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.

SOURCE

 

[osaka35]

Played Netflix game yet? They are testing the water.

When is the coder strike coming?

Post automatically merged: Aug 4, 2023

I was just playing "Oceanhorn 2 - Knights of the Lost Realm" on PC.
Oh what an upgrade from the Switch version.

The developer release it for the most popular platform(phone), then port it to the next popular platform(Switch) and finally port it to the least popular platform ( PC, PS5, XboxXS )

I am happy that most game is the other way around. Wait 2 years to have it on Switch rather than wait 2 years for it to come to PC.

I don't mind streaming, but only in service to a product, not a replacement for. Gamepass is great...as a supplemental. I still want my bluray movies and shows, I still want my car to just...work. I want my tractor to just...work. It is not a logical force driving this push for streaming/online drm/unnecessary monthly fee/etc only. The drive is purely for a company's bottom line, not for the sake of the consumer or for the goods being fee-ified. There has to be room for both ownership and renting or the whole won't be able to hold, much less grow.

Coders are definitely using AI to help with their code. Why go to stack overflow with their pompousness when you can just have a companion AI to help you code. I also see in the near future, AI tutors, where you can learn any topic and the AI tracks your progress to give you the best lesson for what you understand. Again, it comes to finding a way to integrate AI without making it only about profit.

So yeah, we're probably boned.

 

[smf]

Alright, the hardware just grows on trees then.

Don't get pissy. You must know that this will be some management negotiations between nintendo and nvidia and the engineers will just do as they are told. They might be able to innovate a bit, but the decision to release anything will be out of their hands as will any of the cost decisions.

 

[ertaboy356b]

Some people just want everything on their preferred desktop icon. It's a bizarre way to look at things for me, but that's the situation.

Yeah it's just another type of console wars. With that logic, itch.io is also gatekeeping games as well as GoG.

Post automatically merged: Aug 5, 2023

I'm not convinced. The argument about "you could spend much more money and emulate the switch and get better performance" has been true for a while and people have been banging on about it for ages.

People have used cases so yeah, not everyone needs a high end system, they just want to play games.

 

[Foxi4]

Don't get pissy. You must know that this will be some management negotiations between nintendo and nvidia and the engineers will just do as they are told. They might be able to innovate a bit, but the decision to release anything will be out of their hands as will any of the cost decisions.

That’s not how prototyping works.

 

[kuro0628neko]

Rarely do I see hatred unite people to such a degree as when we see yet another Switch 2 rumor.

 

[TomSwitch]

Rarely do I see hatred unite people to such a degree as when we see yet another Switch 2 rumor.

United in loving Nintendo.

 

[smf]

That’s not how prototyping works.

Seriously? You think Nintendo Engineers get a free reign to just grab whatever parts they want?

How cute.

 

[Foxi4]

Seriously? You think Nintendo Engineers get a free reign to just grab whatever parts they want?

How cute.

I didn’t say that. Hardware design does not work like the Apollo 13 mission - management doesn’t roll in with a box of miscellaneous hardware they bought on a yard sale, they don’t spill it onto the table in the R&D department and say “here’s what we’ve got, boys - we need us a console”. If anything, the designers have the first say since they’re cranking out concepts 24/7. Those designs either get green lit for development or they don’t, they get pitched just like everything else in a company does. If something does get green lit, you build a proof of concept - a device that kinda sorta does what the designers envisioned, usually using hardware you happen to have on hand. To give a good example, early Wii demo units were just Ganecubes with extra RAM slapped on top because that’s what was available, and it was the remote that was the star of the show. The 360 was demoed on two PowerMac’s strapped together with good wishes and fairy dust. Once you can demonstrate what you’re kind of aiming at, you start working on a BOM within an assigned budget, and that’s when release candidates start popping up. Management is present every step of the way, but they don’t decide what goes into the machine because that’s not their job - their job is to make sure that whatever the company happens to be working on makes money and isn’t a huge waste of time. If you’re interested in how the process works in Nintendo, you’re in luck because it’s well-documented - I quote:

The Game Boy was designed by Nintendo's chief engineer Gunpei Yokoi and its Nintendo R&D1 team. Following the popularity of the Nintendo Entertainment System, he held a meeting with Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, saying that he could do a handheld system with interchangeable games.

Since 1985, a red LED eyepiece display technology called Scanned Linear Array was developed by Massachusetts-based Reflection Technology, Inc. (RTI). The company produced a stereoscopic head-tracking prototype called the Private Eye, featuring a tank game. Seeking funding and partnerships by which to develop it into a commercial technology, RTI demonstrated Private Eye to the consumer electronics market (…) Nintendo enthusiastically received the Private Eye, as led by Gunpei Yokoi, the general manager of Nintendo's R&D1 and the inventor of the Game & Watch and Game Boy handheld consoles. He saw this as a unique technology that competitors would find difficult to emulate. Additionally, the resulting game console was intended to enhance Nintendo's reputation as an innovator and to "encourage more creativity" in games. Codenaming the project "VR32", Nintendo entered into an exclusive agreement with Reflection Technology, Inc. to license the technology for its displays.

Shortly after the release of the GameCube, Nintendo began conceptualizing their next console. The company's game designer Shigeru Miyamoto said that, in the early stages, they decided they would not aim to compete on hardware power, and would instead prioritize new gameplay concepts. Miyamoto cited Dance Dance Revolution's unique game controllers as inspiration for developing new input devices. Later in September 24, 2001, Nintendo began working with Gyration Inc., a firm that had developed several patents related to motion detection, to prototype future controllers using their licensed patents.

The list goes on. Everything starts with a concept, and there’s usually a big brained engineer or designer behind that concept. It’s how it is, it’s how it’s always been. Every product is born on a piece of paper first, not “because management made a deal”. Management makes deals to supply their engineers and designers with affordable hardware they can work with. One does not exist with the other.

 

[smf]

If anything, the designers have the first say since they’re cranking out concepts 24/7. Those designs either get green lit for development or they don’t, they get pitched just like everything else in a company does.

As I said, cute. Nintendo have always outsourced their chips, the engineers might have some input but things that affect the cost (which faster chips would) are not going to be up for debate.

Nintendo entered into an exclusive agreement with Reflection Technology, Inc
Nintendo began working with Gyration Inc

So not Nintendo engineers then. Seems like a management choice.

 

[subcon959]

As I said, cute. Nintendo have always outsourced their chips, the engineers might have some input but things that affect the cost (which faster chips would) are not going to be up for debate.

Nintendo entered into an exclusive agreement with Reflection Technology, Inc
Nintendo began working with Gyration Inc

So not Nintendo engineers then. Seems like a management choice.

You don't think Nintendo engineers were heavily involved before that decision? Buying a bunch of parts and telling engineers to do something with them seems like a good way to kill a company.

 

[TomSwitch]

Seriously? You think Nintendo Engineers get a free reign to just grab whatever parts they want?

How cute.

The truths is engineers do whatever they want in secret. You want to do that in the open you have to be bender, he gets to do what ever he can think of at the moment. If you are Trump you get to grab any part you want without getting into trouble.

 

[SSG Vegeta]

The successor better have backwards compatibly because I don't want to rebuy my entire Nintendo Switch library.

 

[Foxi4]

As I said, cute. Nintendo have always outsourced their chips, the engineers might have some input but things that affect the cost (which faster chips would) are not going to be up for debate.

Nintendo entered into an exclusive agreement with Reflection Technology, Inc
Nintendo began working with Gyration Inc

So not Nintendo engineers then. Seems like a management choice.

Select companies are approached depending on what their products can be used for, and that’s up to the creatives. Companies pitch their products to other companies all the time, whether they enter in partnerships or not is dependant on if it’s mutually beneficial. The quotes I provided prove as much. Management is not the ideas department - that’s not their job. Their role is to put a stamp of approval on the product and the components, they don’t make the product, nor do they make decisions on how it’s designed.

 

[TomSwitch]

I suspect some that talk so much about IC selection has no idea what they were talking about. No rather only ideas that they think their superior intellect makes real.

IC has not been supplied alone for many decades already. No body other than the IC company will be willing to invest that kind of money to make the IC work in a platform. They have to create a platform in order to sell IC.

Product company evaluate platform to see if it works for them. Ask IC platform engineering people to perhaps customize the platform for them. The BIG customer can ask for IC to be customized. The small one only get to speak to technical marketing people or even just the sales team.

Whether Nintendo now rank high to the platform people is unknown. They surely started rather low in the beginning.

I doubt Jenson see Nintendo as that important

If I am that platform person how important Nintendo might be to me will depend on the objective of the platform

I had played the role of product architect and platform architect before. How much freedom an architect has in the different area can vary greatly. Normally the total budget and must meet specifications are there to box you in. What the rest of the team are capable of is another limiting factor. The architect gets to talk to many of the stake holders, gets blame for bad decisions, and occasionally get to steer the platform towards the direction he likes and that is all.

How much does non technical influence the platform? I would say a great deal. Specific technical decision maybe not but the big picture is normally defined by non technical people.

 

[smf]

Select companies are approached depending on what their products can be used for, and that’s up to the creatives. Companies pitch their products to other companies all the time, whether they enter in partnerships or not is dependant on if it’s mutually beneficial. The quotes I provided prove as much. Management is not the ideas department - that’s not their job. Their role is to put a stamp of approval on the product and the components, they don’t make the product, nor do they make decisions on how it’s designed.

Manager of R&D department runs an idea up the flagpole, gets go ahead to contact management of other company, commercial terms are discussed, either goes ahead or it doesn't. Which is what your quotes show.

All those managers are more capable than you are, of deciding when the next console should come out and the engineers don't need a warning from you and couldn't do anything with it regardless.

How much does non technical influence the platform? I would say a great deal. Specific technical decision maybe not but the big picture is normally defined by non technical people.

Even in the wild west of the 1970's and 1980's, where an engineer could knock up a prototype from spare parts and create something innovative and get a go ahead to turn it into a product. They were reliant purely on buy in from the higher ups.

The commodore vic 20 prototype was a project by a student that had visited MOS and used a previously designed graphics chip that MOS had failed to sell to Atari et all (the evaluation notes from Atari turned up a few years ago). The student subsequently went to work for them and eventually the american engineers got a go ahead to produce a second prototype that could get be turned into a product by the manufacturing team in japan. The engineers in america and japan had free reign within the budget but their jobs were on the line if they failed (commodore would ship any old crap that sells though, so failure had to be total).

The apple macintosh started out as a 6809 based computer, then due to the Lisa another engineer wanted to try to build a cheap 68000 computer. Steve Jobs then heard about it and controlled the project with an iron fist (there were a few times that engineers managed to sneak things past him).

Only one of those companies survived. The one where management ruled every decision. An engineer going behind a superiors back is against Japanese culture.

We don't live in the 1970's/1980's any more. There are no easy wins, because CPU manufacturers don't just design a chip and leave it up to everyone else to figure out what to do with it. There is usually a reference design that has been carefully thought out.

 

[Foxi4]

Manager of R&D department runs an idea up the flagpole, gets go ahead to contact management of other company, commercial terms are discussed, either goes ahead or it doesn't. Which is what your quotes show.

All those managers are more capable than you are, of deciding when the next console should come out and the engineers don't need a warning from you and couldn't do anything with it regardless.

If you think the overall design or the spec of upcoming devices is decided in the boardroom and not in the appropriate department after extensive prototyping and a lot of trial and error then there’s really not much to talk about here. Ideas come from idea people, managers manage. Nintendo is in a very comfortable position since much like AMD, its management structure works (and promotes) from within and besides some external hires (most famously Reggie who’s no longer in the company and was on-boarded for his marketing talent) the people in the comfy seats are designers, programmers or engineers themselves, so I’m sure they provide valuable input to the respective teams. Other than that the topic’s exhausted.

 

[smf]

If you think the overall design or the spec of upcoming devices is decided in the boardroom and not in the appropriate department after extensive prototyping and a lot of trial and error then there’s really not much to talk about here.

Nice straw man.

I guess you're right though, Nintendo just need to hire engineers who have heard of higher clock speeds. If only they had you to educate them.

You need to quantify "extensive prototyping and a lot of trial and error" because that sounds like a red flag to me, as if they are like kids jamming square blocks into round holes.

 

[Foxi4]

Nice straw man.

I guess you're right though, Nintendo just need to hire engineers who have heard of higher clock speeds. If only they had you to educate them.

You need to quantify "extensive prototyping and a lot of trial and error" because that sounds like a red flag to me, as if they are like kids jamming square blocks into round holes.

I “need” to pay less attention to you, if anything. This isn’t adding to the discussion about the Switch’s successor. You have a different outlook on how a project pipeline looks like and you’re entitled to it, just like I am entitled to ignore it. You’re welcome to give management all the credit - in reality, management only sets the size of the sandbox the rest of the team gets to play in. They’re not without function, a team unmanaged is a team in chaos, but they’re not the ones coming up with designs, they just approve or reject them.

 

[smf]

I “need” to pay less attention to you, if anything. This isn’t adding to the discussion about the Switch’s successor. You have a different outlook on how a project pipeline looks like and you’re entitled to it, just like I am entitled to ignore it. You’re welcome to give management all the credit - in reality, management only sets the size of the sandbox the rest of the team gets to play in. They’re not without function, a team unmanaged is a team in chaos, but they’re not the ones coming up with designs, they just approve or reject them.

No problem. I'll give you the L.

What you "need" to do is not make stupid ass statements like "The fact that it’s an on-going issue should be food for thought for Nintendo engineers"

The next switch isn't going to be something hacked together by an engineer that wasn't told exactly what to do.

 

[Foxi4]

No problem. I'll give you the L.

What you "need" to do is not make stupid ass statements like "The fact that it’s an on-going issue should be food for thought for Nintendo engineers"

The next switch isn't going to be something hacked together by an engineer that wasn't told exactly what to do.

Engineers are not told “exactly what to do” by management, they work with a vague idea of what they’re making and they progressively approach that target through an extensive process of design and problem solving. Thinking otherwise is, simply put, silly. No amount of pencil pushing makes a working prototype or release candidate materialise. Even once a design is put on paper, the retail product varies wildly compared to the starting point. We know this because it effectively always does compared to patent drawings. I don’t know why you insist on continuing this conversation, it’s okay if you disagree, I don’t care, and I doubt anyone else does.