The same person who leaked the existence of Metroid Dread assures that a Spanish developer has received the development kit for the successor to Nintendo Switch.
Judging from the leaks, it sounds like Nintendo is taking an approach to make it more competitive to the Steam Deck, but not a jump forward in terms of computational power.
Compared to the X1 chip from 2015 the Switch uses, the Steam Deck is a pretty big jump in power
That’s a real good point, I should have clarified that it’s not a jump compared to what’s currently available. It would be a massive upgrade for existing users if the software leverages capability, but it won’t be a portable handheld that’s going to be able to render contemporary scenes at 4k.
I think Nintendo itself doesn’t need much more power than they’ve been using, but if they want to keep their 3rd party devs, the new system will have to be able to run Unreal engine 5 games in some sort of stripped down performance mode. Over half the new AA & AAA games currently in development all run on UE5
Judging from the leaks, it looks like it will be more inline with Steam Deck capability as opposed to a leap forward in computational power.
They weren’t saying it would compete with the Deck, they were saying similar in capability.
IE. Similar level of computational power.
With a good portion of its capability hamstrung by abstraction layers. That said, Switch 2 doesn’t look to be a 4k device when docked.
I played Hogwarts Legacy on my Steam Deck at 4k upscaled from like 480p or something. I think it was upscaled to 1080p with FSR 2.0 then again to 4k with FSR 1.0. It was like watching a slideshow of impressionist paintings set in the English countryside.
Other than in terms of physical hardware innovations, Nintendo hasn’t been anywhere near the cutting edge of computational power since the mid-90s… Or maybe never.
Yeah, Nintendo’s biggest strength has always been the quality of their first-party (and Monolith) games, but never their graphical fidelity. They focus on good games that are fun to play, and I appreciate that, but they have a hard time drawing in AAA third party devs.
Considering the Switch was borderline obsolete when it was released, they are just keeping with tradition. Nintendo doesn’t take risks anymore.
I just hope the Switch 2 will run all of Switch 1’s shoddy ports at a higher clock speed. Don’t do what N3DS did and downclock. I doubt titles that have been ported once will be re-ported, and devs will keep trying to port newer titles that Switch 2 still won’t handle.
I just want back-compatibility with 1st Switch. It’s a Nintendo console, so I don’t expect lots of horsepower. I think because of current Switch’s lack of power Nintendo was able output loads of great games to their system. Like their studios didn’t need to spend a whole generation just to make one game, unlike what we are seeing on other consoles.
I don’t see what the big deal is even. Developers can just continue using the same tooling, and just target a higher graphics budget. Surely Nintendo isn’t so crazy as to introduce some backward incompatible changes?
It’s important. There’s probably some new features in the new Switch. You cannot really know for sure how they work out unless you test it on real hardware.
Nintendo is also quite experimental with their controllers. It’s pretty lowball to expect they will try something new and unique for the next Switch. Getting hands on with the new controller early makes it easier for developers to design games with this controller in mind.
