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

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P4bl0 said:
Judging by this logic, in a context of smooth next-gen transition tell me when is Nintendo supposed to announce and release Switch 2 without damaging their Switch 1 sales ?

Cause If Nintendo announce Switch 2 and the line up before reassuring Switch 1 users that the console will be supported with games in holiday there will be backlash and bad buzz. Nintendo had to drop the holiday line up and even Spring 2024 teases for Switch 1 install base (130 million of users) before announcing anything else
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backward compatility, Nintendo will show the Nintendo Switch users they can play all the digital-physical games on Switch trough the backward compartility of the console, and also show the Nintendo Acount carry over everything for Switch to the next console and Nintendo promised they will suport Switch for 2-3 more years
 
Dekuman said:
Based on even the optimistic leaks (i.e. the spanish devs having access to a Switch 2 devkit ) and assuming they've had it for a while, it still takes time to develop a game, even if they already started on PC hardware mocking specs of the new device.

Realistically, best hope is we hear more news about devs having access to kits and details of the device continue to come out for the rest of the year.

Assuming this spanish dev is MercurySteam and assuming they were among the first to get kits, other 3rd parties may get theirs this fall. This gives them about 12 months to port/gets games ready for a launch in H2 2024, and still doesn't rule out an early 2025 launch.

I personally want 2024 launch, but the timeline based on dev kits going out now seems to hint more towards a H2 2024 release and if that's the case, they don't need to announce anything this year.
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Nah that's not really how it works. Devkits go out in a number of phases, and work on games can usually begin before any devkit has gone out, which is what SDKs are for.

We have no idea which version of the devkits these are but if they're far enough past the SDK phase that they're handing out actual devkits that usually means a reveal is probably happening soonish. Supposedly these even have controller ports, so they're not just like black boxes you hook up to a PC.
 
NEXT WEEK


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Lelouch0612 said:
2023 should have been dead and buried as soon as we got the last financial briefing. Between their words, and most importantly their forecast, it was pretty clear that they would ride the FY without new hardware.

To elaborate, their target is already ambitious (15M), to their own admission, and would be clearly unfeasible with a new hardware launch cannibalizing Switch 1 sales.
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People won't budge from their beliefs until July ends without an announcement. Some might even wait until the end of August lol
 
Mekanos said:
People won't budge from their beliefs until July ends without an announcement. Some might even wait until the end of August lol
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someone mentioned the September Direct previously. Honestly, I'll probably put this thread on ignore after this month if the goalposts are going to August or September.
 
Quoted by: D36
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Giancarlo said:
maybe, dont forgot Nintendo made us rebuy all our Virtual Console games in the Wii-Wii U generation
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I mean Nintendo didn’t make you rebuy the VC. If you wanted WiiU features then you could pay to upgrade. Otherwise Wii VC games could still be played on WiiU through Wii mode.
P4bl0 said:
And they flopped so hard with the Wii U, they won't reproduce same mistakes they said
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Flopping on the WiiU wasn’t hard. By the time of WiiU launch, VC was already having the wheels fall off. The WiiU accelerated the process to where we are now. I’m not gonna be surprised if they lift the upgrade idea though for certain titles.
 
Sometimes it comes up why people are so antsy for a new machine even though Switch continues chugging along well with solid software. Speaking for myself, I've got a jones for something new from Nintendo that has gone unsated longer than ever. Here shows, from the launch of the Famicom to today, how many days it's been since Nintendo released (somewhere worldwide) a machine that either notably changed processing or input capabilities. So: Famicom, Game Boy, Super Famicom, Virtual Boy, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, DS, Wii, DSi, 3DS, Wii U, New 3DS, Switch.
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Dekuman said:
i think they bombed because interest shifted to the Switch as a result of imcompatability in software.

If the Switch 2 not only have BC but it's implemented similar to PS5/ Series X/S BC where it's basically the same user experience under the shared account and purchases carry over and old Switch games work, and new cross-gen releases run on both, with the new hardware obviously running it better, then there could be the longer tail Nintendo wanted on the 3DS but never got.
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I agree with this. Plus I think it's not a minor detail that Switch software currently sells like three times as well as 3DS software ever did at its peak. So even if late software trends down big like 3DS's did, the result is still much better.
 
D36 said:
What does it even matter?
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because then I see no value in discussion.

It's something I've done before. I've even requested a threadban earlier this year. It's just my personal approach to discussion when I feel there is a lack of logic or relevance.
 
I personally feel like releasing the successor in 2025 is too late because the Switch would be eight years old by then and it’s unprecedented for a console to last so long without a next gen entry in sight. Like, is it possible? Yes. But I don’t see a world where Nintendo is forecasting tight sales for the Switch and not release a new console in 12 months. The OLED is practically carrying the Switch brand on its back. It’s the reason why the Switch is outselling the PS5.

Shuntaro Furakawa himself said that reaching 15 million was a bit of a stretch, but they’ll manage. And this is a year where Zelda released and Super Mario is coming out. If he said that with that knowledge, then I don’t think what Nintendo will do for the rest of 2024 without a successor in sight.

I’m sure they have games in their pipeline, but what are they gonna leave for the Redacted? Or will the second half of 2024 for the Switch just be ports and HD Remasters? That’s better off as a short transition period.
 
ziggyrivers said:
What’s the image? Doesn’t load.

—————

Edit: Nevermind, it loaded.

Where is that image from?
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International Business Machines Corp. is prioritizing helping Japan's chipmaking startup Rapidus Corp., with a senior executive describing the budding foundry business as vital to securing long-term global supply.

Rapidus, a venture backed by some of Japan's biggest electronics firms, is turning IBM's 2-nanometer chip design into production-ready silicon and aims to fabricate such chips at scale in the latter half of this decade. The most advanced semiconductors today are built at the larger 3nm node.

"When it comes to 2nm technology, we are focusing our efforts on Rapidus and investing a great deal of resources to this project, even sacrificing some capacity that we could have used in other research," IBM Japan's Chief Technology Officer Norishige Morimoto told Bloomberg News in an interview. "We want Rapidus to succeed. We want it to contribute to a stable supply of the chips we and the world need."

Rapidus is a quasi-public project that got its start last year as a venture to build out Japan's local chipmaking capacity at a time of rising geopolitical tensions and protectionism. It has the government's support and is led by veterans of the semiconductor supply chain, including Tetsuro Higashi, the former chairman of Tokyo Electron Ltd., and Atsuyoshi Koike, the former Japan president of Western Digital Corp.

The daunting task ahead of them is to create a world-class chipmaking foundry — fabricating silicon for outside customers — to catch up with industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. within a handful of years. The duo have drawn investment from companies including Toyota Motor Corp., Sony Group Corp. and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. Rapidus is working with IBM and Belgium-based microelectronics research hub IMEC.

Rapidus engineers have been dispatched to IBM's Albany NanoTech Complex to design 2nm mass production lines while its factory is being built in Hokkaido, accelerating the development process. The Japanese firm expects to invest ¥5 trillion ($35 billion) in its 2nm project, roughly matching the annual outlay of TSMC and fellow leading chipmaker Samsung Electronics Co.

IBM would be open to helping Rapidus lock up further deals with major chip firms. "We won't rule out any options as long as they match with our business needs," Morimoto said. IBM also provides chipmaking technology to Samsung's foundry division.
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"Rapidus and Samsung are on the same platform as they both use IBM technology, and it's very possible the two can strike a win-win partnership as their business models are quite different," Omdia analyst Akira Minamikawa said.

IBM provides Rapidus key process technology that enables 2nm chip nodes and beyond, using a new type of transistor composition called nanosheet. Jumping forward to such advanced geometries is a huge leap from Japan’s existing capacity, which trades in more mature nodes like 40nm, but Morimoto is confident in the country's deep roster of seasoned chip engineers.

Semiconductor demand is set to keep growing as a post-Covid recovery takes hold and the artificial intelligence boom drives the need for more memory and computing power.
Global revenue is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2030, doubling in the space of a decade, according to Inna Skvortsova, market analyst at industry body SEMI.

Presently, only Samsung and TSMC can produce the most advanced chips and there's widespread interest — from Washington to Beijing and Brussels — in adding more redundancy to the sources of supply. Rapidus would ideally offer a third option and, moreover, should be welcomed by the industry leaders who have struggled to meet demand, Morimoto said.

"We know from our own experience that providing the newest generation of chips is not something that one company can handle alone," he said. "Both TSMC and Samsung will welcome Rapidus joining the club of cutting-edge chip manufacturers because, as things stand now, they are making customers wait. Rapidus taking some orders from them wouldn't be a problem."

TSMC Chairman Mark Liu has said he doesn't see Rapidus as a competitor, as the Japanese chipmaker will focus on fostering engineering talent.

— With assistance by Takahiko Hyuga and Debby Wu
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Skittzo said:
Nah that's not really how it works. Devkits go out in a number of phases, and work on games can usually begin before any devkit has gone out, which is what SDKs are for.

We have no idea which version of the devkits these are but if they're far enough past the SDK phase that they're handing out actual devkits that usually means a reveal is probably happening soonish. Supposedly these even have controller ports, so they're not just like black boxes you hook up to a PC.
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As I've said before, since the SOC was taped out over a year ago, the dev kits currently being distributed are more than likely final, or at the very least, finalised boards with debugging hardware, case be damned. However, I would tend to lean towards "finalised". The Intelligent Systems Nitro Emulator (DS Development Kit) and NX SDEV (Nintendo Switch Development Kit) both had finalised shells and hardware ~1 year out from launch.

Unless you're thinking 2025, it would make sense that the kits going out are finalised. Though I do wonder; DOES the next generation "SDEV" equivalent have a controller port? The leaks suggest it's using a "Pro Controller", which I presume means a USB connected Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, but Nintendo Switch Development Kits use the Wii Accessory Port as "controller ports" and originally (and perhaps even still do) come with Wii Classic Controller Pro.

I would definitely welcome the final total phase out of the Wii Classic Controller Pro, Wii Accessory Port, etc. Nintendo has been carrying around weird legacy weight from the Wii era for too long. In 2018 the official ethernet adaptor advertised alongside Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the Wii Ethernet to USB Adaptor...

A little off track, but, point is, it's likely that the dev kit in question has USB ports rather than controller ports, and uses Nintendo Switch Pro Controller as standard until Nintendo reveals the new controllers.
 
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NateDrake said:
I don't know enough about Nash Weedle's prior claims, but I remember someone DMing back in 2022 a claim they made about Everybody 1-2 Switch being tested for new hardware & being held back for said new hardware to utilize the new features of the controller. They had also sent me tweets about info Weedle claimed to know about something named Nintendo Loop or something similar to that branding.

Here's the Everybody 1-2 Switch tweet claim I'm referencing:

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I remember it was me!
 
Dakhil said:

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So this is very interesting. In a decade or so we will have Us, Eu and Japan foundries. I guess TMS and Samsung are a bit reliefed since they have an edge in tech, and opening foundries is not cheap.
For Nintendo (an IBM partner for so long) this is could be god send for switch 3.
 
Concernt said:
As I've said before, since the SOC was taped out over a year ago, the dev kits currently being distributed are more than likely final, or at the very least, finalised boards with debugging hardware, case be damned. However, I would tend to lean towards "finalised". The Intelligent Systems Nitro Emulator (DS Development Kit) and NX SDEV (Nintendo Switch Development Kit) both had finalised shells and hardware ~1 year out from launch.

Unless you're thinking 2025, it would make sense that the kits going out are finalised. Though I do wonder; DOES the next generation "SDEV" equivalent have a controller port? The leaks suggest it's using a "Pro Conteoller", which I presume means a USB connected Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, but Nintendo Switch Development Kits use the Wii Accessory Port as "controller ports" and originally (and perhaps even still do) come with Wii Classic Controller Pro.

I would definitely welcome the final total phase out of the Wii Classic Controller Pro, Wii Accessory Port, etc. Nintendo has been carrying around weird legacy weight from the Wii era for too long. In 2018 the official ethernet adaptor advertised alongside Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was the Wii Ethernet to USB Adaptor...

A little off track, but, point is, it's likely that the dev kit in question has USB ports rather than controller ports, and uses Nintendo Switch Pro Controller as standard until Nintendo reveals the new controllers.
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That’ll depend on whether Nintendo still has a bunch of Wii U Pro Controllers and Wii accessory ports in their own stock to utilize. It’s a perfectly functional bit of tech, no sense on spending more money if they’ve still got good parts to use up.
 
Terrell said:
That’ll depend on whether Nintendo still has a bunch of Wii U Pro Controllers and Wii accessory ports in their own stock to utilize. It’s a perfectly functional bit of tech, no sense on spending more money if they’ve still got good parts to use up.
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The Wii U Pro Controller is not compatible with the Wii Accessory Port. As for production and provision, the Wii Accessory Ports and Wii Classic Controllers were kept in production for the purposes of testing, but only for testing, and continued to be produced and distributed well into the Nintendo Switch lifespan as part of the SDEV Development Kit.

There aren't random warehouses full of the stuff, they fulfilled a purpose. Before Nintendo Switch launched, Nintendo did not have an official controller that used USB. Now they do, so there's no reason, economic or technical, to stick with the Wii Classic Controller Pro, over the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, and a bunch of benefits to the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, like its motion controls, NFC, etc. devs might want to use or test.
 
LoneRanger said:
I think Nintendo can push Next Level Games for next LM to be a 3D game with free camera movement. Switch NG potential HW can make a very pretty/ambitious game and LM3 proved to be a +10 million seller. I think its worthy to give it more budget.

Something like RE4R or Village visual fidelity but more cartoon of course.
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Fixed cameras can allow you to push greater fidelity on a screen at once, which can't apply as much for free cameras. There's also hiding stuff in plain sight and certain design things fixed cameras can facilitate instead of free cameras, like a greater emphasis on using the entire arena space for bosses in a more natural way. I don't necessarily think fixed camera is unambitious. Now that being said, free camera would have its own benefits so it's not exactly all bad, but fixed cameras have their places in gaming still.
 
menx64 said:
So this is very interesting. In a decade or so we will have Us, Eu and Japan foundries. I guess TMS and Samsung are a bit reliefed since they have an edge in tech, and opening foundries is not cheap.
For Nintendo (an IBM partner for so long) this is could be god send for switch 3.
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Can’t wait for Switch 3

#Team2029 or #Team2030 ?
 
mjayer said:
If it’s real that puts us closer to late 2024 or even 2025 cause the Switch dev kits looked like a Switch… unless Nintendo is really going back to home consoles.
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Maybe they have different dev kits for different studios depending on their trust
 
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Concernt said:
The Wii U Pro Controller is not compatible with the Wii Accessory Port. As for production and provision, the Wii Accessory Ports and Wii Classic Controllers were kept in production for the purposes of testing, but only for testing, and continued to be produced and distributed well into the Nintendo Switch lifespan as part of the SDEV Development Kit.

There aren't random warehouses full of the stuff, they fulfilled a purpose. Before Nintendo Switch launched, Nintendo did not have an official controller that used USB. Now they do, so there's no reason, economic or technical, to stick with the Wii Classic Controller Pro, over the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, and a bunch of benefits to the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, like its motion controls, NFC, etc. devs might want to use or test.
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Sorry, got my head on wrong, I meant Wii Classic Controller Pros.
And actually, yeah, there are random warehouses of old parts, they are kept to fulfill repairs while Nintendo continues to service said hardware (and for Wii and Wii U systems, support continued until March of 2020). If they found they had retained a surplus, however, they could use existing parts to burn through said surplus, like they did with SDEV.

It's not likely, because in 2023, most of that surplus should have dried up (especially with the end of Wii/Wii U hardware repair service), but it's not an impossibility. Nor is it some impediment as you suggested, either, because a port is a port and if it works, it works.
mjayer said:
If it’s real that puts us closer to late 2024 or even 2025 cause the Switch dev kits looked like a Switch… unless Nintendo is really going back to home consoles.
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First, it's FUD. Second, the final-final kits looked like a Switch permanently bolted to a dock with a bunch of ports in it, but those were not distributed until 2016. The SDKs issued prior to that were not of similar form factor, to my knowledge.
 
PlasmaOne said:
99% chance this is fake, but just wanted to share

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Yeah absolutely fake, scrollders are a dead giveaway.

People need to stop looking at old unused patents to come up with ideas for what Nintendo will use. If they didn't use those patents before they were published they will not use them afterwards.
 
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