Topic: The Nintendo Switch Rumor and Speculation Thread

I do think experimenting with different JoyCon designs could be interesting. But I've thought that since the first NX rumours about detachable controllers surfaced. And pretty much all we got through the life of the Switch were those janky NES JoyCon.....

To be clear, I don't think they should go too wacky with the standard JoyCon on Switch 2. Maybe they add some new I/O to it that can be generally ignored. But I would still like to see some experimental alternative JoyCon. And if that has to be on Switch 2 now then so be it

I just want joy-con that don't incur drift after roughly 400 hours of use.

Surprisingly, all six of my joy cons haven’t experienced drift yet I’ve had them for two years!

@OctolingKing13

Mmm, fortunate.

I went through five sets in less than three years.

Clearly not designed for players with bear claw hands in mind.

@Magician That seems to be the general consensus I've heard over the years. After all these years, my tiny little baby hands are good for something! XD

With all due respect, what makes you so sure that you're right and they're wrong with this opinion?

Do you have any evidence to support your claim here that Nintendo's next console only needs to offer a boost in performance and nothing more, or that this is the route they are planning to take?

@BobLongRickTangle Your talking to the walk there.

@BobLongRickTangle I get both sides of this argument, but I do lean more towards Nintendo needing to close to hardware gap more significantly then before. I’m not asking for the best hybrid console specs wise possible, but if they can take advantage of the DLSS and AI upscaling, as well as a good chipset upgrade, I’m going to be happier then just them doing the bare minimum tech upgrade. At the same time, I’m going into this knowing Nintendo will pick stuff off the shelf that is a bit older and cheaper to keep prices reasonable. Personally, I just want a Nintendo machine that can run 1080p/4k and solid 60 FPS when docked, and maybe like 720/1080p, with as high as possible frame rate for handheld. But docked performance matters significantly more to me.

I’m also glad the President has confirmed this is a “Switch next model”, so we can stop the arguments of them for some reason dramatically changing course from what’s arguably their most successful console branding ever.

As for the console itself, I actually think Nintendo playing a more conservative upgrade is more likely than people want to think. Yes, this is Nintendo the very “wacky and unpredictable” company, but the leadership and management has significantly changed from the Wii U/Early Switch days. They’re not going to be the blandest company out of nowhere, but with the amount of success they’re seeing, why not play it safe? And to those who say “oh a similar console exists and it would be hard to market like the Wii U”, the entirety of the PlayStation and Xbox brand exist. It wouldn’t be shocking if this become’s Nintendo’s version of that, and I’m genuinely thinking they may call it “Switch 2” and start numbering they’re consoles.

@BobLongRickTangle
What makes me so sure they don't need some random hook and could do well with "just" a performance boost and little else?

(gestures at the existing Switch 2 fevor)
(at games skipping the Switch)
(at the emerging PC portable market)
(at Switch games with sub-par performance)
(at how the Wii U and 3DS ultimately ended)
(looks at the weight of existing leaks/rumours)

I don't know. I have nothing

@NarwhalKing Nothing wrong with a name "Switch 2" PS and Xbox does that but people don't cry foul when they started doing this so naming "Switch 2" just mean next generations. And I think the upgrade is more then people think it will be if the specs are forth coming it will use "AI" with "DLSS" to boost performance without taxing the GPU and CPU at the same time. I doubt this is a conservative upgrade if that was so then they would keep using current CPU/GPU setup. But this isn't the case as the Nvidia leaks and most recent hardware "maker" leaks tells of a different system differentiating from previous Switch Generations. If people want to be conservative they can keep using the Switch OLED models and not worry about Switch 2 for the rest that are waiting for the "so-called" upgrade to come.

@SwitchForce the CPU/GPU was always going to be upgraded in some way regardless of how weak or powerful people want the next console to be. The parts that make it up have become so old that producing them becomes less cost effective then making a new board with more widely available parts. The AI/DLSS is something I think will be used, but as per Digital Foundry’s analysis, it probably won’t be making it punch above the weight of like a PS5. I use the word “conservative” in the sense of Nintendo’s previous console to console generation where form factor, branding, features, etc shift dramatically, whereas a more conservative generational shift would be what seems to be rumored: building on top of the Switch branding and style, not adding some out of the box crazy feature that changes the entire play experience, and overall focusing on a power enchantment. My own personal theories extent to naming and thinking, as well as kind of hoping, Nintendo just sticks with the switch branding for life. It is the strongest branding for a console I think they’ve ever had, stronger then the Wii and NES even.

Redacted.

@skywake right, got it. So you've assumed that what you and others in the core Nintendo audience want for a successor system is the same as what the current Switch audience wants (you know, the one that Nintendo sold 140m+ units to vs. 14m/22m units it sold to the core audience during the Wii U/GameCube eras)?

What anyone claiming to be the 'real' nintendo fan on some message board wants is completely irrelevant to what's being done. The time for speculation has been over for 2 years, and GMLX30-R-A1 just put the final nail in the coffin and lit it on fire.

It's a more powerful switch.

@Fullstack I don't think anyone doubts that the successor will be a more powerful hybrid console. The question is whether more power is the only change Nintendo will make to the system.

@BobLongRickTangle
Nah. What I'm saying is that what we know for certain is that it's more powerful. What we're hearing from rumours and leaks is that it's physically compatible with the Switch. So it seems to me the most likely outcome is that what we get is a Switch but more powerful

And I believe that would be enough to do well. Which I think is generally supported by the amount of hype around the Switch 2 idea as we know it. The fact that the Switch has done and continues to do well. The fact that eventually the "hooks" you're talking about wear our and fundamentally what people end up caring about are, well, the fundamentals. Software support, hardware capabilities

I don't see how a Switch that is "only" more powerful fails. It's going to do fairly well I think. And it'll do well regardless of how much you and others in the "core Nintendo audience" continue to push this idea that more power is meaningless without some gimmick to drag it along

@BobLongRickTangle it also has a magnetic latching/locking system for the joycons now, if that does something special for you.

```MAGNET USED TO ATTACH TO THE GAME CONSOLE HANDLE, SIZE: 6*2MM/MODEL: HGU1010-110100/. 100% NEW PRODUCT - CCDC
MAGNET ATTRACTION FORCE TESTING DEVICE, 100-240V, YEAR OF MANUFACTURE 2024, MANUFACTURER: HOSIDEN/MODEL: HGU1120-1T/ 100% NEW PRODUCT - MMTB```

@skywake any "hooks" I'm alluding to here are the same type of hooks that the Switch brought to the table (the ones that lower barriers to entry for gaming).

The young family audience is by far the largest demographic for the Switch and accounts for a large bulk of the 110-120m units of Switch not sold to the core audience.

Nintendo will be asking themselves what the needs of this audience are over any other, so you need to ask yourself: Why did this audience buy the Switch in the first place, and would a more powerful version of the same thing be something that they'd be willing to shell out another $300-400 for?

@BobLongRickTangle
You're asking the wrong question. Fundamentally Nintendo isn't so concerned about converting someone who already has a Switch and is already buying games for Switch to Switch 2. Whether or not a person spends $80AU on games for Switch or Switch 2? To Nintendo it doesn't really matter. What matters to Nintendo is when people not invested in Nintendo buy into their platforms and when people who are invested in their platforms leave

Right now the Switch remains a fairly compelling product. Not as compelling as it once was but still fairly compelling. Switch is still around 35-40% of the total console hardware market, it's not the #1 product anymore but it's still doing fairly well. However something that was more powerful, I have no doubt in my mind, would be a more compelling product. As an example, a Switch 2 would be more able to pull in some people who would've otherwise got a Steam Deck or PS5 into Nintendo's orbit

Also we're not necessarily just talking about whether or not people buy the console hardware here. Software also matters. In two ways. Firstly in the sense that people who own multiple platforms will take into account performance when deciding which platform they will buy a game on. But also in the sense that developers will decide which platforms they are going to support based in part on the capabilities of various platforms. More powerful hardware, again, makes for a more compelling product. For example if Switch 2 had existed last year I would've bought Hogwarts Legacy on Switch rather than PC

Now to be clear I'm not ignoring the possibility of some kind of "Nintendo thing" that people such as yourself can point to and say "there's the thing". It might well end up having something. But what I am saying is that it seems very possible that it won't and, frankly, that's fine. Because a more powerful Switch is compelling enough. People aren't going to be saying "The Switch Neu looks good and all and the new 3D Mario looks great but I think I'm going to buy a PS5 because what I really wanted from Nintendo was a pupil based control scheme"