Hardware Ask the Developer Vol. 2, Nintendo Switch – OLED Model

[WonderLuigi]

Ask the Developer Vol 2 Nintendo Switch OLED Model - Part 1 - Nintendo - Official Site

www.nintendo.com

For those who don't know, this is the new name for the Iwata Asks-style of interviews. This time, they focus on the OLED model.

 

[bellydrum]

Ah ya beat me to it! Excited to sit down and read this.

 

[WonderLuigi]

Ah ya beat me to it! Excited to sit down and read this.

Hahahaha that was a coincidence this time. I don't have notifications on! Keep your title, I think it's better...

 

[Cheppito]

That "continuous upgrades" approach seems very interesting. Are they saying they're really upgrading the Joy-Cons??

 

[fwd-bwd]

"the analog sticks in the Joy-Con controllers included with Nintendo Switch – OLED Model are the latest version with all the improvements"

I actually believe what they said about the continuous improvements made to the analog stick. The drifting issue doesn't seem as widespread now, comparing to the early days, and there's no widespread drifting with Switch Lite either.

 

[BlueManifest]

Confirms the stand on the back is metal not plastic

 

[Naga]

Super happy that those interviews Iwata Asks-style are back! Hope they do more in the future.

Don't care about the joycons bit, but this is cool:

Didn't know that the OG was open.

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

Even though the Iwata Asks had a certain warmth that will be difficult to recapture, I‘m still glad that we‘re getting something similar again. They‘re often extremely informative so I hope they become even more frequent.

 

[Lovecatt]

What was volume 1?

 

[Dardan Sandiego]

What was volume 1?

Ask the Developer Vol 1 Game Builder Garage - Nintendo - Official Site

www.nintendo.com

 

[Donnie]

That was a really great interview. Also I've just realised I may not actually have an extra LAN cable in prep for tomorrow

 

[Gamecocks625]

While we were developing the SoC, we also had the idea to implement this feature of longer battery life together with a new model, like Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, but we felt that there was no reason not to launch it immediately when it was technically ready and would benefit the customers. Therefore, we have introduced these features as regular “improvements” to the Nintendo Switch

what’s interesting about this part is I remember one of the earlier rumors from Bloomberg back when the V2 model was released, that there were plans to improve the screen technology at that time. That never panned out with the V2 model but it’s interesting to see that was considered back then. Must have been where the rumors came from originally around that time back in late 2018, early 2019.

 

[Raccoon]

They acknowledge Joy-Con stick issues in part 4 and say that they have been incrementally improving them with unannounced revisions. Interestingly, they also say that the sticks are a custom component that you can't get "off the shelf."

 

[Epidemic]

Always found myself enjoying these sorts of interviews! There's something to be said about learning those assorted details that often don't get represented clearly on a list of features, as well as getting some context about various design and engineering decisions.

 

[Hidden04]

I hope they continue to conduct these interviews.

 

[Tron1]

Ask the Developer Vol 2 Nintendo Switch OLED Model - Part 1 - Nintendo - Official Site

www.nintendo.com

For those who don't know, this is the new name for the Iwata Asks-style of interviews. This time, they focus on the OLED model.

What was part 1?
I loved how they say they listened to their customers when developing this. Well, your customers were asking for performance improvements.

 

[WonderLuigi]

What was part 1?
I loved how they say they listened to their customers when developing this. Well, your customers were asking for performance improvements.

Part 1 was Game Builder Garage.

 

[mazi]

i wish these interviews were more frequent. would have been nice to have similar interviews for warioware, dread, etc.

 

[juuso]

It's interesting to read these kinds of insights for hardware design. Although Nintendo has been a bit more open about their internal development in the recent years, it has tended to be about just games.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Its funny how the SWOLED is in so many parts what people were expecting from a successor/Pro, except the SoC.
Still seems like a good investment since the likelihood of being able to use those Joycons as well as the Dock on a new Switch model down the line is quite high. I like it.

Having two Docks at home was always the dream hah.

 

[rAndom]

Quite an informative interview. I really love the details and how they explain their thought process when improving the hardware. Seems a very substantial improvement on many aspects.

 

[Kano]

They acknowledge Joy-Con stick issues in part 4 and say that they have been incrementally improving them with unannounced revisions. Interestingly, they also say that the sticks are a custom component that you can't get "off the shelf."

The fact that there are no widespread Lite drifting issues and less talk about drifting over the years as more Joycons are introduced to the market is definitely indicating this is true.

 

[Imitatio]

My latest pair of Joy-Cons (green&pink) has started drifting as well, albeit much later into their life than my OG grey ones did. I really hope the white ones on the OLED fare even better in this regard.

 

[Glom]

It is particularly great to hear about the CI with the Joy-cons and really this is how it has to be. I know some people wanted Nintendo to announce the Big Fix that solved drift forever more, but that's not how it works.

The truth is that ALL parts fail. It's just a question of when. 1 year or 100 years? 1000 hours of use or a million? The problem with the joy-cons is that far too many were failing far too quickly. But there is no fix that makes an analogue stick indestructible.

So announcing a Big Fix just leads to embarrassment when shortly after stories arise of it still happening despite it being much less prevalent. And then it leads to further embarrassment when the next step in the Continuous Improvement Programme is announced as a Big Fix to something you'd already implied was fixed.

So quietly keeping your head down and improving it bit by bit is the normal and correct way things happen.

 

[julian]

Not enough (laughs)