General Switch Discussion

[LazyBoy]

I'm hoping compatibility with current joycons doesn't preclude the introduction of new, bigger cons -  they're too small! Chronic claw hand inducing smallness.

[Ashley]

15 minutes ago, Julius said:

Ethernet port would be big, right? 

Not as big as a dock that isn't as sturdy as one of those wobbly arm balloon men. That's huge!

[darksnowman]

1 hour ago, Julius said:

Ethernet port would be big, right? 

Less than half an inch, no?

[Julius]

Just now, darksnowman said:

Less than half an inch, no?

I was waiting for someone to say something like this 

[darksnowman]

15 minutes ago, Julius said:

I was waiting for someone to say something like this 

Sorry, it was all I had to contribute as I have had enough rumours and speculation to do me.  

Will ethernet speed up the take-off and landing procedures in Animal Crossing? I'm sure it will be negligible but I can only hope!

[Helmsly]

I’m glad it’ll have an Ethernet port, I’ve been using Ethernet connection on my switch via a adapter that I bought a few years ago and the difference between how reliable the internet is from playing games via that instead of the switch’s WiFi is night and day from my experience.

[Nicktendo]

1 hour ago, Helmsly said:

I’m glad it’ll have an Ethernet port, I’ve been using Ethernet connection on my switch via a adapter that I bought a few years ago and the difference between how reliable the internet is from playing games via that instead of the switch’s WiFi is night and day from my experience.

Yep, I ordered one off Amazon just after I got the system and the difference was unbelievable. Nintendo loves to squeeze every penny out of a system, hence why they don't even bother paying for licenses for Bluetooth, Dolby surround sound, and the like. The Wi-Fi chip being absolute garbage should be a shock to no one. If the ethernet port rumours are true, I'd say this is definitely hinting at a more "premium" console. Good news, and maybe we'll get some of the features they've cheaped out on in the past. 

[Kav]

Any Switch Pro needs Party Chat at OS Level.

[Glen-i]

1 hour ago, Kav said:

Any Switch Pro needs Party Chat at OS Level.

I mean, you know what someone's gonna say, right? You only have yourself to blame!

 

[Sheikah]

Any Switch Pro needs Party Chat at OS Level.

Please understand.

[ArtMediocre]

So just out of curiosity, are we sure there will be a Switch Pro/4K now? And when will we hear about it? Because I keep reading that "tomorrow is a good day!", "Be ready for may, that's the month!", "Next week is the news!" and "Switch PRO will drop this fall". How certain are we there will be a new version? I'm not really using my Switch at the moment with Covid making me stay home all the time. That's where my PC dominates. But I would love a switch with a bigger screen when I will start my daily commute again, but if I sell my Switch and theres nothing, I'm kinda fucked, aren't I? Is it better to hold onto my Switch until the actual news drops (this E3 perhaps)? 

Sorry for the random words, just wanted to ask around and see what the general feel of the situation is. 

[Hero-of-Time]

3 minutes ago, ArtMediocre said:

So just out of curiosity, are we sure there will be a Switch Pro/4K now? And when will we hear about it? Because I keep reading that "tomorrow is a good day!", "Be ready for may, that's the month!", "Next week is the news!" and "Switch PRO will drop this fall". How certain are we there will be a new version? I'm not really using my Switch at the moment with Covid making me stay home all the time. That's where my PC dominates. But I would love a switch with a bigger screen when I will start my daily commute again, but if I sell my Switch and theres nothing, I'm kinda fucked, aren't I? Is it better to hold onto my Switch until the actual news drops (this E3 perhaps)? 

Sorry for the random words, just wanted to ask around and see what the general feel of the situation is. 

Given the amount of sources, there’s definitely a new Switch model certainly coming, it’s just a question of when and not if. As for selling your Switch, I’d keep it for now. A lot of electronics at the moment are using similar parts and many are hard to get ahold of. If you sell your standard Switch you risk not being able to get a new one for a while.

It does seem like the announcement for it is to be made before E3, with possibly a closer look at it for the show. This would makes sense as it would allow for games to be shown in the best possible way. Similar to what Sony and Microsoft do when they show trailers but have a disclaimer at the bottom that the footage was recorded on the higher end models.

[ArtMediocre]

7 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Given the amount of sources, there’s definitely a new Switch model certainly coming, it’s just a question of when and not if. As for selling your Switch, I’d keep it for now. A lot of electronics at the moment are using similar parts and many are hard to get ahold of. If you sell your standard Switch you risk not being able to get a new one for a while.

It does seem like the announcement for it is to be made before E3, with possibly a closer look at it for the show. This would makes sense as it would allow for games to be shown in the best possible way. Similar to what Sony and Microsoft do when they show trailers but have a disclaimer at the bottom that the footage was recorded on the higher end models.

That's a really valid point, and something I forgot to consider. Here I am, still waiting for my RTX 3080 graphic card order from last september to be delivered. Glad to know it seems to be a more when and not if though, because a better screen and more power is always a welcome boost to any console. 

[Ashley]

I think it's more likely it'll be announced just before E3 than during, even if it's "more details at E3". That period is so noisy and that's why more companies are opting to have events just before so they control the narrative more (the recent Sonic thing, Horizon, something else I'm probably forgetting). 

[Julius]

Yeah, completely agree with @Hero-of-Time and @Ashley on this one that we're getting an announcement before E3 and then gameplay shown during E3 on the (Super) Switch Pro/2/Whatever™. More than ever before, considering the games most expect to turn up as well as this potential new hardware, I really hope that we see a Treehouse this year. 

We've talked before about how Nintendo could follow something like a smartphone refresh, so I think the Switch line in general is going to be a lot more fluid in terms of a hard stopping point before the next Switch. They've said before how they want the Switch to last longer than a typical generation, and as others have pointed out in the past, this would be one such way to achieve that. 

Also, with the Pokémon release dates we got last week, I thought it was weird that we didn't get a Pokémon event, but it makes a lot of sense in hindsight if the new and more powerful Switch model is going to be shown in action during E3. The development time they've had since the reveal of Legends in particular, and the more powerful hardware, I imagine will show the game running far, far better than what we saw before, which will only further the drive for this newer model.

It does also make me wonder about Bayonetta 3 (which seems to be having internal troubles) and Metroid Prime 4 (which we know had troubles and rebooted development at the start of 2019), because I get the impression that we haven't seen anything at all not just because of the delays they've had and Nintendo's consistency with the Switch for relatively short announcement-to-release windows (we easily could have seen a CG tone piece for either at this point), but because those teams might have been given a higher benchmark to work towards in this newer model at the same time things like the Zelda sequel would have been getting off the ground. 

It's shaping up to be an interesting next two weeks leading into E3, that's for sure. I think the biggest concern is going to be stock of the actual thing, as the chip shortage is still an issue and demand is obviously going to be insane for a potentially limited supply. 

 

[Ashley]

As for the name, I saw someone (somewhere...) suggest they'll go for New Nintendo Switch, which makes sense to me. 

[WackerJr]

11 hours ago, Ashley said:

As for the name, I saw someone (somewhere...) suggest they'll go for New Nintendo Switch, which makes sense to me. 

I’ve never been a fan of their “New” branding (“New Nintendo DS”, “New Super Mario Bros”, etc), but Nintendo do seem to be fond of that naming convention so I agree it does seem plausible.

When this new model is finally revealed I initially thought they’d need to have software to demonstrate why we need to buy this new model over the current one, and this was the reason they were putting off the reveal (that, plus the fact they’re still selling bucketloads of Switches every week!).  I’m now not sure as this is the difficult one, since I assume they wouldn’t want to make a game that only runs on the new model & alienates the user base of millions.  So how do they market this?

[Ashley]

I also find the New naming convention meh but not a hill I'm dying on. 

There was a few 3DS games that only worked on New, right? They may do that or they may just do enhanced versions. I don't think they really need to "sell" it. The more interested fans will buy it, everyone else will just buy it because it's the default and the console is doing well anyway. 

[ArtMediocre]

I would love if they went the "Super" route. It's such a cool name, Super Switch. New, exclusive games will have the name incorporated in the existing brand, like Legend of Super Zelda, Super F-Zero, Pokemon Super Blue and Super Super Mario! Can't wait  

[Josh64]

6 hours ago, Ashley said:

I also find the New naming convention meh but not a hill I'm dying on. 

There was a few 3DS games that only worked on New, right? They may do that or they may just do enhanced versions. I don't think they really need to "sell" it. The more interested fans will buy it, everyone else will just buy it because it's the default and the console is doing well anyway. 

off the top of my head: Minecraft and the Xenoblade port were exclusive, I can't think of much else.

 

I personally don't think they'll make exclusive software again as I don't think it's worth their time, I'm guessing Xenoblade didn't do great if Nintendo decided not to follow up with more exclusive software. I see it working as the XBOX ONE/ S/ X situation, new games looking and playing great on the new box but you still have the option to play on the old one, it just performs like shit. 

[Julius]

3 minutes ago, Josh64 said:

off the top of my head: Minecraft and the Xenoblade port were exclusive, I can't think of much else.

Fire Emblem Warriors too I think? But other than that, yeah, not all that many. Always found it super bizarre that SNES games were New 3DS exclusive too, but I'm sure there's probably a reason for that. 

[Dcubed]

8 minutes ago, Josh64 said:

off the top of my head: Minecraft and the Xenoblade port were exclusive, I can't think of much else.

 

I personally don't think they'll make exclusive software again as I don't think it's worth their time, I'm guessing Xenoblade didn't do great if Nintendo decided not to follow up with more exclusive software. I see it working as the XBOX ONE/ S/ X situation, new games looking and playing great on the new box but you still have the option to play on the old one, it just performs like shit. 

Fire Emblem Warriors was also New3DS exclusive; as were a bunch of smaller eShop titles (mostly ones that ran on the Unity Engine).  Not to mention the SNES VC titles.

Every single 1st party release after 2014 was also New3DS enhanced in some manner (usually loading times, but often games would also get New3DS exclusive S3D support or a notable FPS boost).

Edited May 31, 2021 by Dcubed

[killthenet]

Hyrule Warriors was also nerfed on standard 3DS if I remember correctly, playing on a New 3DS bumped up the frame rate as well as number of enemies on screen 

I can't see Nintendo themselves making any Switch Pro exclusives though, it would be too much of a risk to split the user base (especially with something as huge as BOTW 2) so hopefully the base Switch versions going forward aren't much different to what we have now - getting resolution and frame rate bumps on Switch Pro. The most I can see them doing is what they did with Bowser's Fury running at 30fps in handheld mode, they've already set that precedent. 

It would obviously be nice if the Pro had faster storage to bring it closer in line to the newest consoles but I feel like that could create too large a gap between base Switch/Lite and Pro that would lead to more exclusives.

[Nicktendo]

I think we'll see Ninty take the same approach they did with the New 3DS - visual enhancements, better framerates, maybe 4K support using DLSS if the rumours are to be believed. 

I don't think we'll see any exclusive content outside 3rd parties and e-Shop titles in the first 18-24 months. After that period, we'll see Nintendo transition into only supporting the pro model for their 1st party stuff (yay!) or they'll release a new, more powerful system which is not the Switch (boo!). 

Guess it depends how well it sells, but if we see them hit 30-40 million in the first couple of years, it makes sense to start dropping exclusive content so the rest of the install base makes the... cough... switch. 

[Dufniall]

10 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

I think we'll see Ninty take the same approach they did with the New 3DS - visual enhancements, better framerates, maybe 4K support using DLSS if the rumours are to be believed. 

I don't think we'll see any exclusive content outside 3rd parties and e-Shop titles in the first 18-24 months. After that period, we'll see Nintendo transition into only supporting the pro model for their 1st party stuff (yay!) or they'll release a new, more powerful system which is not the Switch (boo!). 

Guess it depends how well it sells, but if we see them hit 30-40 million in the first couple of years, it makes sense to start dropping exclusive content so the rest of the install base makes the... cough... switch. 

Yeah putting out exclusives for the newer system is tricky, as we also still have the Switch Lite in play. So then you will have games that can run on the old Switch but not the Lite (only with spare Joy-cons), and games that will only run on the newest system. Might be a bit too confusing. But a higher draw distance, frame rate boost and maybe some extra options in the menu (dare I say voice chat?) would be pretty easy to achieve the way games are built nowadays being more dynamic in scaling. For me the biggest plus would be the 7 inch OLED though as I play mostly handheld.

Anyway, curious to see when we will get the info. Tuesday is usually a day Nintendo drops random announcements and trailers, and E3 starts June 12 so that would mean that today or next Tuesday would be my guess. Time to gear up the hype train?