General Switch Discussion

[Dcubed]

20 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I'd be more inclined to agree with you had they not already announced it for the Switch. It's very similar to the BOTW situation, announced for the Wii U but released on both the Wii U and the Switch. Nintendo needed the Switch to succeed after the performance of the Wii U and could have easily made BOTW a Switch exclusive but they still gave it a cross platform release.

Wouldn't be the first time Nintendo had announced a game for a console, only to later port it exclusively to its successor.  Their history is littered with examples (Super Paper Mario, Sim City, Eternal Darkness, Pikmin 3, Project Giant Robot etc).

[Hero-of-Time]

8 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Now that we have confirmation of a June Direct, the question then becomes "What are they going to show there?"

 

We have ....

• NES World Championship hint/leak
• Kirby trademark being registered
• Fire Emblem remake apparently done and dusted for a while now
• Wind Waker/Twilight Princess being rumoured for what feels like a life time
• Metroid Prime 4

Hopefully more N64 games will be announced for NSO. I want DK64 and DKR on there.

[Nicktendo]

1 hour ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I want DK64 and DKR on there.

Less excited by DK64, but would love to go through DKR again. Must've been a couple of decades now since I've played it but I'll always maintain it was a better game than MK64. 

I wouldn't mind seeing the OG Smash 64 get dropped too, just for nostalgia's sake. 

Their N64 line-up as it currently stands is very strong though, they've done a great job. Wishlist games would be Perfect Dark and a couple of racing games like World Driver and Top Gear Rally, but I doubt any of those will happen. 

Edited May 7 by Nicktendo

[Helmsly]

53 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

Less excited by DK64, but would love to go through DKR again. Must've been a couple of decades now since I've played it but I'll always maintain it was a better game than MK64. 

I wouldn't mind seeing the OG Smash 64 get dropped too, just for nostalgia's sake. 

Their N64 line-up as it currently stands is very strong though, they've done a great job. Wishlist games would be Perfect Dark and a couple of racing games like World Driver and Top Gear Rally, but I doubt any of those will happen. 

Yeah i am surprised Smash 64 has not been added to NSO already, when/if it does it would be a big deal for a Direct so that would be a perfect thing to announce in June.

Edited May 7 by Helmsly

[Nicktendo]

https://theotakuauthority.com/arcade-archives-tutankham-coming-to-switch-ps4/

This is great news! 

VRR is fantastic tech that really helps with game performance. This is a big sign that the Switch 2 is going to support it. 

Couple this potentially with HDR and DLSS, and the Switch 2 is going to be a considerable margin better than the original Switch in terms of fidelity and performance. 

[Hero-of-Time]

2 hours ago, Nicktendo said:

Couple this potentially with HDR and DLSS, and the Switch 2 is going to be a considerable margin better than the original Switch in terms of fidelity and performance. 

Feels like I've been hearing about this being implemented on the next Switch for years now. Pretty sure you guys talked about it on the podcast at some point.  

[Nicktendo]

7 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Feels like I've been hearing about this being implemented on the next Switch for years now. Pretty sure you guys talked about it on the podcast at some point.  

Well yeah that's true. 

Back in 2019/20 there was a lot of talk about a Switch Pro being released that would take advantage of DLSS, which was still in its infancy back then and wasn't around during Switch's production. Despite seeing decent results with the 1.0. release, it really came into its own with the 2.0. release which was around that time frame. Whether the rumours were true or not it doesn't matter now. Plans that may have existed were likely cancelled due to COVID anyway and Nintendo doubled down on the 2017 system and released the fantastic OLED. Iwata, remember, had spoken of a evolving console "platform" before his death, which led to a lot of speculation about more regular iterations of the Switch platform, similar to how Apple updates iPhones on a yearly basis. Not that anyone expected a new system every year, but the idea was that it would be a unified platform with more frequent updates. Perfectly feasible in 3 year cycles, for instance, to take advantage of recent hardware, machine learning, and AI developments. There were patents and documents laying out this vision. It seems they have walked back on that idea now, anyway. And rightly so, given how strongly the Switch has marched on since 2020. 

Being a mobile platform built on Nvidia tech, it makes an immense amount of sense to incorporate DLSS capabilities into the chip. It is far and away the best upscaling tech on the market with AMD's FSR tech hugely struggling in comparison, which Xbox and PlayStation both use. It would undoubtedly help the new Switch overcome power limitations and punch above its weight in contrast to the competition, even Steam Deck. So the idea of Nintendo using a cheaper, older chip that can support modern hardware developments like DLSS and VRR would be a perfect marriage of price and tech. Not necessarily for handheld mode (I think even the OG Switch is still fine in that regard), but those two features would help immensely with TV output.

What worries me slightly about the Switch 2 rumour mill at the moment is the fact that most people seem to be convinced it'll be an 8-inch LCD screen and will render at either 900p or 1080p. I think both of these moves are bad. Going back to LCD from OLED is going to be extremely rough, and upping the resolution and size of the screen is pointless and will significantly impact the battery life for a mostly indiscernible "upgrade" in visual quality. 

[Helmsly]

You won't be able to upload screenshots to Twitter/X after June 10th this year:

I assume this is for the same reason that Sony did this for PS5 last year: Elon musk raised the API usage fees for X to $42,000 a month

[Hero-of-Time]

25 minutes ago, Helmsly said:

You won't be able to upload screenshots to Twitter/X after June 10th this year:

I assume this is for the same reason that Sony did this for PS5 last year: Elon musk raised the API usage fees for X to $42,000 a month

Time for Miiverse to return!

[Hero-of-Time]

Famitsu have released an interview with Shuntaro Furukawa where he expresses concerns about the cost of development. 

Quote

He also expressed the belief that it is inevitable that game development will become even longer, more complex, and more sophisticated in the future, and while M&A may be considered as a means to deal with this, he added, ``First of all, we need to firmly establish Nintendo within the company.'' The company's basic policy is to work with developers who understand the brand and have built the company's brand over the years to develop human resources who will be responsible for Nintendo's future development.

The industry needs to get a handle on the development time and costs. Things are already getting out of control for Microsoft, Sony and 3rd party developers, and if these same problems start to hit Nintendo then they could end up taking a bit hit. Numbers came out the other day that showed that 81% of the software sold on the Switch were 1st party games. If development slows down and they aren't able to pump out the software then things could get messy. On the other hand, Nintendo do a good job of creating smaller titles that their user base enjoys, myself included, and so they aren't relying heavily on massive AAA experiences to bring in the money. 

At some point the industry needs to stop chasing more powerful hardware and just make do with what they've got. If they don't, then there won't be a gaming industry left to make games for.

The second part of the quote is reassuring. It's nice to see that Nintendo still have the philosophy of hiring people and retaining staff, rather than just acquiring studios left and right.

[Dcubed]

Keep in mind that's an unofficial translation (the Investors Q&A isn't out in English yet), so take the exact wording with a grain of salt until the official English transcript comes out.

I'm not overly concerned about how Nintendo will handle the increase in hardware power with Switch 2, because I think they're sensible enough to realise that they don't have to massively increase the fidelity of the art assets in their games.  Nintendo are also already releasing plenty of games with mid-tier and lower budgets that aren't pushing the limits of AAA Switch production (such as the recently announced Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition), and they've had plenty of success with said mid-tier budget titles.

I don't expect a huge jump (if any) when it comes to art asset fidelity with Switch 2.  All they really need to do is stick with their current level of visual fidelity, but allow their games to run in higher resolutions at better framerates, with reduced loading times.  Give their current games more breathing room on a technical level.  That's all we're really asking for from their next hardware when it comes to production values.

If anything, the reduced amount of time needed to achieve the extreme level of hardware optimisation that games like TOTK needed in order to run on the current Switch should actually reduce development time if anything.  I think Nintendo are sensible enough to realise that this is the way to go.

[Hero-of-Time]

4 minutes ago, Dcubed said:

I don't expect a huge jump (if any) when it comes to art asset fidelity with Switch 2.  All they really need to do is stick with their current level of visual fidelity, but allow their games to run in higher resolutions at better framerates, with reduced loading times.  Give their current games more breathing room on a technical level.  That's all we're really asking for from their next hardware when it comes to production values.

Yeah, this is all I'm looking for with their next console. As long as the Xenoblade games don't look like they garbage in handheld mode, I'll be happy.  

[BowserBasher]

5 hours ago, Helmsly said:

You won't be able to upload screenshots to Twitter/X after June 10th this year:

I assume this is for the same reason that Sony did this for PS5 last year: Elon musk raised the API usage fees for X to $42,000 a month

How are we going to share our “there’s nothing I can do” moments from Mario Kart Get Together Thursdays now. 

[Hero-of-Time]

14 minutes ago, BowserBasher said:

How are we going to share our “there’s nothing I can do” moments from Mario Kart Get Together Thursdays now. 

You'll have to upload them to a device and then put them on X that way. 

[Glen-i]

48 minutes ago, BowserBasher said:

How are we going to share our “there’s nothing I can do” moments from Mario Kart Get Together Thursdays now. 

Yeah, QR Code scanning will just have to be the middle man, here.

Not the end of the world, but it is a little less convenient.

[Dcubed]

50 minutes ago, BowserBasher said:

How are we going to share our “there’s nothing I can do” moments from Mario Kart Get Together Thursdays now. 

I guess there’s just nothing you can do

except use QR codes but shh, don’t ruin the joke.

[Cube]

There's an unofficial Switch Transfer Tool on Android that makes the QR sharing method a lot easier to do. There's probably something similar for other phones.

[Glen-i]

38 minutes ago, Cube said:

There's an unofficial Switch Transfer Tool on Android that makes the QR sharing method a lot easier to do. There's probably something similar for other phones.

Oh, that's very appreciated! Ta!

[Julius]

7 hours ago, Helmsly said:

You won't be able to upload screenshots to Twitter/X after June 10th this year:

I assume this is for the same reason that Sony did this for PS5 last year: Elon musk raised the API usage fees for X to $42,000 a month

Elon can get bent. 

44 minutes ago, Cube said:

There's an unofficial Switch Transfer Tool on Android that makes the QR sharing method a lot easier to do. There's probably something similar for other phones.

Thanks for this, going to give it a test run later 

[BowserBasher]

Guess I’ll just take the SD card out the switch, transfer them to a computer and do it that way. No more predictive “suddenly bananas” typing and manually having to type #NEMKGetTogether. Hopefully the next console will have something in place. Return to Miiverse. 

[bob]

4 hours ago, Julius said:

Elon can get bent. 

Thanks for this, going to give it a test run later 

Whilst Elon can certainly get bent, it shouldn't be up to a third party to provide the ability to upload and share screenshots. 

I can't believe that's been the solution this whole time. 

[Julius]

21 minutes ago, bob said:

Whilst Elon can certainly get bent, it shouldn't be up to a third party to provide the ability to upload and share screenshots. 

I can't believe that's been the solution this whole time. 

Oh, absolutely agree, it's very backwards. It's the same with how PlayStation took it away not too long ago, and likely for the same, kind of understandable reason, but now it's such a pain to share things from that platform. 

I wonder what the workaround is here? Especially with how important social media is for word of mouth on games these days; I've lost count of the number of times friends will come to me with Game X or Game Y (thankfully not the Pokémon games with those titles ) after seeing them on their feeds and asking if it's worth looking into. There's also just kind of something special about a feed being flooded with Zelda or BG3 or a surprise game like Balatro shortly after it's release, and I do think it's especially important for the indie scene that a platform to share footage of a game is easily accessible. Social media platforms besides Twitter, currently known as X, just don't seem suitable for throwing up clips and screenshots in such a haphazard way, nor are they as simple and reliable to share and embed, I find. 

Anyways, whatever the solution may be, I wonder if it's part of the general Switch and Switch 2 experience or if it's going to be bundled into NSO  (or if they're just going to pull a PlayStation and do sod all)

Edited May 9 by Julius

[bob]

1 minute ago, Julius said:

Oh, absolutely agree. It's the same with how PlayStation took it away not too long ago, and likely for the same, kind of understandable reason. 

I wonder what the workaround is here? Especially with how important social media is for word of mouth on games these days; I've lost count of the number of times friends will come to me with Game X or Game Y (thankfully not the Pokémon games with those titles ) after seeing them on their feeds and asking if it's worth looking into. There's also just kind of something special about a feed being flooded with Zelda or BG3 or a surprise game like Balatro shortly after it's release, and I do think it's especially important for the indie scene that a platform to share footage of a game is easily accessible. Social media platforms besides Twitter, currently known as X, just don't seem suitable for throwing up clips and screenshots in such a haphazard way, nor are they as simple and reliable to share and embed, I find. 

Anyways, whatever the solution may be, I wonder if it's part of the general Switch and Switch 2 experience or if it's going to be bundled into NSO  (or if they're just going to pull a PlayStation and do sod all)

The issue is hosting the content. If Nintendo or Sony developed somewhere people could upload pics or clips to, then you could easily link or embed them to whatever social media you wanted. It would help advertise and spread the word, like you say. 

The issue is that Nintendo is too poor to find the money to pay for a web hosting service. 

[Julius]

4 minutes ago, bob said:

The issue is hosting the content. If Nintendo or Sony developed somewhere people could upload pics or clips to, then you could easily link or embed them to whatever social media you wanted. It would help advertise and spread the word, like you say. 

Yeah, definitely think you're right here. They both have apps - I HAVE to imagine that Nintendo do something the app for the Switch 2 or give NSO an overhaul - and so integrating it there for starters, like how PlayStation allows syncing screenshots and clips from the last 14 days, would be a solid first step. I do wonder if the jump in file size from HD to 4K puts the thought of cost at the forefront, too, even more so than usual. 

6 minutes ago, bob said:

The issue is that Nintendo likes to act like they're too poor to find the money to pay for a web hosting service. 

ftfy 

[drahkon]

20 minutes ago, Julius said:

I HAVE to imagine that Nintendo do something the app for the Switch 2 or give NSO an overhaul

Something something voice chat.