Switch 2

And we're off!

Not much to see here really - magnetic joy cons? Some sort of mouse mode? A new Mario Kart that looks exactly like the last Mario Kart?

More news in April.

Yep, that looks exactly like all the leaks said it would.

A new Mario Kart that looks exactly like the last Mario Kart?

It looks so exactly like the last Mario Kart that I wasn't sure if it was new, or just a track I haven't played.

More news in April.

I know PR folk love that slick, clean '4.2.2025' shit, but would it fuckin kill them to just say "April 2" so I don't have to triple-check which Nintendo YouTube account I'm watching to figure out what month they're actually talking about?

Pretty sleek, not really much else to say based on that but it's cathartic to actually see it in the wild at last.

I know PR folk love that slick, clean '4.2.2025' shit, but would it fuckin kill them to just say "April 2" so I don't have to triple-check which Nintendo YouTube account I'm watching to figure out what month they're actually talking about?

Saves rendering time across multiple languages.

Christ that looks dull. Strong Wii-U vibes. Who is this for?

I assume the point will be the new games which might look a little more fancy? But without that it is a bit… shrug

What we thinking price wise?

The original was £280 at release; I'd assume, given increased capabilities and economic conditions etc., we'll be looking at a bit higher for this one. Maybe as much as £350? If it's higher than that, I think they might struggle without some big-name must-have exclusives (and Mario Kart 9 ain't that).

Who is this for?

Me.

Also I reckon there's more going on in that new Mario Kart than meets the eye. Look at how long that straight road is, there's no way that's a normal MK track. It'd be dull as all hell. And there are no fences, plus a whole lot of rendered desert. There would be nothing to stop you driving off the road and exploring (what admittedly looks like a whole load of nothing).

It'll either have a new gameplay mechanic (US road trip?) or they've used a big reveal to debut the most boring stretch of racetrack in Mario Kart history.

"Hey, all you Switch owners! People want slightly better graphics, so you're not going to get any more games for your incredibly popular system now." In the past there was at least some room for improvement but now? Pfft.

Will we ever just admit graphics are good enough and keep things on the same hardware while making that hardware cheaper with some revisions that have better build quality or aesthetics or so on instead of making CONSOLE 2: WE CATER TO GRAPHICS SNOBS?

Will we ever just admit graphics are good enough and keep things on the same hardware while making that hardware cheaper with some revisions that have better build quality or aesthetics or so on instead of making CONSOLE 2: WE CATER TO GRAPHICS SNOBS?

Nope.

Petition to rename the forum to 'The Society of Some Miserable Old Cunts' please.

Will we ever just admit graphics are good enough and keep things on the same hardware while making that hardware cheaper with some revisions that have better build quality or aesthetics or so on

They are good enough. The likes of Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wild all looks lovely, and they run on what's basically a digital potato. You are aware of Nintendo's stance of not needing to have the latest tech in their consoles and why they're always at least a generation behind… right?

Wii U vibes

Seriously, get to fuck with that.

I am crazy excited. I spotted it right before our afternoon briefing/review and went into it and instantly showed my friend the news, who did an audible gasp of excitement! Drawing attention to us both so I had to explain the Switch 2 had been officially announced and that this was a spiritual moment for us.

Hey I'm not down on it, I just don't have a lot to comment on right now.

Petition to rename the forum to 'The Society of Some Miserable Old Cunts' please.

Seconded.

There’s nothing to discuss at the moment. It’s literally a Big Switch. Let’s reconvene when we have some specs and some games to talk about.

I'm interested in a Switch 2, but I'm exactly as interested now as I was yesterday.

But that's the thing, "games to talk about" could have been easily done on the Switch and every single person who owns a Switch could have access to those games. It really feels dirty to force people to "upgrade" to something that isn't going to be much of an upgrade to play new games. It's like requiring thousands of dollars of computer hardware just to play a damn game. It's laughably ridiculous, and should be illegal. You can call me a miserable old cunt if you want, but there's something to be said about fighting for people who already own a piece of hardware and expect support for it. Sure, it's "old" now, technically, but really, it's still relevant. It's still a good, modern piece of hardware that works just fine for everything that's been thrown at it to a reasonable degree. Why bother with something new when you have something that is still absolutely printing money for your company? Why risk alienating tons of people who don't want to buy anything new?

When you have niche hardware that caters to a small audience that will upgrade whenever you tell them to, it's fine. But when you have hardware that has become so incredibly popular that it's really in nearly everyone's hands these days, from children to the elderly, just like the Wii, don't mess with it. You didn't learn your lesson from WiiU, Nintendo?

If having that opinion makes me a miserable old cunt, then change my forum name to Miserable Old Cunt. Go right ahead. I'd rather be a miserable old cunt than supporting a company ready to leave behind a massive installed user base for MOAR GRAFX.

/reads dok's post
/looks at every tech company ever

Not saying you don't have a point, but that's really not how the world works, is it? Something something capitalism. What you're saying applies to pretty much every company ever, not just Nintendo. Victorian lead pipes work perfectly fine at delivering water to the households of Britain, no need to upgrade them, right? Bring back steam trains! Make DHL use horse and carriage. Brave new world.

The Switch lifespan is eight years now. Eight. Please, point at another gaming platform that's managed to make its tech last that long without any kind of internal upgrades. I'll wait.

More power doesn't just mean better graphics though. It gives us more oomph to render larger, more detailed playing areas, better physics and AI, as well as better frame-rates and lighting.

I'm excited for the Switch 2 and I'm glad they have stuck to the Switch formula. The Switch's Handheld/TV screen thing is the smartest innovation for consoles in decades. It fits really well with how people play games these days. It works so well, why change it?

The Switch had to be updated, and it's not fair to bash Nintendo for this. They are essentially the only company making games for the Switch now. They've exhausted the list of older games it would be worthwhile or possible to port over. When was the last time a mainstream game was released that there was any possibility of a Switch port? Even the fairly system-light Atlus games like Metaphor Refantazio aren't making it over. Even indie games, the Switch's staple, aren't always releasing on the system. If Nintendo didn't need to keep up with the gaming landscape at large to some degree then they might as well still be making games for the Gamecube.

Also, the idea of a Nintendo console ever catering to graphics snobs is kind of ridiculous.

I love my Switch but have played on it less since I got my Asus Ally. I would have gotten a Switch XL or an upgraded slightly bigger screen Switch for example. I have never gotten a Console day one I don't think. But am interested in trying to pre-order this.

We had the oomph to do large gaming arenas eons ago back when we cared about simplifying everything else and optimizing games. Now games take up 200TB (an exaggeration, but not by much) and aren't any better except graphically.

Hell, the absolutely massive, incredibly detailed original release of Skyrim for PC took up less than 6GB, a size I've seen laughably simple games eclipse now.

And I don't care how long it's been out. Technology doesn't have to expire, especially when there's no point. Guarantee Nintendo can keep making Switch games and still have room to improve. And Switch owners – the most important part here – can keep buying games without having to update. If I owned a Switch (or any other console), I would be insulted and angry that they want to make a new one that isn't any better than the last. Back in the old days, the gap between the Atari VCS, the NES, and the SNES was astronomical and 100% worth the update, regardless of how much time passed. Tell me we even have close to that big of a gap now. Technology for gaming is basically at a standstill and any "updates" are tiny.

Psh. Whatever. Not my concern because I don't own a Switch, but I am concerned that it will frustrate and alienate so many casual players who bought into the Switch hoping it would last longer than it's going to and any update would be actually substantial. Gaming is for more than the rich, elite ultra-gamers who can buy a new $1000+ graphics card every six months and whatever console update they bring about. That's why my PC is very low end and I refuse to care about any "games" that exceed its capabilities, not that most of them are good games anyway. If gaming companies cared about gaming in general, there would be a very low entry price, and systems and games wouldn't be astronomical in price.

Now games take up 200TB (an exaggeration, but not by much)

Nintendo games don't. Breath of the Wild is 13.4GB. Tears of the Kingdom just over 16GB. Mario Odyssey is 5.7GB. Not exactly their fault Call of Duty is an unwieldy mess.

If I owned a Switch (or any other console), I would be insulted and angry that they want to make a new one that isn't any better than the last.

And you're basing that on… a picture?

Back in the old days, the gap between the Atari VCS, the NES, and the SNES was astronomical and 100% worth the update, regardless of how much time passed. Tell me we even have close to that big of a gap now. Technology for gaming is basically at a standstill and any "updates" are tiny.

Definitely Nintendo's fault, yep, absolutely not something affecting everyone everywhere. You're literally blaming them for the slowing progress of mankind. Switch is PS3 era tech (1080p, only just discovered HDMI), so the gulf between where it is and the current gen is reasonable enough.

I am concerned that it will frustrate and alienate so many casual players who bought into the Switch hoping it would last longer than it's going to

EIGHT YEARS.

and any update would be actually substantial.

No specs yet. But sure, it's the same thing in black, let's go with that. Good grief.

I'll just step away now, I've absorbed far too many awful opinion columns and speculative articles at work today. The internet was better when it ran on steam and string.

I don't know what kind of place Dok thinks the Society is, but we're not exactly Digital fuckin Foundry over here.

And that's a lot of words for someone who says it's "not my concern".

I'm confident that the Switch 2 will deliver gaming experiences - experiences, not graphics - that would not have been possible on the Switch.

It looks like there might be a form of mouse control. That alone opens up many possibilities, although I can't see how it's going to happen in a normal living room right at the moment.

I hope your PC can at least run The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, that to me is the spec floor no man should fall under.

It looks like there might be a form of mouse control.

The glorious, triumphant return of Mario Paint.

It looks like there might be a form of mouse control.

The glorious, triumphant return of Mario Paint.

That would be great, actually!

Yeah, sorry, just had to rant, I'm sure it'll all be great. I had another huge rant typed up here but deleted it because … well, too many words for you :)

New thought: how long before the Switch 2 is emulated? Given the current track record of emulators for Nintendo consoles, I would say probably tomorrow. I don't like the idea of emulating something so recent and didn't really like the idea that the Switch was emulated so early and easily, but damn, Nintendo has to be doing something that makes emulation of their hardware a breeze given that every single piece of hardware in recent memory has been emulated very quickly, easily, and accurately. I remember seeing a working Gameboy Advance emulator that worked 100% with the launch titles before the hardware was out here in the USA. Ugh.

Maybe that's why they're making a new console and upping the specs… "I dare you to emulate THIS even with your supercomputers!"

Yeah, the way Nintendo consoles have been emulated has been an argument against emulation for a long time, in a way. I hate that Nintendo destroyed the venerable Vimm's Lair last year, a site that was focused on preservation and didn't host Switch or 3DS roms, but I can see why they did it.

It's obvious that a lot of the innovations Nintendo have made in their console designs over the years have been in part to the end of making piracy harder. They don't go for the bleeding edge power that makes PS5 emulation completely impossible, so their systems are often emulatable in their lifespan. Things like the Wii's motion controls and the two screens on the DS and 3DS make emulation awkward, but both have been done. The DS was a shitshow of piracy. You could and still can buy an R4 card with the entire console library of games on for less than £50. You can buy them on Amazon ffs. You can play any DS game on your phone, as all the innovations - touch screen, effectively portrait orientation, the microphone - are standard in a phone now.

I'm a fan of emulation, and I'm not sure if that makes me a historian or a dirty pirate. I've got a couple of those retro handheld machines and I can and do play PS2 games I never owned on them. I never had a SNES (although my son now owns one having had it for his birthday - he's a retro gamer) but I've got hundreds of SNES games on my Odin 2. My Odin 2 can emulate Switch games, but I generally don't, and not games I don't own. I have put Breath of the Wild on there to play through from the start again because I don't want to carry two devices about with me and have to choose between playing FFX or BOTW in a car park before I leave the house. Also the Switch is effectively my son's fiefdom now. It's just too easy. Yuzu still works, you can get drivers that make many games work well with it, and the BOTW rom was not hard to find.

I would hope that Switch 2 emulation is something that doesn't happen for many years, hopefully not until we're all arguing about the Switch 3.

If Nintendo could see the difference in Switch piracy and "piracy" (preservation) of ancient consoles then it'd be fine. I know they put their old games on their own stores, but don't people lose access to those when a console gets old enough? And they don't make them available outside of Nintendo consoles.

I absolutely support them shutting down Switch piracy and hopefully Switch2 piracy won't be a big thing. Just leave me alone and let me play Super Mario Bros. 3 on RetroArch.