Games Inbox: Will the Nintendo Switch 2 be announced today?
The Thursday letters page thinks Microsoft should have sold off its Xbox division, as one reader has a theory about more Nintendo Switch 2 games.
Today is maybe the day
So, if the rumours are right, by the time this is published Nintendo will possibly have shown the new Switch. I secretly hope all the leakers are wrong and it’s completely different. But that’s just me being petty.
Been thinking about the mysterious USB connection on top and what I really hope is that Nintendo have come up with a way (specially designed hinge attachment) to integrate the original Switch into the new device, resulting in some sort of dual screen monstrosity of a console. That would certainly give the Switch 2 a unique power boost.
I’m also quite excited by these magnet controllers and their buttons. One of my great disappointments in the Switch was that the process of removing a Joy-Con had no effect in-game, apart from giving you a controller disconnected warning screen.
Imagine if pulling the controller out could be part of the controls! (Pull your sword out by sliding the Joy-Con up is the sort of thing I hoped from original Switch). These pull-out ones, maybe we could open the Matrix and destroy Unicron! (Yeah, I know, we will never again have a decent Transformers game, thanks Hasbro.)
Anyway, here’s hoping the reveal will be something special!
Solabound
GC: The rumours are for a reveal today, but if it happens it’s unlikely to be until late afternoon.
Consistent quality
What a sad, pathetic end for Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. They might as well just have said it was all dream. It wouldn’t have been any more lame and at least you wouldn’t have killed off Wonder Woman for no reason.
I think it would be crazy to try and continue the Arkhamverse at this point. Just forget Suicide Squad happened and start a new continuity, whether it’s connected to the new movies or not.
It’s such a shame what’s happened to the DC games. When Arkham Knight came out they were the best superhero games around and Marvel was nowhere. 10 years later and there’s barely been a new game out that whole time, while Marvel is now completely dominant, even while their movies have started to slip.
Haymaker
Bad art
Had to laugh at The Bishop’s email regarding Ecco The Dolphin and how it was the only game he had to play for six months, despite hating it. Growing up I’d also be lucky to get a couple of games a year to play, so no matter how much I enjoyed them I’d play them to death.
I finished Jet Force Gemini and can honestly say I remember not enjoying one second of it. Funny thing is I’ve come to regard the experience positively and in no way a waste of my time. I don’t think that’s anything to do with nostalgia and more to do with how we approached media (art?) differently in past times.
Even something that didn’t really work for you personally could be a great experience. I personally think this was a much more healthy way to spend your time compared to how everyone thinks now. For what’s it’s worth I fired up Jet Force Gemini a few years ago to see if I was correct – it’s still terrible.
Chris
Adult Entertainment
I have read with interest the article on new games.
It seems to me that Sony have taken the cheap way out in so much as a lot of the games are just updates of pre-existing games.
When I purchased my PlayStation 5, I looked at the listing of games soon to be released.
To date, I don’t believe any of them have materialised or if they have, they are games more suited to the PlayStation 2.
More so with the VR attachment.
For something that is advised for over 18s, there are an awful lot of kids’ games!
Adults play with the PlayStation as well as kids, so how about adult games?
They promised a flight sim type game, at least two years later and it has not materialised. As far as I am concerned, I paid out £500 for an expensive ornament!
Chaz
GC: We don’t remember Sony saying anything about a flight sim. We don’t understand what the ‘update’ comment is aimed at either. The only one of their currently announced games that is part of an existing franchise is Ghost Of Yōtei.
Seasonal gaming
Total kudos regarding your festive games feature. I did think about submitting a similar sentimental piece but I’m glad that I didn’t now because you nailed it pretty much. Your oversight of Shenmue 1 was criminal though. Walking around the initial act:1 district whilst the snow is falling is magical. You even get to see a (drunken) Santa if lucky enough. I would be happy to just spend all my virtual time in this setting.
Donkey Kong Country on SNES, Snow Barrel Blast is also up there. That music and the escalating snowstorm. I thought it might have been nostalgia on my part and maybe it is but, playing it again, it is total snow happiness inside five minutes.
I don’t think it is too late to still wish readers a happy new year so I’m going to. Here’s to a cracking year ahead friends.
D Dubya
GC: We did purposefully try and limit it to more modern games, so we didn’t end up only talking about the usual suspects.
Branching narrative
Interesting to hear about Microsoft’s big choice to shut down Xbox, and so soon after the release of the Xbox Series X/S too. They obviously knew pretty quick that things weren’t working out as they were.
I have to say that, for the sake of the games industry at large I wish Microsoft had decided to sell their games division. That wouldn’t have meant the end of Xbox (it might even have ended up under control of someone more competent than Phil Spencer) but it would’ve meant a $3 trillion company could no longer try using a wrecking ball to try and make a mark on the games industry.
I fear that it has already set in motion things that cannot be undone, as we see from the near collapse of Ubisoft and general poor health of nearly every Western company. They’ve ripped the games industry apart in their attempts to be a part of it and if it all collapses in ruin it won’t matter in the least to Microsoft.
They’ll just shrug their shoulders and move on. To them $100 billion is like losing a coin down the back of a sofa. To the games industry though, all these previously independent companies become part of a giant corporation that doesn’t care about them or the wider games business is very, very worrying.
Host
Squeaky wheel
Thank you for the publish of the previous email regarding Free for All being broken on Black Ops 6. I have tweeted them many times, to no avail.
One thing I forgot to mention is obviously the game is patched and updated a lot. It must have been updated 10 times since free for all broken, but it’s still not fixed. I’m sure it’s one of the most popular and oldest game modes, do I just assume its broken forever at this point?
Lee
GC: Things can remain broken for a long time on a big online game like that. The louder you and others complain though, the more likely they’ll do something about it. Because if you’re playing it regardless, they’ve relatively little incentive to fix it.
You ain’t seen nothing yet
I know everyone is probably getting bored of this topic now… but at least Switch 2 chat is moving on to the important stuff, i.e. the games. One thing I’m surprised nobody has seemingly picked up on are the triple-A titles that recently launched on iOS. Given the ARM architecture comparisons of mobile and Switch, it seems highly logical that those titles not on the original Switch games would also be worked up for the Switch 2 launch.
So you’d be looking at Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Control, Resident Evil 4 remake, Resident Evil Village, GRID Legends, Death Stranding, Dead Island 2, and I’m sure there are others I have missed.
Then of course there are existing Switch games which benefit from ongoing support on other platforms. Live Service games like Apex Legends, Minecraft, and Fortnite could probably expect patches to bring them up to PlayStation 4 standard at console release, but there are also more traditional titles in the same boat.
CD Projekt like to keep The Witcher 3 up to date and relevant, so would expect to see that patched for existing owners and maybe even released on cartridge again. Games that got enhanced patches going from PlayStation 4 to 5, that are on Switch, would be good shouts to get that treatment again, moving to Switch 2, like Doom Eternal and Monster Hunter Rise.
Factor in new ports like the heavily rumoured Red Dead Redemption 2, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and Nintendo’s own titles and it’ll likely be a bountiful launch line-up for anyone who has only been gaming on a Switch since 2017. Though saying that this is a Nintendo console, so I’m sure 90% of people will just buy the new 3D Mario and leave Ubisoft and Square Enix crying into their balance sheets again.
Marc
GC: If people are getting bored of the topic, then Nintendo is in trouble. But those games do seem likely.
Inbox also-rans
Can we expect a review of Tales Of Graces f Remastered soon?
TheSpecter N8 (gamertag)
GC: No. It’s only a remaster; of a game we have little love for.
Oh, I’m so excited. If the rumours are true, then we could be very close. It could be any day now. Yes, one day this week we could be seeing… GC use the Mario-looking-out-from-behind-a-curtain picture! Always gets me excited, as it means a Nintendo reveal is on the way!
Stephen, Manchester
GC: Just for you, we used it today. It’s not just us that likes it though, Walmart posted it earlier in the week too.
Games Inbox: Will the Nintendo Switch 2 be announced today?
