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StarTopic Future Nintendo Hardware & Technology Speculation & Discussion |ST| (New Staff Post, Please read)

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TheMindOfThomas said:
The key advantage Nintendo would have with VR/AR over everyone else is their IP. The tech is pretty much there, it's the software that isn't. There are no killer apps that have hooked mainstream audiences. What VR needs to succeed are games like Mario Kart, Zelda, Pokémon, etc. People would kill for the chance to live out those games.

That being said, I don't think Nintendo is interested in developing a secondary platform just for VR/AR, and I don't think they would be interested in developing a wide array of games that require an expensive add-on. I think it would be a smart move to develop VR and AR games for existing devices like Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro, similar to what they do with mobile games. I actually think a "Pokémon GO 2" for Apple Vision Pro would be a great way for Nintendo/TPC to kickstart their venture into this arena, followed by Mario Kart VR for Quest and similar devices, a Zelda game of some kind, etc.
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Or even just have compatibility with them, so you could stream wirelessly the way you do with a PC. The docked Switch 2 would still render the games - it might be difficult for it to pull off, though.
 
Meelow said:
New Spyro will be a Switch 2 launch title (or at least in the launch window).
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Pokemaniac said:
For practical purposes, I think the console reveal and preorders opening will be separate events. Trying to do it all at once is likely to lead to chaos.
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It is wild to me that there are firm dates for pre-orders.
The chain I book from and attend midnight releases for here in Sweden often has pre-orders ready for both games and consoles as soon as there is the slightest piece of information out there. They just have a (often high) placeholder price attached and they just add the date and the correct pricing closer to launch.

Is this non-standard procedure in the rest of the world?
 
beaglor said:
re: VR:
I've posted these thoughts before, but I do think Nintendo is in a unique spot to tackle a VR solution with a Switch-style system, without any extra hardware purchases. It has a screen, split controllers with motion sensors, and a separate piece of hardware you can plug the screen into.
If you could transform to dock into a headset, and add some additional stuff in there, maybe add a camera on the screen for eye-tracking and glasses-free 3D.
It's a cute solution that feels very 'Nintendo'.
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You don't need a 3DS-like screen for VR. Existing headsets either give each eye a separate screen, or (like Labo) take the one screen and give most of the left side to the left eye and most of the right side to the right eye.

But for reasons of size practicality, the trend in VR has been to small, dense screens. Someone earlier was joking about what if the screen rumors were a misunderstanding and it was 8cm rather than 8 inches. That would be a bit more suited for VR, even if 1080p would still be quite low.

I tried finding information about the actual size of the screens the Quest 3 uses and couldn't, but in this teardown they remove a section including the screen/lens/etc. for one of the eyes and there's a 2064x2208 screen in here.
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Jenn. E Tails said:
Yeah but a lot of the staff was fired apparently, or so was reported a few days ago
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Yeah, that's the depressing part. If it is true about the game releasing this year than I could see either two or three things.

1. The game has finished development
2. The people who are still working there are still developing the game
3. Someone else is handling the rest of the project.
 
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Looking at the future, I think that QDEL screen tech from Sharp might play a big role in a upcoming Nintendo XR device, because it's, basically, a microLED without any of the production constrains, since it seems to have a lot in common with either OLED or LCD manufacturing. That could allow Nintendo, or any other XR company, to make great high-res lenses without getting much more expensive than your average OLED/LCD lenses.
 
Noleth said:
Mainly that the Switch isn’t that weak actually, and we don’t even really need a new system and are fine with only the Switch
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He's right that the Switch really ISN'T "that bad", some of the people going on about how awful it is are full of it. But is he using that to justify that NG Switch isn't coming anytime soon?
 
justanotherperson said:
Looking at the future, I think that QDEL screen tech from Sharp might play a big role in a upcoming Nintendo XR device, because it's, basically, a microLED without any of the production constrains, since it seems to have a lot in common with either OLED or LCD manufacturing. That could allow Nintendo, or any other XR company, to make great high-res lenses without getting much more expensive than your average OLED/LCD lenses.
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That's contingent on if nanoLED manufacturer(s) (QDEL is Sharp's name for nanoLED) can solve the issue with the lifetime of blue quantum dots since that's the main obstacle that prevents nanoLED displays from being mass produced right now.


(According to a research paper I found, blue QLED only has a lifetime of just over 20 hours, whereas blue OLED has a lifetime of 500 hours.)
 
Serif said:
I've heard similar reasoning ('they must have heard something') for MVG speculating on no BC and Digital Foundry speculating on 8nm. I think it's entirely possible that whatever developer contacts they have (they being Nate, John, Rich, or MVG), don't know the full nature of the device. Similar to how Nintendo did not share all the information about the Switch to developers, even those with the SDK, prior to launch.

Devkits can look quite different from the final device. Like this GBA devkit, which IGN wrote an article on before the GBA was even properly revealed.

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And as shared earlier, the prototype SDEV Switch devkit did not have joy con rails, and not every dev with an SDK knew of the joy-cons prior to revel.

If Nintendo wants to keep the retail appearance of the device under wraps, then it would make sense to not disclose certain details even to developers with a devkit, if it's not relevant to the games they're developing. Who knows - maybe the dev-kits have the controls bolted on. Maybe they're similar to the prototype SDEV and are just the tablet portion, requiring a wired controller to test games.

I'm going off the balance of probability here - either their contacts do indeed know for sure that retail units will lack joy-cons and Nintendo is regressing in the hybrid idea, or their contacts don't have the full picture (as developers in the past also lacked it) and Nintendo will iterate on a successful concept. Hmm.
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If their contacts (or their interpretations of their contacts' words) were correct, we would have had Switch Pro years ago with exclusive third-party games.

These leakers are obviously not proven scammers like Zippo (far from it), and we know that plans can change, but their track record has been spotty, to say the least. Some of their suggestions also go against common sense, such as the whole BC discussion we've had for years and the idea that a successor to Switch could be released without JoyCons.
 
Guys, I just had a groundbreaking idea:

What if Nintendo VR is similar to the Wii U?

But instead of a Gamepad, it's a VR Headset that receives the image form the Switch?

Like a PS Portal, but headset.

Edit:

I have never used a PS VR, so I don't know if this is exactly how it works xP
 
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Concernt said:
He's right that the Switch really ISN'T "that bad", some of the people going on about how awful it is are full of it. But is he using that to justify that NG Switch isn't coming anytime soon?
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In my opinion graphic tech has gotten to the point where it's possible to make beautiful games on pretty much any device honestly.

But obviously when games are scaled down from much more powerful devices, it gets very noticable.
 
Meelow said:
New Spyro will be a Switch 2 launch title (or at least in the launch window).
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It makes sense as Crash 4 was late 2020 so +4 years of development (+6 since Spyro trilogy) are fine for these games.

If it targets current gen systems it can be a really pretty game visually, almost like a GCI movie as PS5 Ratchet. It would be interesting to ser later the comparisons with next 3D Mario.

(This a little off-topic) but hopefully other family-friendly A-B IPs gets new games (Crash Racing and Tony Hawk).
 
finally, someone has tried out the experimental Lumen on mobile path (on a Galaxy S23 in particular). unfortunately he doesn't show the resolution or the frame rate, but it's not terrible for an experimental build. I still expect to see Fortnite with lumen on mobile this year

 
unkindlynice said:
VR success will be from VR specific franchises. This idea of porting AAA franchises to VR is for the bees.
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Ubisoft has supported VR gaming more than any AAA publisher. But CEO Yves Guillemot just said that November's critically acclaimed Assassin's Creed Nexus VR (exclusive to Meta Quest) only "did okay," said company was "a bit disappointed" and won't increase investment in VR
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Yup, we just saw this 2 days ago & Sony seemingly not able to support another platform in PSVR. I’m not sure why people think Nintendo would be able to or why they want to invest heavily in an expensive, separate, platform that is VR.
 
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Noleth said:
Mainly that the Switch isn’t that weak actually, and we don’t even really need a new system and are fine with only the Switch
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honestly good point, with how good switch 1 is selling as well as how devs still working on it, why would switch 2 be this year or even next year?
not to mention there are still other unreleased games like Prime 4, FE4 remake & WWTP collection
 
Really interesting video from Hardware Unboxed about the image quality differences using 1080p native vs 1080p with DLSS Quality. They determined 7 out of the 10 games they tested looked better at native resolution. Although they noted text was more legible with DLSS at further distances. This is worth thinking about for the inevitable so-called "lazy ports" (I know it's a reductive term) to the next gen system. We're already seeing demanding Unreal Engine games upscaling from sub SD resolutions on the Xbox Series S with games like Immortals of Aveum having a base resolution of 436p. I imagine most first party games will aim for 1080p native like they do on PS4 but multiplatform games may, in select cases, choose much lower resolutions.

 
Q: ... Also, I would like to know if the strong Nintendo Switch business will affect the timing of the release of new hardware.
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A: ... It should be noted that the preparation of new hardware is a long-term process that is well planned and processed, so the immediate business situation will not affect such plans.
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Hermii said:
I think the games would be enough to do that, but that would off course depend on them having games to show off that looks a generation better than anything on Switch. A new 3d Mario game built to show off NVN2 features, a ps4 port with improvements, a current generation only title with bells and whistles enabled. I think that would do the trick.
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To wow people and show off the power of next gen Switch, I am envisioning them showing certain games and demos.

First, showing a game with crazy fast loading or transitions at 4K (imagine TotK at 4K 60 but instead of it loading a shrine you just walk into).

Then, a high-end looking PS4-gen game with some lite ray-tracing (Doom Eternal or something else?)

Finally, round all that out with a next gen looking 3D Mario and tease some other games down the road (Monolith Soft, Next Level Games, new Mario Kart), and a few other PS4 ports that will be at the launch window.

That will get the people going.

Edit: Yikes, sorry y’all, my bad. It can be hard to keep up with the rules on an every board. Thanks for the heads up and mercy.
 
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TheSentry said:
To wow people and show off the power of next gen Switch, I am envisioning them showing certain games and demos.

First, showing a game with crazy fast loading or transitions at 4K (imagine TotK at 4K 60 but instead of it loading a shrine you just walk into).

Then, a high-end looking PS4-gen game with some lite ray-tracing (considering CD Projekt RED put Witcher 3 on the Switch 1 and has a great relationship with Nvidia with incorporating their cutting edge DLSS 3.5 features I could see them highlighting [redacted] on Switch 2).

Finally, round all that out with a next gen looking 3D Mario and tease some other games down the road (Monolith Soft, Next Level Games, new Mario Kart), and a few other PS4 ports that will be at the launch window.

That will get the people going.
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I was reminded the other day THAT game is on the banned content list but yes I think it's very plausible.
 
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Dark Cloud said:
I know the majority thinks it’s releasing in September. With it being revealed in March does anything think it could be released earlier than September?
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It really depends on the nature of the reveal. If it's just a trailer to show off the hardware then we're right on track for a late 2024 release. If it's something more and pre orders are opened then probably sooner.
 
Dark Cloud said:
I know the majority thinks it’s releasing in September. With it being revealed in March does anything think it could be released earlier than September?
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If March is a teaser/low-level reveal and they do a big blowout in May, I could see August as a possibility, but I’m mostly leaning towards a blowout in June and launch no earlier than September.
 
TheSentry said:
To wow people and show off the power of next gen Switch, I am envisioning them showing certain games and demos.

First, showing a game with crazy fast loading or transitions at 4K (imagine TotK at 4K 60 but instead of it loading a shrine you just walk into).

Then, a high-end looking PS4-gen game with some lite ray-tracing (considering CD Projekt RED put Witcher 3 on the Switch 1 and has a great relationship with Nvidia with incorporating their cutting edge DLSS 3.5 features I could see them highlighting Cyberpunk 2077 on Switch 2).

Finally, round all that out with a next gen looking 3D Mario and tease some other games down the road (Monolith Soft, Next Level Games, new Mario Kart), and a few other PS4 ports that will be at the launch window.

That will get the people going.
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Cyberpunk is a banned topic on this forum.
 
I know there has been a lot of discussion regarding Switch 2 DLSS and other potential techniques that could help it reach comparable performance results with modern consoles. I personally wouldn't mind an overall lower image quality on Switch 2 that still looks decent but maintains similar fps and performance to modern consoles. Do you think this will be the case or do you think there will still be games targeting a lower frame rate on Switch 2? I would be quite disappointed if the latter was true.
 
PatrykPrime said:
I know there has been a lot of discussion regarding Switch 2 DLSS and other potential techniques that could help it reach comparable performance results with modern consoles. I personally wouldn't mind an overall lower image quality on Switch 2 that still looks decent but maintains similar fps and performance to modern consoles. Do you think this will be the case or do you think there will still be games targeting a lower frame rate on Switch 2? I would be quite disappointed if the latter was true.
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I wonder if we could see options for different modes in Switch 2 games. Performance mode, resolution mode, etc… similar to PS5.
 
GPKs3 said:
I wonder if we could see options for different modes in Switch 2 games. Performance mode, resolution mode, etc… similar to PS5.
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I think we're going to start seeing some performance mode options on the next system but it's not going to be as frequent as they are on PS5/Series X.
 
Noleth said:
Mainly that the Switch isn’t that weak actually, and we don’t even really need a new system and are fine with only the Switch
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As someone who doesn't follow the scene near as much as I used to, and who finally got a Switch years late, I can definitely see the argument that it's not that weak, and then we see the technical wizardry that has been achieved with Tears of the Kingdom and it shows the little device can still do a whole lot.

But, as someone who got the Switch really late and won't be jumping on the successor any time soon, the ever-forward March of technological progress means that, for as good -- or at least not-bad -- as the Switch is, there's a lot of potential that would be unleashed with new hardware, and there are other options that the Switch simply doesn't have, and Nintendo (barring some further technology they see coming that just needs to be in a new release but isn't ready yet) should update their offerings as such. I don't think it means the Switch needs to die, but it can't handle everything.

TechnicalTip6578 said:
honestly good point, with how good switch 1 is selling as well as how devs still working on it, why would switch 2 be this year or even next year?
not to mention there are still other unreleased games like Prime 4, FE4 remake & WWTP collection
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Because Nintendo can't necessarily count on the sales keeping up, and they need to look ahead, and there comes a time it'll be most beneficial to release a replacement.

And everything takes time, meaning the decision can't be made and enacted in a short time frame. If the Switch starts doing better than expected, that isn't going to impact plans going forward. They're just not that flexible.

TechnicalTip6578 said:
coulda been delayed really either due to irl reasons or games (especially launch ones) for it are simply not ready
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Theoretically some hurdles could delay it, but they're probably a lot more dire than what you might be thinking of. Nintendo has to make the plans and designs, but then has to source and order materials, enter into myriad contracts, set production and supply lines into motion, and it just can't be started and undone as easily and quickly as you seem to imply.

Dark Cloud said:
I know the majority thinks it’s releasing in September. With it being revealed in March does anything think it could be released earlier than September?
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I'm thinking earlier than September. I've said it before, but it gets the first wave of die-hard will-purchase-this-right-away-no-matter-whats and the scalpers out of the way so that further supply can be ready for the holiday wave.
 
The main reason I asked my question was because Necro said retailers would prepare preorders. Seemed early to have preorders for a system coming in September.

Also, I’m sure if it’s a full blown presentation Nate or some other insider will find out by the end of this month.
 
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