If Nintendo being "one generation behind once again" means I get more games like Breath of the Wilds, Mario Odyssey, Metroid Dread, and Tears of the Kingdom (just to name a few of the incredible first-party games this generation), then I'm fine with that!
this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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Again it ain’t the hardware, it’s the software.
Granted, Nintendo does know how to make their sub par hardware seem better than it is. But can you imagine what they could do with actual up to date hardware? Might not be as easy a sell at $400-500 though like PS/Xbox. So if they can keep sub $300 system it's an easier sell as a secondary system to the others or pc.
what they could do with actual up to date hardware?
It's honestly hard to tell, given their history. When they first got 3D hardware, their first attempts resulted in a literal revolution in game design, with Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time changing how 3D games would look and control from that point onwards.
Their first time getting access to HD hardware? They didn't have the experience and tools to design HD assets, which delayed pretty much all internal projects and resulted in several drought periods that helped kill the Wii U.
So if the Switch 2 suddenly had much better hardware... Would Nintendo make the most beautiful game you've ever seen, or would they stumble around and ship yet another booster pack to Mario Kart 8 with barely improved graphics? Would they struggle with balancing realistic ray tracing with their cartoony look? Hard to tell.
Even between 3D and HD, the Wii was only a blowout success because the Gamecube flopped. They shrugged and re-released a hardware update with added gimmicks. Gimmicks are their bread and butter - Nintendo is a toy company. They call it a "blue ocean" strategy. They don't want to compete. They want to be the only company that offers... blank.
Somehow that still means a tablet with buttons. Tablets are plentiful. Buttons aren't witchcraft. But you'd think Nintendo had a patent on sticking the two together.
Hey, as someone who uses an emulator to play Switch games on my Mac, I'm all for their hardware being sub-par.
These aren’t mutually exclusive options though. You could have great hardware AND great software.
But do we need to?
Frankly, comparing the PS5/XSX exclusives to the Switch's latest releases I think Nintendo is doing better than the others. We are hitting diminishing returns as far as gaming hardware advancement goes. The PS4 was already capable of outputting great visuals in large screens, and even as far as 2023 very few games really needed more than that. The Switch as it is can even handle most indie and double-A games.
This is not even bringing up that higher definition games necessitate additional work and therefore have longer development times.
To me, a new Switch that is as capable as the PS4 sounds pretty good.
That's true, but using older, less expensive hardware had almost always been part of Nintendo's business model. A cheaper console allows them to invest in game development--time, talent, and just money. If they used cutting-edge tech, they would have thinner margins (or even lose money on the console at first as Sony and Microsoft have done in the past), which would give them less to invest into game development. Nintendo spent an entire (extra) year just tweaking and polishing TotK; if they had thinner margins from the Switch, there would probably have been more pressure to release it earlier, which would have given us a less refined game.
I'd love it if we could have both great games and cutting-edge graphics, but at the end of the day, I'll still take good games every time.
If they used cutting edge, you’d be able to not just play all 5 great Nintendo first party releases but the hundreds of other AAA and great titles that release each year on every other platform but which no one wants to back port to the Switch.
The switch is like 1/4th the steamdeck and much more comfortable as a handheld
I still use the steamdeck more due to a larger library, but for the games that switch does support it's usually much more comfortable. There's definite tradeoffs to top of the line hardware on a handheld, and Nintendo has known that since that beat out the game gear with the Gameboy, mainly due to battery life back then.
I feel like people downplay the size factor either because they don't use it for it's handheld properties or for them personally they have issues making it comfortable.
And honestly I don't see the issue with it being a gen behind. Games will still be made for it, and if it's a top of the line turbo graphics game I'm just going to use my Desktop. I probably wouldn't have used the Steamdeck anyway because if Switch is low range, steamdeck is midrange, and still not where my desktop is.
But the idea of great hardware and great software is still a mixed bag. And Nintendo's titles show that it's not so much the hardware holding them back but that companies won't make their games with the switch in mind, which is both fair but also gives expected results (such as the recent MK game)
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...but did you read the part about how it's powered by 6 AA batteries?
JK I ain't hatin' 'tendos been done its own thang.
But how will I know I’m better than everyone if everything isn’t shiny and I can’t see the reflection of my hot pink leopard striped assault rifle in every sweat drop on my enemy’s forehead?!
“…my hot pink leopard striped assault rifle…”
I hope that’s not a euphemism
Leopards actually have spots:
https://jimsgunsupply.com/DuraCoat/dc/DuraCoathotpinkleapord_22_081410.jpg
Tigers have stripes:
Anyone who thought the Switch 2 was going to match up to the PS5 or Series was lying to themselves.
Would it have been too far fetched to think it would have the capacity of the ps4 pro/XBO X?
And Nintendo will "once again" outsell hardware that out performs theirs.
I feel like a PS4 equivalent handheld is definitely respectable nowadays. That's about the performance that the Steam Deck puts out.
That's true, but also we rarely use the switch as a portable in our house and my kid could care less. We don't need Mario Kart to be 4k 120 and Breath of the Wild is designed to look great with lower graphics quality. We have a PS5 and a 4k TV with VRR and we switch between the two all the time.
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Unless it's the wii-u
We do not talk about the Wii U.
Or the gamecube
that's because Nintendo knows that the games matter more than the hardware
It's because Nintendo knows that portables sell massively higher than consoles for them, and that's the reality of making a portable. Nintendo cares massively about the hardware and put a lot of effort into making something that fits their ambitions and audience.
The Switch 2 is also (likely) a handheld, and the Steam Deck is also similar in performance to the ps4/xbox as well, and only came out a year ago, so I wouldn't expect anything much more than that (especially since the Switch 2 will probably be smaller and have a bigger battery).
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Are people seriously bitching that a handhelds performance doesn't match current PlayStation or Xbox specs which are ten times it's size?
If the switch 2 is a handheld, it has so many more physical, power, and heat constraints and I am impressed that it even matches the previous gens consoles.
After seeing the various forms of black magic Nintendo devs have pulled off with what is essentially decade-old tablet hardware... yeah, fine by me.
I‘m legit happy as long as it can do 720p60fps for stuff like TotK in portable without any upsampling and whatnot.
I‘m not playing Nintendo cause of cutting edge graphics but because of cutting edge gameplay and entertainment. Doesn‘t matter how realistic a game looks when Mario Odyssey runs laps around it in terms of the fun it provides.
Just… provide backwards compatability, please. And as a bonus I‘d love a way for „old“ games to get better resolution and fps ideally without patches (cause we know the majority of games would never get patched).
The thing I always thought would be in the Switch's benefit is if the dock itself also contained hardware. On the small handheld screen, the quality looks fine enough at lower resolutions, but then looks pretty bad when blown up on a 4K TV. If the dock had additional expandable hardware to boost performance when docked, that could go a long way to help it keep up.
That's actually kind of how the switch works. But it's not hardware in the dock, it's just the ability to draw more power when plugged in allows it to increase performance.
One thing about Nintendo, they always do their own thing. They’re content to let Sony and Microsoft fight it out over hardware specs, while they just stay in their own lane.
I’ve got a question. Does anyone really care if the specs are x.xxGhz and XGB of RAM? It’ll be +YGhz and YGB of RAM more than the last generation at least.
As long as it can still play the games then no. If it can't handle new generation games then obviously that's an issue. Just like devs game up on games for older Gen consoles.
If you have a switch for Zelda and only Nintendo games then you are probably golden. It's only really an issue for games being ported over. They will require more power for those games. Not graphics but actually to run the beasts.
More like 1 and a half, the current generation is 3 years old.
I think I'll stick with my Steam Deck...
A simplified Legion Go looks like something we can probably expect the next device to be then. Most people have compared the Rog Ally power with the Z1 extreme as being similar to PS4/X1 .
What they could do is a true “docked” mode where it can connect to a GPU to have it output 4K. Highly doubt as the cost would become exorbitant.
Turn Gsync on, you ding-dongs.
Nvidia makes your hardware. You control the screen. It's a mobile device, with unreliable clock speed, and your internal studios struggle to hit 60 Hz. Enable the goddang feature that makes 40-ish FPS feel smoother than locked 30. (And if by some miracle a 2D game works at 120 Hz, neat, bonus.)
I'm still shocked there's no handheld Xbox or PlayStation models. They're just AMD PCs. Guys, AMD makes portable chips. They make the chips for the Steam Deck. (Apparently the Steam Deck semi-custom job was even codenamed "Aerith.") Both platforms have disc-less variants, so you're not even doing the Nintendo thing and cramming games onto needlessly tiny cards. (Seriously - Nintendo! The cartridges don't have to be as small as you can make them! The system is bigger than the DMG Game Boy!)
Instead, Sony's doing a sort of controller-tablet Frankenstein maneuver, which everyone immediately thinks is stupid, but has zero infrastructure costs and obviously didn't squander much R&D. They really cannot lose money on that silly thing. Microsoft's gameplan at this rate might be to simply buy Sony and have done with it. Not sure what else is doing on at Richmond. The pair of them leaving Nintendo utterly unchallenged as they rake in the entire handheld market is confusing. Like they expect mobile gacha trash will suddenly erase that whole form factor.
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