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

[Gerald]

Well, Google lied to me, an earlier post said they lowered the required specs.

Anyway you cant look at specs and said that something is impossible, console and pc are diffrent and devs can fully optimize console version

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Anyway you cant look at specs and said that something is impossible, console and pc are diffrent and devs can fully optimize console version

I mean, literally any port is possible. DD2 is possible if you remove tons of NPCs, it's just not the same game anymore. The issue is just determining when the sacrifice is so big that it strongly affects what the game is.

As of now, there are like two total games where you would probably have to make such huge sacrifices that it's not really the same game anymore (DD2 and BG3) and there's basically nothing announced that looks non-scalable other than maybe GTA6 so it's not a big concern for the Switch 2 right now.

 

[Dekuman]

I mean, literally any port is possible. DD2 is possible if you remove tons of NPCs, it's just not the same game anymore. The issue is just determining when the sacrifice is so big that it strongly affects what the game is.

As of now, there are like two total games where you would probably have to make such huge sacrifices that it's not really the same game anymore (DD2 and BG3) and there's basically nothing announced that looks non-scalable other than maybe GTA6 so it's not a big concern for the Switch 2 right now.

That is true, and a port can be made possible with a full rebuild as well but the resources required would be high. it's just that looking at pc recommended or minimum requirements doesn't tell you ease of porting though it may give slight hints, and ease of porting is probably the more important point than whether if a port Is possible.

 

[Gerald]

I mean, literally any port is possible. DD2 is possible if you remove tons of NPCs, it's just not the same game anymore. The issue is just determining when the sacrifice is so big that it strongly affects what the game is.

As of now, there are like two total games where you would probably have to make such huge sacrifices that it's not really the same game anymore (DD2 and BG3) and there's basically nothing announced that looks non-scalable other than maybe GTA6 so it's not a big concern for the Switch 2 right now

You cant said that something need to be remove or that some big sacrifices are needed beacuse in reality we dont know how powerful will be cpu

 

[Darknut85]

A potential Switch 2 game

Potential? More like guaranteed.

 

[darthdiablo]

Given the contracts between Nintendo an MS ... a potential Switch 1 game.

are they really going to be releasing it to Switch 1 this late in Switch 1's lifecycle?

I guess they might do that if they think it is wise to leverage on a console with 140 million units sold instead of Switch 2 (unknown)

 

[Dekuman]

are they really going to be releasing it to Switch 1 this late in Switch 1's lifecycle?

I guess they might do that if they think it is wise to leverage on a console with 140 million units sold instead of Switch 2 (unknown)

A long shot but if it does could be a hint of how crossgen/BC works with Switch 2.

More likely outcome is the game was targeting Switch 2 launch when it was originally slated for Q4 2024 and will be moved to the new launch date. Not ideal as users may hesitate if there is another cod coming in 2025 as well.

 

[Smash Kirby]

I mean, literally any port is possible. DD2 is possible if you remove tons of NPCs, it's just not the same game anymore. The issue is just determining when the sacrifice is so big that it strongly affects what the game is.

As of now, there are like two total games where you would probably have to make such huge sacrifices that it's not really the same game anymore (DD2 and BG3) and there's basically nothing announced that looks non-scalable other than maybe GTA6 so it's not a big concern for the Switch 2 right now.

Resident Evil 2, a two disc PSone game was ported to the N64 and played pretty similar to the original version.

 

[rick_C]

If PC minimum spec requirement can be used to estimate console requirement, then PS4 should have no games that have requirement around 750Ti.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Resident Evil 2, a two disc PSone game was ported to the N64 and played pretty similar to the original version.

I feel like it's pretty obvious how this port happened.



The FMVs were not really relevant to Resident Evil though so destroying their quality was fine.

 

[Dekuman]

I feel like it's pretty obvious how this port happened.



The FMVs were not really relevant to Resident Evil though so destroying their quality was fine.

It's a bad example. N64 was the same gen hardware as PSone and probably more powerful. The Impossible part of the port is squeezing 1.2 GB of data into a cartridge.

 

[Gerald]

If PC minimum spec requirement can be used to estimate console requirement, then PS4 should have no games that have requirement around 750Ti.

No game what release today cross gen should work if we go that logic, same with cpu

 

[Langstonboy]

It's a bad example. N64 was the same gen hardware as PSone and probably more powerful. The Impossible part of the port is squeezing 1.2 GB of data into a cartridge.

Way more powerful than ps1, ps1 sucked from a hardware point of view

 

[PeachyLaCox]

It's a bad example. N64 was the same gen hardware as PSone and probably more powerful. The Impossible part of the port is squeezing 1.2 GB of data into a cartridge.

I don't know what this conversation is about but I always use it as an excuse to show off that Eternal Darkness was originally an N64 title and looked amazing from the screenshots.

I know it probably has absolutely no bearing on what you were all talking about, but I have this compulsion to post this any time anything remotely involves the N64's capabilities

 

[Steve]

Way more powerful than ps1, ps1 sucked from a hardware point of view

if only the N64 used discs…

Same goes for the GameCube.

 

[Steve]

I don't know what this conversation is about but I always use it as an excuse to show off that Eternal Darkness was originally an N64 title and looked amazing from the screenshots.

I know it probably has absolutely no bearing on what you were all talking about, but I have this compulsion to post this any time anything remotely involves the N64's capabilities

I’m always shocked with how capable the N64 and GameCube were at the time, the only thing limiting them, were sadly the cartridge and mini disk.

But with the Switch 2 and the internet being able to download games.

I’m quite excited seeing all the games that will first and foremost be build for the Switch 2

 

[Machrider]

if only the N64 used discs…

Same goes for the GameCube.

If the N64 used discs it would have wiped the floor with the Playstation (performance wise and sales wise).

 

[Machrider]

I’m always shocked with how capable the N64 and GameCube were at the time, the only thing limiting them, were sadly the cartridge and mini disk.

But with the Switch 2 and the internet being able to download games.

I’m quite excited seeing all the games that will first and foremost be build for the Switch 2

I don't think mini-disc really limited the GameCube. If storage space was a big deal just print another disc, it costs like 5 pennies.

The N64 though definitely, if it had any kind of mass storage disc format, it would have trounced the Playstation IMO.

 

[SebastianRooks]

It’s better than the XSS in the GPU area (1536 CUDA Cores VS 1280 shader cores, Dedicated RT and Neural Unit VS No Dedicated Hardware), but while the CPUs in the AMD-powered systems are stronger, they need to be to get the results they’re getting because their GPUs are taxed harder. Those systems don’t have dedicated hardware on chip, so, the CPU grunt helps them to prevent some bottlenecks. The CPU won’t be a reason to stop games coming to or being ported to the S2NS. I feel that people are still falling into the trap of believing the PS5 is relevant in any way here. XSS is the true performance threshold that developers will target. Steam Deck for portable performance. S2NS will be capable of doing both/meeting developer requirements.


It’s a lock-in. Larian already has experience with Nintendo hardware, as Divinity: Original Sin 2 exists on the Switch, AND BG3 is coming to ARM-derivative devices from Apple. Also, a
Nintendo employee features on the game’s credits, so, there’s that. Unless you believe he was there to serve them Krispy Kreme Crack Donuts. There won’t be a single non-exclusive title in the PS5/XS libraries which couldn’t exist in some capacity on the S2NS, and I feel that more people need to understand this. None. Not One. Zero. Zilch.

As far back as 2021, there were whispers about the S2NS having a Lovelace GPU, but they were dismissed after being conflated with the lie that was the “Switch Pro” rumour mill. I would say there was no smoke without fire, though. It’ll have some elements, and the most probable lithography process will reinforce that it’s been developed alongside Lovelace products. It’s misleading to say it’s an Ampere GPU for those reasons, but it’s possible that they were used in earlier dev kits with “targeted specs”, so that software can be available on time. Nintendo will most probably call it “Custom Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU”, and leave it at that… and that’s all we really need to know, tbqh.

oh man, this really gave me hope for even more power, thank you

 

[darthdiablo]

if only the N64 used discs…

Same goes for the GameCube.

Gamecube used discs though? Or are you talking about full sized discs as opposed to mini-discs that Gamecube used?

 

[Steve]

Gamecube used discs though? Or are you talking about full sized discs as opposed to mini-discs that Gamecube used?

I’m taking about regular disk.

Since the PS2 disc were able to hold about 4.7-8.5GB, meanwhile the GameCube was only 1.47GB.

The PS2 also had the third party and most importantly was able to play DVD.

 

[Machrider]

I’m taking about regular disk.

Since the PS2 disc were able to hold about 4.7-8.5GB, meanwhile the GameCube was only 1.47GB.

The PS2 also had the third party and most importantly was able to play DVD.

I think the GameCube had bigger problems elsewhere. If you really wanted to put any game on the GameCube it was easily possible, even if it didn't fit on one disc, just use multiple discs, the cost was negligible.

N64 was a massive problem though.

 

[darthdiablo]

I think the GameCube had bigger problems elsewhere. If you really wanted to put any game on the GameCube it was easily possible, even if it didn't fit on one disc, just use multiple discs, the cost was negligible.

N64 was a massive problem though.

Correct. Gamecube had more than a dozen of multi-disc games, including RE4, Baten Kaitos, Tales of Symphonia, Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes, Tiger Woods 2004/2005. (I owned the first 3 on Gamecube).

 

[kvetcha]

Correct. Gamecube had more than a dozen of multi-disc games, including RE4, Baten Kaitos, Tales of Symphonia, Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes, Tiger Woods 2004/2005. (I owned the first 3 on Gamecube).

Shame Skies of Arcadia Legends wasn't one of them.

 

[darthdiablo]

Shame Skies of Arcadia Legends wasn't one of them.

I owned Skies of Arcadia too. Among top 5 favorite JRPGs of mine of all-time.

IIRC, the Gamecube version ("Legends" suffix) had more content than the original on Dreamcast (new bounty system, new discoveries, changes to random encounters, better presentation, etc).

I guess they were able to fit it all on 1 disc

 

[Mendinso]

The FMVs were not really relevant to Resident Evil though so destroying their quality was fine.

Actually, those cutscenes are really important, particularly the reveal of the G-Virus stuff later on. I'll note that they didn't "destroy" the quality, but used a very smart compression method to get it working well enough, given the circumstances (reducing fps to 15 versus 30, color data is stored separate from the video and patched in on the fly, decompression technique that is unique to the N64 version, and so on).

 

[kvetcha]

I owned Skies of Arcadia too. Among top 5 favorite JRPGs of mine of all-time.

IIRC, the Gamecube version ("Legends" suffix) had more content than the original on Dreamcast (new bounty system, new discoveries, changes to random encounters, better presentation, etc).

I guess they were able to fit it all on 1 disc

They notoriously had to compress the hell out of all the music to fit. It sounds awful, like a 96kbps MP3.

edit: allow me to self-correct. This is what Fandom has to say about it:

Musically, a major cause of the sparse sound isn't the disc space (as tight a fit as it was), but not porting the music properly to the GameCube hardware. It originally used the Cybersound wavetable synth/sound engine for music playback, but when they were porting it as Legends they ended up using the MuseX audio engine. Many of the effects applied by Cybersound at playtime in the Dreamcast version are missing or badly simulated on Legends, resulting in instruments that tail-off to silence unnaturally and other weird oddities like slightly off pitch instruments at times. Many tracks have incorrect volumes, resulting in quiet drums and buried secondary instruments among other issues.

Skies is one of my favorite RPGs, and I adore the soundtrack, so all this really stood out to me when I tried to revisit with Legends.

 

[KeijiKG]

In Nintendo's June Direct, will they mention at any games coming to their next-generation console?Although the console itself won't be showcased.

Directs mostly mention immediate products. If they ever talk about future platforms (not likely but for the sake of humoring you) the best you can hope for is a "one more thing" type of stinger and they'd discretely have to say it's a future product.

Otherwise, set expectations for things releasing within the next 6 months on the product you already have

 

[darthdiablo]

In Nintendo's June Direct, will they mention at any games coming to their next-generation console?Although the console itself won't be showcased.

I'm not expecting any mentions of Switch 2 at all, including for games that will eventually end up on Switch 2 too (I don't mean backward compatible, I mean games that will have their own Switch 2 versions like MP4 maybe).

The mentions of "oh by the way this game will also have Switch 2 version" will come later, after the Direct.

Skies is one of my favorite RPGs, and I adore the soundtrack, so all this really stood out to me when I tried to revisit with Legends.

They really need to do a re-release of Skies of Arcadia eventually. Remasatered, remake, whatever, I'd be a happy gamer.

 

[darthdiablo]

.

 

[KeijiKG]

Here’s a better video by Dame Tech regarding RE: Village and M4 iPad.



This test is bit above 1080p, Max settings and MetalFX set to Quality. The M4 iPad is almost always above 60fps. It’s very good for a passively cooled tablet but it’s obviously being throttled due to the lack of active cooling and therefore can’t maintain its peak frequency for longer periods.

The main take away here is that Switch 2 AAA ports will use more than 4GB of RAM. As for games like BG3, it will definitely come to Switch but there will be penalties applied. The A78C is not a powerful CPU but neither is Zen 2.

It bears repeating but mobile ports have come a long way from this.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Actually, those cutscenes are really important, particularly the reveal of the G-Virus stuff later on. I'll note that they didn't "destroy" the quality, but used a very smart compression method to get it working well enough, given the circumstances (reducing fps to 15 versus 30, color data is stored separate from the video and patched in on the fly, decompression technique that is unique to the N64 version, and so on).

Yeah, RE’s story blows and badly reducing the quality of its story sequences is fine.

 

[oldpuck]

Are there currently any PC games that require a higher minimum configuration than what is expected for the Switch 2's hardware?

I mean, PC games list their specs in PC terms, so there isn't a 1:1 comparison, especially for the CPU. I don't think the minimum speaks are super meaningful for what ports come. Witcher III's minimum PC spec is in the realm of Switch 2, that didn't prevent the Impossible Port. Meanwhile, The Witness, which would print money and has PC requirements beneath the Switch still isn't there.

 

[KeijiKG]

Yeah, RE’s story blows and badly reducing the quality of its story sequences is fine.

One could admire the handiwork of Angel Studios and still address the flaws of the port from an objective standpoint at the same time. Pretending the flaws of the port are acceptable just for personal reasons seems like a deflection more than acceptance but that's just me.

 

[gabeplays]

It’s better than the XSS in the GPU area (1536 CUDA Cores VS 1280 shader cores, Dedicated RT and Neural Unit VS No Dedicated Hardware), but while the CPUs in the AMD-powered systems are stronger, they need to be to get the results they’re getting because their GPUs are taxed harder. Those systems don’t have dedicated hardware on chip, so, the CPU grunt helps them to prevent some bottlenecks. The CPU won’t be a reason to stop games coming to or being ported to the S2NS. I feel that people are still falling into the trap of believing the PS5 is relevant in any way here. XSS is the true performance threshold that developers will target. Steam Deck for portable performance. S2NS will be capable of doing both/meeting developer requirements.

Agreed. XSS is the sweet spot of price/performance and it's still getting cross-gen ports to this day. It's absolutely what Nintendo needed to target for docked performance and all the leaks so far paint that it'll be those targets. A portable PS4Pro/SteamDeck and docked XSS is absolutely killer.

The XSS is bizarrely going to be one of the best things that's happened for Nintendo. The weird nature of the 9th gen and how few exclusives there are for PS5 means that the lion's share of titles will be seen on the new Switch. A lot has to do with the fact that everything's on fire and the AAA industry is unsustainable with astronomical budgets and development time. Even if it was possible, it's a good thing that Nintendo never tried to make a console that powerful even if they could. The console wars are eating Sony and Microsoft alive and I don't know why the heck there's a PS5 Pro when so many people still don't even have a PS5 to begin with.

In any rate, the new Switch 2 hits a lot of great sweet spots and nobody is going to complain that there are a few less polygons in Cloud Strife's hair.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

They really need to do a re-release of Skies of Arcadia eventually. Remasatered, remake, whatever, I'd be a happy gamer.

Seems like it pops up as a rumor every few years, then something will happen like Shenmue 1+2 not setting the world on fire and it sinks again.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Agreed. XSS is the sweet spot of price/performance and it's still getting cross-gen ports to this day. It's absolutely what Nintendo needed to target for docked performance and all the leaks so far paint that it'll be those targets. A portable PS4Pro/SteamDeck and docked XSS is absolutely killer.

The XSS is bizarrely going to be one of the best things that's happened for Nintendo. The weird nature of the 9th gen and how few exclusives there are for PS5 means that the lion's share of titles will be seen on the new Switch. A lot has to do with the fact that everything's on fire and the AAA industry is unsustainable with astronomical budgets and development time. Even if it was possible, it's a good thing that Nintendo never tried to make a console that powerful even if they could. The console wars are eating Sony and Microsoft alive and I don't know why the heck there's a PS5 Pro when so many people still don't even have a PS5 to begin with.

In any rate, the new Switch 2 hits a lot of great sweet spots and nobody is going to complain that there are a few less polygons in Cloud Strife's hair.

We're like two years away from the Xbox selling so badly in terms of hardware and software that devs don't even bother to port games to it, lol.

The Series S also has an extremely powerful CPU that the Switch 2 will never reach and we already know that the RAM bandwidth of the Switch 2 is 53.6% of the Series S.

The real helper for the Switch 2 are PC consumers who own very low spec computers.

 

[Steve]

The real helper for the Switch 2 are PC consumers who own very low spec computers.

Not really? In terms of optimisation it’s the series s.

Since PC and console market are entirely different and lower end PC consumers wouldn’t really affect the Switch 2 third party software.

But maybe I’m wrong and not educated enough about it.

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

Not really? In terms of optimisation it’s the series s.

Since PC and console market are entirely different and lower end PC consumers wouldn’t really affect the Switch 2 third party software.

But maybe I’m wrong and not educated enough about it.

Publishers growing to rely more and more on PC players means they need to have their art assets and game design scale down well to low end PC hardware.

This is very helpful for the Switch 2 as ports won't require redoing their art assets or lighting methods or level design if they can scale down to low end PC hardware.

The Series S is just a lot more powerful than the Switch 2 will be and the Series S probably has pretty horrible software sales at this point so it's not clear how long it will keep being supported by third-parties.

 

[Dekuman]

Publishers growing to rely more and more on PC players means they need to have their art assets and game design scale down well to low end PC hardware.

This is very helpful for the Switch 2 as ports won't require redoing their art assets or lighting methods or level design if they can scale down to low end PC hardware.

The Series S is just a lot more powerful than the Switch 2 will be and the Series S probably has pretty horrible software sales at this point so it's not clear how long it will keep being supported by third-parties.

Switch 2 having RT is the most important part in terms of making ports easier. Early reports seems to suggest it can do it well enough which means devs can at minimum port over the lowest quality version of RT to Switch to start then tweak it without having to redo their lighting.

Generally most devs will be developing games on engines supported by Switch 2, the porting process will largely be about making it run on Switch APIs but the assets are likely just ported over and there will be less of a requirement to redo geometry for Switch 2 , as many devs have done for Switch

 

[Concernt]

Series S probably has pretty horrible software sales at this point so it's not clear how long it will keep being supported by third-parties.

I haven't seen... Any evidence of this. Xbox Series sales are somewhere in the realm of half PS5, and a majority of those are Series S.

The sales split is an echo of last generation, and Xbox One got pretty much all the third party support it could ask for. We also have to keep in mind that sales of games on PS5 consistently underperform. The whole console market is kind of in the shitter, and while that might make you think "Oh just drop Xbox", game budgets being what they are, cross console porting being so much easier than they used to be, you kind of need your game on every platform that can run it.

Games are also more scalable than ever - nixing Series S support also means no Series X or Xbox Cloud Gaming (small compared to PS5 but still the biggest cloud gaming service by user count lol). Y'know how it goes. Shooting in the foot.

The successor to Nintendo Switch benefits from these circumstances too. Not many AAA developers can... Afford to not launch their game on every platform that can handle it, and the successor is right in that field of "can handle it". Games only built for the highest end PCs can't sell. So you need at least the majority of that market, at that point your performance profile is in the console range, and at that point, you get the idea.

 

[Giancarlo]

In Nintendo's June Direct, will they mention at any games coming to their next-generation console?Although the console itself won't be showcased.

no, Nintendo already stated no Switch sucessor games will be show on the june Direct

 

[Darknut85]

no, Nintendo already stated no Switch sucessor games will be show on the june Direct

Well, there could be cross-gen ones, but there won’t be a specific mention of Switch 2 in the Direct.

 

[Dekuman]

I haven't seen... Any evidence of this. Xbox Series sales are somewhere in the realm of half PS5, and a majority of those are Series S.

The sales split is an echo of last generation, and Xbox One got pretty much all the third party support it could ask for. We also have to keep in mind that sales of games on PS5 consistently underperform. The whole console market is kind of in the shitter, and while that might make you think "Oh just drop Xbox", game budgets being what they are, cross console porting being so much easier than they used to be, you kind of need your game on every platform that can run it.

Games are also more scalable than ever - nixing Series S support also means no Series X or Xbox Cloud Gaming (small compared to PS5 but still the biggest cloud gaming service by user count lol). Y'know how it goes. Shooting in the foot.

The successor to Nintendo Switch benefits from these circumstances too. Not many AAA developers can... Afford to not launch their game on every platform that can handle it, and the successor is right in that field of "can handle it". Games only built for the highest end PCs can't sell. So you need at least the majority of that market, at that point your performance profile is in the console range, and at that point, you get the idea.

series S also isn't going away, Microsoft will want both their platforms to be supported as a general rule and it's pretty clear the horse race 'fidelity' games at the top end is untenable and things are sort of falling apart for game devs right now.

If anything there will be a retrenchment towards games that can sell to the broadest possible userbase.
For consoles the benchmark is Series S, because if it can run there, it can very likely run on Switch 2 (potentially better depending on final clocks and other stuff we don't know about)

But i've always argued as long as devs are selling multiplats on PCs, a sufficiently powerful Switch 2 would have no problem getting ports. But the caution there is PC specs don't translate 1-1 to console specs

 

[Concernt]

series S also isn't going away, Microsoft will want both their platforms to be supported as a general rule and it's pretty clear the horse race 'fidelity' games at the top end is untenable and things are sort of falling apart for game devs right now.

If anything there will be a retrenchment towards games that can sell to the broadest possible userbase.
For consoles the benchmark is Series S, because if it can run there, it can very likely run on Switch 2 (potentially better depending on final clocks and other stuff we don't know about)

But i've always argued as long as devs are selling multiplats on PCs, a sufficiently powerful Switch 2 would have no problem getting ports. But the caution there is PC specs don't translate 1-1 to console specs

Yeah, Microsoft is shitting the bed vis-a-vis corporate management but Xbox is... Profitable. Some of their games, like Forza Horizon, have tens of millions of players - with something like half the playerbase on console. The Xbox ecosystem needs the Xbox console for a whole host of reasons. Without it it's not clear where Game Pass subscriptions would be when total subscriptions are near the 40M mark and PC subscriptions are in the 10-15M range.

The Series S has been Xbox's only source of userbase growth in years, Series X mainly sells to people who already had Xbox One. That growth in new users has led to sustained Xbox profitability by making up for the growing loss of the hardcore crowd.

Why would Microsoft cut off their own legs? Why would they allow a third party to do so by launching a Series X exclusive?

PS5 is not exactly outselling PS4, launch aligned. The console market isn't growing. The PC market of "gaming capable PCs" is in the ~100M range at best.

The Switch successor is one of the only ways that new users and revenue streams can realistically be opened for AAA developers, so why wouldn't they bring as many as they can to it?

 

[Maxrunner]

I was reading about system shock remake for series s and I'm considering buying it but if was to get a switch 2 port I would wait

 

[ILikeFeet]

I was reading about system shock remake for series s and I'm considering buying it but if was to get a switch 2 port I would wait

nightdive is a very good switch supporter. more likely to happen than not

and speaking of Nightdive, I can see them starting to use more advanced additions to their retro games now that everything supports ray tracing

 

[Ryuji]

no, Nintendo already stated no Switch sucessor games will be show on the june Direct

They didn't say this

 

[ItWasMeantToBe19]

I haven't seen... Any evidence of this. Xbox Series sales are somewhere in the realm of half PS5, and a majority of those are Series S.

The sales split is an echo of last generation, and Xbox One got pretty much all the third party support it could ask for. We also have to keep in mind that sales of games on PS5 consistently underperform. The whole console market is kind of in the shitter, and while that might make you think "Oh just drop Xbox", game budgets being what they are, cross console porting being so much easier than they used to be, you kind of need your game on every platform that can run it.

Games are also more scalable than ever - nixing Series S support also means no Series X or Xbox Cloud Gaming (small compared to PS5 but still the biggest cloud gaming service by user count lol). Y'know how it goes. Shooting in the foot.

The successor to Nintendo Switch benefits from these circumstances too. Not many AAA developers can... Afford to not launch their game on every platform that can handle it, and the successor is right in that field of "can handle it". Games only built for the highest end PCs can't sell. So you need at least the majority of that market, at that point your performance profile is in the console range, and at that point, you get the idea.

The issue is that Xbox software sales are total trash currently due to Game Pass.

 

[Lancelot]

PS5 is not exactly outselling PS4, launch aligned. The console market isn't growing. The PC market of "gaming capable PCs" is in the ~100M range at best.

That goes for Switch 2 as well, in case it wasn't already clear. Switch 2 will inevitably sell much less than the original, but not enough to keep it away from hitting that 100M range no doubt.