tmvphil 3 months ago

I get this is Nintendo, so it'll never be fixed, but I honestly hate having to buy Nintendo hardware just to play the three or four big-name platform exclusives per generation. It would be so much better for consumers if they would just abandon the hardware and be a regular games company

  • makeitdouble 3 months ago

    To Nintendo's credit, their big exclusive titles tend to take advantage of the special hardware.

    Zelda was weird and impractical outside of the standard controls, but still somewhat benefited from NFC.

    Splatoon plays a lot better with the motion controls, NFC is actually a nice QOL improvement. A game like Arms is also nicer in split mode, even if core players tend to get back to the standard controller mode.

    I see it along the lines of the Allan Kay "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware" quote. Nintendo should stay serious IMHO.

    • kipchak 3 months ago

      In early footage of BoTW when it was a Wii U exclusive there was more usage of the Tablet for things like maps and inventory management, which was later cut for presumably parity with the Switch version.

    • tmvphil 3 months ago

      By NFC, you mean amiibo? I think "in game perks for buying collectible junk" is not actually a good feature.

      Motion controls, eh, they're supported on ps5. They could just sell the switch pro controller.

      • makeitdouble 3 months ago

        Yes, amibo.

        For Splatoon it's used to quickly switch to preset weapons and gears as well, which is nice. You widly experiment with your gear and instantaneously get back to your "serious" setting at any time.

  • lenerdenator 3 months ago

    I think the same thing. Metroid is good, but is it $250+ good? Meh.

    Microsoft more-or-less does the same thing with Windows in the personal consumer market. With Office being online these days, the primary motivation for a lot of people to buy a Windows license for a computer instead of using Linux or buying a Mac is gaming, along with pure inertia.

    This will be a problem with everything until games are FLOSS.

    • spencerflem 3 months ago

      Sadly, I don't think games will ever be FLOSS until we figure out how to get people to pay for FLOSS software.

      • ranger_danger 3 months ago

        I actually don't think there is a big obstacle to this. Most people don't care about FLOSS and don't even know what it is, so I think that shouldn't really affect sales. I think companies are just worried about people stealing their code to use it for more "undesirable" (to them) things like cheating and mods, and then having to go after them for it because you do actually have to try to defend your copyright/trademarks if you want to keep them.

      • lenerdenator 3 months ago

        You could probably get away with a purely volunteer effort on... eh, how to describe this... like Super Mario 64 for Mac/Linux/PC.

        And I do mean Super Mario 64 with respect to the technology/artwork level. Which is fine by me.

        But the big AAA games and the multiplayer games that all of the hip young people with their poggers Twitch streaming and their deadass rock music play? Yeah, can't build those given the state of everything these days.

    • legostormtroopr 3 months ago

      > This will be a problem with everything until games are FLOSS.

      I mean there is nothing stopping that right now. You can give up your time and learn game programming and asset design and make a game and give it away for free.

yapyap 3 months ago

Sad they’re keeping at the same thing, I was personally hoping for a NEW thing like innovation but it seems like theyre just keeping steady at the same pace.

Of course looking back at the past this shouldn’t have been a huge surprise with their ds to 3ds to new3ds shenanigans

  • mschuster91 3 months ago

    > Sad they’re keeping at the same thing, I was personally hoping for a NEW thing like innovation but it seems like theyre just keeping steady at the same pace.

    Why risk it though? The original Switch is a money printer but it became obvious that it's ... lacking brawns and brains after eight years of service. Fix that by upgrading the SoC to something with more power and remove a few other annoyances (the flimsy stand, primarily), and that will be enough to make it sell like lemonade on a hot summer day.

    • Macha 3 months ago

      Though the OLED Switch had a much better stand than the launch switch and the stand on this one actually kind of looks like a regression.

  • ginko 3 months ago

    Yeah, it feels like a very iterative update compared to previous Nintendo consoles.

basfo 3 months ago

Honestly i was expecting a little more info. I get this is on purpose, to create hype, but not having a graphical demo, a release date... anything really more than the design, input ports, and joycons, seems too little.

And the direct in april seems too far away honestly.

All they showed is the things that leaked, i mean, to me (besides the confirmation of something that was obvious) is like nothing happened really. I know the same as yesterday + the plastic texture maybe and i have to wait almost 3 months for the next official info.

0x70run 3 months ago

Damn, can't wait to pay 500+ USD to play mobile games! :)

akaike 3 months ago

It looks very pretty but the display bezels look kinda thick.

aynyc 3 months ago

After 8 year, all we get an improved version? Do they not have anything else in the pipeline?

I'll probably get it, lol! Honestly, I'm a little disappointed. I was hoping for some wacky stuff!

Edit: Seems odd to get down voted.

  • mrcwinn 3 months ago

    I think that's the point. You'll probably get it. I probably will too. I would imagine this device will improve unit sales and also has improved margins on a per unit basis. Easy win without trying all that much. Take the W.

    • aynyc 3 months ago

      I understand the financial part of it. I'm not sure it's a W for gamers like us. Obviously, I don't know the spec and detail so I'm happy to be corrected. From the video, they could've released this 4 years ago and I would've still gotten it back then. Since I view switch as a console system rather mobile system, the gain we are getting just seem a bit disappointing after 8 years.

gigatexal 3 months ago

Any speculation on the hardware that might be in it?

_imnothere 3 months ago

Absolute friendly reminder: this is a device from the company which they do C&D and abuse DMCA to community devs

  • LorenDB 3 months ago

    Indeed. Unfortunately, even if all of HN boycotts the Switch 2 it won't have an effect on Nintendo, but their behavior is entirely unacceptable and is boycott-worthy.

Halan 3 months ago

I don't care too much about the hardware spec. That's not why you buy a Nintendo. I hope Nintendo modernizes its software. I am talking about the UI and its multiplayer user experience.

Preventing any modern chat/voice feature under the excuse of wanting to protect children from online danger is a laughable as it is solvable by expanding the parental control features.

I am optimistic regarding this as Nintendo seem have turned its vision to taking a bit more risks as hinted in games like Super Mario Wonder that try to innovate in the multiplayer space. You'd say that that is not much but very few would have foreseen such a move from Nintendo.

officeplant 3 months ago

It looks so much like the Retroid Pocket 5 and other chinese android consoles that are all over the emulator space.

At least they've finally moved on.

paines 3 months ago

That was a pretty boring annoucement. Yeah its cool how the elements on the device appear, but it gets boring when this is shown for both sides of the attachebles controllers. They have the opportunity to show e.g. exclusive games which would now look and perform super duper on the new hardware, because of a better resolution opr maybe HDR, but nothing like that? Or a comparison of the old one with the new? I think its a bit thin...

wk_end 3 months ago

Disappointed that it doesn't look to fix the biggest issue I have with the Switch, which is that docking it feels awkward and clumsy. You have to blindly line up a USB-C port/connector, and that seems to be the same approach they're going with here. At least the Joycons look like they'll be a little smoother to attach/remove.

kyriakos 3 months ago

should we expect re-release of all the usual games?

SJMG 3 months ago

That was fun!

I'm a little disappointed they didn't fix the terribly unergonomic joy cons though.

  • vFunct 3 months ago

    The console appears to be a little bit bigger, which would help the ergonomics of the joy-cons if they’re bigger.

  • canuckintime 3 months ago

    It’s bigger; that might be the fix in and of itself

    • hn8726 3 months ago

      A big problem is not length but width. I've 3d printed a _pad_ for solo joycon and the difference is day and night

      • xnx 3 months ago

        Don't the attachable rails help the width (or did you mean thickness)?

  • ysavir 3 months ago

    I got some 3rd party ergonomic handles and it was so worth it. Strongly recommended.

corytheboyd 3 months ago

Please tell me the joycons are built with a more robust analog stick… it was hard to tell if they changed at all in this video. That’s about my only gripe with the switch, those sticks drift so badly if you so much as look at them.

lazycouchpotato 3 months ago

The giant 2 is a bit obnoxious. Other than that everything looks good.

And for the love of God Nintendo you better be using hall effect joysticks for this one. Can't imagine the amount of e-waste they generated with the Switch joycons.

muglug 3 months ago

No support for AI? The Switch 2 is DOA /s

  • jsheard 3 months ago

    I know you're joking but technically it does have AI, the SOC is built on Nvidia's Ampere architecture with tensor cores. If nothing else they'll probably be used for DLSS upscaling.

  • 3836293648 3 months ago

    It's an NVIDIA chip. They're 100% gonna use DLSS for literally every game in the library (ok, maybe not 2D games)

  • napolux 3 months ago

    I've heard rumors about MarioGPT.

    • vpol 3 months ago

      I actually don't mind modern version of Nintendo Tip Line

      • napolux 3 months ago

        I see you're a man of culture as well :)

syntaxing 3 months ago

Am I getting this right? Nintendo pushed the announcement forward because of the massive “Nate the great” leak?

anal_reactor 3 months ago

1. Looks boring. I want my washing machine to look boring, not my fun entertainment device.

2. It's literally the same thing they released 8 years ago, except the electronics are new. In 8 years they did zero creative progress. "People don't want cars, they want faster horses".

3. Switch was already huge, this thing will be giant, so it will be portable as in "portable fridge".

This will probably sell well because Switch sold well and the brand is strong, but honestly, I don't see any reason to buy this thing. They're basically reinventing a gaming laptop, except with Nintendo first-party games.

  • twostorytower 3 months ago

    I guess you never got a PS2/PS3/PS4/PS5? Sometimes, the internals are the right thing to upgrade. And there definitely is some hardware innovations. I look forward to learning more!

    • anal_reactor 3 months ago

      I got an Xbox 360 strictly because I wanted to play Guitar Hero. To me, home consoles are like PC, but worse, but more convenient for a non-technical user.