Switch 2 coming late 2024

I still stand by the Wii remote. The problem was many developers, mostly western, had no idea how to use or implement it. It really exposed the lack of creativity at the time.

I recall the motion plus was a big improvement on the original wiimote. I suspect if it had of been that from the beginning, then it would have fared a lot better in people's eyes.

The Cube when pushed produced some amazing visuals for the time. The Rogue Squadron and Metroid releases being standouts. The load times (for a disk based system) were also very good compared to the competition. In some regards it was a weaker machine than the PS2 or Xbox, but it could hold it's own and the library was varied and full of high quality games.

The Wii was when they stopped competing on specs. If the story (and my memory) is to be believed, it was Miyamoto wanting a simpler controller that didn't alienate non or lapsed gamers that led to the design. I recall it being about people going round someones house and seeing a controller on the table with 8+ buttons, a d-pad and two analogue sticks being intimidated - but a controller that looks like a remote, anyone could pick up.

It obviously worked if you look at the sales figures. And combined with the launch of the iPhone a year later, casual gaming got a massive boom and new people were playing games, many happy with simpler experiences than AAA titles.

I loved it as a machine with it's different take on fun, but still always had the MS/Sony offerings to get the bigger titles. With the WiiU, the gap only widened, but it was still offering Nintendo fun, so for me not an issue. I think for many of us, we will always want to have at least one high-powered machine under the TV, but for a lot of people if the games are fun and the price is right, they are less concerned about cutting edge graphics.

The Switch has given that and sold well. I trust Nintendo to know what they are doing. They slipped a bit with the WiiU (and IMO mainly on the marketing) and it certainly didn't appeal to the COD/FIFA crowd, but I always look forward to a new machine from them.

I don't know much about the WiiU, but it's essentially a prototype Switch isn't it?
If so, it's weird how the first died a death and the second went nuts.

The Wii U was kind of like a Wii plus a (worse) Switch. You had the actual console to go under the TV and then you could either use the Gamepad, which was as big as the console if not bigger, as a controller (with a second screen for games that supported it) or beam the game onto the Gamepad to play there.

It was a neat idea in theory, and with better implementation and marketing, a more robust game library (no new mainline Zelda -well, BotW, but, well... the Switch- or Pokémon game, for one, the Wii lacked Pokémon too but it had two Zeldas and the Mario Galaxies picking up the slack) etc it could easily have done better... But it had its issues even beyond that.

Mostly that, comparing it to the Switch since you mentioned how that flourished while the Wii U floundered, it lacked proper portability. Not only did you have to have the game inside the console to begin with (so no option to just take the Gamepad with you someplace, you had to drag the console along as well and have a TV at the destination) but the signal to the Gamepad kind of sucked too. I could play it in my bedroom because it's very close to the TV, but pretty much any further than that (or a wall/door in the way) and it was shot...

I understand the off TV portable element of the Wii U was supposed to be the main feature. In Japan, many households only had a family TV, so not hogging the TV was a selling point. I think Nintendo made it mandatory for games to be playable only on the gamepad, at least for their own studios.

Which is a shame, as the second screen had quite a bit of potential. Allowing two gamepads to connect to the same console would have opened a huge amount for couch co-op as well.

Edit: on the having to look at two screens, the best game I played that utilised the two screens, ZombiU, really lent into that. There were many times when you needed to do something on the pad, such as entering in a key code or rummaging through you backpack, whilst also keeping an eye on the main screen for approaching zombies. It led to some great panicking moments. I think you could have also used the screen for extra controls, where it could mimick a cockpit or some kind of control console (think there was a indie space ship game that did soemthing along those lines.

I maintain that the Wii and later the Wii U were at their best with games that largely ignored the console's gimmicks. I was one of the Wii U's biggest defenders but would roll my eyes whenever a game was Gamepad only and made me put down the Pro Controller.

Regarding the above, don't forget that the range of the gamepad was tiny and was only good for use in the same room as the console, so wouldn't be good enough for anything you could call remote play.

But it was never marketed as being able to be a remote play device and it nailed what is said it could do. Sony's Remote play isn't good enough for anything you could call remote play.

Sounds like it was designed for Japanese apartments.

Or, alternatively, they were aiming for something like the switch, but the tech wasn't quite there yet so they had to compromise.

Nah, I meant that they were aiming for it all to be inside one device that could be on the TV or portable, but had to compromise it into 2 devices.
Maybe... *shrug*

The biggest redeeming factor for me is that with a hacked Wii U, you can play Gamecube games in 480p over hdmi, which is nice as tvs no longer have component inputs. I even have a GameCube controller that I hook up to a wiimote paired with the Wii U. So that’s 3 generations of Nintendo games in one box. I wish I could do the same with a PlayStation as I have no way to play PS3 games.

I had a phat 60gb ps3 that could do ps2 games natively, it ylod’ed, I resurrected it by putting the motherboard in my oven, but two years later it ylod’ed again. Threw it away when I moved houses shortly after. Should have kept it and reflowed it again. I know the later models hold up, but I’m just waiting for solid ps3 emulation now.

www.eurogamer.net/nintendo-demoed-switch-2-to-developers-at-gamescom

www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sources-nintendo-showed-switch-2-demos-at-gamescom/


"Another VGC source claimed that Nintendo showcased Epic’s impressive The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 tech demo – originally released to showcase the power of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in 2021 – running on target specs for its next console.
The demo is said to have been running using Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling technology, with advanced ray tracing enabled and visuals comparable to Sony‘s and Microsoft’s current-gen consoles."



DLSS and those ray tracing cores doing some heavy lifting if graphics comparable to the PS5 are to be believed.

Nvidia's massive 4nm order at TSMC is likely to be for the Switch 2 chip.