The Wall Street Journal is back to reporting Nintendo Switch rumors once more, following up on their October 2018 claim that Nintendo would be releasing a new hardware revision of the Switch in 2019. Originally, they stated that the Switch would focus on peripheral additions similar to Labo, rather than new hardware, before changing their initial stance to state that a "better" Switch revision was on the way, and would focus on upgraded hardware. This time around, their claim has a few more details--now mentioning two potential variations: a cheaper model which would replace the Nintendo 3DS as the budget option, and an enhanced model, which would be "targeted at avid video gamers".

This conflicts with previous recent statements from both the Nintendo JP president Shuntaro Furukawa and the soon to be former president of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aime, who separately debunked new hardware rumors by saying "[it] is not Nintendo's current focus".

Right now, as we go into our second holiday, my focus is making sure the current grey and neon Switch continue to have momentum in the market place. You saw systems, whether it’s our own or competitive home console systems, utilize that tactic a bit later in the life cycle. So right now, the current execution of Nintendo Switch with the Joy-Con and all of the capabilities, that’s our focus right now.

The Wall Street Journal further asserts that these two supposed hardware revisions would be "different from the original, and you would be surprised," with both versions launching as early as Summer 2019. According to the WSJ's insider sources, hardware prototypes have already been sent to software developers, who say that the "upgraded" Switch model won't be as strong as the Xbox One X or PlayStation 4 Pro.

Nintendo Co. plans to launch two new versions of its Switch gaming console as early as this summer, people familiar with the matter said, as the company seeks to sustain sales momentum for the product going into a crucial third year.

What are your thoughts? Do you find the Wall Street Journal to be reliable, or have other rumors of new Switch hardware got you convinced? Are you more skeptical, after already hearing the WSJ's initial story, or do you believe that there's no room for doubt after so many claims of a revised Switch model have been circulating across the internet? With sales of the Nintendo 3DS slowing down, and the company having just barely missed the mark on its 20 million sales fiscal year projection, a new "pro" and "budget" model could be just what they need to get more sales rolling.

Source

 

[DANTENDO]

No...games???


Mario 3D Land, NSMB 2, Zelda, Zelda, Zelda, Mario Kart, Luigi’s Mansion 1 & 2, Metroid Samus Returns, Animal Crossing, Pokemon(s), Super Smash Bros, Monster Hunter, Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Maker, Kirby(s), Xenoblade, Resident Evil Revelations, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis.


I could go on, and on, and on, and....


That’s before we even get to DS compatibility. Not to mention hacking it and playing 40 odd years worth of retro games.


No games? No games? The 3DS is one of the best handhelds ever for games.


But, each to their own. If it’s not your cup of tea, don’t drink it.

yep the 3ds will go down in history as the first great 3d handheld

 

[x65943]

No...games???


Mario 3D Land, NSMB 2, Zelda, Zelda, Zelda, Mario Kart, Luigi’s Mansion 1 & 2, Metroid Samus Returns, Animal Crossing, Pokemon(s), Super Smash Bros, Monster Hunter, Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Maker, Kirby(s), Xenoblade, Resident Evil Revelations, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis.


I could go on, and on, and on, and....


That’s before we even get to DS compatibility. Not to mention hacking it and playing 40 odd years worth of retro games.


No games? No games? The 3DS is one of the best handhelds ever for games.


But, each to their own. If it’s not your cup of tea, don’t drink it.

No matter how good a system was, its critics will claim it had "no games".

It usually means they never owned one and bothered to figure out what was available.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

If Nintendo does that (exclusive games for the enhanced version ) it will shoot themselves in the foot and loose a shit ton of customers. We all know why Sega in the end failed

Did they loose a shit ton of customers by having DSi or N3DS exclusives? Nope.

 

[Stwert]

No matter how good a system was, its critics will claim it had "no games".

It usually means they never owned one and bothered to figure out what was available.

That’s so very true. I’ve lost count of how many people, including journalists, who lambasted the Wii U as a failure with a lack of games.

I’ll grant you, it was a bit light on 3rd party support. But I did and still do love my Wii U, it had more than it’s fair share of stunning games.

 

[x65943]

Did they loose a shit ton of customers by having DSi or N3DS exclusives? Nope.

I think that's because they were smart about it and made very few exclusives.

If they released a mario or zelda exclusive they would draw a lot of hate.

That’s so very true. I’ve lost count of how many people, including journalists, who lambasted the Wii U as a failure with a lack of games.

I’ll grant you, it was a bit light on 3rd party support. But I did and still do love my Wii U, it had more than it’s fair share of stunning games.

To be fair, the wiiu is probably the one console I have to agree had very few games. I had mine since 2014 and got a lot of playtime out of it - but most hours were spent in only 3 games Smash, Zelda BOTW and Mario Kart 8

 

[kumikochan]

Did they loose a shit ton of customers by having DSi or N3DS exclusives? Nope.

wich exclusives ? That one exclusive ? Don't twist my words please. I was talking about all newer 3th party games and others being exclusive to that platform. That is like comparing one apple with a whole basket of apples so that's a dumb comparison. I'm talking about the same way Sega did it so don't twist what i said in to something else entirely

 

[D34DL1N3R]

I think that's because they were smart about it and made very few exclusives.

If they released a mario or zelda exclusive they would draw a lot of hate.

That I do agree with. Pretty sure they wouldn't do that.

wich exclusives ? That one exclusive ? Don't twist my words please. I was talking about all newer 3th party games and others being exclusive to that platform. That is like comparing one apple with a whole basket of apples so that's a dumb comparison

I twisted absolutely nothing. There were many more than just one exclusive even if the majority were shovelware, plus there was the SNES VC support. Don't come back later to "amend" what you said into something else, then act like a douche and blame someone else for your lack of clarity and basically call them stupid. Thanks. Have a good day.

 

[kumikochan]

That I do agree with. Pretty sure they wouldn't do that.



I twisted absolutely nothing. There were many more than just one exclusive even if the majority were shovelware, plus there was the SNES VC support. Don't come back later to "amend" what you said into something else, then act like a douche and blame someone else for your lack of clarity and basically call them stupid. Thanks. Have a good day.

No those systems were never comparable to the 32x or mega cd and the sega saturn launching basically at the same time the mega cd and 32x. No, just stop. It ain't comparable. No you're stupid for even claiming the N3DS was exactly the same as those systems and then you have the audacity to call me stupid ? Lol. If you do want to call me stupid then please do explain to me how what Sega did is exactly the same as with the N3ds en DSi ?????

 

[CrossOut]

Those enhanced systems didn't have exclusives for them. If the rumors are true and Nintendo will go the exclusives route for that system, it will fail and we've seen this happen not once but multiple times in the past. Sega being the biggest example of that mistake. If you do that you will piss off millions of customers who bought your system in the first place. The customers you have at the beginning are your die hard fans and consumers and pissing those off, well we've seen how that worked out in the past

Yes i agree, if they go an exclusive route there will no doubt be a lot of persons who not like it. I will be interesting to see if anything comes of this. I'd say they will not do an exclusive route,only time will tell though.

 

[kumikochan]

Yes i agree, if they go an exclusive route there will no doubt be a lot of persons who not like it. I will be interesting to see if anything comes of this. I'd say they will not do an exclusive route,only time will tell though.

i'm also not saying they will and i hold high hope for that that they won't but yeah if they do, it will be bad

 

[Teletron1]

To me, 3DS is the ugly design and dont liked two screens at all. That's why I never bought it at all. Don't have it. Nintendo Switch is the best handheld (lookalike) ever. I love its sleek and design.

depends on the games, ones that depend a lot on the mapping system keeps the gaming pace instead of flipping back and forth but also helps people who have terrible short term memories (like me) not get lost all the time, but in game combat mode and having weapons right there to quickly change on the fly is also fun , just got done playing Samus Returns that was 3DS at it's best (the only thing I find annoying is after prolong play my thumb is killing me ,but I think I will pick up one of those grips, Can anyone recommend a good one?)


but dual screen was dedicated to the late 90's war gamer with the need of always looking at your mapping system

originally the psp was also intended to act as the ps3 controller and to display the maps and other options but developers didn't want to spend the time implementing them

 

[DANTENDO]

I am quite serious.

Everything I liked about the GBA and DS vanished from the 3ds. When the 3ds was new I was still doing a retrospective on it all ( https://gbatemp.net/threads/links-to-various-gbatemp-features-over-the-years.352851/ *) and time and time again I looked to see what those making the GBA and DS as good as they were happened to be doing at that point. Usually not working on the 3ds, or giving the 3ds a token effort, was what I found.
I would maintain that if you played the GBA and DS you would not be missing out on much of anything by skipping the 3ds and but for the 3ds' ability to play DS games (GBA too if you fiddle a bit or buy a fancy DS flash cart) you could skip it in favour of the GBA and DS and miss nothing particularly interesting.

The homebrew scene for it was similarly lacklustre -- IOS dropping (and then android gobbling that up) which killed off the remaining parts of the DS and PSP homebrew scenes seemingly meant that nobody moved onto the 3ds as there were better choices for portable devices at that point (sad really as I am not a fan of the monetisation options pursued and controls of the phones, so much so that I don't have one).

It is not the first time I have mentioned the weakness of the 3ds, and it is similarly not the first time people have tried to call me out for such a statement. To this day though nobody has been able to make a list of things I should play else I would be missing out having come up through the GBA and DS. When the DS was rising up I generally noted it had most of what made the GBA special but gave it an extra bit of polish and some more modern standards. I did not get that, or some kind of radical departure that would have otherwise made it worthwhile, from the 3ds.

When talking about Nintendo's home consoles I often mention an informal test I do for them. That being if you had that as your sole console would you have experienced the gameplay styles of the day? The gamecube came close enough that it would mainly be the PS2's utter dominance that generation that knocks it down if it is done at all, after that we are back to the 16 bit era and older. For the 3ds I don't know that I would raise the Vita up against it, though it did have some interesting ideas and I can see it being something of an overlooked device in years to come similar to maybe the Saturn today, but while I said something like it above about the DS games compared to the 3ds library I would go it again here.

*if I had to summarise my general approach it would be that I don't give a damn about Nintendo's own franchises, save perhaps for Advance Wars and Starfy (both of which had no 3ds entry). You can find a list of the sorts of things that interested me about the GBA and DS (and some other consoles) on that thread. Did not get that from the 3ds. If you did care about Nintendo first party efforts (which does seem to be their main fanbase these days) then maybe if it is your only pokemon mario mario kart fix but it was not at all uncommon to find people that did the GBA and DS whilst ignoring such things and had a great time.

This is why I say the 3ds has no games, and about the only reason to own one is if you enjoy the form factor of it over the DS, DS lite, DSi, DSi XL (or GBA family if you are going that way) and can deal with the downsides of running code on it. I am not sure why anybody would enjoy the form factor but between hand size, eye quality and the like I can write that off as personal preference easily enough.

with the amount of posts youve made and the length of them it beggars belief how you hav time to complete a game

 

[CrossOut]

i'm also not saying they will and i hold high hope for that that they won't but yeah if they do, it will be bad

On the other hand there are persons like me who do not have a Nintendo Switch and if there will be an enhanced edition i would consider getting that one.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

wich exclusives ? That one exclusive ? Don't twist my words please. I was talking about all newer 3th party games and others being exclusive to that platform. That is like comparing one apple with a whole basket of apples so that's a dumb comparison

No those systems were never comparable to the 32x or mega cd and the sega saturn launching basically at the same time the mega cd and 32x. No, just stop. It ain't comparable. No you're stupid for even claiming the N3DS was exactly the same as those systems and then you have the audacity to call me stupid ? Lol. If you do want to call me stupid then please do explain to me how what Sega did is exactly the same as with the N3ds en DSi ?????

When did I ever call you stupid? Never. I said you were being a douche for calling ME stupid. And then you called me stupid AGAIN in your last post. On top of that, when did I ever mention a single thing about 32x, Mega CD, or Saga Saturn?

You're delusional. Seeing and injecting things that aren't even there. "GBATemp Psycho!" was certainly fitting for yourself.

 

[Zumoly]

I think I know why they're doing it. Most big games run like crap with the current version (optimization or weak hardware? Beats me!). On the bright side, some of them do better while docked.
I'm guessing they'll increase the Ram and most likely change some of the compromising component (looking at you Nvidia).

 

[kumikochan]

When did I ever call you stupid? Never. I said you were being a douche for calling ME stupid. And then you called me stupid AGAIN in your last post. On top of that, when did I ever mention a single thing about 32x, Mega CD, or Saga Saturn?

You're delusional. Seeing and injecting things that aren't even there. "GBATemp Psycho!" was certainly fitting for yourself.

I did, my post was about that. Every post i made in here was comparing it to Sega so eum you replied to that with the N3DS this and the DSI that and i asked how the hell that is comparable with the 32x, mega cd and sega saturn because in every single post i was comparing with Sega. Next time read properly before commenting to something and then acting like i didn't say anything about that. Reaaaaad before commenting

 

[CrossOut]

I think I know why they're doing it. Most big games run like crap with the current version (optimization or weak hardware? Beats me!). On the bright side, some of them do better while docked.
I'm guessing they'll increase the Ram and most likely change some of the compromising component (looking at you Nvidia).

Exactly! The enhanced Xbox One and PS4 do help with framerate in most games so it would be a good reason to do one. The new Nintendo 3ds for example loads games a lot faster too.

 

[Kubas_inko]

No...games???


Mario 3D Land, NSMB 2, Zelda, Zelda, Zelda, Mario Kart, Luigi’s Mansion 1 & 2, Metroid Samus Returns, Animal Crossing, Pokemon(s), Super Smash Bros, Monster Hunter, Kid Icarus, Donkey Kong Country Returns, Mario Maker, Kirby(s), Xenoblade, Resident Evil Revelations, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis.


I could go on, and on, and on, and....


That’s before we even get to DS compatibility. Not to mention hacking it and playing 40 odd years worth of retro games.


No games? No games? The 3DS is one of the best handhelds ever for games.


But, each to their own. If it’s not your cup of tea, don’t drink it.

You can also say it this way:
You can play GB, GBA, GBC, DS, DSi, NES, SNES, 3DS games. That's "official" support.
And then come all the other emulators.

 

[Wolfy]

Cant wait for titles like “only available for Switch XL-i Models with advanced Joycon Motion Plus Deluxe“

Hope my hacked switch will run everything they will release. And I hope far more the new models are hackable...

I think there is no need for other models...

Eh, the problem is that the hardware vulnerability that was so easily exploited will most likely be patched out for the newer models, so there's little chance such an easy exploit will just happen to be found. Think about other consoles where it took wayyyy longer to find an entrypoint as well, not just the exploit.

 

[D34DL1N3R]

I did, my post was about that. Every post i made in here was comparing it to Sega so eum you replied to that with the N3DS this and the DSI that and i asked how the hell that is comparable with the 32x, mega cd and sega saturn because in every single post i was comparing with Sega. Next time read properly before commenting to something and then acting like i didn't say anything about that. Reaaaaad before commenting

"If Nintendo does that (exclusive games for the enhanced version ) it will shoot themselves in the foot and loose a shit ton of customers. We all know why Sega in the end failed"

You mentioned Sega, sure. But was there something wrong with a comparison to the DSi and N3DS exclusives AS WELL AS Sega? Because you seem to be oddly overly upset about it, and because you WERE talking about "exclusive games for the enhanced version" after all. Does adding to a conversation and making new argument points upset you THAT much? Plus you're still accusing me of making comparisons that I never made and are flying off the handle about it. YOU are comparing Sega, not me.

You want to make comments about reading? Here's one for ya.... reading doesn't help much when there's a lack of reading comprehension skills you're obviously missing. Also, there's still the calling me stupid several times that you never touched base with, after accusing me of it.

There are doctors that can help you. Remember that this is just one day, not the whole of your life. I'm sure you'll make it through. Stay positive!!! Big hugs!!!