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Nintendo says the transition to its next console is ‘a major concern for us’

daveonezero

Banned
Jesus just make Switch 2. Bigger screen. Better battery life. Better sticks. Backwards compatible. More powerful.

This is not rocket science.
Yeah. backwards compatible with accessories and games. It doesn't even have to change form factor. If they do the OLED like design and just release new joycons that would be perfect. Innovation can come in the form of new games and crazy controller ideas. Just keep the Switch base platform going.

Literally like the handhelds. GBA>DS>3ds If they screw this up Switch will be my last console and I'll go get a Steam Deck or similar.
 

Xyphie

Member
Something I'd really like to see for a Switch 2 is a screen with a slightly taller aspect ratio instead of using 16:9 in both handheld and docked mode. The Switch has always felt a bit too wide for me. Something like 3:2 (so like 16:10.66-ish) would be great.
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
Going to tell you right off the bat I don't believe this data and would love to see where they're coming up with the ages. Are 5 year olds creating accounts putting in their age as 5? Seriously asking. Or do their parents put in their age and the kid plays on their account?

Show me a time where Nintendo upgraded their device with just more power and sold more than the previous iteration, in their history.

That they're only on Metroid Prime 4 a franchise that started in 2002 (Prime) should tell you everything you need to know about how serious they are about core gamers...
Almost every Nintendo main franchise is for core gamers... Have you tried 3D Mario post-game levels? They require some investment to beat. Haven't played it but people say current DK games are not for sweet candies. Xenoblade is one of the most hardcore investment requiring JRPG on the market since its deep mechanics. Smash... If you've played a couple smash matches and then seen some competitive game I don't have to say anything else.

What do you mean by "core gamers"? "Games aimed at adults"? Because I couldn't count very cinematic AAA games as "core" if by skills and investment we're going. If anything, Nintendo japanese approach to gameplay makes them more "core" targeted than most western devs.
 
They definitely need to make it backwards compatible. I am getting sick of all this different game media and hardware. Make all the games downloadable.
you probably wouldnt like it, but oooo if you could buy different docks that supported different older consoles...

for example, you could buy a gamecube dock that includes a gamecube disc drive and controller ports.
or an N64 dock that accepts cartridges and controllers.

no software emulation, with native 4k output.
 
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Kataploom

Gold Member
All of those are traditional franchises that appeal to core gamers. There's not really a clear divide between "core" and "casual".
There is... Games that require investment in order to get good at them... Smash, Mario (post-game), competitive pokemon, Mario Kart, hell Zelda BOTW is hard at the beginning (you'll die a lot, and even after if you're not careful), etc. are as "core" you can think since they require player investment... Even freaking Animal Crossing if you're deep into online market and trading stuff... Beating a game story with pretty graphics? That's as casual as one can get.
 

Woopah

Member
There is... Games that require investment in order to get good at them... Smash, Mario (post-game), competitive pokemon, Mario Kart, hell Zelda BOTW is hard at the beginning (you'll die a lot, and even after if you're not careful), etc. are as "core" you can think since they require player investment... Even freaking Animal Crossing if you're deep into online market and trading stuff... Beating a game story with pretty graphics? That's as casual as one can get.
Right, it's all down to player activity rather game design. Almost every game can be played casually or hardcorely.
 

HF2014

Member
Just release the Nintendo Power! The most powerful console on the planet and problem solve! Or do a Switch 2 with power on par with a PS4 and rince and repeat…
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
As long as people aren't abandoning switch honestly Nintendo doesn't have a lot of reason to go to Switch 2.

They aren't in any sort of tech arms race like Sony/MS are with each other. People who think Steam Deck is a threat are high on their own supply.

Making a Switch 2, having to make games BC across the 2 devices during some transition period, etc. is more costly than just continuing to sell Switch to people and make games for the massive userbase that is still shelling out for software. Switch 2 would probably lower their profit margin as well for a while.

They'll do it.. Switch 2 is coming.. but the "concern" really is for how a new gen effects their financials, and nothing else. Look for stagnation in financials unrelated to COVID swings/recessions and then you'll see it come out.
 
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darkangel-212559

Dreamcast Love
Lol people in this thread talking about BC like it's even in the realm of possibility. Look how they ruined Virtual Console just to sell the same old emulators but this time via a terrible subscription service.

You'll get select ports of select Switch games (This time in 4K!) with slighty bumped up graphics for full price and Nintendo will laugh in your face as they always do.
 

IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Lol people in this thread talking about BC like it's even in the realm of possibility. Look how they ruined Virtual Console just to sell the same old emulators but this time via a terrible subscription service.

You'll get select ports of select Switch games (This time in 4K!) with slighty bumped up graphics for full price and Nintendo will laugh in your face as they always do.
I dunno.. what they said about wanting to make sure Switch 2 "built on their Switch userbase" (paraphrasing) sure sounded like BC was in the cards.

Did you forget Wii-U was BC with Wii? Wii was BC with GC at launch?
 
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darkangel-212559

Dreamcast Love
I’m sure they’ll do remakes and stuff for “Switch 2”, but isn’t Nintendo one if the best at backwards comparability?

GBA fully supported GB
Wii fully supported GC
3DS fully supported DS
WiiU fully supported Wii games

If anything Switch is an outlier.

Yup Switch is an outier and my concern is that if they've seen their new way of doing things are more profitable than they'll keep it that way.
 

darkangel-212559

Dreamcast Love
I dunno.. what they said about wanting to make sure Switch 2 "built on their Switch userbase" (paraphrasing) sure sounded like BC was in the cards.

Did you forget Wii-U was BC with Wii? Wii was BC with GC at launch?

Could simply mean designing a next gen console that is still portable. Doesn't have to mean BC.
 

kiphalfton

Member
Nintendo need to continue with the Switch brand and the hybrid format. Full backwards compatibility is a must. Otherwise I'm probably not gonna bother.

"Probably not"

Puh-lease. You will buy it and you know you will.
 
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Nintendo knows that they will not be able to prevent the baby from going out the window with the bath water twice in a row using the same formula. Nintendo does not want another Wii>Wii U repeat. Or a DS>3DS.

I personally believe that's going to happen, they are going to have a new Switch that will be either be Switch OLED priced, or will be the reg Switches price and Nintendo will only slightly drop prices. Either way it will impact early adopters and the only key difference other than an obvious spec improvement, will be some other gimmick.

For the 3DS it was 3D, which Nintendo started offering models without that sold pretty well themselves.

For Switch 2 I expect whatever gimmick it has to differentiate from the Switch will go the same route. Only difference is there wont be competition to hurt early sales like the Vita did to the 3DS when they first launched, so Nintendo will eventually recover, but I don't see Switch 2 doing more than 3DS. Many of the Switch users or parents aren't going to care about a Switch 2 spec bump, they are going to see the popular selling Switch is now $199 and the games are cheaper than the new one.

Nintendo always surprises with a hit whether it was legitimately earned or not, and then rolls down the top of the hill every time after. I don't see why this would be any different than the last 4 times.
 

Robb

Gold Member
Yup Switch is an outier and my concern is that if they've seen their new way of doing things are more profitable than they'll keep it that way.
Could be. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt considering how dedicated they’ve been towards it in the past.

Switch not supporting WiiU made sense considering how different they are. But if “Switch 2” uses cartridges and a similar architecture I’d definitely expect it to be backwards compatible.

It’s a great incentive for current Switch owners to upgrade as well, and since they’re going to sell at least 125M I think they’d go for it.
 
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Sorcerer

Member
I would imagine they have pigeonholed themselves into simply more powerful Switch iterations. Unless they want to compete with the big boys on power there is no other road to go down. But they are probably fretting that they will not have an excuse to once again shut down the store and make you buy the same games again, if they just keep releasing more powerful Switch hardware.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Could simply mean designing a next gen console that is still portable. Doesn't have to mean BC.
Sure it could.

I just think you are a little too sure it won't.

It could go either way IMO. Nintendo has a an OK history overall w/ BC.. and from a tech standpoint all rumors point to it just being the next-gen successor chipset from nVidia.

It's not just an outlier for Nintendo to not have BC in the modern era it's an outlier in the entire market. People expect a new device to support their old software, particularly digital copies.
 

TonyK

Member
I only need a Switch 2 really powerful fully compatible with Switch 1 games and I will buy it day one. If games are not compatible I simply will not buy it.
 

Lunarorbit

Member
Lol people in this thread talking about BC like it's even in the realm of possibility. Look how they ruined Virtual Console just to sell the same old emulators but this time via a terrible subscription service.

You'll get select ports of select Switch games (This time in 4K!) with slighty bumped up graphics for full price and Nintendo will laugh in your face as they always do.
Yup. Totally agree. I like how someone was bragging about how Nintendo brought industry leaders to work on metroid prime 4, like that's something to be proud of. A series who started 20 years ago which they pawned off the last iteration onto outside team.

They've decided to barely work on the internet infrastructure and their lame ass nso which is bare bones in terms of game offerings.

I've owned a Nintendo system since 1988 and while I'm appreciative of their innovations and IP they need to get their shit together. Just cause they've sold a lot of systems doesn't mean I trust them to get into the 21st century
 
Nintendo need to continue with the Switch brand and the hybrid format. Full backwards compatibility is a must. Otherwise I'm probably not gonna bother.
Imagine being the only console manufacturer who doesn't embrace any semblance of Backwards Compatibility, going against what the whole industry is trying to embrace (some forcefully so but still doing it somehow). That wouldn't bode well for Nintendo.
 

daveonezero

Banned
Imagine being the only console manufacturer who doesn't embrace any semblance of Backwards Compatibility, going against what the whole industry is trying to embrace (some forcefully so but still doing it somehow). That wouldn't bode well for Nintendo.
They literally did it better than all the other consoles in home and portable systems over the last few generations.

Yes digital is pretty bad but the DS was great for bc, so was the GC to Wii

It would be weird if they switch cart formats or something.
 
It would be cool if they extended the switch concept to use more the dock and, therefore, extend the system capabilities when docked…. perhaps some sort of co-processor or at least a proper scaler from 720p/1080p to 4K. In handheld mode you don’t actually need to go much beyond 720p, which an updated Tegra is probably capable of.
 
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ManaByte

Member
Nintendo, who has the highest % of physical buyers in the industry... is going to..

Go all digital?

Nintendo, the company who has held an iron grip on software since the NES days and controls the medium their games are published on will go digital only?

Smash Bros Lol GIF
 

N1tr0sOx1d3

Given another chance
Nintendo, who has the highest % of physical buyers in the industry... is going to..

Go all digital?
Hey happy to be proven wrong. They could in theory change the dimensions of the cartridge. I seriously doubt they will offer physical backwards compatibility with Switch games. They will want to sell you digital versions of Switch games and put the 2nd hand market to rest.
As I say happy to be proven wrong.
 
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KingT731

Member
Yup Switch is an outier and my concern is that if they've seen their new way of doing things are more profitable than they'll keep it that way.
Did you see how much some of those Wii U games didn't sell and then proceeded to do over 1M+ on low effort ports to the Switch? You damn right they're more profitable lol. Hell MK8 Deluxe sold over 45M on the Switch lol.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
Did you see how much some of those Wii U games didn't sell and then proceeded to do over 1M+ on low effort ports to the Switch? You damn right they're more profitable lol. Hell MK8 Deluxe sold over 45M on the Switch lol.
Nobody bought the Wii-U though.

So why would that become some pattern?

People bought things on Switch because everyone abandoned Wii-U. That doesn't mean a Switch 2 that abandons BC would suddenly be able to sell yet another billion copies of MK8.

I really think most of you are reading into this backwards... it's Nintendo practically screaming "We are making Switch 2 fully BC" to me.. not the other way around.

And this isn't copium because I couldn't care less personally lol I won't be playing any Switch games on Switch 2.. I'll probably buy it though.
 
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KingT731

Member
Nobody bought the Wii-U though.

So why would that become some pattern?

People bought things on Switch because everyone abandoned Wii-U. That doesn't mean a Switch 2 that abandons BC would suddenly be able to sell yet another billion copies of MK8.

I really think most of you are reading into this backwards... it's Nintendo practically screaming "We are making Switch to fully BC" to me.. not the other way around.

And this isn't copium because I couldn't care less personally lol I won't be playing any Switch games on Switch 2.. I'll probably buy it though.
I said nothing about them abandoning BC just that they have seen and know it's easy money to release simple ports.
 

ManaByte

Member
I said nothing about them abandoning BC just that they have seen and know it's easy money to release simple ports.

They only sold 13.5M Wii Us, its highest selling game was Mario Kart 8 at 8M. Those are WORLDWIDE numbers. They're not simple ports, they're recouping the development costs due to the games being released on a console no one bought. It's giving them a second chance because most people buying them never played them on their original console.
 

ManaByte

Member
As for BC, the Wii was BC with the GameCube and the Wii U was BC with the Wii. There's no reason why the next Switch won't be BC.
 

Apocryphon

Member
Can't see them abandoning the portable/hybrid form factor. Size, BC, and battery life will limit what they can do in terms of horsepower but the Tegra X1 chipset is small enough to be included to handle BC alongside something more capable. That said, I suspect they're locked into Nvidia mobile SoCs for now. The Jetson Orin NX 8GB is probably the best we can hope for.
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Even Nintendo know they have a pattern of going from success to failure.

This only really applies to their home consoles (in that context, you’re absolutely right).

However, every major handheld they’ve released since the Game Boy has been an absolute juggernaut;
  • Game Boy (Color) – 119 million
  • Game Boy Advance – 82 million
  • Nintendo DS – 154 million
  • Nintendo 3DS – 76 million
  • Nintendo Switch – 111 million
As long as they keep a handheld centric focus, which they will because of Japan, the next console will be a huge success.
 
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KingT731

Member
They only sold 13.5M Wii Us, its highest selling game was Mario Kart 8 at 8M. Those are WORLDWIDE numbers. They're not simple ports, they're recouping the development costs due to the games being released on a console no one bought. It's giving them a second chance because most people buying them never played them on their original console.
How much do you think the budget is on Nintendo's games? Honest question.
 

HofT

Member
Yup Switch is an outier and my concern is that if they've seen their new way of doing things are more profitable than they'll keep it that way.
It's also because the games they ported we're on the Wii U which is their worse selling console and a huge failure. Not many people got to play those game so I can see the mentality of porting over and branding them as "new".
Next console will not have that luxury. Everyone and their dog has a Switch and played its games and I think that's what worries Nintendo. They HAVE TO make a lot new games for their new console. The market will not buy what they already played last generation. And making the New Switch backwards compatible will help sales and fill gaps.
 

Woopah

Member
As long as people aren't abandoning switch honestly Nintendo doesn't have a lot of reason to go to Switch 2.

They aren't in any sort of tech arms race like Sony/MS are with each other. People who think Steam Deck is a threat are high on their own supply.

Making a Switch 2, having to make games BC across the 2 devices during some transition period, etc. is more costly than just continuing to sell Switch to people and make games for the massive userbase that is still shelling out for software. Switch 2 would probably lower their profit margin as well for a while.

They'll do it.. Switch 2 is coming.. but the "concern" really is for how a new gen effects their financials, and nothing else. Look for stagnation in financials unrelated to COVID swings/recessions and then you'll see it come out.
We are seeing hardware decline already and software will start declining next year too. So that stagnation is getting pretty close.
Yup Switch is an outier and my concern is that if they've seen their new way of doing things are more profitable than they'll keep it that way.
Now that Nintendo is getting subscription money, that gives them a big big incentive for people's digital accounts (and games) to carry over to the next system.

Especially when Switch ports on the next system would perform much much worse than Wii U ports on Switch.
 
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