going, pre-orders in place and inventory to be manufactured ,built up and shipped to North America and Europe. So 6 months seems reasonable.

I'm for the record 2024 H2 person, but I keep an open mind. They could announce next Monday for a March release.

Also team H2.

 

[entut1]

This thread is as old as Famiboards is. 2 years. And almost 2000 pages.

 

[Machrider]

The storage size thing for FF7 Rebirth is overblown.

NBA2K and Call of Duty will be on Switch 2 and those are both over 100GB too.

The Switch 2 even having 128GB internal storage means that basically every developer can be assured that they can release a game 128GB + whatever the size of their cart is (16GB even) and every Switch 2 shipped will still have enough space to run it if need be.

Now the user may have to delete their fridge as it were, but the baseline storage should be there to begin with.

I suspect Nintendo will just launch their own proprietary UFS memory card style format that will be faster than SD Cards and pocket a healthy amount of profits for themselves which will allow people to add 256GB-1TB of extra storage without much fuss.

If Square-Enix is withholding those games it will be because most likely of an exclusivity deal, which means Square-Enix is intent on letting the brand rot into irrelevance as not even trying to grow the brand on other platforms is clearly hurting Final Fantasy as is.

 

[CalmMind]

Only thing between me you is air and opportunity. tl;dr “WE OUTSIDE"

 

[Machrider]

Purple might've been rough for GC but it worked out pretty well for GBA.

That's because it was a handheld and it was (well) kinda known as being a kids brand. So purple didn't really hurt the GBA, that looked more or less like what people expected it to.

A home console that was purple was a disaster in 2001-ish ... people expected something that sits in your home theater to look ... well, not like a toy. Purple certainly did not help in the view that GameCube was a kiddie console.

 

[Dark Cloud]

Nintendo shouldn’t be afraid of colors for the Switch 2 from the beginning. Switch is now an established brand going strong. To me you can can afford yourself to do things you wouldn’t do with colors of the system. I’m not expecting it so eh lol. I’ll get whatever color they have from the get go.

 

[BreakAtmo]

The storage size thing for FF7 Rebirth is overblown.

NBA2K and Call of Duty will be on Switch 2 and those are both over 100GB too.

The Switch 2 even having 128GB internal storage means that basically every developer can be assured that they can release a game 128GB + whatever the size of their cart is (16GB even) and every Switch 2 shipped will still have enough space to run it if need be.

Now the user may have to delete their fridge as it were, but the baseline storage should be there to begin with.

I suspect Nintendo will just launch their own proprietary UFS memory card style format that will be faster than SD Cards and pocket a healthy amount of profits for themselves which will allow people to add 256GB-1TB of extra storage without much fuss.

If Square-Enix is withholding those games it will be because most likely of an exclusivity deal, which means Square-Enix is intent on letting the brand rot into irrelevance as not even trying to grow the brand on other platforms is clearly hurting Final Fantasy as is.

I honestly wish there was a way to make a UFS expansion card that was shaped exactly like a microSD card so you could use either in the same slot. The SD card could play Switch games and act as cold storage for Switch 2 games while being cheaper, while the UFS card would be for whoever absolutely needs to play everything immediately.

 

[Machrider]

I honestly wish there was a way to make a UFS expansion card that was shaped exactly like a microSD card so you could use either in the same slot. The SD card could play Switch games and act as cold storage for Switch 2 games while being cheaper, while the UFS card would be for whoever absolutely needs to play everything immediately.

Think this is already possible, Samsung made UFS cards that I believe can work in dual-read slots, there was just basically nothing made that supported them (lol).

It looks like the format basically didn't take off though (been available since 2016/17). I think Samsung made like a few laptops that supported these cards and nothing else.

UFS cards like these are royalty free, so that could be appealing to Nintendo. They could make their own and basically own the market for Switch 2 storage.

SD Card Express is another option I guess, but it has never really taken off either.

 

[Yavga]

Next mainline Monster Hunter will be released on Switch NG yes

Good, my friendships are saved.

Nintendo shouldn’t be afraid of colors for the Switch 2 from the beginning. Switch is now an established brand going strong. To me you can can afford yourself to do things you wouldn’t do with colors of the system. I’m not expecting it so eh lol. I’ll get whatever color they have from the get go.

Brave Nintendo would go with Pink & Purple and I would buy a double set.

 

[BreakAtmo]

Think this is already possible, Samsung made UFS cards that I believe can work in dual-read slots, there was just basically nothing made that supported them (lol).

It looks like the format basically didn't take off though (been available since 2016/17). I think Samsung made like a few laptops that supported these cards and nothing else.

UFS cards like these are royalty free, so that could be appealing to Nintendo. They could make their own and basically own the market for Switch 2 storage.

SD Card Express is another option I guess, but it has never really taken off either.

Oh my, these would be perfect. You'd be able to choose your storage type, and hopefully they could be reasonably affordable given how much the Switch 2 would expand the customer base. I mean, unless Nintendo jacked the prices up on them.

 

[LinkURL]

I've been thinking, why would Nintendo put a bigger screen on the Switch 2, possibly breaking compatibility with the original joycons, and unnecessarily increasing the size of the console that was already great in the OLED version?
But another idea came to mind, what if what increased the diagonal size of the screen was actually a change in aspect ratio, keeping the same height and compatibility with the joycons, but making the Switch 2 screen larger, perhaps with the idea of improving possible VR and AR experiences by approaching a 2:1 ratio.
I decided to do some calculations, and keeping the height of the current OLED screen, by changing the aspect ratio to 18:9 you achieve a size of 7.6 inches, and in a 19:9 aspect ratio 7.9 inches is perfectly adequate.