A fan render of what the Switch 2 may look like (Picture: Nintendo)
A reader recaps some of the most recent rumours about Nintendo’s next console and what it might mean for gaming if they’re true.
They say never try and predict Nintendo, and they’re probably right, but the rumours about the Switch 2 are coming thick and fast now, and it’s getting to the point where I dare to believe them. The one about Final Fantasy 7 Remake running like a PlayStation 5 game seemed a bit too good to be true at first but then you had that other rumour about the Switch 2 being at Gamescom and running The Matrix Awakens demo… like a PlayStation 5. Two completely different rumours but both saying the same basic thing.
The source on Final Fantasy 7 Remake had good form but was essentially still just some guy on Twitter, but the Gamescom stuff came, separately, from Eurogamer and VGC, which is pretty much as good as you’re going to get, short of hard evidence.
I don’t know if you’ve seen The Matrix Awakens – for some reason it’s no longer available to download, because it was just a marketing thing for that fourth movie nobody watched – but it was absolutely incredible and probably the best graphics I’ve ever seen, so the idea that the Switch 2 can get anywhere close to that is pretty damn exciting.
I should point out that the reasons The Matrix Awakens looks so good is that it’s not really a game. There’s no AI or proper gameplay mechanics, so all the processing power is going into the graphics, so you’re probably not going to get anything that looks quite that good on any console. But that’s not really the point, the point is the Nintendo console was keeping pace with some of the best graphics ever created for a home console.
The thought of what a company as talented as Nintendo could do with technology that powerful, all wrapped up in a hybrid console that is super mainstream friendly, is frankly mindboggling. None of the rumours have touched on any of the games Nintendo might make, beyond possibly a new 3D Mario, but just think what they did with Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom.
An impossibly massive game world with the best physics engine ever for a console game, in a game that still looks really impressive for the Switch. I don’t really care whether they make an enchanced version or not but the idea of what new Zelda game they’ll make with that sort of power behind them is so exciting I worry whether I’m fooling myself.
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As a recent Reader’s Feature said, this has the possibility to completely rewrite the map for the whole industry, with Sony and Microsoft scrabbling to compete. We already know Microsoft can’t begin to match Nintendo in terms of first party games (Starfield seems like a game the Switch 2 could easily run) and Sony, while they used to be getting there, seems to have given up entirely, just as they were at their peak.
Nintendo always does what you don’t expect, including missing an open goal, but if they knock this one in then gaming may never be the same again. I know that sounds like hyperbole but if the new machine really is as powerful as people are saying then I don’t see how it’s going to be anything other than unstoppable.
By reader Scanner
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A reader recaps some of the most recent rumours about Nintendo’s next console and what it might mean for gaming if they’re true.Â