The "true successor to the 3DS" is a smaller Switch
26th March 2019, 12:58 AM
Well, so go the rumors, but to see the report on Ars Technica now, it likely comes from a reliable source.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/r...ch-models/
One is basically a smaller form factor more affordable option, which essentially clinches it as a solid 3DS replacement system. Literally the only complaint left is "it has one screen", which barely qualifies. Two screens has always just been a gimic anyway, easily replaced by the power of "just make a bigger screen". (Case in point: the popularity of ultrawide monitors has kind of defeated the point of getting multi monitor setups for a lot of people.)
Anyway, point is having a cheaper smaller option truly makes it portable.
Next up is the more expensive option, a "Pro" switch. This is rumored to be much like the New 3DS, or the DSi, or the Gameboy Color (or to a lesser extent the GBA SP, which internally is the same hardware, but the internal light and rechargable battery function as such a radical upgrade most of us snatched them up immediately). It straddles that middle ground, not quite being a new console, but not quite NOT being that. Nintendo in the past has stuck to it's usual plan of releasing updated portable remodels, and downgraded console remodels. Since the Switch is both portable and console, it's going to get both.
There's no real info on it, but if I were to guess, I'd say that it'll probably get a 1080 screen to replace the current 720 (economies of scale have made LCD screens so cheap to mass produce now that I bet it won't even cost Nintendo anything to make that change. I would also guess they're shrinking the die on that processor and might be upping it's close speed slightly, and as a result we could get a system that runs in "docked mode" at all times, with enough overhead to keep that docked mode running at a solid 60 FPS, at least more often than not anyway. Since Switch games are already designed around running on flexible hardware speeds, this seems doable without much pain.
These are just guesses on the most likely stuff. Oh yes, I have a huge list of things I'd fix with the Swith's hardware design, but that's for another time.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/r...ch-models/
One is basically a smaller form factor more affordable option, which essentially clinches it as a solid 3DS replacement system. Literally the only complaint left is "it has one screen", which barely qualifies. Two screens has always just been a gimic anyway, easily replaced by the power of "just make a bigger screen". (Case in point: the popularity of ultrawide monitors has kind of defeated the point of getting multi monitor setups for a lot of people.)
Anyway, point is having a cheaper smaller option truly makes it portable.
Next up is the more expensive option, a "Pro" switch. This is rumored to be much like the New 3DS, or the DSi, or the Gameboy Color (or to a lesser extent the GBA SP, which internally is the same hardware, but the internal light and rechargable battery function as such a radical upgrade most of us snatched them up immediately). It straddles that middle ground, not quite being a new console, but not quite NOT being that. Nintendo in the past has stuck to it's usual plan of releasing updated portable remodels, and downgraded console remodels. Since the Switch is both portable and console, it's going to get both.
There's no real info on it, but if I were to guess, I'd say that it'll probably get a 1080 screen to replace the current 720 (economies of scale have made LCD screens so cheap to mass produce now that I bet it won't even cost Nintendo anything to make that change. I would also guess they're shrinking the die on that processor and might be upping it's close speed slightly, and as a result we could get a system that runs in "docked mode" at all times, with enough overhead to keep that docked mode running at a solid 60 FPS, at least more often than not anyway. Since Switch games are already designed around running on flexible hardware speeds, this seems doable without much pain.
These are just guesses on the most likely stuff. Oh yes, I have a huge list of things I'd fix with the Swith's hardware design, but that's for another time.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)