Nintendo announces the Switch 2 [video]
(youtube.com)781 points by HelloUsername 3 months ago
781 points by HelloUsername 3 months ago
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!
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.
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.
Kinda tells us nothing, but I guess they got fed up with their supply chain leaking absolutely everything about the physical device before they could announce stuff.
I guess the direct will be interesting when they show some actually software and we can get a bit of a handle on what the device can actually do (although the MORE POWER type people are going to be disappointed, probably).
This has been announced back in November: https://x.com/NintendoCoLtd/status/1853972163033968794; though if you're not extremely plugged in, it has been rather easy to miss.
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 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.
It seems like the days of revolutionary consumer electronics are over.
This looks nice, for sure. But it’s really more of the same. Not surprising. It does surprise me that there’s such emphasis on it, though. There’s the name, of course, and then the entire video is based around “it’s the same thing but a little better.”
Game console updates used to be big deals. The SNES was a revolution. PS2 was huge. Now… PS5? What’s different from PS4, again? Is there a 6? What’s different about that?
I don’t blame Nintendo or the others. I have no idea what they could do here they would be revolutionary. I think the design space has just been thoroughly explored by now and that’s where we are.
This pattern repeats all over the place. TVs are maxed out, with better visual quality than people care about, and size limited by wall space. Computers get a little faster every year. This year’s phones are last year’s phones with a minor performance bump and slightly better cameras. And again, I don’t see what they can do better, and that’s probably how it has to be at this point.
But it’s still a little shocking to see a company lean so far into the theme of “we made incremental improvements to this thing we released 8 years ago.”
> Game console updates used to be big deals. The SNES was a revolution. PS2 was huge.
There are two categories of "big deal". The SNES and PS2 were big deals simply because game graphics had so much headroom for improvement. Now that the low-hanging fruits of color palette, resolution, frame rate, texture quality, animation quality, and geometric complexity have all been squeezed, the improvements are more asymptotic.
The other "big deal" category is gimmicks. I would argue that while it is a hallmark of Nintendo, the gimmicks have flopped as often as not. Most of Nintendo's big sellers were fairly conventional. (The most glaring exceptions being the original Game Boy, the Wii, and the Switch.) I'm glad they do the gimmicks, but I'm also glad they don't only do the gimmicks.
But those are three hells of exceptions (can you actually do that in English? I was trying to pluralize "a hell of an exception").
They are the 3rd, 4th and 7th best selling consoles of all time. And you forgot the dual screen in the DS (2nd best selling of all time).
Maybe many of the gimmicks flopped, but others wildly succeeded and Nintendo wouldn't be what it is without them. In fact, it probably wouldn't even make consoles by now, following the fate of Sega.
On your English question, “three hells of exceptions” sounds like something from Dante’s Inferno. It’s a nice phrase but not quite what you’re after.
I can’t think of how to make it work. That phrase might just be inherently singular. Too bad, plural would be useful.
Exactly. For a while you could have huge improvements from better hardware. Then there were some cool new gimmicks. Now both of those seem to be played out.
And that’s happening across the board. All the stuff I’d go ogle in Best Buy as a teenager is now basically maxed out both in terms of hardware and gimmicks.
>The SNES was a revolution
Nintendo has actually stated they view the SNES as a evolution of the NES. They have directly stated their hardware development cycle goes Revolution>Evolution>Revolution. Considering that the Switch was considered one of their revolutionary leap (their first hybrid console) it is no surprise the Switch 2 is a simple evolution of that concept. If their next console is another iteration of the Switch THEN it is safe to say they are no longer aiming to revolutionize their hardware.
Edit: After tons of searching I am starting to think that I am misremembering thing. I think this idea came about from the Wii's 'Revolution' code name and I Mandela Effected myself into think there was a interview we're either Miyamoto or Iwata talked about this being there philosophy when designing system.
That really sounds like something someone made up in marketing.
The Wii came about because an independent company pitched motion control technology to Nintendo and they liked it and licensed it. Not because of the 3d chess game of going from "evolutions" to "revolutions".
The Switch came about because it's less expensive to make software for a single hardware unit than a separate handheld and console and this became an issue as games got more expensive to make.
I’d be curious to know when they said that. It sounds like revisionist history to me.
Based on the switch launch video, the delta between the NES and SNES was much higher than Switch -> Switch 2.
Here’s an analogous snes ad, which spends most of its time showing off 3d and increased sprite counts:
I apologize, I tried to find the interview were this was stated but unfortunately search engines are terrible now and no matter how hard I try I only get news about the Switch 2 or old stories about when the Wii has code named Revolution. Feel free to not take my word that this was actually stated.
> PS2 was huge
PS2 was literally just an iteration on the PS1. More powerful console, DVD instead of CD, and that was it. Nothing really new there.
Hell, the Switch 2 is more innovative than the PS2 was in terms of iteration on a previous console.
The graphics bump you'd see from next gen systems prior 2010 was massive. So big in fact that it would unlock new genres of games which weren't previously possible.
ps1 > ps2 was pretty huge too because I'd argue the ps2 marked the first generation of consoles where games could move away from pixelated cartoony characters and into photo-realistic graphics and just about pull it off.
Today you get better lighting and shadows, or slightly higher FPS which is nice, but it doesn't really change the types of games you can make in the way the ps2 did.
PS1 launched without analog controls. This was later available as a newer controller for PS1, but if we count that as a PS2 base feature it's a nice innovation on PS1 at launch.
> But it’s still a little shocking to see a company lean so far into the theme of “we made incremental improvements to this thing we released 8 years ago.”
It's certainly more 'shocking' to see Nintendo do it than, say, Microsoft or Sony. But Nintendo hasn't always introduced huge new changes with a console bump — NES->SNES wasn't particularly revolutionary, and there were certainly no gimmicks there. I think it's a very understandable reaction to a) the Wii U b) the enormous success of the Switch
NES->SNES didn’t do much with the form factor or the controls, but technologically it was an enormous leap. That’s the sort of thing that just can’t happen anymore, since video game technology is pretty much maxed out. You can always make things a little bit prettier, or have a little better framerate, but nothing too interesting.
I suppose VR/AR is the one area where something big could still happen. The current state of the art there is far from the “mostly limited by the size of your wall” stage.
I feel like VR would have “happened with the masses” by now given that the quest is wireless, excellent quality, and cheap. Personally I think it did, and it’s a success, it’s just that it has a lower ceiling because it’s an awkward rectangle that you strap to your face.
There is also, IMO, a huge software quality problem with VR.
I am baffled as to why all the first person games don’t copy Alyx’s control scheme, it’s the only one that feels correct to use. The rest of the first person games feel awful to play, once you get past the gimmick of “wow cool”.
Music/rhythm games work really well for VR, but that’s always going to be a niche market. I play beat saber all the time, it’s fantastic.
Everything else seems to be sandbox games. Fucking sandbox games. They’re funny the first time, but you can only throw objects so many times before the magic is lost, you just wish there was an actual game there to play.
I love VR, and I hope developers continue to innovate with it, but it’s never going to overtake console gaming, it’s just too different.
I don’t get why we think AR is going to be any different for games. Why would I want to see my living room while playing a game? VR puts you in whole other worlds. It’s… that simple, I think.
Those are very minor 'gimmicks' compared to handheld, touch control, motion control, or hybrid.
The Famicom was top loading, too.
NES was only side loading because in the US Nintendo was trying to distance itself from the consoles that came before.
This all comes down to what the hardware improvements can mean in practice. It's not as if hardware isn't moving up, but that the new kinds of things double the hardware unlocks are much smaller than they used to be.
This is best seen on the PC market. What a gaming desktop today has running on it is, compute wise, unimaginably stronger than the best available 10-20 years ago. The increases in hardware just keep coming. But there's limits on how much more you can get out of being able to push more polygons, or to put more pixels on screen. We can do all kinds of extra photorealistic things in real time that before would have to be done only in movies, and rendered in server farms for weeks at a time. But the increased difficulty doesn't quite match how impressive the extra effects are.
You can also notice this by just playing old games, and seeing how they hold up. We can make 2d pixel art games that are much better than what a SNES could do, but many of those games still hold up just fine. Meanwhile most 3d games of the Playstation and even the PS2 era are downright painful, because the increases in power between generations back then lead to big practical differences in capability. A ps5 is much stronger than a ps4, hardware wise, but it didn't unlock much at all. All the extra power can get you cooler reflections on cyberpunk, and you can go even further with a PC that has over $1000 in video cards in it. But those reflections and atmospheric effects are eating up as much hardware as the rest of the game.
Hold up, what's the "revolution" between the PS1 and PS2? More processing power?
You could argue that no consoles in the Xbox or Playstation line are revolutionary, as they're the same format as the original SNES just with more buttons and processing power.
I would say the major shifts in controller type is simply a much rarer change than simple spec upgrades.
Maybe that will be the next big thing in games. Finally deliver on the promise of living, breathing worlds, instead of breaking the illusion when the character scripts start to repeat and you realize “your choices matter” means you can pick from one of three different endings.
I think this is it. Once a console can run an LLM you will see open world games with immersion that we’ve never seen before
Procedurally generated worlds are one thing but imagine exploring an endless world where you can talk to every NPC and never have the same conversation twice
I know it's perhaps a silly thing to nitpick on, but the general look of Switch 2 with its darker, Steam Deck-ish joycons don't look as fun as the first one to me.
Current Switch with the neon blue/red joycons had its own character, and IIRC that color combination was what Nintendo often marketed. This change makes it look like a MSI or ASUS product than a continuation of Nintendo's own line.
interesting you said that, because I was totally unimpressed and bored with it and thought, "Ok, so this it? So it's just the Switch, scaled up by 10%?"
It's not that I expected something groundbreaking, but if I had been the creative director I would have said that they need to focus on whatever was updated, e.g., graphics or performance since effectively nothing major has changed.
Huh. I guess updated ergonomics / QoL stuff and confirmation of backwards compatibility counts as enough of an update over the last hardware refresh. But zero info on anything that could actually make this worth a buy. Granted, this feels like Nintendo who will do anything to not get dragged into PS/XBOX flops discussions. But without any real upgrade or even games announcements, I suppose most people will keep holding off their purchase decisions for now.
> But zero info on anything that could actually make this worth a buy.
Obvious answer: no more game released on Switch 1 so you want a Switch 2 if you want to play new games.
That's work well enough for Playstation/Xbox.
The difference with the other consoles mentioned is that it's portable, and the time already made clear (with Switch 1 and Steam Deck) there is a massive need.
Practically, yes, this is the main differentiator. But still it would be interesting to see some specs. Is the GPU 15% better, 50%, what? The switch came out 7 years ago... there is opportunity for some fairly serious performance improvements even in the mobile form factor.
Clearly it's the same basic platform. And I think that's fine - they've really cornered a pretty big niche of mobile (ish), motion controls, family.
I suspect the larger screen size is because more people are using the mobile aspect in their home, not out on the subway or something.
wrt portability - this console will be competing with a healthy market of PC handhelds, which Xbox is preparing to enter soon.
In a couple years we'll have a new console war between Switch 2, Steamdeck 2, and Xbox portable.
This is where your first point is critical. People who want to play Mario/Zelda/Pokemon etc will buy the console, regardless of form factor.
This is a just first look trailer so yes I think most people have no choice but to hold off on a purchase decision
I saw a larger screen and exclusive titles for the switch 2. As with everything else in gaming I am expecting modest bumps in performance and since this is Nintendo it will sell very well and have Mario and Zelda releases that get 9/10 reviews on all the usual sites.
The gaming industry has been going through these cycles for decades. If you had a previous Nintendo system and still like to play video games, odds are good you’ll end up with one of these sooner or later too.
> most people have no choice but to hold off on a purchase decision
Probably all people, right? Who decides to buy the thing based on this sneak peek and then when it comes out and has some deal-breaking flaw says “oh no siree, I already made my decision when I saw the trailer months ago and I’m sticking to it no matter what”?
I'm quite certain that lot of people have already decided to buy it!
Nintendo's stuff isn't for everybody, but if you do like it... they truly do have a strong 40 year history of doing their thing and getting it mostly right nearly all of the time.
So for many people their default action is "buy the next Nintendo console every 5-10 years, because I would like the play the next 5-10 years of Mario/Zelda/etc games."
It's not unconditional love (Nintendo was in a tough place after the Wii U flop) but realistically, I think a lot of people have decided they're going to get one of these unless there's some big fiasco.
The great thing about how Nintendo approaches games is that it is about game design, not triangles per second.
Great in theory, but only really works for first party games and does mean you occasionally end up with unfortunate situations like Tears of the Kingdom where it runs better on an emulator than the actual hardware.
Ooh, thank you for the reminder to see where the state of emulation is. I played Breath of the Wild on both Switch and on PC under emulation, and the difference was night and day. The stuttering on the Switch distracted quite a bit. My PC played in beautiful 4k.
Coming from a modern console, the first hour of Tears of the Kingdom felt painfully sluggish.
I was about to say...
I'll geek out on the specs once they're leaked or announced or reverse engineered, but also I sorta don't care. It's going to be a solid upgrade over the Switch 1, which is already a lot of fun as long as you're not looking to play contemporary AAA titles from other systems.
But then I thought...
Hmmm. If it's powerful enough to essentially be "portable PS4 era level hardware" then that really increases the number of quality third-party titles we'll see ported over. Sure, they won't be latest and greatest PS5 era level AAA stuff. But they might be last generation's AAA stuff and that could be a very very very solid addition to this thing.
We know the first party Nintendo games will be good, so, the ability (or not) to actually get good ports from other systems (even if not the latest) is pretty compelling.
I'm no Nintendo fan but I still find this criticism unfair as it's simply the design reveal and a date of when more information will be provided (April 2, 2025).
Interesting, as an American, I read the date in the video (02.04.2025) as February 4th, 2025 (I agree that the DD/MM/YYYY format makes more sense, but dates are commonly listed MM/DD/YYYY everywhere here). It makes me realize when doing a worldwide release, it's important to be as explicit on the date as possible.
ISO 8601 is the only correct date format.
I don't care if people laugh at me when I sign documents and date them with "2025-01-16"
Same here until I saw the date below that spelled out April 2nd :)
on the other side, it could be a big plus for new comers into the Nintendo Switch platform
I really wonder how big that market can be. I mean, for people who still haven't gotten a switch or steam deck or anything similar until now, how likely is this going to change their mind?
I don't care what hardware is inside the new Switch 2. It cannot compete with the Steam Deck because the Switch 2 is still made by Nintendo.
Made by Nintendo means that it'll be a super locked down device that only plays games made by Nintendo or a rather small list of 3rd party game makers. Developing for the platform is expensive and requires an extremely lengthy certification process. This means that all the games are reasonably high quality, sure but it also means that small developers or games with some adult content will never make it.
The Steam Deck, on the other hand runs an enormous library of Steam games and new games crop up every day. It also runs Switch 1 games! The barrier to entry is tiny and it's actually possible to mod games which is probably the single most important feature in modern gaming if you want your game to last and be popular for a very long time.
The Steam Deck also runs Linux which means hackers all over the world can make it better. Even simple shell scripts that automate common tasks provide an enormous benefit! You can automate synchronizing your save games between your PC and your Steam Deck wirelessly, for example without much effort because it's just (mostly) normal Linux.
The Steam Deck is general purpose hardware in a portable form factor running a general purpose operating system that's been optimized for (portable) gaming. If you want a feature you can make it happen yourself or ask the monstrously huge (and obsessed) Linux community for assistance.
The Switch is locked-down, application-specific hardware in a portable form factor running an application-specific operating system that's severely locked down and can't be modified or improved in any way by end users. If you want a feature you have to ask Nintendo and pray.
> But without any real upgrade or even games announcements, I suppose most people will keep holding off their purchase decisions for now.
It's not for sale yet—they haven't even announced when it will be for sale. So what purchasing decision are you talking about?
I know. My mind is blown. I was convinced they wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to name it something stupid.
I'll be really curious to see what the gpu specs are like since it'll likely be nvidia again. The original Switch was 720p but lets you bump up to 1080p when in docked mode, so developers had to restrict design to accommodate both modes, but nvidia could possibly do a dlss trick when plugged in so devs just need to worry about 1 render target that will get upscaled automagically.
Have you watched any of the recent videos about dlss 4?
It's using a different neural network for upscaling, and these issues seem to be massively reduced. It should be compatible back to at least the 20xx GPUs as well, not just the new 50xx GPUs. Maybe it'll be on the switch 2 as well.
I've only seen a few clips of Cyberpunk but they surprised me a lot. If that level of quality can work on other games too then it'll be a huge upgrade.
DLSS 3 looked great in their teasers too, but it's filled with temporal ghosting in practice.
They will likely leave it up to the developer and not us it too much in their own games.
Will Switch 2 games still use NAND memory that means your games will start failing after as little as 10-20 years of sitting on a shelf? https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch/switch_a...
I'm guessing not. I don't there there any many or any manufacturers that make ROM chips with the size required for the games
I dropped my Switch from knee height, and now the left hand joycon is slightly loose and disconnects from too much upward pressure. Maybe the damage is on the joycon, but it seems more likely the mechanism (don't have a spare to test).
The new joycon connector looks more robust.
Shame the link isn't to https://www.nintendo.com/successor/ so it would attempt to pick a video with the most appropriate date format.
A lot of people here are criticising Nintendo not showing specific details here, seemingly forgetting a few key points:
A. The announcement is nothing more than a hype video, it obviously isn't intended to be the only marketing tool.
B. On the specifications front, Nintendo never focus on performance, and it's unlikely that will change now; their focus tends to be on games and features.Nintendo never really uses brand new tech. It's their design philosophy. https://medium.com/@adamagb/nintendo-s-little-known-product-...
It's a philosophy that worked for them incredibly well with the Switch, so unlikely they'll totally reverse it for the Switch 2.
> It's their design philosophy
I would say it's more about minimizing cost of the console and their first party games just so happen to be not intensive enough to need it... But some games would have absolutely benefitted from a bit better hardware.
What was missing from games 6 years ago that current tech has made possible?
Besides more leaves on trees, of course.
> There was a rumor about an optical sensor on the side of a joycon that would turn it into a mouse. Is this out of the equation? This would have been awesome!
They literally depict them as mice at 1:12. Like the animal, or at least that's how I interpreted it before I even knew about this rumor from your comment.
Im not sure what the point is. Sure you can point and click but no keyboard? That's way lower input than simply using the joycon and all the buttons. Seems like a gimmick.
What a well produced video. I don't think I've ever watched a 2 minute advertisement all the way through before.
It's a nice video but even if it was extremely bad I would have still watched the whole thing lol.
I love the Switch and will love the Switch 2. But this video feels so cheap. Didn’t enjoy the launch video at all.
I am sucker for Nintendo stuff. I can't imagine not getting it, but this trailer did not necessarily make me look forward to it more: It got a bit more generic in design, and I don't trust that controller attachment system.
On the other hand, I haven't finished Zelda BOTW yet nor even started TOTK.
A bigger one seems too bulky to me, I was thinking I'd rather have a tiny progress on performance and a smaller footprint.
My concern with this is that the joycob being larger won't fit the hands of younger kids anymore. The switch 1 joycon was the only one that allowed reaching the controller buttons and the stick (while held horizontally) for my 3 years old. All other controllers that exist are too big, clearly nobody tested with young children.
And I wish they had names for their arrow buttons, because when held horizontally it makes things very confusing: "press b" what is b?
Fair concern, but on the other hand joycons are seriously uncomfortable for people older than that because of how small they are. It seems reasonable for Nintendo to optimize for the common users, not the extreme minority of small children.
Of course, however adults can buy the Pro controller, but kids have no other option.
Just voicing my frustration with the gaming industry as a whole: there isn't a controller for kids, even the ones that claims to be are for 8+ I suspect.
It's a toy like any other, my son is great at playing Kirby, the game delivers some great family time (Kirby star allies is a 4-players game). Most of first-party nintendo games are also display a rating of "3+"
The game is afoot.
There are many reasons why the portable factor is good, not least you can enjoy it riding the bus or laying in bed Saturday morning; you can play big games in spare minutes side by side with the rest of your life.
Sony's Vita was quite successful with titles like Killzone Mercenary which was as fun a shooter as you'll find on any platform, but Sony gave up on the form factor because of the phone fever sweeping the world. Fortunately the culturally Japanese games like Akiba's Trip, Persona, Fate/Extella, Hyperdimension Neptunia and such have jumped to Steam.
There's the Steam Deck and countless off-brand competitors, Microsoft is talking about a portable XBOX, Sony is planning a PS5P which sounds overly ambitious -- TV-attached consoles are becoming irrelevant when you can connect an XBOX controller to your PC and have a console experience, but much better, with Steam, GOG, Origin and other PC app stores.
> Sony's Vita was quite successful with titles like Killzone Mercenary which was as fun a shooter as you'll find on any platform, but Sony gave up on the form factor because of the phone fever sweeping the world.
I think they gave up on it when they realized they didn't have the resources to support both a console and a handheld with the rising costs of game development. Nintendo faced the same issue but they got rid of their console instead and designed their handheld to be able to be docked in order to get similar functionality.
This is a hardware reveal trailer. Nintendo likely released this because of all of the recent leaks, which have put their 3rd party accessory vendors in a weird position. More details will be revealed at the Nintendo Direct on the 2nd.
I don't think I can see myself ever buying a Nintendo console again. My switch collects dust. They are always substantially under powered and likewise their games are simple - aka quite easy to emulate. I would much prefer a mobile device that can "do it all" like a steamdeck which is able to run native games, run emulators, and also remote to a beefy desktop gaming rig for games with higher demands.
That being said I realize I am not the target market. Nintendo has always been a pretty safe bet for the "just works" department. They are great for kids or casual gamers.
The connector on the main body is just exceptionally questionable, I see it being a big issue of getting broken or worn and then non trivial repairs.
Yeah, I was concerned about that too. It looks like it has a small thin edge connector on the body of the Switch 2, sort of like a USB-C port but without the protective shield around it. If it's not designed well, we could see it snapping off in kid's hands and requiring expensive repairs.
There is a button you must press to detach it. You can see it here: https://www.nintendo.com/successor/assets/img/bg-movie.mp4 at 0:23
If this hotlink doesn't work, it's visible on this page: https://www.nintendo.com/successor/en-ca/index.html
They probably are magnetically attached but also feature a latch somewhere to make sure they don't accidentally pop out.
Alternatively they could just be using really strong magnets and tight tolerances for the fit inside the Switch 2. That's a tough thing to get right though because if they make it too tight it'll be annoying to get them lined up juuuuust straight enough to snap in but if they make it too loose they can pop out too easily.
How do Switch users feel about the joycons?
I'm not a gamer, but the original Switch joycons always struck me as overly complicated and expensive. It should be cheaper to manufacture and sell Switches with the controllers attached. Indeed, this is what they did with the Switch Lite. For games that take advantage of joycon functionality, Nintendo could have sold something like an updated Switch version of the Wiimote as an optional accessory.
Do users who are happy with their Nintendo Switch have a favorable opinion of the joycons, or would you be happy without them?
The joy cons are fine, but I think them always being attached also removes the key benefit of the Switch. That was something that a lot of people talked about when the Switch Lite came out.
They could be better and given the limitations, I think they do the job. If you don't like them they offer the pro controller. But there have been times (especially when flying) that I have used them detached when not docked.
I honestly don't think the Switch would have succeeded the way it did if the controllers were always attached, forcing you to buy another controller for when you wanted to dock.
They are fine but they break very easily; after a while they start to "drift" and the games become unplayable.
I needed to repair one pair last year because the drift was unbearable; the repair costs almost as much as a new one. (And one started drifting again.)
I am not a heavy player at all and I got the drift.
I wish you could just turn off the sticks in the system software — it's a trivial fix that would make the problem a whole lot more bearable.
They have quality issues with stick drift, and the "single joycon as controller" setup is clearly designed for child-sized hands, but it's definitely an advantage to be able to play the system handheld but also have minimal extra to pack (just the rails widget) if I want to put it on a train table on the kickstand and the use the controllers more ergonomically.
And I mean, if you have kids, being able to double your controllers when they have friends around is also helpful to avoid arguments.
I'm generally in favour of the joycons as a concept. They make multiplayer party games a breeze.
But the execution in the Switch 1 is flawed. They're on the small side, and generally fiddly. If the joycons for the Switch 2 are larger and just more ergonomic then I think it'll be a win.
EDIT: the joycons also being little motion wands was also quite good. You don't need a separate accessory like on the other consoles. Overall the joycon is a neat little package of functionality, if imperfect.
I think they're fine when mounted, but I use a the pro controller. Using them individually when you have people over sucks, but it's a neat way to turn one controller into two, so I can't throw too much hate.
That's if we're ignoring the absurd drift their sticks have that Nintendo has seemingly never fixed. I hope to god they fixed them in this next gen console.
I barely use the joycons.
I mostly play with either a Switch Pro Controller or an 8BitDo (that is actually my favorite).
I have large hands and the joycons are a little uncomfortable for me. But it makes sense, they should feel great in the hands of a child.
Everyone I know with a Switch uses it primarily attached to their TV in the dock and only secondarily as a portable. A separate controller seems necessary for that.
I agree that they are/were far too expensive, especially given the drift problems. Other than that, they're a neat bit of tech and, with the included 'grip' controller, I found them totally suitable for the first 6 months or so. After that, I got the Pro controller and never looked back. Last year, I picked up a CRKD Nitro and that is a massive upgrade on the Joy-Con.
There are plenty of alternative controller options for the Switch, it's not that much of an issue.
For portable play, yes, the stick drift issues suck, but Nintendo will fix it for you. And yeah, most portable systems today overall just have better analog sticks.
But if I'm at home I'm going to be using a Pro controller or an 8bitdo or something like that.
I don't like them. They're too small to be comfortable for use on their own, and all they really enable is motion controls (meh). The pro controller is far superior and is 90% of my switch controller usage.
So can we finally expect to see first-party Switch 1 games get discounts?
Ooh that would be nice. Although I wonder if they'll simply stop producing as many (IDK what even goes into that though... I imagine its pretty cheap to produce). Sadly I feel like the opposite happens with many things, not sure about video games though.
Everyone is going to buy one of these as soon as they can ship them to them, so if the thumb sticks could not be intentionally engineered to fail this time, that would be great, thanks.
So I can only guess the reason why they didn't mention how much more powerful NS2 is compared to NS1, is because it is not that much more powerful?
I would guess only 30 to 50% more powerful
If you believe the leakers [1]:
Full specs:
CPU: Arm Cortex-A78C
8 cores
Unknown L1/L2/L3 cache sizes
GPU: Nvidia T239 Ampere
1 Graphics Processing Cluster (GPC)
12 Streaming Multiprocessors (SM)
1534 CUDA cores
6 Texture Processing Clusters (TPC)
48 Gen 3 Tensor cores
2 RTX ray-tracing cores
RAM: 12 GB LPDDR5
Handheld Mode:
CPU: 998.4 MHz
GPU: 561 MHz (~1.72 TFLOPS)
Memory Frequency: 4266 MHz
Memory Bandwidth: 68.256 GB/s
Docked Mode:
CPU: 1100.8 MHz
GPU: 1007.25 MHz (~3.09 TFLOPS)
Memory Frequency: 6400 MHz
Memory Bandwidth: 102.4 GB/s
Category Nintendo Switch 2 Nintendo Switch
CUDA Cores 1536 256
Bus Width 128-bit 64-bit
Memory Size 12 GB 4 GB
Memory Type LPDDR5X LPDDR4
SM Count 12 2
Bandwidth 120 GB/s 25.6GB/s
Dimensions 206 x 115 x 14 173 x 102 x 13.9
(LWD mm)
GPU performance should be somewhere between PS4 and PS4 Pro. More memory is a good sign that Nintendo's machine will allow a larger software catalogue than that of the Xbox Series S, where 10 GB has been a severe impediment to porting.
The biggest problem is the memory bandwidth. PS4 memory bandwidth is 176 GB/s. These specs are quite bad, It's supposed to be Ampere based, so RTX 30 series. It was released in Sep 2020. That's over 4 years ago. Part of the problem with NVIDIA is that they have been milking their architectures.
For comparison, the Steamdeck was released in Feb 2022, and RDNA2 was released in Nov 2020. So the architecture gap was 1.5 years for Steamdeck, but 4.5 years for the Switch 2.
I guess there might be a chance that they enable DLSS4 for this device, but it's still sad to watch this unfold.
I would guess much weaker, but IMO the switch's point is not raw performance but rather innovative gameplay and style
The leaks specs are [1]:
- ARM 8 Arm Cortex-A78C
- GPU: Nvidia T239 Ampere, 12 SM/1534 Cores
- 12 GB of ram.
Compared to Switch 1 [2]:
- ARM 4 Cortex-A57 cores @ 1.02 GHz
- GPU: NVIDIA Maxwell 256 cores
- 4 GB of ram.
It should like it should be a major boost in performance from those specs, like maybe 4x improvement overall?
Of course there are more pixels on this screen, so the amount of GPU per pixel may stay roughly the same.
[1] https://thegamepost.com/nintendo-switch-2-full-specs-appears... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_Switch
I’ve heard different leaks to the tune that it is actually significantly more powerful. Rationale being because Nintendo presumably finally needs to take 4k and higher frame rates seriously, and the hardware situation has improved enough for that to be possible under Nintendo’s philosophy (shit hardware with innovative and engaging gameplay). I mean their beloved launch title for the Switch had performance problems maintaining even 20fps at 720p. Pretty embarrassing.
No, it's because Nintendo prides itself to be about games, not about performance.
2 April. This is the American trailer so the date is dumb
That's my case as well, especially now that Switch has established itself and you can get Switch Mini for $200 if interested in on-the-go experience.
I hope they fix the issues with the controllers dying.
Looks like a new controller attachment system, maybe magnetic, except that doesn't seem robust enough for excited play.
I wonder what that means for spare controllers. It's a waste to make people go buy new extra controllers for multiplayer games. Maybe you can use your old Switch as a charger and pair via BT? Not nearly as nice as just sliding it on to pair, but hopefully reduces e-waste.
Pretty much all the rumours confirmed, and a Direct on 2nd April for more. It was nice to see the Joy-Con being all mouse-like, though.
I've skipped a few Nintendo console generations, but may grab this one. Right off the hop I can catch up with a decent library. The draw is it would be nice for the kids.
Part of me was hoping it would be something more visionary, but maybe it's just not the right time. I noticed that competition is similarly betting on handheld devices.
Nice, will we also get soon a Nvidia Shield 2 with Auto AI HDR etc. now that we have a new Nintendo Switch Nvidia CPU ?
As much as I would love this (not interested in a portable game console, but definitely interested in a new top-of-line set-top-box) I can't imagine this is what's been holding nVidia back on a Shield refresh.
If anything, the Switch was a way to sell a boatload of existing chips. They've had plenty of opportunity to put out a Shield 2 in the meantime, but instead have backed off their focus on game streaming and other main features of a set-top-box.
I'd love to see it happen, but I feel like the Shield is just not a big enough seller for them to put many resources behind an update. Prove me wrong, nVidia! TVs have only gotten worse in terms of embedded systems and software, and I don't have (or plan on) buying into the Apple ecosystem enough to make AppleTV compelling.
IIRC the whole reason Nvidia was not able to make a new Shield or Shield tablet was because all their chips were being used in the Switch, and the basically all used the same chip
The design changes showcased in the video are definitely a welcome improvement. As someone who owns both a Steam Deck and an OLED Switch, I find the Switch to be a bit too small for my hands, while the Steam Deck feels slightly large and bulky. Could the Switch 2 strike the perfect balance between the two?
Top comment says "There is a part of me that is going to miss the, do weird shit and see what works, Nintendo that brought us some really fun ideas."
I bet you that Nintendo will never release a Nintendo Switch 3. They do sequels in consoles (like they did the SNES), but after that they innovate.
Hopefully game saves will sync between Switch 1 and 2. It would not be great to have to restart games with 80+ hours or drag 2 consoles around with you to access your full Switch 1 library. I'm mildly optimistic given Switch 1 has online save backup capability for a lot of its games.
We got a switch a few years ago and it collected dust. The shop is overpriced (and slow) and I guess we aren't really into their first-party titles. I don't see what it offers against a steam deck except the aforementioned first-party titles.
edit: except the aforementioned first-party titles
It offers the first-party titles, basically. If you don't want those then there's no reason to get one.
For me, Nintendo is the most reliable game developer these days. Every main Mario and Zelda game offers something new and executes it well on the first try. I'll buy Switch 2 for Mario and Zelda alone.
Did you play and complete a lot of the other Zelda games growing up?
The entire reason to buy the switch is the first party titles. If you don't like those/Nintendo games, the switch and all switch derivatives aren't going to be for you.
It offers first party titles, you said it yourself
Bright-colored controllers were so much better. Also the way they were attached before is much better.
Switch 1 was the work of art. This one looks like the work of A/B testing and “we are losing customers as they choose Steam Deck over us, so let’s make it look like Steam Deck”
Nintendo sold an all-gray Switch 1, that’s the one I got.
Yes this console does feel like a more “grown up” Switch but I don’t think it’s a sign of chasing after Steam Deck; switch has sold 2 orders of magnitude more copies than Valve ever will.
If anything it’s following the same pattern as Wii (white) WiiU (dark) for the successor to be a bit more serious and grown up looking.
Kids who got their Switch 1 when they were 10 are now 17, ready for a more grown up console.
> switch has sold 2 orders of magnitude more copies than Valve ever will.
In the first year Nintendo sold 13.2 million Switches. In the ~2 years since the introduction of the Steam Deck Valve has sold somewhere between 5 and 6 million units.
Nintendo had a enormous, loyal, and obsessive user base and decades of history selling portable consoles. The Steam Deck is Valve's first portable console and it's running a new OS that no one is used to. It also cost $100 more than the Switch.
Furthermore--now that the platform itself has proven itself--Valve is going to allow 3rd parties to use SteamOS on their own portable consoles. If those 3rd parties have similar successes I think Nintendo will become a minor player in the portable console market in comparison.
> If anything it’s following the same pattern as Wii (white) WiiU (dark) for the successor to be a bit more serious and grown up looking.
The Wii U also comes in white. My grandparents own one.
Likewise, I wouldn't be surprised if the Switch 2 came in more colors than what's shown, just like the Switch did.
The old mechanism had one serious usability flaw. This is a common sequence:
1) Put console into dock when you get home. 2) Some time later, remove controllers to use them
To remove them you need to pull them up, while the console is in the dock. That's a bit fiddly. Just being able to pop them off sideways sounds much better.
I really don’t like the old attachment mechanism. It was robust when connected, but it’s annoying to connect and especially disconnect, and it’s especially awkward that are two different retention mechanisms that need to be released depending on what’s connected.
I imagine the new connection will have a mechanical match of some sort and generally work better.
it definitely does look a bit like a steam deck
From the trailer the way the new controller attach to the console seems fragile, but they might have done some apple-like magnet magic..
I think the updated "click" sound present in the trailer indicates that yes they will snap on pretty forcefully with magnets.
Much like with the failed Macbook Touch Bar, I don't think it works having to look away and focus on another screen while playing a game.
Also like the Macbook Touch Bar, now you have a whole other thing developers have to target and test for an end result that should just be possible yet more efficient in the main app.
Take inventory for example. Instead you could just make it frictionless to open inventory in the main game and create quick-swap slots. Tears of the Kingdom is a good example. Swapping out arrows mid combat by looking at your controller would not be an improvement.
Yeah I played BOTW on the Wii U and remember at some point I just stopped bothering with the handheld screen.
I can't remember what game it was but I do remember having one game where the handheld add-on provided some functionality that seemed useful/fun. So it is possible, but much like the original wii's motion sensors - it is much more likely that developers will stumble across a bad application of the tech than a good one
BOTW didn't even leverage the Wii U gamepad. The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess remakes let you equip items with it, and I think that was the original plan for BotW too, but they removed the feature likely because then it would have an extra feature over the Switch version that launched at the same time.
Xenoblade is excellent, Metroid is excellent, Kirby is excellent. There are others but those are the primary ones which come to mind for me. Obviously they're all Nintendo games but that's what you get a Nintendo system for. You don't get it because it's the best option for playing third party games.
I've played Smash Ultimate probably more than any other game in my life.
Im buying one and not connecting it to the internet so I can root it later.
Man, this video is giving me some serious Neverhood vibes.
and incorporates cutting-edge "security" controls to keep the system secured (against the user of course, because the owners of the device nowadays are the primary security threat, regardless how technical they are). Otherwise, what if grandma gets tricked into installing a Steam game or *gasp* an open source operating system onto her switch?
I think people are sleeping on Meta's compounding advantage in VR/AR. The Quest 3 is 15 months old, and it's wild how much it has improved over that time purely due to software and interaction model improvements. Aside from the recent bricking issue, I think the Meta Quest is accelerating at the OS level. I'm looking forward to Mario on Quest 4 or 5, but it will be a bit sad.
You can't see the shortcomings until you have the hardware, and once you solve those there is a next set of shortcomings. I think that road is longer and deeper than I had appreciated, Meta is the only company iterating fast enough to be serious about serving "normies".
The name of the game is the game. Meaning that hardware is popular insofar as the games that are on it. And Nintendo, with its massive war chest and toymaker history, will never turn into a third-party developper. They'll keep making their underpowered Nintendo machines, and good for them.
This thing is gonna get swallowed in an ocean of steam decks and other similar clones. Unless you want to play the third installment of Mario Kart 8, I guess.
That is precisely the only reason people choose Nintendo over more powerful and capable devices. The Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Zeldas, Marios etc.
They got a robust ecosystem going on and with them shooting down pirating left, right and center they keep a tight ship going.
Nintendo has set themselves up so they don't need 3rd party titles to survive. Carved out a good niche for themselves. They don't even see themselves as direct competitors with Sony. They used to but that was a long time ago.
I understand, after all, they are the Disney of gaming in terms of IP.
It’s just strange, this is the first time I’ve seen them so…lazy. The Wii U was a flop, but it was a bigger leap than this. SNES at least had more buttons and significantly better graphics.
I think they’re just gonna milk this till streaming takes over.
Well I think they're definitely leaning into giving the best portable experience for the dedicated consoles (that are not Steam). I think they've come to understand that's their niche and the sales of the Switch seem to suggest it.
I don't think they feel like they need a huge departure, but rather just to improve on the shortcomings of the Switch itself and just a bit more power. Whatever they can achieve.
But they also know they can never compete with the PS5 in terms of specs and still put out a portable.
And they're probably well aware that they'll have to make up their tech shortcomings with good games ... as they always have.
So you're right. They'll continue with this until has diminishing returns and then they'll probably pivot / evolve again.
can't help but smile watching the video
i expected a radical redesign, but this switch 2 is great too
can't wait to play old switch games on it, as well as new ones!
The hand placement when using the controllers attached to the screen somehow looks even more uncomfortable than on the original.
Somewhat larger screen (and presumably faster hardware) is enough for me to buy in. Don't mess with what works.
The larger, higher resolution screen will make me happy too.
Been playing a lot of Factorio on my OG switch… it works. Barely.
Why don't they just make 2 controllers that you can snap to the sides of an iPhone?
Edit: like this: https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/HRDG2ZM/A/backbone-one...
Save the planet, reuse hardware.
Unimpressive. But that isnt what sells Nintendo platforms.
20+ years of relentless marketing to children is what sells.
So not radically different, but hey, why risk ruining a good thing? I'm sure my kid will die if he doesn't get one.
Apple should just buy Nintendo at this point. They don’t seem to have anything else going on.
> They don’t seem to have anything else going on.
Apple? Are you certain about that?
Give me 4K, joycons that never disconnect or drift, and up to 16 players locally, and I’m in!
I’m in regardless.
Instead of commenting on the switch 2 characteristics, i just want to take some time to celebrate Nintendo, and to say how happy i am this company still exists although it went through difficult times.
As some comments point out, Nintendo is the only console/video games company that's been trying to do fun things instead of trying to come up with the most powerful console in the universe.
This is the gaming i like, i don't care for 3000 fps and 1000Ghz consoles, i just want to have fun :-)
So, yeah, thanks Nintendo, i'll be buying this Switch 2.
Honestly, they did exactly what they should have done here. Made a more powerful Switch with better hardware and backwards compatibility, with a clear and easily understandable name.
Regardless, the things they need to update/fix are all really just technical and UI design problems; Joy-Cons drifting and rails failing to work, Switch Online being a laggy mess for many games, the eShop being near impossible to filter or find things in, etc. If they can get those things fixed, and get some popular Nintendo franchises out within the first year or so, then this could be a huge success.
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!