• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

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

Reader mode
Individualised said:
It would be nice for Necro to elaborate on this. I don't think Nash's tweet means anything at all ("one step further" is a prime example of one of his meaningless filler phrases) but I'm guessing Necro has heard something that coincides with the timing of that tweet.
Click to expand...
He did just say the SDK was updated, so something definitely happened.
 
Concernt said:
He did just say the SDK was updated, so something definitely happened.
Click to expand...
I’m curious with how developers feel about the switch 2, since there’s been reports on developers feeling underwhelmed by the PS5 pro in GDC.

Loading…

www.reddit.com

Will they be pleased by the hardware and DLSS or might there be some hurdles to overcome when it comes to developing the switch 2.

Like this isn’t a GameCube/Wii U situation where the hardware was rushed out the gate. (Rushed Via software)
 
Steve said:
I’m curious with how developers feel about the switch 2, since there’s been reports on developers feeling underwhelmed by the PS5 pro in GDC.

Loading…

www.reddit.com
Click to expand...
There is a fundamental difference between an upgrade and a new platform, they aren't very comparable at all.

Steve said:
Will they be pleased by the hardware and DLSS or might there be some hurdles to overcome when it comes to developing the switch 2.
Click to expand...
My hope will be a resounding "Yes" to both questions. In terms of being a mass market hybrid/ low power device, the specs are awesome. Also, since it's a low power device, hurdles are inevitable when porting down from much higher powered devices. But the payoff is hopefully worth it.

Steve said:
Like this isn’t a GameCube/Wii U situation where the hardware was rushed out the gate. (Rushed Via software)
Click to expand...
Agree.
 
Dakhil said:
Take this with a grain of salt since this is only act 1 of Baldur's Gate 3.


But I assume 1080p 30 fps is the absolute minimum to expect Nintendo's new hardware to run Baldur's Gate 3 without DLSS 3.x, etc?
Click to expand...

That be peak, since the games is extremely long, plus having the added portability would be nice. But it’ll depend if Larian is willing to make a competent port, since the Xbox port could have been better, especially with save files deletions glitch.
 
Hermii said:
So you trust the devkits have been taken one step further?

Is it a small step? A big step? what was the previous step?

Its entirely useless information without context, which Nash isn't giving us.
Click to expand...
I genuinely don’t care what Weedle said in his tweet. The fact that Necrolipe decided to retweet a leaker with no credibility is notable. When I asked him on Fami, he himself confirmed that he had heard something as well. Whether it’s the same thing Weedle is claiming, or an entire separate rumor(with Weedle bullshitting again), is really none of my concern.
 
Dakhil said:
Take this with a grain of salt since this is only act 1 of Baldur's Gate 3.


But I assume 1080p 30 fps is the absolute minimum to expect Nintendo's new hardware to run Baldur's Gate 3 without DLSS 3.x, etc?
Click to expand...


Good old optimization.
 
Dakhil said:
Take this with a grain of salt since this is only act 1 of Baldur's Gate 3.


But I assume 1080p 30 fps is the absolute minimum to expect Nintendo's new hardware to run Baldur's Gate 3 without DLSS 3.x, etc?
Click to expand...

In all fairness, Act 3 as a collective is the only egregious part of BG3's optimization on all platforms. With DLSS and a bit of fine tuning, it should run on Switch 2. I don't believe those graphics are of low quality tho, so I don't see it needing special optimization to run stably.
 
SoldierDelta said:
In all fairness, Act 3 as a collective is the only egregious part of BG3's optimization on all platforms. With DLSS and a bit of fine tuning, it should run on Switch 2. I don't believe those graphics are of low quality tho, so I don't see it needing special optimization to run stably.
Click to expand...
Isn't Act 3 CPU-heavy (rather than mostly being GPU-dependent) due to all the NPCs and their routines?

That said, yeah, last I remember they're still optimizing the game overall, Act 3 might eventually end up being more manageable for a wider range of machines over time.
 
darthdiablo said:
Isn't Act 3 CPU-heavy (rather than mostly being GPU-dependent) due to all the NPCs and their routines?

That said, yeah, last I remember they're still optimizing the game overall, Act 3 might eventually end up being more manageable for a wider range of machines over time.
Click to expand...
Yes, very. With time, it should get better, but it does seem like a very difficult to fix problem. They're also apparently diverting resources from a DLC to a new game (CEO was based as hell for that), but I imagine updates will continue until they're fully happy with the game's state. Larian seems to have a very limited relationship with Nintendo, the only release on Switch being Divinity Original Sin II, but I can't really see them avoiding the chance to put it on another current gen platform, especially since they've already put in the work to port BG3 to Series S.
 
seyfeselassie said:
Yoshi-P expressing interests about bringing FFXVI to other consoles after the PC version is finished. FFXVI is a pretty large game(90 GB), so I wonder how much it could be compressed for a potential Switch 2 version. Assuming it has to run on handheld mode as well, I'd imagine it would be pretty tough, a lot of assets would have to be graphically compromised. FFXVI was originally meant to come to the PS4 but it was pushing the console to its limits. The Switch 2 CPU and GPU would be leaps and bounds over the old PS4's architecture, so hopefully it would be easier to port. I wonder whether FFXVI or FF7R would be easier to bring to the Switch successor.
Click to expand...
Considering Switch 1 has already had games of 32+GB, and it's to be expected most things will be several times larger with higher quality assets, 90GB seems fairly reasonable for a large next-gen game. Moreso than the FFVII remakes. Whether the game cards are there to support it in physical form in full, that's up for Nintendo to show us. If games would be expected to all make it to 64GB or less, I think there'll be a lot fewer day one multiplatforms than people are hoping for.
 
Terrell said:
These things do not scale like that, file size changes are dependent on the assets used. It will be an increase, but isn’t likely to be a simple multiplier.
Click to expand...
I imagine Nintendo will try to lead with 64GB.l, when the time is appropriate.
Dakhil said:
Take this with a grain of salt since this is only act 1 of Baldur's Gate 3.


But I assume 1080p 30 fps is the absolute minimum to expect Nintendo's new hardware to run Baldur's Gate 3 without DLSS 3.x, etc?
Click to expand...

If the GPU is equivalent to a 3 TFLOPs nivdia GPU card..Supposedly Elite has a 12 core CPU that runs up to 3.8-4.2Ghz
www.tomshardware.com

Snapdragon X Elite Outperforms Intel, AMD, Apple CPUs (In Vendor Benchmarks)

Oryon takes on Raptor Lake, Phoenix, and M2.
www.tomshardware.com www.tomshardware.com
 
ERezaSwitch said:
nintendoeverything.com

Nintendo of America restructuring testing center, could impact over 100 contractors

According to a Kotaku report, Nintendo of America is restructuring its testing center. Some new full-time employee positions will be created, but a number of contractors are being let go – including testers with over ten years of experience. The gaming industry as a whole has seen a high number...
nintendoeverything.com nintendoeverything.com
Click to expand...
eesh even Nintendo is lay-off employees, if Saturo Iwata was still president of Nintendo, would never have happened
 
darthdiablo said:
We'll find out sooner than that probably. Shortly after launch (unless someone somehow scores Switch 2 unit earlier), we'll have teardown videos. That'll validate the customs data. And I'm confident it will, I don't know why anyone would fake that much customs data across multiple websites, lol.

* Hidden text: cannot be quoted. *
Click to expand...
ERezaSwitch said:
* Hidden text: cannot be quoted. *
Click to expand...
Does this mean anything in particular now that we know there has been a delay?
 
Giancarlo said:
eesh even Nintendo is lay-off employees, if Saturo Iwata was still president of Nintendo, would never have happened
Click to expand...
These aren't "Nintendo employees", they're US-based contractors so yes, it would have happened and has happened to Nintendo-adjacent workers in the past, under Iwata and otherwise.
 
Giancarlo said:
eesh even Nintendo is lay-off employees, if Saturo Iwata was still president of Nintendo, would never have happened
Click to expand...
From the press release:

These changes will involve some contractor assignments ending, as well as the creation of a significant number of new full-time employee positions.
Click to expand...

It's unclear how many new jobs are being created - I assume much less - but NOA's dependence on contractors for QA has been a problem. And the contracting company, Aston Carter, hasn't got a good rep either.

Turning those positions into Full Time jobs is the correct move. So is retaining as much of the existing contracting staff as possible, moving them into full time positions. I have no idea how much of that is actually going on, but the QA contracting problem has been ongoing for a few years, and I cross my fingers this is Nintendo getting its house in order.

From a tech/Switch 2 perspective:

The shift also comes during a recent “lull” in Nintendo of America’s testing department, three contractors told Kotaku. They said there had been no new major first-party games in the testing pipeline, and none of them were aware of anyone having hands-on time with the upcoming Switch 2, despite previous hopes that it would arrive as early as the second half of 2024
Click to expand...
Not sure how much testing NOA does above and beyond what's done by NCL/Mario Club
 
Giancarlo said:
eesh even Nintendo is lay-off employees, if Saturo Iwata was still president of Nintendo, would never have happened
Click to expand...
Others have pointed out the difference between this NOA situation and the other layoffs we've been hearing about -- contract workers not getting renewed as opposed to full-time staffers being kicked out, and some contractors are becoming full-time (wish we had an exact number for the new full-time positions, though) -- so I'll note that Nintendo of Europe laid off over 130 full-time employees as part of a restructuring operation the same year Iwata did his infamous pay cut.
 
Last edited:
Giancarlo said:
eesh even Nintendo is lay-off employees, if Saturo Iwata was still president of Nintendo, would never have happened
Click to expand...
(Note: I'm talking about this as if the above post is 100% serious because someone out there is going to act like this unironically)

The job losses were technically not layoffs, this is very different to the many other, far less justified, incidents in the past few years like with Sony, Microsoft and EA.

It still sucks, but it comes with the turf with being a contractor. The job losses at least happened after the contracts ended, got severance, and several people got full-time placements, which is very neat especially for how poorly QA are treated in the past.

Also, I want to point out that Nintendo of Europe also had layoffs... in 2014. After Iwata's comments. Nintendo aren't angels 100% of the time, especially in the case of the divisions in the West.
 
On other news, it seems Midori will stop sharing news and leaks from sega and Altus.


Despite that, she’s been absolutely valuable of giving us a hint of Switch 2 third party support, from sega and atlus and probably a glimpse of a huge influx of third party support for switch 2.
 
oldpuck said:
Not sure how much testing NOA does above and beyond what's done by NCL/Mario Club
Click to expand...
I assume that QA contractors aren't doing testing for unannounced games because of potential leaks. If Kotaku can just get quotes from multiple contractors, that represents a major potential vulnerability, and I'm not surprised that Nintendo is doing their best to prevent it.
 
OctoSplattack said:
Others have pointed out the difference between this NOA situation and the other layoffs we've been hearing about -- contract workers not getting renewed as opposed to full-time staffers being kicked out, and some contractors are becoming full-time (wish we had an exact number for the new full-time positions, though) -- so I'll note that Nintendo of Europe laid off over 130 full-time employees as part of a restructuring operation the same year Iwata did his infamous pay cut.
Click to expand...
i see, but isnt stranger, theres no game on NOA testing center right now? if Switch sucessor launch next year, shoundt be at least some games in testing
 
Giancarlo said:
i see, but isnt stranger, theres no game on NOA testing center right now? if Switch sucessor launch next year, shoundt be at least some games in testing
Click to expand...
It doesn't mean anything - there are good reasons Nintendo might seek to reduce contracting and convert some remaining workers to full employees, given the amount of negative news coverage their contracting has recently generated. Especially when Nintendo has other fully employed testers elsewhere in the company.

Let's try and think rationally rather than jump to conclusions that Nintendo somehow doesn't have a pipeline of future Switch/Switch 2 games.
 
There is no way Nintendo would just let them say to Kotaku “oh yeah we are working on testing the next system lol”. You don’t just break an nda like that, especially before you are technically gone
 
redmutineer75 said:
I assume that QA contractors aren't doing testing for unannounced games because of potential leaks. If Kotaku can just get quotes from multiple contractors, that represents a major potential vulnerability, and I'm not surprised that Nintendo is doing their best to prevent it.
Click to expand...
I think that's a little unfair - Kotaku's getting quotes about people losing their jobs, I don't think that indicates that these contractors (some of whom have been with Nintendo for a decade+) are especially leaky. They've been testing unannounced games for the lifetime of the Switch, and beyond.

NOA handles localization for US markets, which requires testers who are fluent speakers of the localization. ToTK was in NOA QA a year prior to release. There aren't, currently, non-contractors capable of doing this work, as nearly 100% of NOA's QA staff are contractors.

Perhaps the majority of QA is moving back to Japan, but as long as there is US based development, you will need US based testing, unless you want to introduce a 24 hour QA turn around time, and a language barrier.
 
Giancarlo said:
i see, but isnt stranger, theres no game on NOA testing center right now? if Switch sucessor launch next year, shoundt be at least some games in testing
Click to expand...
"no new major first-party games in the testing pipeline" could mean that just announced games like Paper Mario or Luigi's Mansion 2 are on the pipeline and no non-announced games are to be tested by NOA testing center.
 
epicmartin7 said:
Weird fact, some leakers who start out with bogus inside information eventually obtain legit sources. Emily Rodgers is actually a perfect example of that iirc.
Click to expand...
I never kept up with her but every post I ever saw regarding her leaks were wrong or if they were right she had already tweeted or claimed something just a few minutes after someone else so she was never the first to speak on it
 
oldpuck said:
Perhaps the majority of QA is moving back to Japan, but as long as there is US based development, you will need US based testing, unless you want to introduce a 24 hour QA turn around time, and a language barrier.
Click to expand...

Yeah I am guessing this is the most likely reason.

And there may be a "lull" in NoA currently, but I would guess that it's simply because Nintendo is continuing the trend of keeping everything related to Switch 2 very close to their vest at the moment. Once they announce/acknowledge/reveal they can be less cautious and ramp up the testing etc.
 
SoldierDelta said:
Zippo got a legitimate source somehow?

looks out window

Okay, the apocalypse hasn't started yet, but I'm keeping an eye out.
Click to expand...
I heard somewhere he kinda does but he doesn't verify the information appropriately or he spill the beans too early. So he can say oh Megaman Legend 3 is coming out, but plans could change because it was way too early to let out.
 
tetsugo said:
"no new major first-party games in the testing pipeline" could mean that just announced games like Paper Mario or Luigi's Mansion 2 are on the pipeline and no non-announced games are to be tested by NOA testing center.
Click to expand...
maybe, unless theres no major games coming to Switch and it sucessor, that why we dont have NOA testing the next 3D Mario, Metroid Prime 4 or any game that is planned to release on Switch this year and in 2025 for both Switch and it sucessor.
 
0
Hermii said:
Most of us would probably get 10% or more right, if we were guessing.
Click to expand...
Exactly, this is what makes them so valuable. At our speculation you don’t know if you‘ve to bet for or against us, but at fake leakers you can (almost) always be sure that the opposite‘ll happen. kinda /s but it’s true
 
Does anyone remember Vergeben from gamefaqs? I think he had a lot right. He was just too early. By time Banjo came out I think he left and few people recognized it.
 
Nash explanation on the delay
- They removed the camera to reduce cost 💀
This has to be the worst thing to say especially since such a thing was far from confirmed at any point
 
Reader mode
You must log in or register to reply here.
Please read this staff post before posting.

Furthermore, according to this follow-up post, all off-topic chat will be moderated.
Last edited:


Back
Top Bottom