Nintendo Switch Successor Announced

[Dcubed]

Our first official announcement regarding Switch's successor at long last!

Will be formally announced/unveiled this financial year, but not during the next Direct in June (so probably in September then).

Edited May 7 by Dcubed

[Hero-of-Time]

Not really. This is an announcement of an announcement, hence me just shoving the news in the general thread.

[Dcubed]

Well we now have our official "start" of Switch 2, so this can now be our thread regarding everything to do with the next console.

If anything, it'll stop me clogging up the main Switch thread with my console begging

[Nicktendo]

This fiscal year...

My guess is it will maybe be revealed in with a short trailer in September, followed big Direct in January, and launching in March. Probably around the 3rd 

They likely want to squeeze a final Xmas out of the OG Switch, so I guess the June Direct will give us a hint as to when exactly the new console will launch. If they have a fair amount of stuff for Q3 and Q4 of 2024, March will probably be nailed on as a launch date. 

Edited May 7 by Nicktendo

[Jonnas]

This is not an announcement, more like an acknowledgement that it exists. They probably don't want people to have unreasonable expectations for the June Direct.

[MindFreak]

I don't think we'll see anything this year. Then they'll reveal it in January or February and release in May 2025. A full reveal of the successor will most likely dampen the Christmas sales considerably. 

[Dcubed]

17 minutes ago, MindFreak said:

I don't think we'll see anything this year. Then they'll reveal it in January or February and release in May 2025. A full reveal of the successor will most likely dampen the Christmas sales considerably. 

If they follow the same pattern as with Switch 1, that full reveal with price/release date/launch lineup won't be coming until January anyway.

September will be the first unveil video showing the basic concept of the new console... which is the kind of thing we always get with a new console before the big blowout.  The announcement to release cycle for a brand new console is always at least 1 year; has been that way throughout the entire history of the industry; and I don't expect that to change here.  The ~1 year clock starts now.

[Julius]

10 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Not really. This is an announcement of an announcement, hence me just shoving the news in the general thread.

And if we want to push it even further, we technically had the implication of an announcement of this announcement of an announcement back in February during the Q3 earnings report 

On 2/6/2024 at 9:23 AM, Julius said:

Nintendo's earnings report dropped this morning for Q3, covering the period of 1st October 2023 - 31st December 2023. 

...

• Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has again seemingly all but confirmed that news on the Switch's successor isn't far away; per Bloomberg, while the existing Nintendo Switch will be Nintendo's "main business" heading into 2024 (as should be expected if its successor launches in the latter part of the year), he shared that the company's plans for the next fiscal year will be shared at its next earnings briefing. I think that gives us a bit of a rough timeline for when to expect us news on the Switch's successor, with the financial year wrapping up on 31st March 2024 and the results to be shared soon after during the subsequent investor's meeting. 

Just saying 

5 hours ago, MindFreak said:

I don't think we'll see anything this year. Then they'll reveal it in January or February and release in May 2025. A full reveal of the successor will most likely dampen the Christmas sales considerably. 

Yeah, I've mentioned the same thing before, so I'm glad someone else is thinking along the same lines.

They totally could copy the Switch's answer sheet and give us an October reveal trailer, January presentation, etc., but that comes with the risk of scuppering the legs on the original Switch this Christmas. Now, you could lessen that blow with steep price drops if you really wanted to (if there was ever a time to do it, I think it'd be this Christmas), but I just think it could muddy the waters too much for a casual consumer. 

I've said it before but a reveal at The Game Awards in early December would be big but late enough in the holiday period that I don't think it would permeate the mainstream consciousness (especially if you don't start up with ads), heck, you could even just drop a teaser trailer there with a console silhouette and some game footage. January presentation after that to give us the full list of details like price, release date, launch lineup, etc., and release between March and May ~ I do genuinely think Nintendo could get away with an extremely lean 2-3 month marketing blast starting properly in Jan IF this thing is simply a Switch 2 and doesn't go too ham on the gimmicks, because it'd market itself, and wouldn't need the 6 months that the Switch had. You throw some second screen in there, some tectonic plate detection or some other wacky Nintendo nonsense and yeah, it'll need longer, for sure. 

I just find it a bit surprising that some feel that it's a foregone conclusion that they're copying the Switch rulebook here, especially with them only saying they will make an announcement within this fiscal year ending March 2025 – they're giving themselves all the wiggle room in the world to delay news as much as possible. It's Nintendo, the Kings of Left Field that we're talking about here. 

4 hours ago, Dcubed said:

September will be the first unveil video showing the basic concept of the new console... which is the kind of thing we always get with a new console before the big blowout.  The announcement to release cycle for a brand new console is always at least 1 year; has been that way throughout the entire history of the industry; and I don't expect that to change here.  The ~1 year clock starts now.

I mean, using Nintendo's own words in that tweet here – they don't consider this the announcement, but like others have said, rather, the announcement of an announcement [within the next 12 months]. 

For me, September is the absolute earliest that we learn anything, but the Switch reveal trailer released in October 2016 and so if anything a September reveal would be more aligned to the idea of it replacing a September Direct, and as we all know, predicting Directs and their replacements is a fool's errand. After Gamescom and before the last quarter kicks off makes it the earliest we'd get anything. 

October right now, I think, is where I'd place my money if we were going to assume that they're following the Switch rulebook of marketing and release. 

But, as has been said, I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that they do follow that rulebook. They don't need 6 months from unveiling to release if this thing is simply "the successor to the Nintendo Switch" and so I wouldn't be surprised if that window was narrowed this time around. 

Edited May 7 by Julius

[darksnowman]

It was always going to be 2025 because they are going to retool Mario 35 as 40 for the big launch game.

[Dcubed]

https://www.resetera.com/threads/some-companies-are-already-confirming-switch-successor-support.864372/

That's two already (though admittedly small devs), confirming support for the Nintendo Swop.

Guess we'll probably start seeing developers and publishers announcing games for the system before we see the console now that it's officially "announced".  Nice to finally get the ball rolling

[Ike]

Surprised it wasn’t Yuji Horii saying too much this time. 

[Hero-of-Time]

Just now, Dcubed said:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/some-companies-are-already-confirming-switch-successor-support.864372/

That's two already (though admittedly small devs), confirming support for the Nintendo Swop.

Guess we'll probably start seeing developers and publishers announcing games for the system before we see the console now that it's officially "announced".  Nice to finally get the ball rolling

Indeed. I look forward to seeing the usual image of the 3rd party logos who promise to support the machine and then don't actually show up.

 

[Julius]

22 minutes ago, Ike said:

Surprised it wasn’t Yuji Horii saying too much this time. 

Dragon Quest's anniversary at the end of the month though, right? So it won't be too long until he's saying something about it 

[Hero-of-Time]

Apparently some shipment data has leaked on Fami.

Quote

Even after the RAM and storage size, there's so much in the March shipment data I don't even know where to begin. So far nothing else at that level has popped up, so more along the lines of what I was originally saying before those were found. This won't be comprehensive, and I'll have to keep following up. I may also repeat some things others have posted (or will have posted by the time I finish typing the post), so apologies in advance. Some things in here were discovered and/or researched by Thraktor, LuigiBlood, and others.

I guess I'll start by saying, with reasonable confidence, that HGU1100 is the console, HGU1110 is the left Joy-con, HGU1120 is the right Joy-con, and HGU1130 is the dock. I'm not 100% confident, so take all of this with a grain of salt. But there are enough different listings that hint at this being the case, and it matches how the numbers HGU0700, HGU0710, HGU0720, and HGU0730 were used for the original Switch (except that the left and right Joy-cons may be flipped, assuming I don't have one of them wrong). So, grain of salt taken, bear that information in mind when I or anyone else posts a listing containing one of those HGU codes.

I think the previously seen new codes -- HGU1000, HGU1010, and HGU0820 -- may have been catch-alls, or possibly a way to organize things in a SKU containing the whole console set, versus just the console, or just the controllers, which is also something that can be seen with the old HGU07xx numbers. Almost all of the interesting new stuff in March is showing up under HGU11xx, but the others are still around, and as mentioned before there are some new ones there too. Also check out that post for the return for the return of the long-lost CKUI.

The other place new stuff is showing up is in listings that don't have HGU codes at all. But many of them do have NL-AM categories instead, which as far as I can tell, are 100% associated with Nintendo, just like HGU is. These may be trickier to sort through, because NL-AM listings were and are still used for current Switch models, so cross-referencing is needed to determine if a listing is really new. One that that helps is that a lot -- but not all -- NL-AM listings also have HGU codes on them, so we can discount any that have the old HGU0700, HGU0800, HGU0810, or HGU0910. If an NL-AM listing doesn't have HGU on it, and the quantity is only hundreds or thousands, instead of the high mass production-like quantities on old parts, that's an indication that it's probably for new hardware.

There are also listings that don't have any product codes on them at all, or at least not recognizable ones. Sometimes we see Nintendo's name pop up if we're lucky, but sometimes we just have to guess or assume. And that should be a good reminder not to consider anything 100% set in stone, adding together all of that with incomplete or questionably translated descriptions, etc. etc. etc.

Anyway, on to some listings.
NL-AM10#&ELECTRONIC IC/MT62F768M64D4EK-026/
This is the 6 GB RAM chip; two will be used for a total of 12 GB. Here's Micron's page for it. It is listed as LPDDR5 having a speed of 7500 MT/s, which is an LPDDR5X speed, so that's kind of strange. The page for the faster -023 version of this part also says LPDDR5, but I noticed that when filtering by type, -023 actually does show up under an LPDDR5X filter, while -026 shows up under an LPDDR5 filter. Anyway, the speed is what's important, and @Thraktor and others have already been breaking that down.
NL-AM10#&ELECTRONIC IC/THGJFGT1E45BAILHW0 /
This is the 256 GB UFS 3.1 storage chip. Here's Kioxia's page for it. I think speed estimates and such have also already been posted.
NL-AM10#&ELECTRONIC CHIP/IC/SOC GMLX30-R-A1/
And here's the other big one along with the RAM and storage: T239. Yes, this is in fact the Switch 2 SoC, with its proper Nvidia production part number. The Tegra X1 in the original Switch had a part number of ODNX02-A2, while TX1+/Mariko is ODNX10-A1. The "ODN" is from Odin, Nvidia's (and also Nintendo's) codename for the motherboard and sometimes sorta by extension the console itself (see my post about codenames). Side note, I've always thought it was "OD (Odin) NX 02," using the Switch's codename of NX, but it's actually "ODN (Odin) X02."

So what we have for T239 is the code GML and the revision number X30 (and tapeout code A1). I can't say what the significance of that revision number really is. But GML is actually very meaningful to me, because it's the board codename I've been waiting to see since the Nvidia hack in March 2022: Gimle. That name was in the leaked source files, appearing as the new equivalent to Odin, and it's taken this long for some sign of it to finally surface outside the hack. It seems that Nintendo is doing product codes differently this time, because CMB is being used where I expected to see GIMLE all this time. But here it is at last.

Now, I don't think we can determine much from this shipment listing, though I'm sure there will be discussion of the revision/tapeout process. But I'm very happy to see it.
NL-AM10#&ELECTRONIC IC/ALC5658-CG/
NL-AM10#&ELECTRONIC IC/PN7160B1HN/C100/
NL-AM10#&ELECTRONIC IC/RTD2175N-CG/
NL-AM10#&ELECTRONIC IC/RTL8153B-VB-CG/
NL-AM10#&ELECTRONIC IC/STM32G0B0CET6/
Next, a barrage of other (unconfirmed) Switch 2 microchips. The first is a Realtek audio codec chip, which seems pretty standard. Next is an NFC/RFID reader, so Amiibo support will live on. RTD2175N is a Realtek DisplayPort-HDMI converter; though there isn't much information available online, it is likely a version of or successor to the RTD2173, which supports HDMI 2.1 (here's a device Thraktor found using it, which has such support). Next is a Realtek Ethernet controller, very likely found in the dock, which along with some other listings indicates the return of the OLED's Ethernet port. And finally is a microcontroller based on the Cortex-M0+ core; nothing really of note here, but it is basically the same as the microcontroller in the current Switch dock. I dropped some boring diode/switch/resistor-type things from this list as well.
NL-AM01#&MULTI-LAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/CJR-MAIN-X7/
NL-AM01#&MULTI-LAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/CMB-CPU-X8/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/ANT0-T00/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/CJL-MAIN-X7/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/CKUI-MAIN-X5/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/CKUI-SUB-X6/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/CMB-HPMJ-X6/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/CMB-MIC-X7/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/CMB-VOL-X7/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/MUEL-MAIN-X6/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/MUEL-PLUG-X5/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/TBD ATK LED/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/TBD CJL-SIDE-FPC/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/TBD CJR-SIDE-FPC/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/TBD CJL-ZL-FPC/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/TBD CJR-ZR-FPC/
NL-AM01#&MULTILAYER PRINTED CIRCUIT/TBD MAIN FPC/
NL-AM07#&MULTI-PIN CIRCUIT BOARD CONNECTOR/JACK (TYPE USED TO ATTACH TO PRINTED CIRCUITS WITH VOLTAGE <1000V)/TBD CONN/HDMI/19P BEE-CDH/
NL-AM13#&CONDUCTIVE CONTACT CLAMP, MADE OF STEEL ALLOY/ANTX-ANT1/
NL-AM13#&CONDUCTIVE CONTACT CLAMP, MADE OF STEEL ALLOY/ANTX-ANT2/
NL-AM17#&GAMING HEATSINK, COPPER/DHS-B093082-00/
NL-AM19#&SPEAKER/102000210110 (MUSE BOX-L)/
NL-AM19#&SPEAKER/102000210111 (MUSE BOX-R)/
Yeah, so, now we're really getting into it. This batch of stuff, a lot found by LuigiBlood, has a bunch of new product codes on it, and almost all of them look like they definitely belong to Nintendo.

CJR and CJL are most likely the right and left Joy-con, as the MAIN board is something current Joy-cons have, and then we also have a "ZL" for CJL and a "ZR" for CJR, which are self explanatory. They both also have a "SIDE" flexible ribbon circuit thing in addition to the one for ZL/ZR. The C in CJL/R might come from CMB. These are prototype codes, as indicated by the X in the revision number of CJR-MAIN-X7, and the TBD is likely standing in for the final product code. For Switch 1, prototype Joy-con boards were labeled JOYU-MAIN (U for Ukyo) and JOYS-MAIN1 (S for Sakyo), while the final are labeled HAC-JCL-MAIN and HAC-JCR-MAIN. So you can see how there's a blank or "TBD" space where the final product code, like HAC for Switch 1, would go.

ANT0 and ANTX seem likely to be antenna-related. These ones aren't necessarily strictly Nintendo board codes. Ditto the heatsink thing. MUSE BOX-L and MUSE BOX-R are identified as speakers, so no mystery there, but the board/part codes are funny. And then there are a couple odds and ends that say TBD and are unclear beyond that: TBD ATK LED and TBD MAIN FPC.

Next we have some new CMB boards in addition to CPU-X8: HPMJ (headphone and microphone jack), MIC (built-in microphone), and VOL (volume buttons). These are board for the main console, still using its prototype product code.

Next is MUEL, which is a new one. I think it's possible that this is the prototype product code for the new dock. It has a MAIN and PLUG board, which is exactly what the current or OLED Switch dock has. I haven't seen PLUG used anywhere else, but still, we can't be totally certain of this one.

Now, we have to talk about BEE-CDH. CDH is the label for boards used in the dock, usually in a full form like HAC-CDH-MAIN-01 for the Switch or HEG-CDH-MAIN-01 for the OLED. But if this is the dock, why is it BEE? Didn't I just say MUEL was probably the dock? Well, historically, CDH has only been seen in use for retail parts like the ones with HAC and HEG I mentioned. The prototypes used CRD (Switch) and CRDA (OLED) instead, such as in CRDA-MAIN-X6 and CRDA-LED-X4. If that pattern holds, then CDH being used here would suggest BEE is actually a retail product code, so it could be the retail dock equivalent of MUEL. Hypothetically! Maybe.

And last but not least, we have CKUI. This is the first time we've seen it -- the first new product code we found -- since August (discovered October) 2023, and we still don't have a clue what it is. But by process of elimination, if I had to guess, I'd say it's a Pro Controller. The current Pro does have a MAIN board, and while I don't think it has a SUB, it's not far-fetched to imagine a controller having one. There does seem to be a lack of Pro Controller-like shipments for Hosiden in the HGU domain, though, and there isn't any actual evidence for this conclusion at the moment.
NL-AM49#&GAME CONSOLE TOUCH SCREEN/DISPLAY/
And finally... yep, it's the screen. With no information about it whatsoever. The first time the OLED's screen was shipped to HVBG, it had the Samsung part number on it and everything, but this time, nope, we get nothing.

So yeah. The only notable things that seem to be missing here are anything to do with the game cards, or expansion (SD Express?) card reader. We'll have to keep an eye out for those.
PROTECTIVE CASE FOR VIDEO GAME CONSOLE, MADE OF PLASTIC, SIZE: 206 X 115 X 14 (MM), MODEL: HGU1100, MANUFACTURER: NINTENDO, 100% NEW.
I haven't even touched on anything specific within HGU yet, and I'm not going to, because this post is already extremely long. But I will say that I agree that this listing (reproduced in full in the bullet point above -- see look, it says Nintendo and everything, I'm not crazy) is a good candidate for actually having the full dimensions of the system -- except for the depth. 14 mm is very close to the depth of the current Switch, and while it's not impossible that the successor will retain it, the possibility exists for it to be greater, because this one piece of the shell is going to connect to other pieces, and its 14 mm might not make up the entire depth of the console. But the 115 mm height is something we've discussed before, and after a whole bunch more March shipments, seems essentially confirmed as the console's height. And the 206 mm width is not too far off from estimates back when we discussed the height, which were something around 198 mm. The 200-ish mm width also seems to be supported by HGU1130 listings for the dock that have a 200 mm dimension.

Most of this means nothing to me but it may be of some interest to people on here that know more about tech.

[killthenet]

Crazy that people find all this stuff, like you say a lot of it is over our heads but the big takeaways are that there doesn't seem to be any new gimmick, there's no reference to any cameras so the rumours about it having AR features don't seem to hold water - it really is just a more powerful Switch. In terms of specs this confirms that there will be 12 GB of RAM which is more than the Series S, so given that is the biggest limiting factor for that hardware it's a good sign that we'll get to see more current gen ports. Same goes for the storage too, UFS 3.1 is capable of over 1.5 GB/s read which is lightning fast compared to the original Switch, although it's still only about a quarter as fast as the PS5 is capable of but it's still a great sign that developers will have much more freedom this time around. 

Personally, I think faster storage was at the top of my wishlist, the original Switch has felt pretty sluggish since I've started to use a PS5 and been spoiled by the much shorter load times, so it's great to hear there will be a big upgrade on that front. 

[Nicktendo]

19 minutes ago, killthenet said:

Crazy that people find all this stuff, like you say a lot of it is over our heads but the big takeaways are that there doesn't seem to be any new gimmick, there's no reference to any cameras so the rumours about it having AR features don't seem to hold water - it really is just a more powerful Switch. In terms of specs this confirms that there will be 12 GB of RAM which is more than the Series S, so given that is the biggest limiting factor for that hardware it's a good sign that we'll get to see more current gen ports. Same goes for the storage too, UFS 3.1 is capable of over 1.5 GB/s read which is lightning fast compared to the original Switch, although it's still only about a quarter as fast as the PS5 is capable of but it's still a great sign that developers will have much more freedom this time around. 

Personally, I think faster storage was at the top of my wishlist, the original Switch has felt pretty sluggish since I've started to use a PS5 and been spoiled by the much shorter load times, so it's great to hear there will be a big upgrade on that front. 

I was going to post similar analysis but got distracted. 12gb of RAM is very encouraging. 

On the concerning side, we've got 256gb of storage with lightning speeds, which is undoubtedly great. While this probably won't be too bad with Nintendo first party games, which very rarely, if ever, are more than 15gb, it will be a problem for third party devs. I would also assume that expanding internal storage via SD card is no longer going to be an option and the reads speeds are not going to be anywhere close to the internal storage. So are we going to see a fridge situation? Or will they have a proprietary solution like Microsoft? I may be reading into this wrong, so please correct me if that is the case.

Here's an old video from November 2023 which explains what the T239 chip is capable of in theory. I think it's quite promising.

Edit: Rich is going off of clock speeds of ~700mhz in this video, but it seems like there have been a few rumours doing the rounds this week that it will be much higher than that (close to double!) in docked mode. 

Edited May 9 by Nicktendo

[killthenet]

11 minutes ago, Nicktendo said:

On the concerning side, we've got 256gb of storage with lightning speeds, which is undoubtedly great. While this probably won't be too bad with Nintendo first party games, which very rarely, if ever, are more than 15gb, it will be a problem for third party devs. I would also assume that expanding internal storage via SD card is no longer going to be an option and the reads speeds are not going to be anywhere close to the internal storage. So are we going to see a fridge situation? Or will they have a proprietary solution like Microsoft? I may be reading into this wrong, so please correct me if that is the case

I would hope that they'll be using the new SD Express capable slot which would offer speeds equivalent to the internal storage. It is a brand new technology though, coming onto the market later this year so there's no telling how much the cards might cost

[Dcubed]

See, the thing about those old T239 rumblings is that they came about so long ago now that I can’t imagine that they’d still be valid anymore.

If the console had launched back in 2022-2023, then yeah, it’d make sense, but this console is gonna be launching in 2025 now.  Nvidia will be moving onto their next hardware architecture (Blackwell) this year with the RTX5000 series, so there’s no way that they’d still be using the now 4-5 year old Ampere architecture with a 2025 system; they won’t be manufacturing with that node or architecture anymore by that point.

The hardware will undoubtedly have been heavily revised since those rumours first came about 2-3 years ago, they’re probably using something completely different now.

1 hour ago, killthenet said:

I would hope that they'll be using the new SD Express capable slot which would offer speeds equivalent to the internal storage. It is a brand new technology though, coming onto the market later this year so there's no telling how much the cards might cost

I’d expect that they’d have to support SD Express by this point.  There’s no other real viable option for external storage in a portable device that’ll have the loading speeds that this console is gonna need.

Of course, the main problem is that SD Express cards aren’t commercially available yet, and there isn’t really any incentive for SD Card manufacturers to begin making these cards until Switch 2 comes out; since it’s gonna basically be the only device out there that’ll even be making use of the tech (well… until Steam Deck 2 comes along as well I suppose).

Edited May 9 by Dcubed

[killthenet]

3 hours ago, Dcubed said:

See, the thing about those old T239 rumblings is that they came about so long ago now that I can’t imagine that they’d still be valid anymore.

I would assume it's all more or less the same though, don't think they would have made any sweeping changes. I think the one change a lot of people are hoping they have made is the manufacturing process node - people on Era seem to think that the 8nm mooted in the original T239 leaks from 2022 will be too inefficient so it would be good if they have switched to a more up to date process

I do feel pretty confident they'll support SD Express, I just have no idea how much the cards will cost when they first come out. It's hard to gauge from the little info that Samsung have posted online if they're going to much different to manufacture than standard SD cards, I would assume it's all quite similar just with more bandwidth on the data lines

[Ashley]

So what you're saying is we'll finally see the Switch Pro within the next 11 months?

[darksnowman]

On 09/05/2024 at 7:19 AM, Hero-of-Time said:

Apparently some shipment data has leaked on Fami.

Most of this means nothing to me but it may be of some interest to people on here that know more about tech.

You'll say it's outdated if I ask for it to be quantified in bits, so can you tell me how much duct tape's been requisitioned?

[killthenet]

1 hour ago, darksnowman said:

You'll say it's outdated if I ask for it to be quantified in bits, so can you tell me how much duct tape's been requisitioned?

Enough to tape about 750-800 GameCubes together 

[darksnowman]

11 minutes ago, killthenet said:

Enough to tape about 750-800 GameCubes together 

128 x 750 or 800 is going to be a lot of Marios.

[Dcubed]

Probably should post this here…

Investor's Q&A is now out officially in English.  Transcript is here: https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2024/240508e.pdf

Some notable tidbits...

Quote

Nintendo Account was prepared before the launch of Nintendo Switch as a way to maintain long-term relationships with consumers across hardware generations, so we will continue to make active use of Nintendo Account with the successor to Nintendo Switch as well.

Nintendo Accounts to transfer forward.  Expected, but nice.

Quote

Q4 I think one big change over the lifecycle of Nintendo Switch is the remarkable growth in digital sales. Looking back at the progress of the digital business and its contribution to financial results thus far, I would like to know what expectations you have for the digital business over the lifecycle of the successor to Nintendo Switch.

A4 Furukawa: As you pointed out, the expanded scale of our digital business can be cited as one of the major changes since the release of Nintendo Switch. In the previous fiscal year, robust sales of Nintendo Switch Online memberships and add-on content for games such as Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Splatoon 3, as well as the depreciation of the yen, led to increases in both the digital sales amount and the digital sales ratio. Our objective is not to simply increase the share of digital sales, but to maximize overall game software sales, including sales of physical software. This policy will remain unchanged going forward.

Switch 2 won't be dropping support for physical games, unlike what some stupid rumours were reporting before...

Quote

Regarding the supply of the successor to Nintendo Switch, we cannot give a specific answer, as we have not yet announced the timing of the launch. However, currently there is no semiconductor shortage like we saw up until 2022, so we are not anticipating the supply of semiconductor components to be a major issue when we launch the successor to Nintendo Switch.

Console supply at launch should be good.  Good.

Quote

Q6 Regarding the successor to Nintendo Switch, is there any special intention behind calling it a "successor?" Looking back at past hardware announcements, Wii U was described as a "system to succeed Wii," and Nintendo Switch as a "game platform with a brand-new concept." This time it is described as a "successor to Nintendo Switch." Is this an indication of your intent to continue with the gameplay and concept of Nintendo Switch? You said there will be an update during this fiscal year. At that time, will you talk about its launch timing and specifications?

A6 Furukawa: At this stage, we cannot say anything more about the successor to Nintendo Switch. For today's announcement, we determined that the most appropriate expression to use was "successor to Nintendo Switch." Information will be released in stages leading up to the launch, as we have done with previous new hardware announcements.

Oh look! This was a mistranslation, what a surprise 

Quote

Q9 I understand that Nintendo uses "annual playing users" as an important indicator. This indicator has continued to grow since it was first disclosed, even after Nintendo Switch hardware sales have peaked. Do you expect the numbers to dip this fiscal year? Also, will annual playing users continue to be an important indicator for Nintendo even after the release of the successor to Nintendo Switch?

A9 Furukawa: The number of "annual playing users," which is an important indicator for Nintendo, recently exceeded 123 million users (for April 2023 through March 2024). This is up from the previous year and is the highest number to date. New titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Super Mario Bros. Wonder posted high sales in 2023, and many people took the opportunity to play on Nintendo Switch, so the number of annual playing users also increased. I think one of the keys going forward is how well we succeed at releasing titles for consumers that can create these kinds of opportunities to play on Nintendo Switch. This fiscal year, it is more important to sustain business momentum than to further expand the Nintendo Switch business, so we intend to maintain the number of annual playing users at as high a level as possible and carry that into the future. Going forward, as we continue our integrated hardware-software dedicated video game platform business, the emphasis will be on whether the people who have purchased our hardware keep playing games over the long term. For the healthy growth of our business, we believe it is vital that people take the opportunity to play games in a variety of scenarios, like when they get together for holidays and birthdays. For this reason, the number of annual playing users, which indicates how many consumers have played our games over the last 12 months, will continue to be an important indicator.

Sounds like they realise that putting out heavy hitting software on Switch 1 is a fools errand at this point, and ensuring business continuity with a successful Switch 2 launch is more important than selling software on their existing hardware.  Makes Metroid Prime 4 even more likely to be a next gen exclusive.

[Hero-of-Time]

Interesting rumours cropped up over the weekend.

 

Our favourite leaker weighed in on the conversation.

I hope there aren't gonna launch the thing with an enhanced BOTW port.