The rumour mill continues around the successor to the Switch, but is this one the one? According to Video Games Chronicle, and corroborated by Eurogamer, Nintendo is likely to release its next-gen hardware in the second half of 2024. VGC's sources, which include "multiple people with knowledge of Nintendo's next-gen console plans", claim that the device will be useable in handheld mode and support physical cartridges like the Switch. However, backwards compatibility remains unclear.

The next-gen hardware will also apparently sport an LCD display, instead of an OLED one, in order to keep costs low while packing higher storage for higher fidelity games. Dev kits of the system are also with key partners, according to the report.

Of course, take this report with a grain of salt as these are unofficial news and rumours around a Switch Pro or Switch 2 have been around for a while. But eventually, we will get a successor to the Switch in one form or another; and whether it will replicate the latter's success remains to be seen.

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[Foxi4]

Remember Nokia? Blackberry? Will what happened to these two happen to Nintendo? Nobody knows.

What we do know is that while they were doing well nobody could touch them. Faster and better hardware from competition did anything to their dominance? Seriously how many care what kind of spec you get with the hardware?

The spec is inseparable from the software library - either it’s strong enough to push a given generation’s games or it isn’t. Nintendo’s in a very comfortable position because they have a library of killer apps for their systems, so as long as the hardware itself is innovative enough, it will sell, and it’ll make a profit since it’s based on otherwise obsolete tech. This is a great situation for Nintendo to be in, and a terrible situation for gamers. It’s kind of remarkable that gamers are better off playing their Nintendo games on anything other than the native system.

 

[TomSwitch]

It’s kind of remarkable that gamers are better off playing their Nintendo games on anything other than the native system.

Would you argue that Ratchet & Clank - Rift Apart is better played on a PC?

The emulator for Switch is still far from perfect. Better in a restricted sense, not overall better. You are surely better off playing the PC version of the same game, that you can say is just better period provided that the PC version is properly done, there are exception where I actually preferred the Switch version, granted that it is very rare.

Can't even say GBA games are better on a PC. Good GBA games are best on Nintendo hardware.

 

[Foxi4]

Would you argue that Ratchet & Clank - Rift Apart is better played on a PC?

The emulator for Switch is still far from perfect. Better in a restricted sense, not overall better. You are surely better off playing the PC version of the same game, that you can say is just better period provided that the PC version is properly done, there are exception where I actually preferred the Switch version, granted that it is very rare.

Can't even say GBA games are better on a PC. Good GBA games are best on Nintendo hardware.

Yeah, Ratchet & Clank runs better on PC. It’s a native port, nobody’s surprised by that. All Switch games run better on a PC when *emulated*, big difference. I don’t know why you’d think this was a good “gotcha” thing to bring up. Switch enjoyers are genuinely facing an interesting conundrum here as running their favourite games on the Switch is probably the worst way to play them right now. I’m including the ROG Ally in this assessment, which has the same form factor and runs Switch games better than the Switch does, in spite of higher overhead. The comparison to the GBA is apples and oranges in more ways than you’d think - GBA games were tied to the CPU clock. Increasing the speed of the hardware literally meant that the game itself would run faster. That’s not how it’s done anymore. What GBA are we talking too? The OG, with a screen that requires you to sit on the face of the sun to see anything? Or a nicely modded one? There’s big difference.

 

[ertaboy356b]

only because sony fucked up and couldn't meet demand. everyone wanted a ps5 but couldn't get one for a whole year. if things would have been different the ps5 would have buried it from day one. also it was the ONLY HANDHELD available at that time. if steamdeck was out a lot sooner no one would even care about that dated android tablet with a nintendo skin that can't even play today's modern games at a stable rate

A Steamdeck from 2018 would use an Intel Celeron with 1 hour battery life.

 

[console]

I would love to know how faster new Nintendo Switch next generation system. I hope have about CPU have 8 cores or more running at 3 GHz and above if have turbo boost or/and overclock, bigger 8 GB - 16 RAM, more faster GPU speed and more VRAM and maybe finally have first NVMe SSD to add on motherboard to extend bigger storage for many games and save data files, screenshots, etc like PlayStation 5 did.

Because I did skipped Nintendo Wii U (bad hardware sales and not enough games compare to N64 and GameCube) and Switch (due to bad analog stick drifts on Joy-Con controllers).

I can't wait to see new hardware and new controllers next year. I guess maybe should be much better.

 

[Xzi]

Switch enjoyers are genuinely facing an interesting conundrum here as running their favourite games on the Switch is probably the worst way to play them right now. I’m including the ROG Ally in this assessment, which has the same form factor and runs Switch games better than the Switch does, in spite of higher overhead.

That's probably the only reason Nintendo is considering not including backward compatibility too: they'd have to drop ARM in favor of x86 to noticeably improve hardware while also keeping costs down.

 

[Foxi4]

That's probably the only reason Nintendo is considering not including backward compatibility too: they'd have to drop ARM in favor of x86 to noticeably improve hardware while also keeping costs down.

That’s not necessarily true provided they choose to spring of custom (well, semi-custom, like everything else) silicon. Apple has shown the world that you can create highly performant machines on ARM, so it’s not at all out of the question that they’ll stick around with a more mobile-friendly architecture.

 

[KingVamp]

ROG Ally base price is $600, up to $700. So, even less comparable to the Switch than the Steam Deck.

 

[Foxi4]

ROG Ally base price is $600, up to $700. So, even less comparable to the Switch than the Steam Deck.

That’s not how you arrive at a sensible value assessment. What you’re effectively saying is that you can spend $299.99 and get the Switch or spend double and get a system that’s ten times better. Yeah, you should spend double - you’re getting more performance per dollar. I’m not surprised Nintendo aggressively pursues emulation sites and doesn’t want to see emulators on the Steam storefront - they don’t want the dam to break. If running their games on other hardware was so simple a soccer mom could do it, they’d be in big trouble.

 

[yoyoyo69]

There might be some crossed wires here. I was continuing my point from earlier - if Nintendo aimed to make a portable on the level of the PS4, they could’ve done that and didn’t. They don’t consider themselves to be “in competition” with Sony or Microsoft, not really at least. They’re playing their own game and seem to be doing alright at it.

I know for a fact that it was possible to do so at the point of the Switch’s release because I could do it, so it’d be trivial for Nintendo to do the same (except ten times better). That just wasn’t on the cards for the same reason why Sony doesn’t sell portable PlayStations either.

As for the “what kind of device” I made, I actually used the Switch as a template since I wanted something in the same form factor, but with more oomph. One DC-DC ATX power supply, custom cooling solution, Li-Ion BMS, LVDS board, 1080p laptop-grade 11 inch LCD, an SSD and (a ton) of 18650’s later I had a working proof of concept. Never really finished the damn thing since I didn’t have a 3D printer and cobbling together a shell by hand was a pain in the behind, but hey, the thing worked. I even had most of the button/stick boards ready, but life got in the way of tinkering. Here’s the guts of the operation:

View attachment 386297 View attachment 386298

A PS4 Slim’s power supply is rated for 150W, but after extensive testing the thing never exceeded 95W, plus I was getting rid of the optical and hard drives so it was fairly trivial to adapt it to straight DC. As far as scale is concerned, that screen has almost the exact same dimensions as a regular Switch with Joycons on, so had I made a shell for it, I would’ve ended up with a slightly bigger Switch, except one that cranks out 1.8 TFLOPS FP32 and plays modern games at acceptable resolution and framerate. Normally the thing’s supposed to be loaded with 150+Wh of lithium goodness, but for the purposes of a quick test just four batts sufficed. Fun times.

Thanks for the explanation, nice build.

11 inch is a small laptop. I'm sure Nintendo could make it a touch smaller, but then increased thermals and reduced power come into play (or one, but very likely both).

How much did that build cost?

 

[Foxi4]

Thanks for the explanation, nice build.

11 inch is a small laptop. I'm sure Nintendo could make it a touch smaller, but then increased thermals and reduced power come into play (or one, but very likely both).

How much did that build cost?

I really wouldn’t know off the top of my head, the BOM grew as I went along, but it didn’t break the bank. Also, slight correction on the screen - it’s an Innolux 11.6” 1080p screen, used to be fitted on netbooks, so you can get ones just like it for pennies (not a lot of netbooks being manufactured these days). I picked that size because the height matched the height of the PS4 slim mobo, so there was no real reason to go smaller than that. It would’ve allowed for a thinner bezel had I completed the shell. One of my biggest gripes with the Switch was the screen, I like’em bigger, and this one looks gorgeous in action.

 

[TomSwitch]

That's probably the only reason Nintendo is considering not including backward compatibility too: they'd have to drop ARM in favor of x86 to noticeably improve hardware while also keeping costs down.

If Nintendo ever consider that they will wake up before they made that mistake. They have nothing without Switch compatibility. They will be totally fucked.

There are good reasons why mobile phones are all based on ARM64. Why do you think Apple dropped Intel.

Post automatically merged: Aug 3, 2023

A Steamdeck from 2018 would use an Intel Celeron with 1 hour battery life.

A gaming laptop from 2023 would have also about 1 hour battery life

A gaming handheld like ROG Ally won't be much better too when you push it.

You can watch video for many hours at max brightness ha ha. Not sure which one will win at watching video.

 

[Foxi4]

If Nintendo ever consider that they will wake up before they made that mistake. They have nothing without Switch compatibility. They will be totally fucked.

There are good reasons why mobile phones are all based on ARM64. Why do you think Apple dropped Intel.

Post automatically merged: Aug 3, 2023

A gaming laptop from 2023 would have also about 1 hour battery life

A gaming handheld like ROG Ally won't be much better too when you push it.

You can watch video for many hours at max brightness ha ha. Not sure which one will win at watching video.

Watts are watts - the architecture is less relevant compared to what it can do at what power consumption. Both AMD and Intel have made huge strides in increasing the efficiency of their chips, you can easily fit a more modest x86_64 in the same power envelope, and the graphics side of thing is irrelevant as both use the same style cores. I don’t know why you assume the battery life would be lower just based on the architecture - the reason the battery life is lower is because both machines are orders of magnitude beefier than the Switch. If the Ally was more modest and wasn’t pushing a whopping 8.6 TFLOPs FP32 it would have comparable battery life.

 

[Marc_LFD]

I can't wait to see new hardware and new controllers next year. I guess maybe should be much better.

Probably not.

Probably still using digital triggers.

 

[wiiando]

A Switch Deluxe ? With Super Mario Odyssey Deluxe, Super Mario 3D World Super Deluxe ++, Mario Kart 8 Super Ultra Deluxe (with new "deluxe" DLC waves) and a new Zelda "Triforce Deluxe" with the same world again but this time with an additional underwater layer ? Gee, can't wait

Isn't this the Nintendo sales model for the last 10+ years, rerelease every game, some with extra content, some with none at all and charge a hefty price for you to rebuy the same content on a new device, "the nintendo way"

Nintendo relies heavily on it's back catalogue, don't see this (if true) being any different, I mean look at MK8, just one of the glaring cash grabs I can think of.

 

[TomSwitch]

Probably not.

Probably still using digital triggers.

Actually having digital ZL and ZR is better for a Switch game.

Have no fear, Nintendo shall not disappoint with latency on those. The next Switch shall be the best Switch Nintendo ever made. Just like what Apple do year over year without fail.

Nintendo don't need innovation. They didn't know that when they design Switch and wasted money like that IR camera on the joycon. Can also argue that motion sensing is not far from that.

 

[smf]

What you’re effectively saying is that you can spend $299.99 and get the Switch or spend double and get a system that’s ten times better. Yeah, you should spend double - you’re getting more performance per dollar.

I like playing games, not just looking at something thinking "I got more performance per dollar".

 

[TomSwitch]

I like playing games, not just looking at something thinking "I got more performance per dollar".

Most of Nintendo customers are more like you. Saying Nintendo hardware is not enough is like some muscle men keep wanting to tell every one to beef up.

 

[Foxi4]

I like playing games, not just looking at something thinking "I got more performance per dollar".

That’s one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that you can play the same games better on better hardware. We can all pretend that sub-30 FPS and sub-HD resolution is acceptable in 2023, but if I have the option to avoid making the game play like molasses and look like a smear of Vaseline then yeah, I’m going to spend the extra money to do that. You’re welcome to have an objectively worse experience if that’s what you want to do, I personally find it frustrating that Nintendo does not have a high end option for customers who would happily spend more to get their games to look and play the best they can. It is a sad state of affairs when you have to knock on the doors of a third party and use mods on titles that *should* work well on the hardware they were designed to run on.

 

[Viri]

That's probably the only reason Nintendo is considering not including backward compatibility too: they'd have to drop ARM in favor of x86 to noticeably improve hardware while also keeping costs down.

Apple disagrees.