Topic: "Nintendo Switch 2" what improvement's should the next Console have?

All I hope for with a Switch 2 is that it will (likely) have the power of a PS4 as a handheld.

"So many bad ideas." This reiterated arrogance is why I ignored some users that then ask me why have I ignored them. How can anyone try to analyse gamers' wishes as if they were Nintendo's engineers on a fandom website is beyond me.

That said, I like some ideas on this thread. The Switch is the most disappointing Nintendo console since I started playing on a SNES but seeing that I haven't skipped any Nintendo console since SNES (Virtual Boy was not released here), my priorities for a successor would be:

1. Built quality, including accessories.
2. Backwards compatibility with Switch and its controllers. Personally, I'd like compatibility beyond that, with Wii U controllers, etc.
3. Virtual Console that acknowledges our previous purchases and that adds Gamecube and Wii.
4. Ports of the remaining Wii U games that can be ported, for those without a Wii U (I have one).
5. Power beyond already dated mobile technology. Digital Foundry was disappointed in Nintendo using downclocked old technology for Switch.
6. Sound quality and speakers quality.
7. Free cloud saves like on Xbox.
8. A UI that feels like an evolution of 3DS and Wii U and not an involution.
9. Fast internet browser.
10. Streaming applications.

However, I would prefer Nintendo to drop hardware altogether and release their games on all consoles and PCs as their games are constrained by their hardware, controllers and lack of backwards compatibility since Switch.

@Banjo- I thought I misunderstood, but I wasn’t sure so I went with my gut. I’ll apologize. First of all, Nintendo will probably never stop making consoles with exclusive games accompanying them. The company makes far too much money, and they have a relative niche in the gaming market with their innovative consoles like the Wii and Switch. Sega dropped the console scene and started making games more widely available across all platforms because they were really struggling with console sales ever since the Genesis, with the Saturn, Game Gear and even Dreamcast falling somewhat flat in terms of sales. Nintendo has had its fare share of failed consoles like the Virtual Boy and Wii U, but they always came back from those with a better console that sold much higher and got lots more money in Nintendo’s pocket.

The Switch being the worst Nintendo console since the SNES is definitely debatable, but it’s also your opinion so I can respect it.

The priorities you have listed lean very much into older games and features from consoles past. I doubt Nintendo will do Virtual Console again since the NSO earns more money, and money is the name of the game. I think the switch audio quality is fine, I’m a bit surprised that’s a concern here, or maybe I’m way out to lunch and I don’t really understand the perfect audio quality (I honestly don’t think I do, so I won’t critique this, it’s a fair statement).

You present some fair ideas here, and I again apologize for the misunderstanding

Voice Chat, Messaging and Party Chat would be Great, and don't forget Achievements of course !!!!!

@TheBigBlue You misunderstood my comment, I was calling out people saying that other users' ideas are bad.

As a Nintendo fan, I specifically don't want Nintendo to stop using their own hardware. Others get expensive (and often kinda ugly in my opinion) overly fancy PC and PS5 games. Let me feel superior with my affordable Mario machine. 😛

Personally I don't own any other device which can play games (except mobile technically) and I really like how optimized a lot of the Nintendo exclusives are to their hardware. Sure, Pokemon fails this test, but for e.g. Zelda they really optimized it for the hardware and some aspect of controls/file size/ power needed to run / etc. would inevitably be worse if it was trying to be an all-console game. Which is I guess fine for people with a powerful gaming pc and a bunch of peripherals, but the point of Switch is you don't need all that. I hope Nintendo sticks with this good-bang-for-you- buck alternative to PC (and in some ways not directly competing with) approach.

@FishyS It was the Wii U-Switch transition, the lack of backwards compatibility, the joy-cons, the weak hardware and some first-party games like Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and the last The Legend of Zelda games struggling with performance what made me change my mind about Nintendo as a hardware company and why I would prefer them to be a software company exclusively. I don't have a gaming PC either but a Series X, along with all the Nintendo consoles listed above.

Honestly, for me it’s just framerate. I wish the mainline titles could run at 60fps minimum. I cant play 30 anymore.

I don't own an XBOX or gaming PC, but I do think XBOX seems to do the all consoles + PC approach really well without making games annoying on some platforms. It's hard for me to imagine Nintendo doing that as well as Microsoft.

I admit I personally skipped Wii-U. I owned enough Wii games that I just kept playing them until Switch came out. I own hundreds of Switch games so if the next console is bad I'll do the same XD But I feel the good Nintendo consoles do it so well that I'd rather stick with them. And I kind of like that the different gaming companies have different niches/focuses; keeps the hardware scene interesting.

And even though I don't specifically want any new weird twist in Switch 2, I'm interested to see what creative hardware concepts Nintendo thinks of in the future.

Edit: It occurs to me their mobile games is a taste of what Nintendo does when they don't stick with their own hardware. please please no.

@FishyS Heck, no, Nintendo's mobile games is not what they would do! Those are tailored to the oversaturated mobile market that relies on touch controls and psychological free-to-play business schemes. We had something mobile-style on Nintendo 3DS with Nintendo Badge Arcade, that I called the evilest game that Nintendo has ever made and that was so criticised around the world.

What I'd imagine is the same Nintendo games but running in 60fps and 4k. Some fans are running those games on emulators because of that, why not just release them officially? Nintendo might even earn more money releasing games on all platforms than having to invest in, market and sell new hardware each time.

Nintendo had great hardware until Gamecube and while I can see what you mean about hardware innovation and I was fine with Wii and even Wii U remotes and asymmetric gameplay respectively, I don't feel the need for that anymore as I realised that a good controller and a good display are the definitive way to play and I can always go back to Wii Sports or Wii Fit Plus every now and then for that Nintendo weirdness.

Nah, Nintendo has NEVER done "just" an enhanced version of their previous idea for its next gen successor since they started doing controller gimmicks in 7th gen. Even the 3DS, which was largely similar to the DS, tinkered with stereoscopic 3D as its new "gimmick". It failed and they ended up backtracking on it, but the 3DS wasn't designed as "just" a more powerful DS. Similarly, I can pretty much guarantee you the Switch 2 won't be "just" a more powerful Switch, it'll probably be similar to the 3DS where it layers some new gimmick on top of what the Switch does. The million dollar question is what that gimmick is.

Well I mentioned the application behind my detachable screens idea, it's so that both new and NSO games can better emulate DS, 3DS, and Wii U control schemes. Detachable screens would allow you to have dual screens in handheld mode and a Wii U-esque Gamepad in docked mode with one screen docked and one screen still attached. And it would also have the added bonus of letting two players each have their own screen, which would be a new thing it could do. I suspect a lot of the streaming ideas and such is an alternate idea on how to have a Wii U Gamepad setup in docked mode. It just seems like there's an appetite to revisit the Wii U's ideas with a proper hybrid that has stronger marketing and games behind it.

As for phones, yeah your Switch can play games in handheld mode just like you could on a phone. The problem with the phones is that no one wants to leave them because they do more than just gaming. So Nintendo has to go to the phone gamers instead of encouraging the phone gamers to come to them. I think long term, Nintendo should be thinking of how they can merge their dedicated consoles with more broadly appealing mobile devices. I think Nintendo is making a mistake by limiting their hardware to be gaming only. They're excluding a ton of potential customers by doing that. So I think as a baby step towards this potential merge, they should bring mobile devices into the Switch ecosystem in a limited fashion. That's the reasoning behind my idea for a phone case with Joycon attachments. It makes your phone more like a Switch for people that don't want to buy a Switch because they want a gaming device that does more than just play games. Now to reiterate, your phone isn't going to play every game because that'd just be killing their hardware business. They should not be letting you play the big new 3D Mario game on mobile, they'll want to keep that as a major system seller for the Switch 2. But maybe some smaller eShop titles, or some of the more simplistic consoles from NSO? Or maybe the ability to use your phone as a Gamepad like what Microsoft tried to do with SmartGlass if you only have a phone but a friend has a Switch 2? Those kinds of things could bring mobile players into a more proper Nintendo experience.

No, it would be an optional enhancement, not a mandatory part of the console. VR is way too expensive to be included with the actual console, that would put it in the $500+ range and Nintendo wants to keep their consoles affordable. At best there might be a few games built around VR with the majority of them being playable without it, but even that might be a bit much for them. Basically all the "peripherals" I mentioned would be sold separately, the base purchase would only include the same stuff the Switch had (minus a grip, which wouldn't be needed because the Joycons will just connect to one of the screens).

@TheBigBlue I gladly accept your apologies but you should have written a separate comment because I almost didn't realise that you had edited your comment to include the apologies. I'm also glad that you like some of my ideas but, of course, my ideas don't necessarily match Nintendo's businessmen and stockholders and, honestly, I couldn't care less about them because I'm a gamer and they don't care about me nor any of us.

Some ideas here are modest, some are a reflection of Nintendo going backwards in some aspects and some are bold. All of them are interesting because they tell us how other gamers feel about Nintendo's current hardware - or software, on other threads.

This thread in a nutshell:

"something old, something new, something borrowed"

Some ideas are fundamentally bad though or at the very least unrealistic and aimless. And I don't think that holding people's ideas to a higher standard is arrogance. When I say I think someone's idea is crap? I'm not saying they're an idiot. I'm saying their idea is crap for these reasons. I respect the discussion and the person enough to not be gentle with people's opinions

And, frankly, I would hope other people would do the same back to me. I don't want to be infantilised by having other people putting my opinions and beliefs in cotton wool. I want my opinions and beliefs to be bombarded so that I come out of the other side with better opinions and beliefs

@Bolt_Strike
I think you've convinced me on the merits of a clamshell design with a detachable second screen. You're right, could open up a few options. The two things that give me pause is the jump in cost given that second screen would need a battery, a screen and some kind of WiFi just for that local connection. Also secondly that you're adding more points of failure which goes strongly against everything I want to see in their next hardware. I think every DS or 3DS I have has a cracked hinge to some degree

Still not sold on the phone thing, not because it's a bad idea technically but more because I don't see who it would be for. The casual gamer who Nintendo wants to reach on mobile isn't going to be buying a special gaming case. I think there's space for a "Gameboy Mini" or even a "Switch Micro" so that Nintendo has some official presence in that Android emulator space. And I think they can certainly do a LOT more on phones than they currently are because their current efforts are pretty poor. But I'm not sure going all Razer phone controller is the right play.....

As a side note, when I was talking about bad ideas I think people all just assumed I was talking about them. So just to clarify here is the exhaustive list of ideas I thought were "bad". Note that this ranges from "this didn't warrant a bullet point" to "who cares" to "this is actually dumb". So at least after this post people can be angry at me about specific points not just generally:

• Bluetooth
• Streaming apps
• Themes
• Folders
• Virtual Console
• "more power in the dock" and related ideas
• Web Browser. would be nice but it's an attack vector, there's a reason why they don't
• Remote play
• AC power direct into the back rather than a power brick
• Installing games for "improved load times" (unnecessary)
• TV only SKU (no)

and to balance it out, some of the top tier ideas:

• make their mobile app actually have some point
• more storage, 32-64GB is stupid. Like REALLY stupid. Even if it's flash? No BECAUSE it's flash. I can't stress this point enough. This is moving so fast it's kinda impossible to keep up with it. Their next hardware revision should have 256GB at a minimum, any less and they're cheaping out
  
• backwards compatibility
• eshop music? I can get behind that
• bring back Miis? sure
• scroll wheel, legitmiately a good controller suggestion. I'm not just sucking up
• Camera/Mic
• Don't start from scratch with NSO
• A very compact Switch SKU. PLEASE!
• Analogue triggers
• hover in mid-air and project a 4K image onto any nearby flat surface

@skywake Although I agree with a lot of your list, not having functional bluetooth is just stupid of Nintendo. A system designed for playing e.g on the train needs headphones. Almost all nice portable headphones people own are bluetooth. Having bluetooth goes hand in hand (but is even more important than) some type of mic capability. I realize they sort of half added Bluetooth to Switch already, but they did it in a way that doesn't work great.

Also, why put folders in the 'stupid' idea category? They already added folders to Switch and they're super useful. I think removing them from Switch 2 would be a bad move. Whether they slightly tweak them or not in a revised UI is kind of down in the weeds. I'm hoping they don't make a totally different UI from scratch, but small changes (and maybe some bigger changes for the eshop) are fine. Personally I would like tags. Functionally equivalent to tags would be revamping folders jist a little.

As for streaming, I think half the complaints are just that Nintendo is weirdly inconsistent. e.g. YouTube app but not Netflix app. Personally I watch YouTube and Crunchyroll on my Switch all the time when I'm in hotels but I wouldn't complain much if they took them away. But having these apps is 100% unrelated to Switch 2; they could add or remove streaming apps even on 'Switch 1' at any time. So It's not so much a dumb or good idea, just irrelevant to Switch 2 or hardware in general.

As for positives, I 100% agree that more storage is one of the most important things to change. They literally just had a game trial for a 48GB game... And backwards compatibility and not resetting NSO is in the 'don't mess up what you already have' category. Personally I don't like analog triggers, but I admit that is because I can imagine them only being used in bad ways for the kind of games I normally play.

I'm not really sure a mini console is the solution either, most of the people that would likely buy that are dedicated Nintendo fans that already own a Switch. Emulation isn't the reason that many people aren't buying a Switch, again it's because they want a do-everything device and they don't want to have to spend $300 on a device that just plays games. Eventually they'll need to reverse course on their "gaming only" philosophy and yes, put multimedia apps like browsers and streaming apps and the like on Nintendo consoles so that their Nintendo console is the only device they'll need to carry around. But for the time being the best way to reach mobile gamers is to find a way to deliver a more Nintendo-like experience on mobile and bring mobile devices into the Switch ecosystem. And they'll at the very least need an app, but ideally a Joycon attachment to do that.

@FishyS
Folders, themes and streaming apps are firmly in the "who cares" category for me.

Bluetooth is something that they should do, and do do already, but not really list worthy. If we're going to list something related to headphones I'd argue that we should add that they don't remove the headphone jack. At the very least because a device that also sells to kids should be compatible with throw away headphones. But also because Bluetooth is crap

and overpriced

@Owl1
Definitely, especially at the low end. Thinking about the 8-12 year old demographic, kids who will constantly lose stuff or put it through the washing machine. Its like, under $5-20AU for a cheapo set of wired headphones vs $20-70AU for a set of cheapo bluetooth headphones. Would be such a step backwards if Nintendo dropped the headphone jack

But for me though, as someone who has reluctantly been forced into this new Bluetooth paradigm, it's mostly about quality and ease of use. I don't want to have to think about it and I want it to just work. I'm not going to be jogging or anything while playing a portable console so, what advantage is there to not being wired? None. And for that grand benefit of (checks notes) nothing you have to deal with Bluetooth handshakes and occasional dropouts in audio

Enough power that ports won't look or run like ass would be nice. plus we might get more ports in general that way instead of everyone saying oh that new game would never run on switch.