Topic: Nintendo Switch 2 Predictions

So I spent about an hour writing my predictions on what the Switch 2, or, whatever Nintendo’s next system is called, and I still don’t believe this is all I’d like to see. I’m well aware that a lot of these are unrealistic, a stretch and unlikely to happen, however this is just what I’d like to see in Nintendo’s next system.

• name NOT switch 2 or anything with the word "switch" in it (wii u incident)
• vastly different look than the switch to avoid confusion
• still a hybrid, but the "dock" may have better components to make it run better when docked
• MENU MUSIC BACK!!! PLEASE!! this includes the menu, eshop, mii maker, maybe even settings too?
• hopefully see the return of beloved mascots (eshop bag, arcade bunny, nikki... speaking of...
• new nintendo APPS please??!? not like mobile apps, but like, flipnote studio, badge arcade, swapdoodle, maybe even return of some channels like the Nintendo Anime Channel (only in europe), obviously these will have different names and probably a new twist and stuff, who knows
• actually FUN menu and UI!!! we know people complained about Wii U being slow because of all of the unique ui elements, but it's 2024 (probably 2025 when release), and we have SO much better components and resources now, it's DEFINITELY possible.
• will be switch-backwards-compatible, this one i believe is a 100% guarantee, with new switch games already announced for 2025 i have no doubt this will be the case
• your nintendo switch profile photo and game hour count will be transferred
• all other save data will be transferred by a "nintendo switch to (new console)" app on both consoles, or will have an option to transfer data via cloud save provided you have NSO
• friends from 3DS and Wii U can still be added
• will have a microphone on the pro controllers/the equivalent of pro controllers
• clip duration can be changed, with a session feature to start and stop a recording (probably caps at like, 5 mins?)
• news section completely revamped with a more fun look, will function pretty differently but still maintains the same purpose of giving tutorials, introductions, and updates/events going on in games.
• news channels can perhaps can function like nintendo power where they interact with users that can send in questions, or participate in polls, or send in feature requests that the user will be thanked and credited for in the article announcing said feature
• web browser? or is nintendo too scared about the news posting about how the console is dangerous and can be used to search for bomb tutorials
• users over 16 can send texts to friends
• achievement system !!
• system themes!! possibly locked behind silver points. each theme has its own music and button sounds!!
• places like NSO and the eShop will not be entirely server sided, of course the content will be, but i’m talking about the main UI of it, to reduce load times and lag!!
• activity center like the 3DS, like hour count in switch profile, but shows more stats like how many times you opened the game, the longest play session you’ve had, the month you played the longest, etc etc
• obvious improvements, like better battery, better cooling, better screen if base model isn’t like switch oled screen, better stand or same stand as switch oled

That’s all I have for now. What would you like to see in the next Nintendo system?

I’d also like to add that it’s clear that since the Nintendo Switch was a success and well, practically saved Nintendo after the Wii U, I believe Nintendo is finally starting to, well, have some fun again! They’re GOOD at UI and design choices, as seen in so many of their games, like Octo Expansion for example. I have hopes that the next console won’t be as “”sleek”” and as bad as those oversimplified logos.

@squisan Coming off the back of the Wii and the DS, at the time of the Wii U flopping, they could have gone on to have another couple of generations fail before 'needing saving.' i think the Wii U just gave them focus on their direction.

Personally I hope they avoid using achievments and cluttering up a UI screen I spend literally 0 seconds on. All I want is maybe a sleeker deign, less bezel so we can put them side by side (I really liked that idea from Mario Party), more intersesting game ideas like Ring Fit and Mario Kart Home circuit, analogue triggers and, call me old fashioned, games lol.

@GrailUK This specific thread was focused on the system itself rather than games. Not sure what you’re envisioning but there’s definitely a way to change the UI without cluttering it up that much
: P

a lot of people enjoy exploring other aspects of the system beyond it’s games! that’s what made the DSi and 3DS special.

@squisan I just want to be surprised by something. That's why I love Nintendo

I was thinking the other day that perhaps the next dock can support wireless streaming (basically like the Wii U), which would blow the door open to DS/3DS/Wii U dual-screen emulation and/or ports/remakes, as well as asynchronous multiplayer so that one person can use the Switch in handheld mode, while the console can send a separate video signal to the dock, allowing other people to join via TV mode (allowing for games such as Nintendo Land, Game & Wario, and even more players in Mario Kart via a single console).

The potential caveat here though is that wirelessly "docking" the Switch 2 would result in potentially poorer video quality in TV mode, and with a capped resolution of 1080p (owing to the console producing two video signals simultaneously), while inserting the console into the dock can support resolutions up to 2160p.

going to go through some of these, because that be what I do......

name NOT switch 2 or anything with the word "switch" in it (wii u incident)
This isn't why the Wii U failed. The Wii U failed because they tried to repeat capturing lightning in the bottle like they did with Wii and DS. But their angle was to impress with a tablet controller and HD visuals.... 2 years after the iPad launched and when the 360/PS3 had lowered the entry point for "HD graphics" to the point it was an impulse buy. Which the Wii U was not. The name was never the issue. If Wii U is a dumb name then so is 3DS or iPad

still a hybrid, but the "dock" may have better components to make it run better when docked
Not how that works

your nintendo switch profile photo and game hour count will be transferred
They struggle to cleanly transfer your play history across multiple consoles so don't hold your breath

will have a microphone on the pro controllers/the equivalent of pro controllers
Probably. Honestly I kinda hope we get a full on camera. Not for the online play bit but for the gameplay opportunities it'd open up. A mic on its own? I mean, it's also another input.... just.... a fair bit less interesting

web browser? or is nintendo too scared about the news posting about how the console is dangerous and can be used to search for bomb tutorials
They're not worried about this, what they are worried about is piracy. A web browser is basically just a huge surface area for attacks as far as Nintendo is concerned. Wii U and 3DS were both hacked in this way. I believe Wii was also. Also game saves, being able to freely copy saves to the Wii was the first way the Wii was hacked back in the day. There's a reason why game saves are so locked down on Switch

Do I agree with Nintendo locking these things down? No, not at all. But I understand why they do it

places like NSO and the eShop will not be entirely server sided, of course the content will be, but i’m talking about the main UI of it, to reduce load times and lag!!
Websites can be fast, that's not the issue. The issue with the eShop being slow is more that you're loading a fairly media rich webpage on a 7 year old piece of mobile hardware that wasn't optimised for browsing webpages. Look at the cheapest A series Samsung Galaxy phone from ~2018... that's what you're browsing the eShop on. Yes its slow. Yes "Switch 2" will be better

Don't believe me on that last one? Well, there's a version of the eShop you can just open in a browser. Any browser. Is it the most responsive webpage ever made? No. But even it is significantly faster than browsing the eShop on the Switch. The eShop is slow because the Switch is slow. That problem will solve itself

@skywake
1. Didn’t say that was why the Wii U failed
2. Fair
3. Assuming all this info is tied to your NNID (is it still called that these days?), shouldn’t be that hard.
4. (no comment)
5. An easy solution to this is just… make the web browser more secure. The iPhone didn’t get jailbroken just from clicking a script on a website.
6. Again, fair, but the eShop on the Switch was also slow because it never cached anything, just reloaded everything every single time.

@skywake : I think another reason why the Wii U failed was because Nintendo took their sweet time in launching a new console, as the Wii brand had fizzled substantially by the time the Wii U had been announced. It may have had a better shot if it launched while the Wii was still in the public consciousness (and had that Wii Sports "killer app"), but gamers had long moved on (and for millions more, it was nothing more than a Wii Sports/Just Dance machine anyway).

The 3DS and Wii U were also on life support at the time that the Switch launched, and the Switch's launch period could have looked a lot different (for the better) had there been more fanfare in anticipation of its release. The library was absolutely barren in those first six months (and no backwards compatibility whatsoever), but I imagine that the next console will look a lot different (and supply issues perhaps even more of a bother), with a much stronger library of games to get the ball rolling.

You've said this a lot and while I largely agree, it also doesn't 100% agree with what I actually experienced in history during that time period. None of the casual gamers I knew (e.g. people who had a Wii because it was popular but didn't closely follow gaming news) knew that Wii U was a separate console. 90% of this was because of truly atrocious and confusing marketing, but the fact that the name itself is opaque did not help. 3DS sounds like a major upgrade to 2DS because it says 3-dimensions. color, advanced, super all also sound obviously like upgrades. The letter U though? It gives no indication of anything. Wii U was the only time the Nintendo naming convention didn't either fully change the name for a new device or else make the name itself sound like an upgrade of the previous device. Is the device itself the main problem? Sure. But bad marketing and confusing naming certainly helped add to a perfect storm.

@squisan I want it called Switch 2 (or similar) for the precise reason you don't — I think 2 is clear and everyone will realize it is a straight upgrade to Switch. A different type of name will require very good marketing to get the same point across. For the same reason, I want it to look a lot like the Switch but not exactly (colored buttons anyone?) to make it obvious this is still in the Switch family with all the things people love about Switch.

My own 'must have' list is remains hybrid, more powerful, 99.9% back-compatibility, save-file transfer. A lot of the suggested API improvements would definitely be fun too but I could live without them... although if they don't improve the eshop that would be a bit bizarre. If they don't give us more accurate playtime information I will be slightly annoyed but not necessarily surprised. I also really want Pro Controller improvements but that is somewhat seperate from the device itself.

So for the main gimmick, this is more of a wish than a serious prediction but what I want to see the most is a dual screen clamshell hybrid with detachable screens, similar to the patent (although not exactly the same). This would allow you to have a handheld mode similar to the DS/3DS, a docked mode similar to Wii U, and in local multiplayer each player could have both a controller and a screen instead of needing to share a screen.

Other than that:
*Hall Effect control sticks to prevent drift
*Return of analog triggers
*Bumper triggers (L/R) replaced with scroll wheels
*Backwards compatibility with Switch 1
*Compatibility with NSO and immediate access to the current library (i.e. we don't start over with them porting NES games to Switch 2 for the 17th time, Switch 2 can play everything on NSO that was added to it on Switch 1).
*GC and DS added to NSO (DS games, and in the future 3DS and Wii U games, might need to be locked to an exclusive tier for Switch 2, but GC, and in the future Wii, should easily be added to the Switch 1)
*Ability to transfer save data from Switch 1 to Switch 2
*At least 128 GB internal memory
*Return of Streetpass, or some spiritual successor (why did they ever get rid of this?)

Wonder which Switch 2 thread will end up with the most posts?

I'm mostly gonna do game predictions because I have zero ideas for the system itself beyond "ps4 graphics version of Switch" and "hopefully better joysticks".

-2025 games will include next 3D Mario, next Mario Kart, a new 2D Zelda, Xenoblade Warriors and at least a couple of the biggest 3rd party games of the past decade (maybe a version of Red Dead 2). Almost certainly the next COD game too. Metroid Prime 4, but will be cross-gen and potentially out on Switch before Switch 2 (if this was a bigger franchise, I'd be dead certain they would wait for the launch to put out the last gen version, but it isn't). Greater than zero chance of a TOTK port, possibly with new content. Greater than zero chance the next Pokemon Legends doesn't get a Switch 2 version.

-Launch will replicate the Switch as closely as possible. While having more major games at launch, there will be less than some would expect as they drip feed games throughout the year, and most of the launch games will be indie games and the like (its gonna be Silksong isn't it?), especially as a decent chunk of games still focus on the Switch for the time being.

-The next NSO tier will be backwards compatibility with digital Switch games (free for the first year of the system), with the promise of Gamecube and Sega Saturn games in the future.

-Each of the big Japanese companies (Sega, Capcom, Namco, SE, Level 5) will announce a notable exclusive before the system's release, one of which is a Nintendo IP.

I mean... I think the one that already has 4100 posts pretty much has it in the bag (technically it started as a 'Switch Pro' thread but close enough):

https://www.nintendolife.com/forums/nintendo-switch/rumor_new...

@Bolt_Strike Your detachable screen idea would go well with that weird Switch Attach name rumour. Honestly I would like that too (though not the name), especially if the attachment was optional.

More of a wish than a prediction but I'd like to see the return of a second screen. Not sure how it should be implemented in a way that can be ignored by developers if they don't want to adapt their games to it (otherwise the console would likely miss out on a lot of third-party games) but there are some good potential ideas in this thread.

I also agree it would be good to have more fun and customisable menus and apps, ideally incorporating whatever random hardware gimmicks Nintendo has come up with this time. Basically what I'm saying is I want the Switch 2 to also be the 3DS 2

I don't get it, what would this accomplish? And how would games that use the L/R triggers work with this setup?

@squisan
1. Didn’t say that was why the Wii U failed
You kinda did though. Your comment literally said it shouldn't have "Switch" anywhere in the name to avoid a "Wii U incident". People like to blame the name or the marketing but those weren't really the problem. The problem was that they were trying to sell a mix of ideas that wasn't new or at that point particularly compelling, at a price that wasn't competitive backed by a library of games that didn't exist

The naming and marketing, that's a headwind they were going up against. If that headwind didn't exist, if they instead had a gale blowing them forward? They wouldn't have been "issues" to "blame". Silly names don't stop compelling products from selling, we get used to silly names. "Switch 2" won't have those kinds of headwinds.... they could call it "Switch Bloop", "Swtich X" or "Switchy" and it'd still do well I think

3. Assuming all this info is tied to your NNID, shouldn’t be that hard.
In theory sure, in reality I'm not so sure. Again when you have multiple Switches play activity gets a bit scrambled so I wouldn't hold my breath. I'd like to see this also for what it's worth. Frankly I'd like to see this folded into the eShop somehow alongside the ability to review games

One thing I think the Wii U did very well was the way when you booted it up you could see what people were currently playing. And when you went into the eShop (on both it and 3DS) you could rate games you'd played for a certain period of time and see what the average rating was. The closest the Switch has to either is the friend's activity section..... which isn't a replacement....

5. An easy solution to this is just… make the web browser more secure. The iPhone didn’t get jailbroken just from clicking a script on a website.
Except that the iPhone was jailbroken using browser exploits so there goes that idea. Look, it's really easy to say "just don't have these exploits" but it's another thing entirely to, you know, not have those exploits. Again, people are I believe justified in wanting these things from Nintendo and hackers will do what hackers do

but.... you can't ignore the fact that these are huge attack vectors. You also can't ignore that despite being significantly more popular and with a much bigger library "Switch hacking" is far less widespread than it was on Wii, Wii U and 3DS. Switch hacking, at risk of flirting with this sites ToS, involves hardware exploits. Not software exploits

There's a reason why Nintendo is so lazer focused on emulators. Emulators are the most popular way to pirate Nintendo's software this generation. Because the hardware is hard to attack making emulation the preferred method of pirating these games. On DS, Wii, Wii U and 3DS it was the other way around. Nintendo largely shut that door this time around, they won't want to re-open it

6. Again, fair, but the eShop on the Switch was also slow because it never cached anything, just reloaded everything every single time.
Yeah, nah. Caching content is not really going to make a webpage load significantly faster. The most expensive part of loading a webpage on a fairly modern internet connection (I'm talking 50Mbps+) are things like DNS lookups, waiting for the server to respond. Actually downloading the content is trivial

Using the example of Nintendo's browser based eShop opened in an incognito window. About ~1s is waiting for the server to initially respond, presumably DNS lookups and their end presumably working out what region I am, hitting databases etc, etc. Then it sends a bunch of page elements which load in parallel and the slowest of which takes ~1s. Again, most of that is just waiting for the server to respond not actually downloading these files. Then it downloads the game thumbnails which takes.... ~80ms.... all at once.... in parallel. Basically instant

I mean they could definitely make the eShop its own app and have the main structure of the page embedded in it. But given how the eShop performs and where it is slow.... frankly I wouldn't be at all surprised if they already do that. It's not just slow to sign in or open up or to initially load a list of games. It's slow loading the images for games, it's slow scrolling through an already loaded list of games, it's slow switching tabs. It's slow because that poor little CPU just doesn't meet our modern expectations

Switch 2, as we know it, will be a significantly more modern CPU with a higher core count. We can't do direct comparisons but Geekbench has the closest analogue to it performing ~2.5X faster. The eShop is going to be much snappier just from that. Caching content won't make a difference, that significantly faster CPU will

Scroll wheels would be more useful in menu selection, it would be quicker and easier to sort through a long list of options if you could scroll through them. RPGs would be the best example, you tend to accumulate a lot of different items in those games and sitting there waiting for the cursor to move to the 37th item in your bag or something could take minutes. As for how you could still use L/R triggers, just give the scroll wheels the ability to be pushed in like Control Sticks. Move the wheel side to side to scroll through inventory, push the wheel in to use the L/R button.

Wii U had multiple problems but the biggest was regarding the 1st party lineup. The droughts were too long until it was too late. How could that have been resolved, well there's 2 big possible approaches that come to mind:
1. Release a Wii HD in 2010 with Galaxy 2 being a launch title, in this outcome games like Skyward Sword would be Wii HD exclusives
2. Delay the Wii U to around March 2014

With option 2 I'd imagine a setup like this for the first 18 months:

• March 2014 - Nintendo Land, 3D World
• April 2014 - NES Remix Pack
• May 2014 - MK8
• June 2014 - Wind Waker HD
• July 2014 - Pikmin 3
• September 2014 - DKC Tropical Freeze
• October 2014 - Bayonetta 2
• November 2014 - Smash Wii U
• December 2014 - Captain Toad
• January 2015 - NES Remix Pack
• March 2015 - Mario Party 10
• April 2015 - Hyrule Warriors
• May 2015 - Splatoon
• June 2015 - Yoshi's Woolly World
• July 2015 - Wonderful 101
• September 2015 - Super Mario Maker

Strong, consistently paced 1st party lineup was a big factor in the Switch's success.

@Grumblevolcano Ehh, I don't think the release date matters. I think most of the games they had planned for the Wii U simply weren't compelling enough. Everyone gushes about the Wii U's lineup but I see some major problems with it that I think held it back:

1. A lack of games that utilized the Wii U Gamepad in novel ways. Nintendo really struggled to come up with convincing use cases for the Gamepad in their games. The potential was there and there was a few games here (Splatoon and Mario Maker were good ones, if you had games like THAT Year 1 and continued coming up with more original ideas like that from then on, we might be singing a different tune here) and there that utilized it well, but for the most part they just fell back on doing similar things that the DS, Wii, and 3DS did instead of coming up with things that ONLY the Wii U could do.

2. Sequels that weren't properly differentiated from their past entries on DS/Wii/3DS.. Nintendo has been no stranger to sequels to some of their popular games throughout their history, it's kind of a no brainer to follow up your popular IPs with a new game. Still some of their follow ups on Wii U... felt a bit soulless and uncreative, they were really lacking that Nintendo creativity and innovation and instead a lot of sequels felt very NSMB-esque. Little to no change in mechanics, settings, characters, or... much of anything, a lot of these entries felt like they could just be DLC packs for previous entries. This was especially true for their platformers, which they leaned hard on this generation, which felt creatively bankrupt this generation with sequels such as 3D World, which only really changed from 3D Land by adding multiplayer co-op (which wasn't even a new thing since NSMB Wii already did that, just new to 3D Mario), Tropical Freeze which was really just DKCR with multiple Kongs (that didn't really do much of anything different or useful) and STILL was lacking mechanics from the classic trilogy (where are the Animal Buddies not named Rambi? Where are the team up moves?), Yoshi's Woolly World which is basically just Kirby's Epic Yarn with Yoshi mechanics instead of Kirby mechanics, and Kirby and the Rainbow Curse which is just a sequel to Canvas Curse with a super dash.

3. Too much of a focus on casual genres like 2D platformers and party games and not enough focus on 3D adventure games.. A lot of the games they focused on were clearly focused on casual genres such as the 2D platformers I mentioned above and party/multiplayer games like they had for the Wii. But there was one major genre that was largely lacking on the Wii U and that was action adventure games. Or really, any kind of genre where exploring large open areas was a huge focus. There were no sandbox platformers, no Metroidvanias, and little in the way of action adventure games. Those kinds of experiences were just... ignored for most of this generation. There was Zelda on the horizon, but it got delayed into being cross gen, but other than that Mario abandoned absolutely everything from the sandbox formula (Galaxy did to a degree on the Wii as well, but some vestiges of the formula remained so if you were a fan of 64 or Sunshine you could still find things to like about Galaxy but 3D World? Nope, almost nothing about that game is similar to 64/Sunshine's formula). Metroid was in a drought and got absolutely nothing. And with those ruled out... all that was left was a Xenoblade spinoff/side entry, 2 Zelda remasters, and some lackluster 3rd party ports. If you were a Nintendo fan that grew up with games like Mario 64, OoT, Banjo-Kazooie, or Metroid Prime, or if you were an Xbox/Playstation/PC fan and enjoyed a game like Skyrim... there was pretty much nothing for you on this console. It really felt like Nintendo didn't care about those types of gamers. Honestly I think that's part of the reason 2017's lineup was so successful because games like BotW and Odyssey were a breath of fresh air, it had been quite some time since we'd seen a game remotely resembling those types of experiences on a Nintendo console and we certainly didn't get any significant new 1st party game like that on the Wii U (yes, technically BotW was on the Wii U as well, but it being a cross gen entry meant that Nintendo was already giving up on the Wii U by the time it was out). This genre... is really kind of a big deal because some of the highest selling console games tend to be in this style.

By themselves, these issues might not be a huge deal, but when you add them together you get a lineup that doesn't really sell the idea of "big new next gen games" and I think in the minds of many this lineup caused many gamers to write off the Wii U's games as "rehashy" and/or "kiddie". They really didn't give the notion that these were grand, next gen entries that could do things never done before, and that's... pretty much exactly what you need to convince people to buy new hardware. I can't really blame people for thinking the Wii U was an add on when its games sure feel like add ons themselves.

The Switch 2 is going to need to address similar issues. The lack of 3D adventure games isn't much of an issue, the Switch 2 should have much more of them already because Nintendo seems to have realized how important those games are, but everything else is absolutely a concern. Switch 2 games can't just feel like sequels to Switch 1 games if they want people to clearly understand that the Switch 2 is a next gen device. They can't just do the same thing with new levels. They have to show that Switch 2 games can do new things that Switch 1 games couldn't.