Not just COVID, the march of technology. It's relatively easier to downscale an Xbox Series S game to Xbox One than it is an Xbox One game to Xbox 360. Not just in raw performance but in how similar they are. Very few, if any, games NEED the "next gen" to function, and when you can do cross-gen and get more sales from it without a tremendous amount of extra work, you'd tend to do so.
There are vanishingly few gameplay concepts or games that simply can't function on even Nintendo Switch, and last Gen home consoles have at least twice the grunt of Switch. Like we see with Sega, it's entirely possible to make and publish games ranging from Switch to Series X, nearly two orders of magnitude, performance wise, and do well off it.
Nintendo knows this, I think, and will embrace cross gen in a way they rarely did before.
I broadly agree, although my particular phrasing of it would be that the growth rate of the average complexity of conventional major game design is slower than the growth rate of computing power.
But extra computing ability is such a shame to waste... still, I have trust in human creativity to work with what's available.
So I'm really excited for the prospects of
unconventional game design concepts. I want to see some of that lateral thinking!
For example, here's something that occurred to me today. Just like how when single core progression slowed down, CPU design moved over to multi core, I think that there's potential for multi-game/task design.
Imagine something similar to split screen couch co-op, but instead of 2 players, it's 1 player controlling both sides. The left side of the controller is used for the left side's input; the right side of the controller for the right half. Granted, this essentially asks for 'games designed to be playable with one hand'. So directions + few command buttons.
One example would be, say, turn based JRPGs with stories following two perspectives. Conventionally, maybe you'd be alternating between the perspectives. But if you have multithreading grunt to spare, why not play both simultaneously? Ok, reading text would be annoying; would probably need to like, use the touchscreen to maximize one side/minimize the other when it's story time. Or it's an opportunity for an attachment that's basically a return of that Game Boy accessory that was... a larger screen or magnifying glass? Forgot which.
Aside from that, platformers, shoot-em-ups, anything else doable with a NES level of inputs. Imagine operating two at the same time. Hell, would it necessarily be two of the same genre? No, I say!
dusts this post off... again
"Hmm, with the passing of Raquel Walch today, Fantastic Voyage now comes to mind...
eyes the Dr. Mario viruses They can be used. But how? The player is shrunken and then enters a patient's body to fight the the Viruses, yes, but what's the core game here? Maybe a Dr. Mario, but in 3D and the camera shifted to behind the player avatar, and you're moving about throwing capsules at the viruses (I must admit being inspired to a degree by that thread on Cosmic Smash). But is that
impressive enough? Does it give off 'can't be satisfyingly executed on base Switch' vibes? Probably not. May need to kick it up a notch; maybe multiplayer co-op along with cranking up viral density/load."
Here's one possible way for this example to further evolve:
Picture the base 3D Dr. Mario as the left side of the screen. Now I add another conceit: the main player ship has limited capsules to work with! Oh no, now what? Now there's a secondary vessel making supply runs to replenish the main ship's ammo. These supply runs can be a simple flying game of some sort. A shoot-em-up without the shooting; could be 2D or 3D. The key is it needs to be able to be played with just directions/ABXY. But do you
alternate between playing the two modes?
No. Simultaneous play is how this idea goes. Your left hand plays 3D Dr. Mario. Your right hand plays the resupply run game.
Bonus extension: Yaknow, Dr. Mario doesn't really need all that many input buttons, right? Even with the above, you probably should still have L2 and R2 remaining. Enter sub/mini-game #3: The manufacturing of capsules/loading up the next batch for the supply vessel. Assuming only two inputs to work with, it's gonna be super simple. What I
originally had in mind was something super lame, like waiting on automatic dice rolls and using one input to accept/refuse. But screw that, just remembered something while typing this paragraph; Game & Watch uses two buttons. Remember that G&W game where you're controlling a trampoline; moving left and right trying to bounce objects from one side to the other? Let's go with that. In this case, the objects will be halves of capsules with randomized colors. Every two halves you manage to bounce over to the right side completes one capsule. Letting a half drop to the floor has no consequence beyond it disappearing.
And remember, the conceit wrapping up all of this stuff is that all three are being played simultaneously. Ok, the screen will probably be cut such that Dr. Mario takes up half of the width and majority of the height, the supply vessel flying game is the other half of the width and same height, and the capsule bouncing game is full width, but only a minority of the height.
Yeah, somewhat, because ...
Okay, I'll put a quick couple things I'd like for the new console in response to
@oldpuck's earlier open inquiry.
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But you're right, I think. It would be incredibly difficult to keep up the growth.
By the way, the console case should be able to become translucent so I can see the pikmin hard at work maintaining the hardware and making it operate.
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Are we 100% sure this is going to be a new switch could it be something different other than the same tablet form factor
Strictly speaking, the design points towards a low power device, and it explicitly has the ability to be hooked up to another display.
I mean sure, there could be a timeline out there where this thing is a Nintendo thin and light laptop. But history would suggest high likelihood for tablet again.
www.techpowerup.com
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