Thursday, September 7th 2023
Nintendo "Switch 2" Reportedly Showcased at Private Gamescom Event
In the weeks leading up to Gamescom 2023 all sorts of Nintendo-related rumors started to spew forth—the boldest being a public unveiling of their much anticipated Switch successor during the conference segment. This did not transpire—of course—with Nintendo choosing to showcase existing games and hardware on the trade fair floor in Germany. Post-event murmurs proposed another highly unlikely circumstance—claims posted to social media and on forums pointed to a top secret demo session of "Switch 2" hardware occurring "behind closed doors" at Gamescom, with an elite set of development teams in attendance. These rumblings were largely dismissed due to unsubstantiated information coming from less than reliable sources.
Eurogamer and Video Games Chronicles (VGC) reached out to their cadre of industry insiders to find out more—newly published articles seem to align with recent leaks. The former understands that: "Developer presentations for Switch 2 took place behind closed doors, with partners shown tech demos of how well the system is designed to run. One Switch 2 demo is a souped up version of Switch launch title Zelda: Breath of the Wild, designed to hit the Switch 2's beefier target specs. (To be clear, though - this is just a tech demo. There's no suggestion the game will be re-released." An insider familiar with the games industry in Spain alleged, a few months ago, that Switch 2 development kits had been delivered to a notable local development partner.
VGC's Editor in Chief, Andy Robinson proposes that (according to his source) Nintendo: "showcased Epic's impressive The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 tech demo - originally released to showcase the power of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in 2021 - running on target specs for its next console. The demo is said to have been running using NVIDIA's DLSS upscaling technology, with advanced ray tracing enabled and visuals comparable to Sony's and Microsoft's current-gen consoles (however, it should be noted this does not mean the Switch successor will sport raw power anywhere near that of PS5 or Xbox Series X, which aren't portable devices)." Leaks stretching back to 2021 have the Switch successor linked to a Team Green Tegra chipset codenamed "Drake," designated "T239." A subset of the tipster community reckons that the next-gen console is going to be based on a newer Orin-series SoC, granting use of Ampere GPU architecture - thus enabling DLSS on a hybrid home/handheld console.
Sources:
Eurogamer, Kit Guru, VideoCardz, VGC, IGN (BotW 2021 image source)
Eurogamer and Video Games Chronicles (VGC) reached out to their cadre of industry insiders to find out more—newly published articles seem to align with recent leaks. The former understands that: "Developer presentations for Switch 2 took place behind closed doors, with partners shown tech demos of how well the system is designed to run. One Switch 2 demo is a souped up version of Switch launch title Zelda: Breath of the Wild, designed to hit the Switch 2's beefier target specs. (To be clear, though - this is just a tech demo. There's no suggestion the game will be re-released." An insider familiar with the games industry in Spain alleged, a few months ago, that Switch 2 development kits had been delivered to a notable local development partner.
45 Comments on Nintendo "Switch 2" Reportedly Showcased at Private Gamescom Event
I agree on the no moolah though just Cos I can't support the outlay or I might, but interesting times ahead competition is great and the switch isn't competitive.
Ps as an alleged Nintendo hater now I would add I am responsible for at least three switch owners as they're a great gateway to gaming for those starting out, and have and would own Nintendo again, I think they're too late this hardware round, for me at least
Similar to the current Switch product family.
However you're not really saving any money unless you buy both. You'll pay what the going price is when the OLED unit is available.
If you sit out for a couple of years waiting for an OLED model, you'll just watch people play new titles on the new hardware. If you don't care about FOMO, that's not a problem. No one here cares if you play Mario Kart 11 when it comes out or three years after launch. Even Nintendo is happy to take your delayed dollars. They don't expect all of their hardware console sales to happen in the first month.
That said, the Switch console hardware isn't that expensive. In fact, today's Switch prices are very competitive with previous generations when adjusted for inflation:
www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/every-game-console-price-from-nes-to-switch/
Nintendo doesn't make big margins on their consoles anyhow. They make fatter margins on software titles, peripherals, merch and other tie-ins.
Ocarina of Time was $59.99 MSRP at its 1998 launch. That's about $113 in today's dollars. So The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom at $70 MSRP (even with the $10 increase in MSRP) is about 38% cheaper. Factoring in inflation (which one must), gaming is cheaper today than it ever was.
And Nintendo is less about the hardware anyhow. It's really about platform exclusive software: Zelda, Mario et al.
(Disclaimer: I am the happy owner of a Switch OLED. I did not own the original LCD model.)
I think most people will never encounter OLED burn-in, especially not on a device that has full vertical control, so that they can mitigate any OLED issues that may pop-up by designing the UI and software to avoid it entirely.
Ironically, I've seen LCD burn-in in the past LMAO
This article about a 3,600 hour static image test should clear up matters:
arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/03/staggering-nintendo-switch-oled-test-safe-from-burn-in-for-over-3000-hours/
No ghosting after 1,800 hours. Slight ghosting after 3,600 hours. Note that this was a single static image, not moving images normal of actual gameplay.
If you played 4 hours per day for 360 days of the year (taking a few days off) 3,600 hours is 2.5 years. That's entirely in handheld mode, not a minute docked.
As today we don't yet have nor PH-OLED nor Micro-Led,i prefer then to go on something which is completely safe like Mini-LED or a very good IPS screen - both technology last for decades.Yes,on very cheapo chinesium LCD screens i saw static ghost images,but they always go away after some minutes,so i suppose that even a super cheapo chinesium LCD screen is yet way more reliable in terms of longevity,especially in backlight where OLED tends to always fade away after some thousands of hours.
They make a lot of great games, I own most of them and play them, but the performance is straight up embarrassing for some titles.
It is important to remember that Nintendo rarely pursues cutting edge technology.
If there's a Micro-LED part and a more conventional LCD part that shaves $50 off of COGS, they will go for the latter, just so they have a chance at selling 115+ million units.
I have the Switch OLED and 85% of the time it's docked. Nintendo has plenty of data showing how much time is spend in handheld and docked mode. They will make their component decision based on what they think is best overall for a wide swath of users. They are also aware that they have shareholders to please.
Remember that these display technologies need to be appropriate not just for COGS but also for usage in a handheld gaming device. There are power consumption factors, durability, performance in direct sunlight, and more that the typical desktop PC monitor doesn't have to deal with in terms of importance.
Nintendo is a Japanese company and would not likely time the hardware debut with a Chinese festival. Note that Japan switched to the Gregorian calendar in the late 19th century. They celebrate New Years Day (their most important holiday) on January 1st just like the West. They do not follow the lunar calendar.
Potatoes have more calories than lettuces.
It's not about hardware specs anyhow. We have gone over this before. Nintendo makes most of its profits from software titles, peripherals, merchandise and other tie-ins. Potato hardware is fine when you sell 115+ million of them.
Go ask Microsoft if they would have released the Xbox Series S today. They will likely mumble something like "Um, sure. We'd do it again exactly the same" but it's really just Nintendo and Sony's show now.