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

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NintendoMariah said:
He wont lose.
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live image of @necrolipe

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necrolipe said:
Hi Taiwan, I would like to bet and double your fake-spec-predict:
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 128 GB storage
If I lose, I'll change my avatar to shiba-inu for 2 weeks
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16 GB ram? let's fucking go

about storage i couldn't give a crap if it was 64 gb,128, 256, 512, 1 TB, I 100% plan on buying additional storage anyway
 
Gingerbread Man said:
I think:
  • Pressure from the "core" gaming industry. See the announcement of an "unprecedented" partnership with EA (which turned into nothing, but it was presented as the next big thing), the Batman games, Deus Ex, the partnership with UbiSoft... Nintendo wanted those games and devs back;
  • No sources on this, but I assume there were people inside Nintendo pushing for a "Wii 2", and other people pushing for a "DS Home";
  • The idea that Sony and MS weren't going into spec war again, so the Wii U wouldn't have been so underpowered. I'm 100% confident Iwata said so in an interview (before PS4 and One were announced);
  • Iwata was keen on maintaining BC with the Wii (which is, by itself, something commendable), but that resulted in a Frankenstein hardware;
  • Katsuya Eguchi is a great software director / producer, but he didn't have a great vision for the Wii U hardware. "Asynchronous multiplayer" was the original pitch for Animal Crossing, and it worked great for a game. Two of the console's USP were based on that (Miiverse's asynchronous communication and asymmetric multiplayer), but they were useful for a handful of games, and certainly not something to base the console on. This is something rarely talked about, but Miyamoto played a more limited role with Wii U and 3DS, leaving the hardware producer roles to Eguchi and Konno for the first time;
  • On the software side, nobody knew how to use the GamePad outside of maybe the Pikmin team (and still, Pikmin 3 played better with Wii Remote and Nunchuck at launch...), and Miiverse was "just there" (exception: NintendoLand and Splatoon, which were made by Eguchi's former team...).

So the end result did not have a single, defined direction. It tried to do multiple things without a clear vision.
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The Wii U also felt like a rush job because the Wii was not a continued success beyond 2010 once the hype died out concerning the motion controls. It felt like a rebound system kinda like a rebound relationship after breaking up with someone. Like you said, no real clear vision, and simply relied on others to figure it out, which had its fair share of successes (I.e. Deus Ex Human Revolution) and failures (Star Fox Zero).
 
Derachi said:
128 GB storage is fine because Micro SD cards are cheaper than ever

Get a 1 TB card, slap it in there and forget about it
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You're just going to have extremely poor loading times. Which is ironic, considering Nintendo basically surrendered console leadership to Sony because ... loading times. SD Cards are sloooooooooow.
 
Machrider said:
You're just going to have extremely poor loading times. Which is ironic, considering Nintendo basically surrendered console leadership to Sony because ... loading times. SD Cards are sloooooooooow.
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Yeah they are, but it depends on how much you're loading from one. If you're streaming game assets, it's fine. If you're loading a level, then maybe less so.

I hope they go with some sort of NVMe or UFS solution.

Oh, and the N64 vs PS1 was more complex than that. Putting software on optical disc was a much better business model though.
 
0
How much resources would it take up to just allow Switch 2 to connect with an unlimited number of controllers? So a game could in theory support up to like 32 Players

I mean some TV Screens can get pretty big these days, Imagine 8 player or 16 player Mario Kart xD
 
Shubshub said:
How much resources would it take up to just allow Switch 2 to connect with an unlimited number of controllers? So a game could in theory support up to like 32 Players

I mean some TV Screens can get pretty big these days, Imagine 8 player or 16 player Mario Kart xD
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They're bluetooth. I think bluetooth made the limit 7, and I think it stands at 7.

They could play some games with multiple bluetooth antennas and some hackery, but it wouldn't be worth it.
 
0
Hope Nintendo is not relying on SD cards to load games from. Cold storage is fine but fast loading is by far my favorite feature of this generation. Feel like a waste to have UFS storage when it’s capped by sd speed.
 
Shoulder said:
The Wii U also felt like a rush job because the Wii was not a continued success beyond 2010 once the hype died out concerning the motion controls. It felt like a rebound system kinda like a rebound relationship after breaking up with someone. Like you said, no real clear vision, and simply relied on others to figure it out, which had its fair share of successes (I.e. Deus Ex Human Revolution) and failures (Star Fox Zero).
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I don't think it was a rush job. It was just bad marketing and not many people finding great use for the Wii U outside of TV play.
 
dotnetguy said:
Slightly off topic here but
1, that is an awesome set of console architecture write ups; and
2, I've just learned from that page that the Wii U had 2GB of RAM but 1GB of it was taken up by the OS?
LOL WTF
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Wait until you hear about games using the ARM co-processor for unintended purposes and dumping the OS entirely 🤪

Wii U was an accursed little beauty I adore to this day.
 
I'm glad Nintendo is back onto mainstream, up to date GPU architectures now, NG Switch will have lots of neat features but at its core is a fairly normal ARM CPU and Ampere GPU.
 
Serif said:
Imagine if they kept the Circle Pads.

wiiucontroller5.jpg


Imagine.

a6b0zggwropy.jpg
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I wish, that would make Joy-Con slimmer AND more reliable, I wouldn't be surprised if we got them next generation.



Add a "click" to the revised Circle Pad we got from New 3DS onwards and that's pretty ideal.

Just noticed the in-line Z buttons. Cool. Very cool. Extremely gross.

Stacked Z buttons and clicky circle pads, please and thank you. 😅
 
RedSpring said:
Hope Nintendo is not relying on SD cards to load games from. Cold storage is fine but fast loading is by far my favorite feature of this generation. Feel like a waste to have UFS storage when it’s capped by sd speed.
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Yeah, micro SD/EMMC is super slow and not ready for next gen gaming. And they could also use there own version of rtx io with the UFS or NVME at lower wattage storage so they can actually get games that tax the storage of the next gen consoles.
 
dotnetguy said:
Slightly off topic here but
1, that is an awesome set of console architecture write ups; and
2, I've just learned from that page that the Wii U had 2GB of RAM but 1GB of it was taken up by the OS?
LOL WTF
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And Nintendo giving certain games (cough, BotW) access to that extra 1GB, aka unloading the entire OS in the background and making it even slower
 
Circle Pad discourse has me thinking

Thinking a thought nobody wants me to think.

What if instead of a trackpad or capacitive buttons.

We get DUAL C-STICKS?!

new_nintendo_2ds_xl_review_c_stick.png


Hear me out, there's a bunch of possible advantages here.

One, tiny, doesn't take up much space.
Two, tried and tested, pointing sticks are old and reliable.
Three, using a Joy-Con on its side, both players gets an analogue stick (or circle pad) and a C-Stick, bringing camera controls or dual stick input to this play mode.
Four, who needs trackpads, I've used a pointing stick on my laptops with TrackPoint for over 10 years, it's unironically great, reactive, and absolutely good enough for camera controls. There's a reason it was a mouse standard and is still available on business models.


Here's a New 2DS XL with a TrackPoint cap modded in, for good measure.
c5cm2hsvu1t61.jpg


If this were to happen, I'd like to see three things:

Keep the design from 3DS, not a grippy textured top, it was comfortable and looked good.
Make it pressable, just a little "doink' when you press it in.
Give it and the control sticks proper labels, and that means renaming it- R Stick and L Stick become CR and CL (for Control Stick), while the new "Pointing Sticks" become PR and PL.

I'm dead serious. I actually want this.
 
ezidro3 said:
And Nintendo giving certain games (cough, BotW) access to that extra 1GB, aka unloading the entire OS in the background and making it even slower
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The 3DS also did this with some games, Super Smash Bros notably comes to mind and same with Pokemon Sun and Moon
The system usually has to reboot after that, I've always referred to this as "Increased Memory Mode"

I wonder if they will do anything similar with the Switch
 
We seem to be talking 12 vs 16gb of RAM, but does anyone think that no matter the amount, it’ll be lpddr5x? It does offer power savings (smaller node) as well as higher speeds. Nintendo could certainly utilize one of those benefits.
 
Cuzizkool said:
We seem to be talking 12 vs 16gb of RAM, but does anyone think that no matter the amount, it’ll be lpddr5x? It does offer power savings (smaller node) as well as higher speeds. Nintendo could certainly utilize one of those benefits.
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I guess it depends when the Switch 2 hardware was finalized
LPDDR5X spec was approved in 2021
 
ziggyrivers said:
128gb storage memory would be disappointingly low, but I guess it's time I invest in a micro SD
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UFS Card (Unlikely)
SDExpress Card (Unlikely)
M.2 2230 (These at least exist in quantity, but still unlikely)
CFExpress (A or B)

EDIT:
If it's CFExpress, then Nintendo will single-handedly bring prices down or they'll be high priced through the generation and people will complain to no end.

If it's Type B, then at least an adapter is feasible from M.2.

I really hope it's M.2.

EDIT2:
 
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Cuzizkool said:
We seem to be talking 12 vs 16gb of RAM, but does anyone think that no matter the amount, it’ll be lpddr5x? It does offer power savings (smaller node) as well as higher speeds. Nintendo could certainly utilize one of those benefits.
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if the chip design was finalized in late 2019, then it'll be LPDDR5. not that I think moving to 5X would give us higher speeds
 
ILikeFeet said:
if the chip design was finalized in late 2019, then it'll be LPDDR5. not that I think moving to 5X would give us higher speeds
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I doubt they finalized it that quickly, Because there was also word of a Pro Model coming which was likely canned due to chip shortages and the pandemic,

I'd hedge my bets on finalizing the design by late 2021 at the latest, But Nintendo still is known for going with whats cheapest instead of whats best
 
Concernt said:
I wish, that would make Joy-Con slimmer AND more reliable, I wouldn't be surprised if we got them next generation.



Add a "click" to the revised Circle Pad we got from New 3DS onwards and that's pretty ideal.

Just noticed the in-line Z buttons. Cool. Very cool. Extremely gross.

Stacked Z buttons and clicky circle pads, please and thank you. 😅
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weren’t people regularly snapping off their Circle Pads playing Smash?
 
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Zemya said:
The taiwan thing is BS?
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It's speculation from an economist forum. Unless we're taking all forum speculation seriously.
In which case, the Switch 2 will be hand delivered by Reggie to every house in the world. That's right. Reggie Claus is real!
 
Shubshub said:
The 3DS also did this with some games, Super Smash Bros notably comes to mind and same with Pokemon Sun and Moon
The system usually has to reboot after that, I've always referred to this as "Increased Memory Mode"

I wonder if they will do anything similar with the Switch
Click to expand...
They already sort of do. Instead of unloading the entire OS though, devs can choose to disable the 30-sec video capture. Fortnite did this for example
This was done for performance and stability reasons as we've been seeing a high rate of Out of Memory related crashes. Disabling this feature saves a significant amount of RAM while also having a positive effect on overall performance across the board.
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