Nintendo Switch 2 (2024) (1 Viewer)

[Alex...]

Nintendo Switch 2 Already With Developers, Launching In 2024​

Nintendo Switch 2 Already With Developers, Launching In 2024 - Report

The next Nintendo console has been sent to developers ahead of a public release in 2024, it's reported.

www.gamespot.com

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Nintendo previously said they're going to have Nintendo Accounts transfer to their future hardware, which implies the Switch Online features (including games on the subscription) will be available. Wonder if this means we move to the point where GameCube and/or Wii games get added to the service at some point.

Wouldn't be surprised if the form factor is essentially the same as Switch but with new bells and whistles. I would love to see some sort of dumb dock that you can transmit to, like a reverse Wii U (play the game on the handheld but it sends video/audio to the dock to display on TV). But even if it's just a Switch but more powerful...it will be successful.

 

[Ruz-El]

Odd that the rumour is an LCD and not an OLED screen. Regardless, unless they completely poop the bed on this I might end up pre-ordering it which would be the first time in my life I've pre-ordered a consol. I love my Switch, got it for "free" with airmile points and will happily invest in the upgrade.

 

[Edwin-S]

I figure it will have a bigger screen. They may finally catch up to Sony and MS's 4 year old consoles in power.

Maybe this time around they will be able to make stick controllers that aren't complete shit. I found their "joy"con controllers completely unusable. I had to buy one of their pro controllers for it to be usable. I would only play it docked, because using the pro controller in portable mode wasn't practical. The portability was vortually unused because of the suckass joycons.

 

[LeoA]

I wouldn't hold your breath for horsepower in the neighborhood of the PS5 and Series X. My hunch is that the best case scenario for power puts it roughly comparable to the PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, and Series S.

I'd love to see GameCube and Wii games coming to Switch Online, but I wouldn't be surprised instead to see more projects following in the footsteps of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Skyward Sword HD, and the recent Pikmin 1 + 2 HD collection.

The Wii U well is nearly dry and these games are prime candidates for remastering, allowing Nintendo to fill gaps in their 1st party schedule with releases that don't take the level of resources of an original Nintendo release to develop.

That's all assuming that they're pleased with the sales of Pikmin 1 + 2 of course. If they decide this one underperformed, it very well could lead to GameCube and Wii titles becoming the stars of Switch Online's classic games service on the next system instead of being sold standalone for $50 a pop with a few enhancements like redone text fonts.

 

[Edwin-S]

I wouldn't hold your breath for horsepower in the neighborhood of the PS5 and Series X. My hunch is that the best case scenario for power puts it roughly comparable to the PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, and Series S.

I'd love to see GameCube and Wii games coming to Switch Online, but I wouldn't be surprised instead to see more projects following in the footsteps of Super Mario 3D All-Stars, Skyward Sword HD, and the recent Pikmin 1 + 2 HD collection.

The Wii U well is nearly dry and these games are prime candidates for remastering, allowing Nintendo to fill gaps in their 1st party schedule with releases that don't take the level of resources of an original Nintendo release to develop.

That's all assuming that they're pleased with the sales of Pikmin 1 + 2 of course. If they decide this one underperformed, it very well could lead to GameCube and Wii titles becoming the stars of Switch Online's classic games service on the next system instead of being sold standalone for $50 a pop with a few enhancements like redone text fonts.

I could live with PS4 level power so long as they come out with control sticks that are not ergonomic shit like the "joycons" are. PS4 games on the PS5 do not look that bad, so I expect a Switch with a PS4 level of power would look okay on a 7" screen.

I expect the Switch 2 to be slightly larger in screen size to make it more competitive with other portables now being released.

 

[DaveF]

If there’s a new Switch in 2024 for $349, I’ll probably buy promptly. I’m not playing videogame much these days, but six years with my Switch was money well spent and I’d upgrade figuring I’ll play enough to be happy with it.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I'm not sure how much bigger the screen would get. The Switch overall size is pretty optimal and anything much bigger might make it too big. Certainly can improve on the bezel but I think the basic dimensions are just right. Not being OLED is a shame but it's also not too surprising. The rumors were that it would be about as powerful as PS4 Pro/Xbox One X using AI upscaling to achieve 4K.

I don't think Pikmin 1 + 2 are good barometers for the sales potential of older games. Nintendo has been very open about the fact that Pikmin as a series doesn't sell that well. The Zelda and Mario series is probably a better gauge and I believe all of those rereleases/remasters have done well. Supposedly, the Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword HD remasters from Wii U are fully ported and ready to go on Switch whenever Nintendo feels like releasing them.

 

[LeoA]

Quite a bit of what they have available to work with falls in that same category, so I'd argue it's actually a good barometer in deciding whether to do retail remasters or steer much of their post N64 back catalog to Switch Online. Wave Race Blue Storm, F-Zero GX, Eternal Darkness, Chibi Robo, Luigi's Mansion, 1080: Avalanche, Excitetrucks, Endless Ocean, and many others aren't going to be huge sellers by Nintendo standards.

There's only so many Mario platformers and mainline Zelda titles to go around. But I don't really disagree with what you said even though it sounds like I am, since I agree that the sales fate of Pikmin 1 + 2 isn't going factor into Nintendo's decision to bring out something like Wind Waker HD, Twilight Princess HD, Super Mario Galaxy 2 HD, New Super Mario Bros. Wii HD, etc.

But for the many good 1st party GameCube and Wii titles that appeared in-between the huge sellers that topped the sales charts for months or even years on end, it's going to be something that I'm sure they're watching closely.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I honestly don't know if they're interested in pushing out more HD releases of GameCube/Wii-era games, but you never know with Nintendo. The 3DS was a massive success and they still chose to release Luigi's Mansion 3 for the Switch just a few years after it came out on the 3DS.

I could see them doing a sort of budget line of low-stakes remakes, heavily pushing them to digital, for GameCube and Wii games. A simple resolution increase and get their older engines running on Switch hardware, then update the controls a bit and put them out for $20 each or bundled like they did for Pikmin 1+2. Metroid Prime Remastered was a huge hit and the rumor was that they wanted to put all 3 MP games out, either quick ports for 2/3 if MPR was a mild success or more involved updates if MPR was a hit, so that might be a good taste of what they think about long-term.

Either way, I wouldn't be surprised if the Switch Online service starts adding either more non-Nintendo platforms (TurboGrafx-16 comes to mind) or expands to more recent platforms (DS games would be great to see, highly doubtful on 3DS or Wii games be anything other than retail releases).

They'll have new Mario and Zelda games coming in the future so releasing older games on new hardware is always a good marketing strategy to drum up interest.

 

[LeoA]

I honestly don't know if they're interested in pushing out more HD releases of GameCube/Wii-era games, but you never know with Nintendo. The 3DS was a massive success and they still chose to release Luigi's Mansion 3 for the Switch just a few years after it came out on the 3DS.

Luigi's Mansion 3 was a Switch exclusive and not a 3DS port. Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon (Luigi's Mansion 2) is getting a HD remaster though on Switch, which was originally a 3DS release. The later 3DS Luigi's Mansion was a port of the original GameCube game rather than a 3rd entry in the series.

Nintendo's large selection of remasters makes me skeptical that pattern will change over the next five years. But instead of generally being sourced from the Wii U I expect to see more GameCube, Wii, and 3DS remasters popping up (although the Wii U isn't quite done yet I bet; Besides the obvious Wii U Zelda remasters there's also Xenoblade Chronicles X along with hopefully Yoshi's Woolly World).

Of course if the Switch 2 is a big leap in power, I suppose the Switch itself could yield some source material for remastering. 60 fps Breath of the Wild is an obvious one that I think would appeal to a lot of people.

I could see them doing a sort of budget line of low-stakes remakes, heavily pushing them to digital, for GameCube and Wii games. A simple resolution increase and get their older engines running on Switch hardware, then update the controls a bit and put them out for $20 each or bundled like they did for Pikmin 1+2.

Sounds reminiscent of their New Play Control line for the Nintendo Wii. I could get behind that.

Even the simplest of these Switch remasters that according to Digital Foundry emulate the GameCube and Wii's GPU with only the CPU side actually recompiled to run natively on the Switch, go a long ways towards making these games look their best on modern television technology when the game is now running at 1080p.

However they decide to go about it, I look forward to seeing more of these resurface for today's audience.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

You're right about Luigi's Mansion, I forgot that Dark Moon was 2 and not 3. For some reason I thought 2 had already come out before Dark Moon.

If the Switch 2 were coming sooner, I could see a Tears of the Kingdom 60 fps patch and DLC announcement tying in with it. But that would mean waiting over a year after the release of TotK for that which is...a long time. BotW 60 fps patch would seem a bit late at this point. Hell, a Mario Wonder patch would even be late. Maybe their big launch game would be a new 3D Mario or Metroid Prime 4?

 

[LeoA]

Whatever they have primed for the Switch 2's launch, it's going to be something special. I'm looking forward to it, even if I'm in no particular rush (there's still so much I want to play on the Switch).

As for Breath of the Wild, I don't see a free next-gen upgrade patch happening. But I do bet we'll see a full priced retail remaster down the road that runs at 60 fps, a higher resolution, and with the paid DLC bundled in.

Not even necessarily on the Switch 2 given that it's almost assuredly going to be backwards compatible, but I'd say that it's just a matter of when a remaster of this modern day classic happens, not if.

 

[Alex...]

Rumor about the Switch 2 says the console has PS5 graphics, and possible launch game info.

Nintendo Switch Leak Reveals First Game, PS5 Graphics

A new rumor Nintendo Switch 2 rumor has surfaced online revealing a potential launch game and PS5 [...]

comicbook.com

 

[Edwin-S]

PS5 level graphics in a Switch? I'll only believe when I actually see it.

 

[LeoA]

I can't imagine a site like that having a real scoop on this topic. Especially one as unrealistic sounding as this.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Remember, the PS5 is already about 3 years old. I could see the Switch 2 being as or more powerful than a PS4 Pro with DLSS, making games "look" PS5-quality. I'll also note that at this point, how many games are ACTUALLY PS5-quality?

That said, the rumor being that FF7 Remake is ported to the Switch 2 but hasn't come out on any Xbox platforms sounds really believable, since it's Square Enix.

 

[LeoA]

Interestingly, Eurogamer is reporting that one of the Switch 2 demos that Nintendo has recently shown off privately is a "souped up version of Switch launch title Zelda: Breath of the Wild, designed to hit the Switch 2's beefier target specs".

No reason to view that as confirmation that we'll get that on Switch 2. If the rumor is even accurate, it's just a tech demo at this time after all. But I bet in a few years time it becomes a full fledged deal with a remastered BotW.

Makes one wonder though what might happen with the still recent Tears of the Kingdom. PS5 style paid upgrade, perhaps (I can't see Nintendo giving us a free next-gen upgrade, Xbox Smart Delivery style)?

A quick updating of this to take advantage of the capabilities of the Switch 2 would go a long ways towards filling the gap until the next original 3D Zelda, which isn't likely to appear until deep into the Switch 2's lifespan. Also would help keep this one relevant and near the top of the sale charts even as the audience transitions to a newer platform.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I doubt they'll remaster anything from the Switch, but could see them doing some patches for their biggest games to take advantage of the extra power or maybe a cheap upgrade fee. Perhaps some games run on Switch 2 with backward compatibility but a $5 upgrade gives you the Switch 2-native port with better graphics or something.

Nintendo also apparently showed up the Matrix demo that was on PS5, which is likely why it was described as being similar in power to a PS5.

And the newest rumor is that Nintendo is having a Direct next week for Tokyo Game Show where they'll announce a new F-Zero. Would not be surprised if it ends up being a Switch 2 game.

 

[LeoA]

With how big Nintendo has gotten into porting slightly older software for their latest hardware, I'd be shocked if you end up correct and they skip this opportunity completely or give it to us for free.

A new F-Zero? I want to believe, but that rumor has been floating around for months now and has yet to pan out. The rumor mill was claiming that it was a HD remaster of F-Zero GX a few months back, which would be welcome news (and a great candidate to port to the Switch) if it's actually true.