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Nintendo On Possible Next-Gen Console: We Wish to Extend The Switch Life Cycle As Much As Possible

Fake

Member
They probably will make a revision mode for introduce at least HDR or even a PRO version when they look people are willing to pay for next gen.
 
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Wish they could build an add on that would boost performance while in docked mode or something like that. It'd bring back the days of the sega cd and all the others. Heck could build it into a new docking system since the current one is just a hollow chunk of plastic.
 

bad guy

as bad as Danny Zuko in gym knickers
I think there will be a new Switch soon with just a newer Tegra than the Tegra X1. Should be easy to "switch :] " and maintain backwards compatibility.
 
The other reason is the fact we only have the Nintendo Switch as a platform, so we can focus all of our firm’s development resources to make software for it.

This is a big deal for Nintendo, whose handhelds have always been blockbusters rather than side projects half-heartedly dabbled in. I imagine their attention and resources were quite divided in previous gens.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
Good. The Switch doesnt need to worry about next gen consoles. It will be just fine as it is.

A lot of games will be cross gen for another couple years so you'll still have developers targeting base current gen consoles and if they do that it's still possible to port games to Switch.

Then of course Nintendo has all its own games. More Pokemon, more Zelda, more Mario, etc.

All I want from Nintendo is a revised Switch with more battery life. Otherwise it is perfect. If they were really concerned they could do a 4K Switch that plugs into the wall and is not portable...but they don't need to


It's a fun game. Very similar to Nier Automata (same developers I think)...story wasn't the greatest but combat is fantastic.
I was thinking the exact same things. All things considered, I was also examining how they managed their previous consoles while Microsoft, Sony, and further back Sega were launching new consoles. Nintendo really seemed to shift their direction away from high-graphic accelerations (competing against other platforms based on the power of the engine) and they turned toward focusing more on game play. N64, PS1, and Saturn were all trying to rival for "best graphics" during the mid-late 90's. However, when the amazingly high powered PS2 and XBOX original launched shortly after the Dreamcast; it would seem that Nintendo didn't try to compete to out-do their competitors in graphics. However, they proved with the GameCube, Wii, WiiU, and now the Switch that people will buy your material if you make it universal and wholesome. I like all the competitors but I uniquely like Nintendo for this reason.

Regarding a next-gen Nintendo after the Switch -- doesn't seem like something they're going to do anytime soon. Rather, they'll do what developers did years ago when a console started to age...they'll push games to their maximum capacity.
 

Astral Dog

Member
Thats ok, i know some gamers will joke or complain about this, but this makes good business sense Switch deserves a large life cycle and when Switch 2 comes out, it will have better specs (compared to current and next gen systems) than if it was rushed.

For example Nintendo throws a healthy Wii out of the window for a Wii U, they were convinced the userbase would quickly move over to the new thing, but releasing a console is complex they didn't stopped to think if their gimmick was gonna work out

Later Nintendo was forced to come up with Switch earlier to replace the Wii U, they had luck they could recycle part of their lineup for portable play and its been a huge success.

The combination of reasonable price, decent tech and appealing games lineup has to be there for the Switch 2 on the first year, its ok if it takes a little longer but it will be worth the wait
 

Romulus

Member
They want to extend the Switch's life as much as possible. An enhanced pro version can do exactly that.

Not in the way alot of fans want. The Witcher 3 is a good example. Games are already more advanced than that. Witcher 3 barely ran on the Switch, and something like Cyberpunk 2077 is way out of the realm of possibility on the regular switch. It might work on a Pro switch if it was downgraded heavily and depending on its specs. But in that case, it would exclude the regular Switch completely.

Because the regular switch is so underpowered, a Pro switch doesn't help Nintendo get more heavy hitter AAA games. Whereas something like a base ps4, while incredibly old and underpowered, has just enough juice just to run modern games at low settings, resolution, and framerate.
 
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tkscz

Member
Pretty sure Nintendo next gen console will be this gen game ports at worse quality.


Nothing too see

Well, this depends on what Nintendo and nVidia decide to do about a Switch successor. It has two hardware choices here, the Xavier chipset or the Orin chipset.

The smartest move would be to go with the Orin chipset. At 7nm, 1024 Ampere CUDA cores (double that of Xavier's CUDA core and nearly half the size. Could be more but safest to assume just double), 16GBs of LPDDR5 and the ARM Hercules (5nm 12 cores), the Switch's successor could get downgraded PS5/XSX ports, but not on the same level as the current Switch gets from the PS4/XBO. The gap would definitely be closer to the PS5/XSX than the Switch is to the PS4/XBO. It's unknown how many tensor cores it's TCU would have. And while I can see nVidia adding some sort of Raytracing Unit (because nVidia), I couldn't see it working well in handheld mode at 15w. Still, 7nm would save so much more on power to performance, and just be cheaper all around to make. Think of it as if there was an RTX 2050, or (more realistically) just a GTX 1650 in your hand.

On the other hand, Nintendo and nVidia could go with the currently available Xavier chipset. Depending on which set, it could be 512 12nm Volta CUDA cores (double that of the Switch, at 4nm smaller and two generations ahead of it), ARM Caramel (8 core) and 8 to 16GBs of LPDDR4X, if they went with the AGX model. Going with the Nano NX model, it's the same but with 386 CUDA cores instead of 512. Both have a 48 core Tensor unit. nVidia claims the smaller NX model can get 3 TFLOPS (FP32), I doubt it, but who am I to argue with the company who made it. The AGX running at the same 15w would supposedly get 4 TFLOPS.

While I am aware nVidia swears the newer tegra models can't run games, people are already running emulators on the Xavier nano NX (runs Gamecube like a champ). So it's clearly possible to just use a stock Xavier or Orin. Hell, if the 3TFlops is true, then nVidia needs to make a Switch Pro out of it.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all begin work on their next systems shortly after the current one releases. So while Nintendo says they have no plans to release the Switch successor anytime soon, that doesn't mean it won't be released in the future. 2023 at the earliest is when you should see a Switch 2 of sorts.
2023 would be suicide. At that point it's not even unlikely that there will be talk of upgrades for XSX and PS5, LOL.
 

Jubenhimer

Member
2023 would be suicide. At that point it's not even unlikely that there will be talk of upgrades for XSX and PS5, LOL.

Since when has Nintendo ever cared about trying to match Sony and Microsoft in recent years? Nintendo will roll out a more powerful successor to keep up with new technology, but they're pretty much done with the main console race.

I mean the Switch launched just a few months after the PS4 Pro, and the same year as the Xbox One X. That didn't stop it from becoming a massive hit though.
 
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NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Since when has Nintendo ever cared about trying to match Sony and Microsoft in recent years? Nintendo will roll out a more powerful successor to keep up with new technology, but they're pretty much done with the main console race.

I mean the Switch launched just a few months after the PS4 Pro, and the same year as the Xbox One X. That didn't stop it from becoming a massive hit though.
It's not about matching the others. It's about having the minimum hardware to make even a poor port a consideration for third-party devs.
People are talking about Lockhart holding back the whole gen. Current Switch hardware 3 years from now is gonna get... what? Who's gonna bother with that? In 2023 devs will laugh at the question "what about a Switch version?" like they laughed when asked about a WiiU version of games in 2013.

We've seen what happens when Nintendo sleep on their laurels and start thinking their first-party games are the only thing needed to keep selling hardware. I mean, they can be happy letting Switch turn into a pure Pokémon and Animal Crossing machine, but that would be demeaning. 3DS was successful even after the initial struggle because they changed the hardware to make it better and because they had a ton of third parties. 3DS almost never had a dry spell; Switch is getting there now, no matter how successful AC and the Pokémon DLC are. It's still only two games.
 
I wasn’t shit posting. This year has been lacking compared to previous years and I don’t count wii u ports as a substantial addition to the switches library. Nintendo has been lazy lately.

Extend "this year" you mentioned to the actual last 365 days and their output has been very prolific.
 
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Katajx

Gold Member
Hope they can come up with a solution that improves image quality and performance. Some of their first party titles have been outstanding for what the switch is.
 

Jubenhimer

Member
It's not about matching the others. It's about having the minimum hardware to make even a poor port a consideration for third-party devs.
People are talking about Lockhart holding back the whole gen. Current Switch hardware 3 years from now is gonna get... what? Who's gonna bother with that? In 2023 devs will laugh at the question "what about a Switch version?" like they laughed when asked about a WiiU version of games in 2013.

I mean, yeah I agree with that. Keeping up with new hardware technology is important. That's why I think 2023 would be the right time to launch a Switch successor. By that point, a mobile processor that has nearly everything Nintendo wants will be readily available, the current Switch would be at least 6 years old by that point, and developers and consumers would be more than ready for a new Switch generation.

Switch is doing fine for now because development on it is very easy and for all intents and purposes, virtually identical to that of Xbox and PlayStation, just less powerful for obvious reasons. So a Switch successor that has a power-efficient form of Ray Tracing, 4K support, and DLSS, in addition to other new gimmicks Nintendo would cook up would help the brand's momentum a lot.

We've seen what happens when Nintendo sleep on their laurels and start thinking their first-party games are the only thing needed to keep selling hardware. I mean, they can be happy letting Switch turn into a pure Pokémon and Animal Crossing machine, but that would be demeaning. 3DS was successful even after the initial struggle because they changed the hardware to make it better and because they had a ton of third parties. 3DS almost never had a dry spell; Switch is getting there now, no matter how successful AC and the Pokémon DLC are. It's still only two games.

Switch never really has a dry spell either. 2020 is a bit rough on the first party front, but that's only due to forces beyond Nintendo's control. It's doing fine for now, for the same reasons you mentioned the 3DS was doing fine. It's got a large install base and low barrier to entry for developers, which means lots of games. Even if it's mostly ports, indies, and B-Tier games, there's always at least something to play.

But again, I do agree that Nintendo shouldn't get complacent, and should follow up on the Switch in the not too distant future.
 
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carlosrox

Banned
So the longer they wait the better tech they'll have hopefully, right?

Switch 2 with the power of a PS4 or more would be magnificent. Nintendo sings with their already older tech, just imagine them with something way more powerful than the Switch, which is also a hybrid.

Nintendo gonna melt eyeballs next gen.

I cannot wait for Switch 2. I need to see the next step for Nintendo. I can't wait to see what they can do.

Mega hyped for what they could do with Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Zelda, Mario, Smash, Metroid, etc.

It's gonna be a special day when we see how good those look in the future.
 

TLZ

Banned
Well, this depends on what Nintendo and nVidia decide to do about a Switch successor. It has two hardware choices here, the Xavier chipset or the Orin chipset.

The smartest move would be to go with the Orin chipset. At 7nm, 1024 Ampere CUDA cores (double that of Xavier's CUDA core and nearly half the size. Could be more but safest to assume just double), 16GBs of LPDDR5 and the ARM Hercules (5nm 12 cores), the Switch's successor could get downgraded PS5/XSX ports, but not on the same level as the current Switch gets from the PS4/XBO. The gap would definitely be closer to the PS5/XSX than the Switch is to the PS4/XBO. It's unknown how many tensor cores it's TCU would have. And while I can see nVidia adding some sort of Raytracing Unit (because nVidia), I couldn't see it working well in handheld mode at 15w. Still, 7nm would save so much more on power to performance, and just be cheaper all around to make. Think of it as if there was an RTX 2050, or (more realistically) just a GTX 1650 in your hand.

On the other hand, Nintendo and nVidia could go with the currently available Xavier chipset. Depending on which set, it could be 512 12nm Volta CUDA cores (double that of the Switch, at 4nm smaller and two generations ahead of it), ARM Caramel (8 core) and 8 to 16GBs of LPDDR4X, if they went with the AGX model. Going with the Nano NX model, it's the same but with 386 CUDA cores instead of 512. Both have a 48 core Tensor unit. nVidia claims the smaller NX model can get 3 TFLOPS (FP32), I doubt it, but who am I to argue with the company who made it. The AGX running at the same 15w would supposedly get 4 TFLOPS.

While I am aware nVidia swears the newer tegra models can't run games, people are already running emulators on the Xavier nano NX (runs Gamecube like a champ). So it's clearly possible to just use a stock Xavier or Orin. Hell, if the 3TFlops is true, then nVidia needs to make a Switch Pro out of it.
It'll all come down to cost at the end. I'm sure Nintendo will be more than happy to get the best and the latest, as long as Nvidia gives them a good price which Nintendo can sell to us for $299 and still make profit.
 

Woopah

Member
It's not about matching the others. It's about having the minimum hardware to make even a poor port a consideration for third-party devs.
People are talking about Lockhart holding back the whole gen. Current Switch hardware 3 years from now is gonna get... what? Who's gonna bother with that? In 2023 devs will laugh at the question "what about a Switch version?" like they laughed when asked about a WiiU version of games in 2013.

We've seen what happens when Nintendo sleep on their laurels and start thinking their first-party games are the only thing needed to keep selling hardware. I mean, they can be happy letting Switch turn into a pure Pokémon and Animal Crossing machine, but that would be demeaning. 3DS was successful even after the initial struggle because they changed the hardware to make it better and because they had a ton of third parties. 3DS almost never had a dry spell; Switch is getting there now, no matter how successful AC and the Pokémon DLC are. It's still only two games.
I'm not sure how much difference it will make as they're hardly getting any same day AAA third party support as it is. They'll continue to get the medium and small third party games from Japan, even after next gen launches.
 

KINGMOKU

Member
Well that sucks. I wish they would release something similar to PS5/XSX.:messenger_loudly_crying:
Funny you say that as I wished Sony and Microsoft would release something similar to the switch.

This little machine has been a revelation in terms of gaming time.

My question is if it's possible to make a switch 2, right now as powerful as the series X when docked and obviously weaker when in handheld mode. I would expect it would come with a huge pricetag. Is that possible? I am not a tech head in this field but is it even possible to do something like that?
 

ACESHIGH

Banned
The Switch lite will be a homebrew beast. It will keep selling like hotcakes just as a portable console to play emulated games on.
 

PhoenixTank

Member
I think there will be a new Switch soon with just a newer Tegra than the Tegra X1. Should be easy to "switch :] " and maintain backwards compatibility.
Has been debated to death, but there isn't a clear upgrade path for off the shelf Tegra parts. Nvidia shifted newer Tegra parts to accelerate self driving cars & deep learning focused workloads.
I'd be expecting a custom chip when it does come... and hopefully with the latest graphics architecture that Jensen Huang and his fine leather jacket can offer.

WHERE'S THE FUCKING SWITCH PRO
Reggie pilfered it on his way out, brap.
 

Arkam

Member
Glad to hear they are not planning to be stupid. Until they can get ~2TF in mobile package with reasonable battery life, there is no point to upgrade the current hardware beyond efficiencies and storage increases. I dont expect a new piece of Nintendo HW until 2022.
 

tkscz

Member
It'll all come down to cost at the end. I'm sure Nintendo will be more than happy to get the best and the latest, as long as Nvidia gives them a good price which Nintendo can sell to us for $299 and still make profit.

The current NX nano sells for $400 (but that's marked up and includes the entire dev kit). The smartest move price wise would be to go with Orin as 7nm chips that nVidia are already putting in production would cost less than 12nm chips they stopped producing and have to restart production on.
 
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theclaw135

Banned
Thats ok, i know some gamers will joke or complain about this, but this makes good business sense Switch deserves a large life cycle and when Switch 2 comes out, it will have better specs (compared to current and next gen systems) than if it was rushed.

For example Nintendo throws a healthy Wii out of the window for a Wii U, they were convinced the userbase would quickly move over to the new thing, but releasing a console is complex they didn't stopped to think if their gimmick was gonna work out

Later Nintendo was forced to come up with Switch earlier to replace the Wii U, they had luck they could recycle part of their lineup for portable play and its been a huge success.

The combination of reasonable price, decent tech and appealing games lineup has to be there for the Switch 2 on the first year, its ok if it takes a little longer but it will be worth the wait

Nintendo burned and starved the colossal Wii install base, it bit them back hard. By 2012 they had 100 million consoles in homes. Why did the casual games that could've sold gangbusters dry up?
 

mejin

Member
Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all begin work on their next systems shortly after the current one releases. So while Nintendo says they have no plans to release the Switch successor anytime soon, that doesn't mean it won't be released in the future. 2023 at the earliest is when you should see a Switch 2 of sorts.

2023? I wish I was still as innocent haha

Anyway, the portable they launched is not even a switch anymore it lost its defining feature. Maybe a new device still named "switch" to continue the milk.
 

Scotty W

Member
Knowing Nintendo's past they will milk the switch as much as possible until sales start to decline dramatically...
Yes, unlike a noble company like Sega which refused to milk the Sega CD or 32x.

This post is just so disingenuous. Are they villains for not being quicker to abandon the community that they have built up around the Switch? Or what about Sony and Microsoft, were they milking the PS3 and Xbox360 with an extra long console generation?
 

StormCell

Member
There's no problem with stretching the current Switch's lifecycle. When a new Samsung Galaxy phone comes out, does it kill its predecessor's lifecycle?? When the PS5 launches, will the PS4 instantly die? Even now, something closer to a Switch 1.5 would be really nice for those of us who are maybe really hesitant to pick up some games like Bloodstained simply because of potential frame rate issues. A 1.5 would instantly make the entire library play better, and I find that exciting.

Of course, current Switch is selling out. They can plan on continuing to sell it until 2030 provided they expect it will continue selling out.
 
People are perfectly happy with what they have now in the Switch, so why would Nintendo bother with a Switch Pro or successor anytime soon. Can't say I blame them as the money keeps rolling in
 

Rikkori

Member
Would mean they have enough time to make the switch (heh) to AMD.


AMD-Radeon-RX-5700_Navi-GPU_7nm-RDNA_7-2060x1159-11.png
Samsung-Exynos-9.jpg
 

jigglet

Banned
The thing is I don't even care about some huge graphical bump. I just want enough to play at 1080p across all games.
 

zelhawks37

Member
It wouldn't surprise me if they go 7+ years until putting out a new console. The switch should last that long as long as they don't make the same mistake as they did with the Wii by rarely releasing anything after 2010.
 

FStubbs

Member
Would mean they have enough time to make the switch (heh) to AMD.


AMD-Radeon-RX-5700_Navi-GPU_7nm-RDNA_7-2060x1159-11.png
Samsung-Exynos-9.jpg

Nintendo's just keeping their options open. nVidia is not going to want to be shut out of the console market again, though as far as we know, they haven't iterated much on Tegra. Still a lot of time on the clock before next gen.
 

Lrnex

Member
People are perfectly happy with what they have now in the Switch, so why would Nintendo bother with a Switch Pro or successor anytime soon. Can't say I blame them as the money keeps rolling in
I’m happy with their first party titles, even if the output has been dry lately (I have a huge backlog so all good). But it would be great if they could keep the options open for more 3rd party ports.

I can’t pretend to know much on the tech side, but knowing games like Outer Worlds and Witcher 3 are already super taxing, they’ll need some kind of upgraded version to keep ports going into next gen.
 

LordOfChaos

Member
Lastly, it’s not like Nintendo ruled out a “Switch pro” though as a “Switch Pro” could technically still be considered the “same platform”. Moreover, in an interview with Games Industry, Dr Serkan Toto also said in January 2020 he has no doubt a “Switch Pro” will be launching this year. That was before the pandemic ravaged the world though so who knows what would happen now.


Just what I was thinking until getting to the same thought. A Switch Pro would certainly count as extending the life of it, like the 'New 3DS'.
 

Rikkori

Member
Nintendo's just keeping their options open. nVidia is not going to want to be shut out of the console market again, though as far as we know, they haven't iterated much on Tegra. Still a lot of time on the clock before next gen.

Idk I don't think Nvidia really cares about them - margins are too low & they don't particularly need the volume. Heck, Nvidia's trying to marginalise even the desktop GPU segment and that's half their bloody business!
 

LordOfChaos

Member
Idk I don't think Nvidia really cares about them - margins are too low & they don't particularly need the volume. Heck, Nvidia's trying to marginalise even the desktop GPU segment and that's half their bloody business!

The Switch also cashed in on the perfect storm where Nvidia was unable to move enough TX1 parts for its wafer silicon agreement, and buying less than the agreement comes with breach fines. That's the whole reason they tried the whole Shield stuff.

Moving silicon won't really be a problem anymore, if anything everyone is going to be resource constrained on next gen fabs as AMD and Apple pour into them, might be why Nvidia even went with Samsungs lesser 8nm over TSMC 7.
 

Evangelion Unit-01

Master Chief
They found a product that is a huge success and they should iterate on it. Just like they did with NES->SNES->N64-GC or GB->GBC->GBA. The Switch should be their model for the next 15 years or until the tech landscape forces them to change. My only hope for the next gen is that they include true backwards compatibility going forward like Xbox does and improve their online offering.
 

FStubbs

Member
Idk I don't think Nvidia really cares about them - margins are too low & they don't particularly need the volume. Heck, Nvidia's trying to marginalise even the desktop GPU segment and that's half their bloody business!

It's not about the margins. It's literally just that - nVidia wants a horse in the console market. As long as they draw a profit from Nintendo, the exposure is good for business.
 

FStubbs

Member

I guess they feel that it's the biggest graphics market and it would look bad to cede the whole thing to their competitor. I think they made a comment about how the Wii U/PS4/Xbone were all AMD and they didn't want that to happen again.

IIRC they were working to provide the Tegra 2 to power the 3DS but couldn't get it out in time and Nintendo had to switch to the PICA solution.

That being said, I will admit that Exynos are pretty powerful mobile chips (though Apple's are about 2 years ahead of them) so, like nVidia, perhaps Samsung wants in on the console market.
 

Jeeves

Member
Can't say I'm clamoring for a new console right now. It's pretty shocking to realize it's been four years, to me it feels like the Switch is just about halfway through its life cycle.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Given that Wii to Wii U was 6 years (2006>2012) now is the time to at least discuss a next gen console (for Nintendo)
 

-Minsc-

Member
“Hey this thing we spent all this money on is selling gangbusters and making us super rich, should we do something else?”

“Nah.”

“k you’re right.”
Wii U: Our system is not selling, time to get the next gen system out on the market.
Switch: Our system is selling, no need to jump the gun.

All I can really say about the Switch successor is it'll mark a progressive shift away from the Iwata era.

Edit:


Can't say I'm clamoring for a new console right now. It's pretty shocking to realize it's been four years, to me it feels like the Switch is just about halfway through its life cycle.


Shhh, it has been twenty years since I graduated from high school. Less than two months away from the twenty year anniversary of Space World 2000. I remember the Space World party threads on IGN.
 
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I wonder about Nintendo and Nvidia. The Tegra chip powering the Switch was pretty much Nvidia’s last shot at mobile chips. Everything they have now, and in the announced future, is geared towards different markets. I’m sure Nvidia could make a great mobile chip again, but I don’t think they want to divert the resources required. It really makes me wonder about backwards compatibility, and future hardware for a Switch 2.
 
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