Topic: The Nintendo Switch Rumor and Speculation Thread

@Grumblevolcano Yeah, that makes sense. The biggest worry for third parties is not being able to make a sellable product (not the same as a quality product, unfortunately). Now, we may as well go by all the rumours if we are running with this one. The delay was to 'take games to another level.' That sounds like ker-ching to me. And if a company is on such a shoe string budget, then they really should be targetting established consoles with bigger user bases yadda yadda I'm sending myself to sleep. Who cares? None of it is even real yet lmao!

I think there are lots of true indie devs (term is getting overused these days, in my opinion) who would be happy to keep releasing on the original Switch given its massive install base and sort-of guaranteed sales floor for certain types of games with decent marketing and eShop visibility.

@rallydefault
Yeah, and I would suspect that the hypothetical indie Dev who's going "solo" as per the scenario @GrailUK outlined wouldn't be betting on Switch 2 at this point anyways. Switch is a far safer platform, especially if your target was late this year/early next year and presumably there's reasonable BC on Switch 2

The developers taking that kind of gamble on Switch 2 will be taking on more ambitious projects I assume. I don't expect there to be too many of them right out of the gate. Excluding multi platform ports, enhanced versions of Switch titles and first party stuff

If small developers are betting the house on their launch Switch 2 title? More power to them. But it's still one hell of a gamble and the supposed "delay" doesn't really change that equation either way. I don't expect there to be many of them

Depends on what else you're doing with it. What I will say is that my desktop has an underclocked 1660Ti which, from a GPU perspective, is not that far off where we're expecting Switch 2 to land. When I run (cough) legally acquired versions of some Nintendo titles through it rendering them at 4K really isn't much of a task

A couple of specific examples, hard to do because a lot of these titles have locked framerates. The Wii U version of Mario Kart 8? I need to crank the render resolution to 8K with the level of detail also turned up fairly high before I dip under 60fps. GPU isn't maxed out by any stretch but it's definitely doing work. 4K? Locked 60fps, very stable, no effort. My monitor on this box is only 1440p so I can't take a screenshot at that resolution but.... fair to say, even at 1440p output, it's more pixels

If I step back to Wii/GC emulation I can crank the resolution as high as I want and I'm not dropping under the hard-coded framerate caps. And I'm not really seeing much resource usage either. But that shouldn't surprise. If Wii U tier isn't hard at 4K then GC/Wii tier isn't going to be a task. And worth noting, all of this is emulation. This is how these games in relatively sub-optimal setups. Switch 2 won't have the same handicap

So yeah, assuming they're not also increasing the level of detail you could very easily see 4K/90Hz+ GC tier titles. With HDR (because HDR isn't hugely expensive). The question is more that, other than maybe a NSO style service, would that be enough? Do we want Luigi's Mansion as it was on GC running at 4K/90fps on Switch 2? Or do we want Luigi's Mansion Remastered with the level of care that was given to Metroid Prime? Because I know what I want.... and it isn't the 4K version

Honestly Metroid Prime Remastered was overrated. Prime 1 was great and Remastered does look nice, but it only looks slightly nicer and I was looking for CONTENT improvements, not graphical improvements. If Prime Remastered is the kind of jump we can expect from Switch 2 remakes, I'd rather have NSO ports, a remake like Prime Remastered feels like a waste of $60. If I want a remake, I want it to be more Zero Mission/Samus Returns and less Prime Remastered.

@Bolt_Strike
I'd rather a Metroid Prime Remastered effort than a Pikmin 1/2 effort. But each to their own I guess. If I wanted to play the original version as it was I'd play the original version, I wouldn't buy it again

If it's NSO where it's part of a service? Straight ports are fine. But let's be honest, that's not what we're likely talking about here. That's not what we've seen for Wii/GC tier releases to date. They'll be charging at least $20 for these

Not technically a Switch rumour, but more rumours of an xbox handheld which seems relevant:

https://www.ign.com/articles/as-official-xbox-handheld-rumors...

I think it's time Phil Spencer steps down if that is his idea of having vision for a brand. "Oh, that's good...would be better if it's XBox" is very rich kid thinking at best, souless at worst.

I can see an Xbox handheld being a relatively cheap PlayStation Portal type device that can stream games from your Xbox, BUT also comes with the ability to play cloud streamed Gamepass games, it'd probably come with a years free subscription to Gampass Ultimate. But probably not be able to play games under it's own power.

Not for me personally but might be somewhat popular.

@Coversnail
Nah, I think they go for a full on XBox style OS on a portable x86 machine. Basically a Steam Deck but with access to the XBox library in combination with GamePass and cross-buy over PC/XB/XB-Portable

Can see it happening from a mile away. And frankly I think it'll both do well and, also, be a serious threat to Switch 2. At least in the US

I was a mod back then. I ran a tight ship when it came to duplicate threads. Didn't get much of my actual work done, but dayum was I on it when it came to duplicate nx threads.

I am getting tired of Switch 2 rumors... (I say this knowing full well that I feed the clickbait by clicking every article about it)

@CaleBoi25 It's gotten to a weird point where I'm both tired of the rumors and also want more of them because it's so fun turning new claims around in my head. (It's going to be so surreal when this thing actually launches)

Also, I really wish I had any incentive to care about Xbox. I would love to have excitement for other platforms but it kind of feels like a failure on the company's part when I cannot see the appeal of their products despite actively trying to be interested. It definitely could just be a preference thing but even then it's at least a little bit of a variety problem.

An XBOX handheld is interesting - wondering if it would be able to hold COD (at 200 GB) out of the box or require additional storage? That being said, would COD on Switch 2 be equally massive? @chiiizu I feel the same way - through the years of speculation - I'm ready to know what is actually coming.
If the XBOX rumors are true, I think it is good for gaming, but I doubt that I would consider picking it up...I'd be more likely to grab the Steamdeck...

@FishyS wasn’t an Xbox hybrid for 2028 leaked in the activation blizzard thing? (although that was also with their plans to buy Nintendo 💀)

@chiiizu Same here, I can't find any real reason to pick up a PS or XBox.

@chiiizu I would be interested intellectually if xBox more directly tries to compete with Nintendo, but I would have zero interest in actually buying such a device. I have no interest in services like Game Pass and the few Microsoft franchises I like have consistently been shared with Nintendo anyways. There are a few PS5 exclusives I would like but the big weird looking tower has always kind of turned me off. 😆 Plus, fundamentally, I don't have time to play every game in existence and Switch already has nigh-infinite games so the pull to PS is very weak.

@FishyS
I'm kinda in the same boat. A portable XBox is an interesting idea and I'd like to see them do it because it'll surely push the industry harder in that direction. But XBox isn't for me. If I am to buy a locked down platform like a console it has to offer something super compelling, Nintendo has their IP to get me over the line. Microsoft doesn't

But if Microsoft competing against Valve here means portable gaming PCs get cheaper? I'm here for it. And at the very least a portable XBox, at the right price, would be far more tempting than any tied down console that could easily be replaced by a PC paired with a quality controller

@FishyS
PS5s look MASSIVE in person. Seriously. Saw one in a Best Buy a couple months ago and was honestly shocked. Thing's a beast.

@FishyS I only use Xbox nowadays because of decisions I made back in the 360 era, even more so with the new multiplatform strategy. That initial 4 games lineup made me come to the conclusion I can just wait for Xbox 1st party games I'm interested in to come to Nintendo hardware.

PS5 is a difficult situation. I have been tempted by the sales that occurred last year because of exclusives like FFXVI, FFVII Remake trilogy, some PS Studios stuff, etc. but came to 4 conclusions:
1. Don't even have enough time to make the most out of Switch, let alone adding on PS5 to the mix
2. Will any exclusives become multiplatform such as would we see something like FFXVI as a Switch 2 launch title?
3. Jim Ryan's live service push concerns me about the future
4. The PS5 Pro rumours, would I be better off waiting for it instead of getting the current model and then there's the talk about PS6. An endless cycle of hardware making it complicated when to jump in.

So in the end, I held off on PS5.