'Switch Pro' Reportedly Cancelled As Nintendo Shifts Focus To Next-Gen Console (ign.com) 60
An anonymous reader shares a report: Rumours of a Nintendo Switch Pro console have been swirling in the video game industry and the gaming community for years. However, it seems that Nintendo is ready to move on from the portable console. According to Digital Foundry's John Linneman, many developers acknowledged that a "mid-generation Switch update" was initially planned, but Nintendo opted to focus instead on building a new console. Nintendo has yet to officially announce its next video game system, and Linneman said he does not expect it will be released until 2023. "So I think at one point internally from what I can understand from talking to different developers, is that there was some sort of mid-generation Switch update planned at one point and that seems to be no longer happening," said Linneman in the Digital Foundry podcast.
wacky wave corpo arm man! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Yea, Im sure the people who just go tthese as gifts are going to be really happy about this news.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Nonsense, the Steam deck has a completely different set of games to the Switch, people buy Nintendo because they have a unique set of exclusives people enjoy - Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Animal Crossing. They're just not in competition.
The reason they're ditching is more likely the fact the only reason we had mid-generation updates is because for the last few generations of Microsoft/Sony consoles they've been underpowered at release and failed to live up to promises of things like 1080p@60 and 4k@60, so half w
Re: (Score:2)
Re:wacky wave corpo arm man! (Score:5, Informative)
That's ... not what the sales numbers say. The switch is expected to sell 19 million units this year. They sold 3.6 million more units this year than the PS4 as of November. The big headline for the Steam Deck was 1 million units shipped from release earlier this year through September. Any major console would have been considered a massive flop with numbers like that. I couldn't find any number for Q4 before completely losing interest.
I'm sure the Steam Deck is very nice, but it's not cleaning anyone's clock.
Re: (Score:1)
Its all relative and who the intended user is. There are lots of pc gamers out there that have giant steam libraries. Spending the extra 50$ on a deck to instantly have a completely playable library vs. spending 300$ on a switch and then another 200$+ just to have a handful of games would easily swing that in favor of the deck. You can also factor in that a lot of the indie titles people like to play on switch have been much cheaper and/or bundled on the pc side, once again making the library much cheaper.
I
Re: wacky wave corpo arm man! (Score:1)
Re: wacky wave corpo arm man! (Score:2)
No, it's because nVidia can't cut the mustard on the CPU side of things and AMD has finally advanced far enough in integrated GPUs at that level to be more than worthwhile. Look for the next Nintendo to have AMD inside. Then again, maybe Intel decided a way to advance ARC was to give Nintendo an offer they couldn't in good conscience refuse on low power Meteor Lake since the offer was so cheap. Either way I seriously doubt that they will stay with nVidia.
Re: (Score:1)
Eeh i could buy a steam deck for a grade school kid but would probably always pick the switch in every case. Little kids just dont care and the switch is very portable.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's "pro" after you slap on the Pennzoil decal.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe, maybe not. I'm pretty sure that's just the journalists' placeholder name for it - hence, the quotes in the title. They needed to call it *something* in order to talk about it. As you indicated, calling a slightly upgraded version "pro" is sort of in vogue right now, but who knows what Nintendo would have actually called it. As a company, they often tend to go their own way on things.
Re: (Score:2)
No. It was actually code-named the Nintendo "Bait-and-Switch."
Already? (Score:2)
What's wrong with the current one? Not that it made any sense. All anyone really wanted was a Wii with HDMI.
Computers aren't advancing like they were in the 80's and 90's. Things have slowed dramatically. Do we really need to keep the same pace with the "upgrades"?
Re: (Score:2)
All anyone really wanted was a Wii with HDMI.
If I may, I would like updated Nintendo DS. Dual screens are perfect for dungeon crawlers. The second screen usually shows a map, your party, inventory, spells or dice roll table.
Re: (Score:2)
My wife has one of those, but she doesn't play it very often. She thinks it's purposefully designed to cripple the hands and I'm inclined to agree with her.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's a shame that wasn't a feature that they promoted at all. All I remember seeing were ads for that goofy controller. My wife is the game player and she had zero interest in the tablet thing. Her Switch never even leaves the dock.
We also still have the Wii hooked-up to the TV. Think it's worth picking up a Wii U just for HDMI?
Re: (Score:2)
The touch screen was perfect for Mario Maker, and that's it.
Annoyingly you can't make levels in MM2 on switch with the Pokken controller. You need analogue sticks. Yes I'm that lazy.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
If everything you're playing ends up upscaled Wii games, then is it necessary?
I don't know that we'd buy anything new. This would be to get slightly better quality on the games she has now and maybe some measure of "future proofing". Composite can look pretty ugly on a 4k TV and I don't have a lot of confidence in those cheap composite to HDMI adapters, particularly for games.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for that. I've sent off for one of each.
The whole concept of console generations is dead (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like you are ready to build your own system: a gaming PC.
Welcome to the PCMR!
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't been keeping track, but I have 100GB rewritable Blu-ray discs. Is there some reason the quad layer ones can't be used for games?
Or for that matter some low cost flash. Read only so performance isn't an issue, only written once so doesn't even need a wear leveling controller. They can use the flash that is too poor even got thumb drives as errors are easy to work around.
I guess downloads are just so cheap that nothing can compete.
Re: (Score:2)
Moore's law is slowing down, blu rays have been stuck at 50GB since 2006 forcing digital downloads for bigger games on disc based consoles and the amount of planning time to roll out a console generation is getting bigger.
Moores law is largely pointless these days, chips are getting faster and more efficient due to architecture improvements, however they've gotten to the point where improvements are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. As for Bluray, they killed the optical disk market by trying to force everyone into Sony's way of doing things. They didn't offer any improvement over DVD and internet speeds increased to the point where downloading a full sized DVD was faster. By the time Bluray R/W drives became cheap eno
Re: (Score:1)
BluRay was a fine standard and other companies gave up trying to compete because there just wasn’t that much to win. Part of me feels like we should have a 100+gb optical standard but why? Unless we get cheap 1tb discs I just dont see the benefit when you can buy flash media so cheap.
The article does not agree with itself (Score:2)
From the article:
Also from the article
I don't know what to say about that discrepency.
As for the release (or lack there-of), it may be that the Switch sales are still strong enough that it doesn't make sense to make a 'pro' version. Nintendo has focused more one gameplay than visual
Re: The article does not agree with itself (Score:2)
People already thought that the OLED was a year late. if there is a new system coming out in 12 month, it doesn't mke sense to release a system in between
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, it's not that. It's been tested with the current OLED model and it took about 3600 hours of straight play on the same game (static image 24/7) to see any noticeable ghosting. And it wasn't much. If you're playing just one game, maybe you don't need a console.
Steam Deck isn't even in the same market. For one, it doesn't even have a decent two-player option. Nobody buys a steam deck to dock it. And the GPU is pretty weak for something that's more expensive than a Switch. If I could, I would buy a
Re: (Score:2)
Same here, I would have bought a screen-less Switch pretty much from the beginning.
Re: (Score:2)
3. There would be very little to gain besides "new shiny" on an iterative console. In my mind, the only thing it needs at this point is more integrated storage and improved controllers. Problem 1 is solved by stuffing a micro-sd in the side, the second problem doesn't need a whole new console.
"Cleaning their clock" in what way? Certainly not in price or units sold. Specs? Sure, but that's not what they are competing on. My family, like most I suspect, bought a Switch because of the exclusive games, and yo
Any counterpart to Itch on Switch? (Score:2)
you can't (legally) run Nintendo's library on a Steam Deck.
Nor can you (legally) run indie games from Itch.io on a Nintendo Switch. You can on a Steam Deck, as it supports the same sort of sideloading as a desktop Linux PC. For an indie studio's first or second game, you end up with "PC: Buy now!; Switch: We are seeking a publisher."
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
My point is that claiming the library of Nintendo Switch "exclusives" (games that can be legally played on Nintendo Switch and not on Steam Deck) as a serious advantage without comparing its value to that of Steam Deck "exclusives" (games that can be legally played on Steam Deck and not on Nintendo Switch) strikes me as dishonest. These exclusives include every downloadable game for desktop Linux or Wine whose dev doesn't yet have a publishing deal on Nintendo Switch, though I'm aware of some Slashdot regul
Re: (Score:2)
Again, I understand your point, and it's perfectly valid. There is software you can only play on a Switch, and there is software you can't play on a Switch. That small distinction is why I don't feel as though my original comment is dishonest: If you want to play Animal Crossing you HAVE to buy a Switch. If you want to play a similarly-popular Steam game you can do it on any number of devices, just not a Switch. There's no such thing, as far as I'm aware, as a "Steam Deck Exclusive" game.
To be honest, I'm
Re: The real truth (Score:2)
mmm, i doubt there is any significant burn in on switches. mine doesn't have any ; my son's doesn't have any. none of my friends' have any. Youtuber tested switches out and didn't get any burn in before absurd use times.
The steam deck is a footbote at this point. They are ahipping what? 20x fewer units per week? And that's after the OLED has been out for over a year.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
funny thing about the hyper realism games is that they lack a ton of realism and give their teenage boys (or man children) a warped view of reality that seems to carry on into the real world.
Maybe cartoon looks fits better with the cartoonist game mechanics, plots, male role models, etc.
I certainly do not need my superheros to look "real" as they live out their massive plot holes child-level reasoning while having their face on realistic-like CG bodies with poor motion and splashy enhanced physics. Sorry,
Re: Next gen Nintendo (Score:2)
There ia more to next gen features though. Load times can be a pain, for instance on bravely default II,. Getting a more consistent framerate would be good. There are framerate issues on the latest pokemon for instance, or in bloodstained.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Next gen Nintendo (Score:2)
Maybe movies would be more rewarding for you than video games.
Re: (Score:2)
Go back to your Xbox/Playstation and let the grown-ups talk.
Re: (Score:2)
No thanks (Score:2)
What an amazing insider information! (Score:2)
With only four days remaining before 2023, everybody could have predicted that.
Not released until 2023? (Score:3)
Linneman said he does not expect it will be released until 2023
That's a bold prediction. I was really hoping for a surprise from Nintendo in the next 3 days.
Sega 32X (Score:2)
In other words they decided not to go the route Sega did in the 90s when releasing the 32X.