Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
(youtube.com)752 points by HelloUsername 2 days ago
752 points by HelloUsername 2 days ago
The Switch was the first device where i saw how well the mobile + docked system worked and it was my favorite device until I got a Steam Deck. The Deck is killer IMO because it takes the same form factor of the Switch, gives you more power and no restrictions on games.
From a usability perspective, the Steam Deck is pretty good but the Switch blows it out of the water. Fast boot times, you don't need to restart it all the time, games don't crash frequently, controllers just work, it just slots into its dock, a much simpler UI, and no need to futz around with Proton.
The Steam Deck is cool but I waste infinitely more time dicking around with it than the Switch, where it just works. The Switch is the best console I've ever owned.
YMMV, but I'm not finding any of those to be problems with my Deck.
Reboots take a noticeable length of time and could certainly be faster but they're almost entirely "oh there's a new version of the OS" for me.
I haven't had any problem with games crashing either.
Its native controllers largely Just Work, and it's easy to turn on turbofire or rearrange buttons to work better with Steam Input. When I connect it to the projector and pick up the PS4 controller I have attached to the dock that works fine too, someday I should really try to properly pair it so I can use it wirelessly, but I mostly just play it handheld.
I basically spend zero time futzing around with Proton unless I am trying to get some old PC game to run.
I spent a while fooling around with installing emulators when I first got it, but I never actually touch them in practice, that's the only time I've ever been outside of the Steam UI.
I like my Steam Deck and would generally personally prefer it over a Switch if I had to choose one. I even use it in the "docked" way where it is both driving the family TV but can also be taken out and used directly.
And they've clearly put so, so much quality work into the Steam Deck. It's absolutely amazing considering the source material.
But it's also hobbled by so much of its library assuming it was built for a desktop PC or a notebook that could pretend to be a desktop. Some of my games react to being docked properly, some do not. Some can handle switching from the integrated controls to an external controller live, some do not. Some can handle switching resolutions, some do not. Some respond well to using the integrated controls to manipulate how much computing power you allocate to the games in real time, some do not. Some games work perfectly with multiple controllers, a couple freak out unless the stars align.
The Switch just works.
But I will say that even as someone who is generally not a graphics snob, the Switch is definitely not just aging, but aged. If all the Switch 2 is is basically "Switch 1 but with 2021-level power instead of 2013-level power" I'd be pretty happy.
From a usability perspective, I can play Halo on my Steam Deck.
From a usability perspective, I can play Doom on my Steam Deck.
From a usability perspective, I can offline Spotify music on my Steam Deck.
From a usability perspective, I can SSH into my server from a Steam Deck.
The Nintendo Switch is cool but it is infinitely less useful than a Steam Deck. From a usability perspective, it's quite poor. The Steam Deck is the best console I've ever owned :)
Did you turn on beta OS updates? Because in my experience I have to restart it about every three months when Valve releases an OS update -- but when I had betas turned on, that was every few days instead. (Might also explain some stability issues for you.)
Also: I've seen one crash in the whole time I've owned one, the controllers work perfectly, and I don't think I've ever had to meddle with Proton in any way.
Dock cable going in on the top is a bit fiddly, though, I'll grant you.
Interesting I have had close to zero issues with my deck. Occassionally the audio is crackly when waking from sleep. But it's rare and goes away after a sleep/wake cycle. But then I never really fiddle with settings, at most I cap the FPS for more intensive games. I never dock it either
It's very usable for me. And wakes from sleep almost as quick as switch. That immediacy made switch my favourite console of all time until I got the deck.
Was just saying the same thing on another comment!
Feels like the Steam Deck is like a Hot Rod / Muscle car and the Switch is a Toyota Corolla.
Might not be as cool or have as much HP and you aren't going to tinker without it but you can always turn it on and get to your destination.
the switch software feels so freaking good too. it feels rock-solid and fast. what really blew me away is how quick system updates are, from start to finish.
No restrictions, except you can't play the Zelda, Mario, etc. games.
That's not a restriction, nobody's preventing Nintendo from bringing those games to the platform. I don't currently have pasta at my place, but that's because neither me nor my partner have bought any, not because it's banned from the house.
Isn't the Steam Deck too bulky to be used comfortably on your sofa for more than a few minutes? I already think that switch 2 seems too big. I'd wish the regular switch was the size of the lite already.
I found it quite bulky at first, especially after owning a switch. But I adjusted quickly. I don't have large hands either
It's fascinating how the Switch can be such a different device for different people. I bought my Switch in 2022 and it has remained exclusively docked under my TV since then. I have yet to even conceive of a scenario in which I would want to play it on the go. Perhaps if I went on long flights more than a couple of times a year? But who am I kidding, I would still read or listen to podcasts on the plane.
The initial reason for me was to play it while others wanted to watch TV. And then once I got used to that, I found myself preferring to play it in other places in the house even when the TV was free - on the porch when the weather is nice, on my comfy reading chair, playing rhythm games on the exercise bike, next to the computer to have quick access to strategy guides, etc.
I have no desire to do that though. It's uncomfortable to sit up in bed, and uncomfortable to play games lying down.
cloud gaming has given me this same revelation. It's as portable as a Switch but the gaming experience isn't limited by the hardware in hand. Connectivity is important for the experience, though.
Streaming videos, leasing cars, cloud gaming, spotify, are all great until the distributor takes it away.
I prefer to own my things. The sense that something is mine increases the pleasure of using something for me.
It probably stems from my acquired lack of trust in people. The idea that there's a suit in a high-rise building that spends their days thinking about how to exploit my continued enjoyment of a title by raising the fee, or not addressing congestion hours, or retracting the title when the contract is up and renewing would cost too much, or putting a clause in the service agreement that strips me of my right to sue them if I lose an arm in their amusement park, simply by blurring the lines of ownership.. it bothers me.
cloud gaming is good if you live close to the servers and don't care about graphics, but playing with +60-100ms for every action feels very bad. It almost feels like playing on 15-20 fps PC and quality of streaming video is always a problem compared to native quality maybe AV1 will fix it.
7ms latency, 4k120fps with geforce now. 10ms on wifi. I'm not kidding.
It's ALMOST perfect. I play BF1 through it. Try it once (I believe they still have the "free for 1hr per session, infinite sessions"? That's what sold it to me).
I can play very intensive games (graphically) on my macbook on the couch. It's amazing, and I couldn't believe the 10ms on wifi. It's mind-blowing.
BUT I live near Amsterdam, where a server cluster is.
Also, about the graphics: I'm borrowing a 4080 every time. Everything is on max. If you're in a very (very) hard scene for compression, then yeah, you'll see (very little) artifacts. But I run it on 75mbit, and that's a LOT.
I have gigabit, but no servers that are close, it's... rough
I would say that after being a happy Switch owner for 6 years I still think the portability aspect is useless. It's too big to take with me when I leave the house, and if I'm at home I get a way better experience while docked. I thought it was a stupid gimmick on launch and I still think that. I recognize I'm apparently in the minority, though.
The Switch is genuinely one of the last pieces of hardware I was really excited about, and I can't say that about much anymore. It's extremely well put together, I've repaired mine a number of times with no issues (honestly opening anything made in Japan is a joy, the engineering is so good) and the specs leave a lot to be desired, which is unfortunate, but at the same time, you wouldn't know it while using it. The XBox is such a curmudgeonly slow experience to use, everything in the menus takes forever to load, the dash jerks and lags, and it's just like... this machine can run Halo Infinite, why does it struggle so damn hard with just... boxes and jpegs?
The Switch has a similar issue occasionally in the store application, but outside of that, settings are snappy, updates are practically instant, it turns on and off so quickly. It's what consoles are supposed to be.
And honestly in this same vein, the PS5 is also bloody impressive, but that impressiveness came with an impressive price too. The Switch costing as little as it did and still holding it's own is so cool.
We have a switch and an XBox and after liking the 360 back in the day the newer XBoxes just make me want to tear my hair out. They sold us all on bigger and bigger hardware to get rid of load times and they ended up with the system with the worst load times going all the way back to the 70s. Sometimes it seems like it takes 10 minutes to start up and actually play a game, and then there the updates.
My son got a Forza Horizon game for Xmas and it immediately said it needed to download 128GB from the internet before he could play it. With the way it worked out he didn't get to play it on Christmas day as it never finished downloading before we had to go leave to visit relatives.
Just a horrific experience compared to Switch.
Unfortunately the situation with needing to download huge updates is also occasionally present on the Switch. Several third party AAA games (EA sports titles come to mind) ship small cartridges and a require big downloads to the SD card to be playable. Switch game downloads (usually) aren't as large as Xbox/PlayStation downloads, but the wifi chip in the OG model was so slow, they might as well be.
Except for the drifting joycons problems. We had to replace many. Hope Switch2 fixes that drift.
The new one is rumored to feature hall-effect sticks on the Joycons which would hopefully solve that issue.
I kind of like the joy con issue, as it means I can send the controllers back to Nintendo and get them fixed for free, even when the problem isn't the joycon - it's the kids destroying the controller.
https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/region/d/joycon...
(Nintendo has always had excellent support - I remember getting a Gamecube refurbished long after the Wii was everywhere).
You can get free replacements btw. My original switch from release finally got drift in the latter part of last year. Nintendo had replacements to me within a few days at no cost. Rare to have such a pleasant experience with customer support, it was a flawless process
New Switch user, believe it or not. I just purchased my second 8BitDo controller with Hall effect joysticks this week. Hoping I can avoid the drift problem by avoiding Joy-Cons! (We usually play on the TV.)
Honestly I swapped them myself both in the Joycons and in the Pro controller a couple times each over the years. The modules cost like $15 through Amazon or Ebay, and unlike the XBox controller, they're separate modules with a ribbon connector instead of soldered in, which makes replacing them a breeze.
At this point I'd be hard pressed to consider this over my Steam Deck. We will see the specs later but I doubt it will really compete processing-wise or screen-wise.
The openness (full arch desktop) of the Steam Deck is also awesome while having a great UI that you never have to leave if you don't want to.
EDIT: I mistakenly called it "fedora desktop", my bad
For the last few generations (since the Wii), you don't buy a Nintendo for the processing power. They haven't competed on processing power since the Gamecube. After the Gamecube generation, you bought a Nintendo for the exclusive games and that was it. Mario, Pokemon, Zelda, and others. Nintendo knows that their draw is just the games, and uses a lot of lawyers to make sure that normal gamers can't play those games on the Steam Deck. If you want to play what Nintendo has to offer on the Steam Deck you have to install an emulator and Nintendo has made sure that normal people would rather drop $300 on a Switch instead of risk legal issues.
Edit: I suppose that some people would also say the intuitive controls (motion control introduced on the Wii, dual screens (and touchscreen) on DS and WiiU, and detachable controllers on the Switch) have some draw, but those features have often been under-utilized except on a few titles.
I agree with you, for most people the Switch is the better/easier option if they are just looking to play a Nintendo-exclusive. Emulators aren't that difficult to set up on Steam Deck and you can easily launch the games from the Steam UI but nothing beats the plug and play of the Switch and double-y so if you are playing networked games.
This take is correct as the primary measure. Its certainly why I bought one!
However computing juices really started to matter to me since that first buy …8 years ago? Ive been told this by other switch owners too. Some xplatform games get ported to switch and do end up being worse. Witcher 3, which ive beaten on switch, was repurchased on PC to play over steamlink because the switch was slow/choppy/lossy. Switch1 was precovid. Id imagine that many of us now want BOTH. Great content and great specs
Nintendo does not compete on specs. They rely on the fact that fun is pretty much orthogonal to bleeding edge graphics.
They use that awareness and take advantage of simpler graphics to trade off processing power for features (portability, novelty) and profit (60>=usd games).
From time to time they also remind us that little hardware can do a lot if it's not running Chrome on a trench coat, and instead care is put in optimising things.
This is a pretty important point, and one that I'm mystified that a lot of people seem not to agree with. It doesn't matter if you're playing on a glorified smartphone with thumbsticks if the game is good enough. Moreover, having a selling point of state-of-the-art graphics today will turn into a _disadvantage_ in 5-10 years when newer games look even better; something designed to look good today with "lower quality" graphics is going to hold up better because it already is being compared to stuff taking advantage of every ounce of the latest save greatest hardware.
This is true. But high specs are a big win anyway if it opens up access to a bigger library of 3rd party games.
That's true, but Nintendo's counter to that is exclusive games, and they have big series like Mario, Zelda, Smash Bros. There's also newer ones that are more niche, but at least for me it's just the game where some new Smash Bros character comes from.
With exclusives games, emulation can be a problem, but many Nintendo games also rely on the novel things on their platform. For instance the Mario Party series has always tried to use something (rumble, mic, touchscreen, controller's shape).
This makes it necessary to get the console, and once you get market share it'll be worth porting and optimising games for an under-powered console (Celeste, Hollow Knight and probably every game runs worse on the switch, but it's playable). I'm not a gamedev, but it seems that nowadays it's easier than ever to port games since in practice there's fewer architectures around.
For a while Nintendo didn't have a competition in handheld market. If you wanted a handheld gaming device you only had Switch.
Now Steam deck easily competes on fun with Nintendo, because a lot of people have massive decades old steam libraries and constant supply of newest and greatest indie games, and quite a lot of power to play fairly modern titles.
This is hard to compete with because Nintendo likes you to pay for games you've already bought on their platform in past, including old NES and SNES roms (which are super embarassing to ask money for imo).
The only drawback of Steam Deck is that it's a fairly big and bulky.
Buying Switch 2 just for a odd once in every 5 years exclusive Zelda game is a pretty hard sell.
I just don’t hear the word orthogonal used in this context enough. Refreshing
SteamOS is Arch, Bazzite is Fedora if you want a more Fedora experience.
I agree mostly because I find myself playing a lot of smaller games these days, and it's much easier for devs to release and patch their games on Steam than it is a Nintendo platform. They also have a much friendlier refund policy.
For the masses though, a Nintendo system just works. I can hand a Switch to my daughter and know she can play Nintendo games with little bullshit, it's easy to play couch co-op, the parental controls are very solid, etc.
In terms of hardware it's ARM and Nvidia, which is a solid foundation, and Nintendo titles look great without being technically demanding. I fully expect to see a 60 FPS Zelda game that uses DLSS upscaling to look great on my 4K TV. The Steam Deck is somewhat limited by FSR2.
> SteamOS is Arch, Bazzite is Fedora if you want a more Fedora experience.
Oops, edited, thank you!
> I agree mostly because I find myself playing a lot of smaller games these days
Same here, I play mostly indie <$20 games and have a blast doing it. These games would (almost) never launch on the Switch (or any console). Either that or I'm playing games that would never work well on the Switch (like Factorio, yes I know there is a port and I've also tried on my steam deck and it sucks, you need a mouse/keyboard IMHO).
> For the masses though, a Nintendo system just works. I can hand a Switch to my daughter and know she can play Nintendo games with little bullshit, it's easy to play couch co-op, the parental controls are very solid, etc.
Agreed, this is huge, I wouldn't recommend a steam deck to the average person, just tech people mostly.
> They also have a much friendlier refund policy.
I can see why steam has an easier refund policy. It’s easy to buy a game that doesn’t work well (or at all) on your hardware.
But the switch shouldn’t have this issue, and that’s basically only reason I would ever return a game.
Isn't the point of owning a switch to play games that aren't on the Steam Deck? Zelda, Mario, etc.?
With emulators those games can also be played on the Steam Deck.
Which is also a gray area. I personally am fine with it for older, depreciated consoles. But I won't emulate current gen games unless I'm also buying the game.. especially on the Nintendo platform where the games still have some "magic" to them, compared to the more generic games on other platforms that prioritize graphics over seemingly all other attributes.
Obviously there isn't a switch 2 emulator yet, and probably will be a while until one is released.
The challenge will not be hardware emulation (if it's a nvidia tegra 2 based SOC that will be easy) but hack the OS/security to make it usable.
So don't expect to play mario kart 9 on your steam deck anytime soon.
Edit: with easy i don't mean that it will not demand a really top of the line computer to run it. But that isn't completely undocumented or custom hardware, like i don't know, ps3 or sega saturn.
Sure, but you cannot play online, though. You can't trade Pokemon for example. Tetris 99 got a lot of play in our house. It heavily depends on what you're chasing.
You can't play online on an official Switch either, unless you subscribe to Nintendo's "we give you an internet connection" monthly service offering.
Why pay for the Steam Deck, though? Buy it online and claim it never arrived to get a refund.
I’m yet to hear a moral argument for emulating current games you don’t own unless you’re poor and need to choose between buying Zelda and starving.
Switch emulation works surprisingly well, but it has its quirks and some titles are barely playable. I love emulation primarily because it's necessary for long-term archival of game libraries, but emulating modern systems is not a super user-friendly process (not to mention the qualms around piracy).
> The audience of people that would get a Steam Deck and then emulate Switch games is so small that this is a no-issue for Nintendo
Given how Nintendo handled the situation with Ryujinx and Yuzu, they clearly thought it was an issue for them.
I have both and they certainly each have their place. The Steam Deck has a much wider variety of games and can handle heavier graphics loads, but it is too heavy to be all that comfortable for handheld use, and the Switch is in my mind the undisputed champion of local multiplayer (more portable controllers, controller connections Just Work, good variety of local multiplayer games, etc).
The point of a Nintendo system will always be Nintendo games.
If that is not enough then by all means press on with Steam Deck.
The only reason I have a Switch is to play Nintendo games. They are only available there, and will continue to be only available on Switch 2. Steam deck offers nothing, by comparison.
I think that while this sentiment is very real for a lot of folks who are into the Steam Deck, that doesn't mean the Switch doesn't have its own unique advantages.
- The Nintendo software catalog. Sure, you can emulate on the Steam Deck, but it's a chore and far from perfect, and for most people who do it that is piracy.
- The Switch is far less bulky, and has better battery life, less noise. ARM architecture is very well-suited to mobile gaming.
- The docking mechanism is seamless and the dock is included with the device. Games are designed around that functionality specifically, e.g., you won't have controller or display configuration issues on a Switch because it's all pre-configured.
- The price is almost certainly lower.
- You can buy physical game cartridges and resell them, which is a big advantage for fans of physical media.
- The Steam Deck does rely on a lot on its compatibility software with PC games, and while it's mostly a non-issue there it's not by any means a perfect catalog. If you get a Switch, all Switch software is going to work and was made for and tested on a Switch.
I think there's also a certain amount of "jank" to the Steam Deck.
Don't get me wrong it is a super cool console and pushes a lot of boundaries, but you don't really 100% know whether a title is going to run the way you want it to on the steam deck.
The switch is a more curated experience, you can pretty much expect every game to run properly, going to put caveat for very heavy graphic cross platform title like the new Harry Potter game, etc.
> You can buy physical game cartridges and resell them, which is a big advantage for fans of physical media.
This isn't much of an advantage anymore since they used NAND memory and you get like 10 years of shelf life before bit rot starts to set in.
https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch/switch_a...
Maybe somebody wants to play assassins creed without uplay bullshit.
I hate to be the “um.. actually” guy, but isn’t steamdeck running on read only Arch system rather than Fedora? I have one but I only game on it.
Relevant: https://www.nintendo.com/successor/en-us/index.html
Nintendo Direct focused on Switch 2: Apr 2nd.
Looks like joy-cons will have 'mouse-like' functionality and there's a 'C' on right joy-con but its functionality is not reveled. New Mario Kart showcased would probably be one of the first exclusives.
That was a new mario kart? it looked like mario kart 8 to me.
A few details are quite different from 8, notably the boost and character animations, it's definitely a new game.
Marketing will be difficult, MK8 already peaked graphically and has 96 tracks, and will still work on Switch 2. I hope they'll find real selling points for MK9.
Would have not surprised me if it's actually Mario Kart 8 2. (Technically that's already what Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is, so, actually, it would be Mario Kart 8 3).
I mean, at this point it makes little sense for them to start from scratch, releasing a newer game but with much less than the enormous amount of content provided by MK8D + DLC would seem like a very noticeable downgrade, so just revamping the old one would be a practical move, though I don't think fans would be happy with that.
MK8 was mostly flawless gameplay wise, how can it be improved? But at this point one has no choice but to trust Nintendo's ability to come up with surprises.
There are certainly some ways they can, I'd love to see a 100 man race or something crazy like that.
Everyone has a new design, maybe I'm more familiar with my Marios than most but I could tell immediately it has a more cartoonish design, and characters have a rubbery kind of stretch and bounce to their animations. You can see it notably on the closeup of Mario where he hops into a drift.
The art style is somewhere between the 2010s bog-standard Mario and Super Mario Bros Wonder.
I was honestly a bit disappointed this wasn't revealed in a Nintendo Direct.
"Nintendo Direct: New games in 2025" would have been the perfect setup for a "and one more thing"-moment.
> "and one more thing"-moment
That's so cliche and cringe nowadays, but the reason they didn't wait to do that is probably because of all the leaks. The specs, the name, photos of the console and internal components all leaked. Even the fan renders people were making turned out to be pretty damn accurate (https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/1i008os/nin...)
Calling anything “cringe” is pretty self-referential. This slang just makes me imagine a bunch of genZ folk wincing nonstop with the heads in their phones. Must be exhausting.
As long as the internet has existed, we have been lampooning corporate keynotes. The gaming industry does this every cycle, trying to hype up incremental updates as if it’s the best thing to ever get released. See you again in a few years!
I’m glad to see Nintendo found a form factor that’s kind of gimmicky that actually worked. The Wii and Wii U were too gimmicky, but portability was a great choice. I’m also glad to see backwards compatibility.
I’m excited to see what kind of hardware improvements have been made. The switch came out in March 2017, just about 8 years ago. Just due to the way Nintendo games have their animated charm, they’re able to make their games look excellent on that hardware still. That said, I’d love to see how good a Zelda game looks on some new hardware.
The Wii was on the of the best selling consoles of all time? I believe only surpassed by the PS2.
Is the gimmicky a personal opinion or something you believe didn’t resonate with customers?
"Gimmicky" in the sense that they used movement controls and that's non-standard in the industry and went away mostly afterwards. I'm considering anything that isn't a traditional stationary control (keyboard + mouse or controller) as "gimmicky" or out of the ordinary.
In terms of sales, you're absolutely right - the Wii crushed it. I'd be curious to know about usage and software sales though. Maybe I'm wrong (very possible), but almost everyone I knew had a Wii at some point, but they didn't use it outside of a family toy with a few games when they first got it. I'd still consider that a win for Nintendo compared to less sales, but I'd imagine the average Xbox 360 or PS3 had a lot more software sales per console.
> almost everyone I knew had a Wii at some point, but they didn't use it outside of a family toy with a few games when they first got it.
At various points in my family's owning one, we obviously used it for the Wii Sports-type games, as well as non-motion games like NES titles from the Virtual Console (the Wiimote in its rubber case felt surprisingly decent in the hands while turned sideways). But we also used it for Netflix and YouTube with the official apps, and surprisingly, various other websites with the Internet Channel. We sometimes used the SD card reader to look at photos from digital cameras, which seems like it doesn't make a lot of sense today, but was easier than connecting up a camera or camcorder to a TV with a cable to look at things, which was also a thing back then.
It was certainly a "go long periods without touching it" part of the home, but it was also surprisingly versatile with the uses that did pop up for it. And I think we got more usage out of it, both in terms of hours and in terms of distinct use cases, than we got out of the Xbox 360 we had later (if not, it was basically due to Minecraft, not because we played a larger number of games on the Xbox).
I believe the Wii had the best or second best attach rate for a Nintendo console (how many games sold per console sold). It lived a long time and had a ton of good releases.
Looks like the DS and switch both sold about 50m more units.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_game_co...
Yes, great source. filter that by Home vs the mobile category to see it is only beat by PlayStation.
You could argue the Switch is a home console as well.
> That said, I’d love to see how good a Zelda game looks on some new hardware.
Hopefully they'll go back and update their major Switch titles to leverage the new hardware. BOTW and TOTK look fantastic in an emulator with the resolution and framerate cranked much higher than the original Switch hardware could handle, even without updating any of the assets.
> which combines the best of both of those consoles.
Minus the dual screen of the Wii U, which was awesome. It'd be cool if the Switch 2's dock could work independently of the console, so that you could have a reverse Wii U- experience with it. The dual screen setup can be a neat gimmick for gameplay, but it's biggest strength is the convenience that comes from having a second screen closer to your face. You can have less visual clutter on the main screen, and reduce the amount of menus players need to click through.
TBH other then a few neat local multiplayer stuff in NintendoLand, there really wasn't much that actually utilized the dual screen in a way that actually enhanced the game. You couldn't quickly swap between the screens like you could on the DS, because the screens were different distances away and required re-focusing your eyes. This meant that most gamepad usages played the same as if you just pressed a button to bring up your inventory or switch views or whatever.
And that's before you take into account the fact that the biggest titles on the Wii U (Mario Kart and Smash Bros) didn't use the second screen at all. The second screen was a gimmick, and a gimmick that was exhausted pretty quickly.
I’m fairly certain I remember them suggesting that the original switch was capable of doing this but then they either never granted access to it in the dev kit or they just never had it end up getting used in any noteworthy games.
Nintendoland for the Wii U was _very_ fun in my memory. It was the only title that I remember leveraging the asymmetry of information that different players can have for local multiplayer.
> I’m glad to see Nintendo found a form factor that’s kind of gimmicky that actually worked.
I don't quite understand this comment. Parents will be unable to tell the difference (like parents buying their kids Xbox One S when Xbox Series S came out, really bad naming increment with form factor so similar), and other comments here note this Switch 2 is a regression to less quirk.
What's the gimmicky part of this that caught your eye you feel like they found in Switch 2?
My words definitely could've been better. I was referring to "portability" as the gimmick here since it's not the norm in the industry for primary console. Nintendo did handhelds for years, but that was also a secondary thing to their primary consoles. Having their only console also be handheld was what I was referring to as the gimmick here, but I understand the argument that that's not a gimmick.
As for naming, I think it'll be fine since they're using numbers. I'm not in the position of a middle aged parent who's getting a gift for a child, but the fact that Sony has successfully done it for this long makes me feel that it'll work.
Add a letter to the end is awful though. It took me a bit to nail down the Series X vs Series S Xboxs (granted, I haven't owned an Xbox in over a decade). The Wii U definitely confused people as well.
The portability was amusing but then turned out to be absolutely phenomenal (and likely resulted in multiple sales to individual households).
It both saved them from having to work out what to do with the handhelds, and introduced parents to "the kids can just bring it with them".
I have an Xbox Series X and I'm still not sure I got "the right one" but since I got it as a glorified blurry player that can also play games maybe, it's fine as is.
> It both saved them from having to work out what to do with the handhelds
Well, more accurate to say they just gave up. The Switch is very much not a viable replacement for a 3DS because of how damn big it is. You can't just slip it into your pocket and go.
I think parents will have no problem with the concept of a Thingie N+1 and most of those stories came from either XBOX's insane naming or from Wii->Wii U.
The gaming industry is much more mature and settled than the past when Nintendo could mess around with a crazy new gimmick every new console release.
People expect backwards compatibility now, and the Switch has such a mature software library, it would be a waste to throw it out. And it'll be harder than ever to re-sell people a port of a game from a few years ago that looks basically identical to how it did before (though Sony's been trying)
I'm looking forward to this, and I hope Nintendo patches OG Switch games to take advantage of the new hardware. It's a shame the only (official) method of playing the new Zeldas gets you frequently chugging along at like 15fps.
> The switch came out in March 2017, just about 8 years ago. Just due to the way Nintendo games have their animated charm, they’re able to make their games look excellent on that hardware still.
Even more impressive, the SoC in the Switch is from about 2013 I believe.
Arg, they make the screen look absolutely huge with that large front glass panel during most of the video and I was thinking to myself, nice! But then at the end they actually show how large the bezels are underneath the glass and it is quite disappointing. Someday we'll have modern smartphone like mini-bezels (a few mm at most) in our handheld gaming consoles, but I guess not yet.
Screen estate all to the edge of the device can be annoying too, just a wrinkle on your clothes will then cover a bit of the screen.
It's not a tablet. It has physical controllers. You don't use a switch by grabbing the screen.
There are many people who do though, and there are many games that heavily utilize the touchscreen.
And upsell a magnifying lens to make the screen bigger.
/s
(1) https://www.thevintagegamers.com/2013/11/game-boy-screen-mag...
What's not to understand? If the bezels were smaller, either the screen would be larger or the system would be smaller. Both are desirable.
Personal opinion, but I didn't really have that reaction. That screen is still significantly bigger than the Switch 1.
Honestly it looks like a great size and if the bezels were smaller, it might be a problem to grip the device (with joycons detached) without hitting the touch screen.
The switch isn't a handheld though. It's way too big to be a viable replacement for a 3DS in that regard, Nintendo just gave up on that market segment for whatever reason.
Maybe they wanted more battery life without making it thicker? I want to see what the teardown looks like.
Do we know if the aspect ratio is the same? Maybe they're demonstrating Switch 1 games that have a slightly different aspect ratio, but can be updated to fit the new screen in the future?
That's a new Mario Kart game they're showing on the screen, not the Switch 1 version.
Microbezels are aesthetically great but practically horrible.
Having some practical space to grab onto wins at the end of the day, we presumably use these things instead of having one sit looking happy on a bookshelf.
> Having some practical space to grab onto wins at the end of the day,
I guess I hold onto the controller parts on the sides, not the center component. It isn't a tablet.
Relieved that they are just iterating instead of trying to go for something radically different like they did. Everybody is pretty happy with the current feature set, just add some stuff and get a nice power upgrade in there and you're all set for another 6 years.
Wasn't expecting it to actually be called "Switch 2", but I'm glad they stuck to a name that makes sense.
Agree. PlayStation 1...5 has worked well for Sony. XBOX is a mess (I am an XBOX guy myself).
The problem with Xbox naming is that names are both inconsistent and too similar to each other. Aside from the Wii/Wii U debacle, Nintendo console names haven't been consistent, but they have been distinct. It's easy to remember that the GameCube and the Wii aren't the same thing.
Xbox, though, it's just the word Xbox followed by arbitrary numbers, maybe with the letter S or X thrown in for fun. I have no idea why they thought Xbox Series X wouldn't confuse people right after the Xbox One X.
They were screwed from the start...
The Xbox came out when the PS2 did. When it came time for the next generation, Sony went with the obvious PS3. Microsoft of course couldn't compete with an "Xbox 2" vs a "PS3", and they couldn't skip right to "Xbox 3", so they called it the "Xbox 360", which was frankly genius because it had the 3 there anyway and put it on the same level in consumers' eyes.
But after that it all fell apart -- they had no good options. They still couldn't jump to "Xbox 4". Maybe "720" would have worked. Someone decided to have a clean break and restart at "One" but of course that fell apart immediately at "Two". So another clean break to "Series..". And by that point it's so screwy they've lost any chance of fixing it...
I actually thought that would be cool for Switch 2 - call it the Switch 25. They could release the Switch 30 in 5 years and so on without too much confusion, assuming compatibility all the way through (by 2035 we'll probably all be on thin clients anyway).
I think this is because it is kinda an iteration instead of a totally new wild gimmick.
A little sad about the lack of a rail compatible with charging existing controllers. Hopefully it's compatible with current gen controllers anyway given how expensive they are.
One of my favorite parts about the Xbox Series generation of consoles is that it's fully compatible with the previous Xbox One controllers.
It would be amazing if they could get their multi-gen multi-console save-sync to work nearly as well as Microsoft's so I could switch back and forth between my existing Switch and Switch 2 seamlessly but I doubt that's in the cards, this is Nintendo were talking about.
I might throw a party to smash my joy cons. Some of the worst quality control in my long history of owning hardware, and from a company previously famous for that trait. Good riddance.
It always shocked me that for how bad the joycons were, the "Pro Controller" was one of the best controllers I've ever used. I don't know how they managed to nail one and get the other so wrong.
That's their actual standard and hopefully it has returned to the "default" controller(s). I think they just flew too close to the sun in terms of trade-offs with the Switch 1 joy cons. Not possible to make them good enough at that price at that size at the time of release
The rumour has it the older joycons can still be used wirelessly, just not physically connected.
The version of the grip that you buy as an accessory (HAC-012) can charge the joycons. However the pack in one (HAC-011) can't.
Looking around, it appears that Nintendo have also released an official "Joy-con charging stand (2-way)", suspiciously it seems they only launched it in October 2024, when various 3rd party chargers have been around for years.
There's also the official AA battery packs. Yes, really.
I wonder if they have a new control technique up their sleeve. Innovative gameplay and pushing new control ideas is one of Nintendo’s signatures. That said, being the switch 2, not a new console, maybe they kept it the same and just upgraded the processing and graphics hardware.
Looking forward to more!
Both controllers have optical sensors (visible in the trailer), confirming the rumors that they'll have mouse like functionality. Remains to be seen if games will actually bother to implement it or if it'll remain a curiosity that only a handful of titles support.
For action games doesn't look like a good option. But i think it will be used if it works well on any surface.
Probably there will be a resurgence of point and click adventure games pushed by the new mouse functionality (or even republish some old sierra/lucas arts stuff with mouse support).
Also may be useful for pc ports like simcity clones and strategy games (i could use that in civ).
Some propietary nintendo stuff will use it like mario maker or wario ware, some zelda dungeon probably will have a gimmick around it. And also some small indy third party stuff, like i don't know, mini motorways, things like that, will be built arround it.
It could be nice for FPS.
The current motion controls for the pro controller work well, but a mouse + single hand controller setting could work as well.
All it does it confirm that they have something there. The Wii used a sensor to detect where it was pointing, the Switch had an IR camera for a variety of weird gimmicks, the NES and SNES had light-detecting "guns". Hell, it could even be an IR blaster like the Wii U Gamepad had, and not a sensor at all. We just don't know yet.
The trailer shows the joycons sliding on that side with an additional attachment (see: 1:10). It seemed pretty obvious they were trying to hint at some kind of mouse-like optical tracking on a flat surface.
The Steam Deck has two trackpads, tho obviously games don't support them specifically, they get mapped to existing controls
I remember how fun it was to use that in Wii based Metroid Prime games. Hoping they return this feature in creative ways!
Innovation is their way, but they're still burned a LOT by the Wii U. Now they've managed to find something that works, I think they'll stick with it for at least the Switch 2, maybe the 3 as well.
True, but I think they still wanted the U to actually sell better than it did. It was a case of too much innovation too soon, IMO — having an alternating "evolution/revolution" cycle makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, definitely—it's my favorite thing about the company. Well, maybe second to their consistent level of quality. But seriously—the Labo piano used the IR camera to scan in waveforms to create new instruments. The VR kit had an elephant trunk mask to let you move around parts in a marble run game. Nintendo has a lot of wild experiments, and Labo takes that all to the next level.
And that's not getting into the quality of software for building the kits—way beyond any instructions that Lego has ever put out.
I hope I'll be able to pre-order one. I don't even care if they ship it right away. Promise me one within the first 2 or 3 years and I would be happy.
I know I'm going to want one and I know they are going to be snapped up by scalpers and be hard to buy at first. Fine. I just don't want to go through the stupid check Amazon, then GameStop, then BestBuy, then Walmart dance. Just let me order one and then not worry about it.
Switch 2
Switch is 6 characters long, 6 divided by 2 is 3
Half Life 3 confirmed.
It had quite a bit of dead space in the video, especially at the start. Recall the first switch trailer which was completely different stylistically.
I was pretty skeptical about the original Switch but bought it on a whim after being laid off.
It quickly became one of my favorite gaming consoles. The ability to play anywhere didn’t seem like a big deal until I could do it.
I have zero interest in being tied to a single spot like the traditional console experience now.