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Nintendo Developers Reportedly Working on 4K Games for Unannounced System

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Prior to the official announcement of the Nintendo Switch OLED, Bloomberg reported that a new Switch model would be released with 4K capability, and a bigger, OLED screen. When the OLED version of the system was announced over the summer, many were surprised that the 4K aspect of that reporting did not pan out. However, a new report published by Bloomberg alleges that several developers affiliated with Nintendo were given dev kits to work on 4K Nintendo games before the OLED reveal. Bloomberg claims that Nintendo pivoted from this plan, possibly as a result of the global chip shortage that has led to struggles across the video game industry.

Bloomberg has apparently identified 11 developers of varying sizes using these dev kits to work on games for Nintendo, despite the fact that there is no compatible Nintendo console. In Bloomberg's reporting, the only developer identified was Zynga, Inc., which is the team currently working on Star Wars: Hunters. Some of these developers apparently expect to release their 4K Nintendo games "during or after the second half of next year." This could mean that another Switch model is currently in development, or the successor to the Nintendo Switch might be released towards the end of 2022, or in early 2023. The Nintendo Switch released in the first quarter of 2017, so that would mean a six-year lifespan for the console, if that were to be the case.

Bloomberg apparently reached out to Nintendo about these reports, but the company called them "inaccurate," without going into further detail. Nintendo has always been notoriously tight-lipped, and has often intimated that it is always working on new hardware. A 4K console from the company is basically an inevitability at this point, but whether or not that was ever the plan for the Switch OLED is impossible to say for certain.
 

Matsuchezz

Member
Nintendo does not need it. It raises the cost of the development. And they are cheap bastards. I do not believe it. And it would be weird having that resolution with their crappy and bland games.
 

Little Mac

Member
I'm this close to buying the OLED model for Dread ... but maybe I should wait. God Nintendo never makes things easy.
 
dis gon b gud popcorn GIF
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Nintendo does not need it. It raises the cost of the development. And they are cheap bastards. I do not believe it. And it would be weird having that resolution with their crappy and bland games.

Resolution raises costs of development?

So I take Deus Ex from 2000, change the ini file for 4K resolution, and it sends a bill of development costs to a dead company?

What about Switch emulation at 4K? ( and damn if it doesn’t look mighty fine)

DLSS would handle the upscaling, you would still design for base switch hardware.
 

Marty-McFly

Banned
Bloomberg is running a smear campaign against Nintendo.

Fairly obvious.

- They tried to kill OLED hype by announcing it was 4k before Nintendo announced it to give a sense of disappointment when it was announced.

- Then after that didn't happen they tried to claim the new OLED screen, improved audio, new kickstand and double the memory was only 10 bucks

- Then after Nintendo debunked that, they're announcing this shit again right before OLED releases.

I have to wonder who they're working for?

It's a waste of time anyway OLED is going sell like bottled water.
 
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dano1

A Sheep
Well that ended quickly 😂. Not buying there next money grab until it’s 4K. Prefer the early days of Nintendo when they had the best games, graphics and 3rd party games! Oh well
 

dano1

A Sheep
Well that ended quickly 😂. Not buying there next money grab until it’s 4K. Prefer the early days of Nintendo when they had the best games, graphics and 3rd party games! Oh well
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Nintendo does not need it. It raises the cost of the development. And they are cheap bastards. I do not believe it. And it would be weird having that resolution with their crappy and bland games.
Dated talking point. Cost of game development has largely plateaued in the last 10 years, because the tools we use to make them have changed and gotten better. Making an asset at a higher resolution doesn't necessarily take more of an artist's time compared to a lower detail one, and in fact optimized assets are usually baked down from more detailed ones already.

If anything it takes more effort to develop for Switch because of the limited resources. This is why games like Doom Eternal come out way later or games like Bloodstained ship in rough shape. Having more memory and CPU overhead will make devs lives a lot easier.
 

Dick Jones

Gold Member
When Nintendo is silent, things are normal. When they feel the need to debunk, then there is something suspicious going on.
Yeah, they are selling an OLED model this year. Claiming now there is a better console coming soon would equal lost sales as people would wait.
 

ultrazilla

Member
I really really doubt 4K. That just seems to totally go against Nintendo's philosophy and not pursuing the most expensive graphics.

Higher res sure, but not all the way to 4K. I'd be shocked.

Yeah I'm thinking this is referring to the rumored DLSS that's in this new "mystery" Nintendo system. The *potential* incorporation of DLSS in the "new" Nintendo system would be a real game changer(pun intended...a little bit).
And just because Nintendo has said there wouldn't be any new hardware released this fiscal year after the OLED model, it doesn't mean they can't still announce a more powerful model at anytime.

I'm still of the belief we'll get the "4k capable" Nintendo system in the first quarter of the new fiscal year(spring 2022) right along side the launch of TLOZ: BOTW 2.
 
I'm this close to buying the OLED model for Dread ... but maybe I should wait. God Nintendo never makes things easy.
No, they do, it's the media with all their rumors and lies that don't make things easy. Go back complaining about prices everyone, not this pro 4K bull you all won't stop claiming and crying about.
 
It’s nuts that Nintendo is making public statements like this that explicitly call out investors. Are the rules more lax in Japan?? Can you just straight up lie to investors about rumors???? Because in America the SEC would have their ass on a platter which is why most companies just say “We won’t comment on rumors or speculation”
 

LordOfChaos

Member
I really really doubt 4K. That just seems to totally go against Nintendo's philosophy and not pursuing the most expensive graphics.

Higher res sure, but not all the way to 4K. I'd be shocked.

DLSS, an upgraded GPU that's good enough to run its games at 1080p internally and then dedicated cores for upscaling to a 4K output with DLSS would still look pretty good, and that's probably the best we can hope for.

If it remains a handheld, it's not going to be targeting near native 4K (except for simple games)
 

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
I really really doubt 4K. That just seems to totally go against Nintendo's philosophy and not pursuing the most expensive graphics.

Higher res sure, but not all the way to 4K. I'd be shocked.

Nintendo’s philosophy isn’t not pursuing the most expensive graphics. Its pursuing what’s affordable.
 

Derktron

Banned
Bloomberg is running a smear campaign against Nintendo.

Fairly obvious.

- They tried to kill OLED hype by announcing it was 4k before Nintendo announced it to give a sense of disappointment when it was announced.

- Then after that didn't happen they tried to claim the new OLED screen, improved audio, new kickstand and double the memory was only 10 bucks

- Then after Nintendo debunked that, they're announcing this shit again right before OLED releases.

I have to wonder who they're working for?

It's a waste of time anyway OLED is going sell like bottled water.
Fucking Microsoft ....... I knew it was them!!!
win95 GIF by ALEX KAO
 

MrA

Banned
I really really doubt 4K. That just seems to totally go against Nintendo's philosophy and not pursuing the most expensive graphics.

Higher res sure, but not all the way to 4K. I'd be shocked.
what would really be ideal is 720p portable with like a ~1.8 tf range gpu (ps4 rendering 720p sure would have left a whole mess of overhead) then run 2.2x faster for 1080p docked, ~4tf for 1080p would be enough to keep competitive with xsx/ps5 when they push 4k, and then release a pro-dock at a premium price with some sort of dlss asic for 4k , dlss is some really impressive stuff, if they made dev kits that render at 4k to create profiles I think they would have a great solution for keeping prices down while appealing to a wide swath of consumers. Unfortunately I don't think Nintendo would do something like this.
 

KingT731

Member
what would really be ideal is 720p portable with like a ~1.8 tf range gpu (ps4 rendering 720p sure would have left a whole mess of overhead) then run 2.2x faster for 1080p docked, ~4tf for 1080p would be enough to keep competitive with xsx/ps5 when they push 4k, and then release a pro-dock at a premium price with some sort of dlss asic for 4k , dlss is some really impressive stuff, if they made dev kits that render at 4k to create profiles I think they would have a great solution for keeping prices down while appealing to a wide swath of consumers. Unfortunately I don't think Nintendo would do something like this.
While this does sound interesting looking at the Series S I doubt it since there are already games hitting sub 1080 (not to mention PS5/XSX games already not being native 4K) unless they only moved up to literal base PS4/Pro settings at the absolute highest....I could see that happening in that scenario.
 

IFireflyl

Gold Member
The Nintendo Switch already gets a performance boost when you dock it. That means Nintendo understands how to make the two components (the console and the dock) work together. What they really need to do is get external GPU support, and then put a more powerful GPU in new dock that you could purchase separately. You don't need 4k on that tiny screen, so there's no reason for the 4k features to be baked into the console itself. Just let the additional horsepower be handled solely by the new dock. They could release a 4k Switch that would include the console plus the 4k dock for people that don't already own a Switch, and they could also have the 4k dock sold separately to milk more funds out of the people that own a Switch.
 
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