Speculations surrounding the next Nintendo Switch suggest that it might not be the groundbreaking console fans are anticipating. Dr. Serkan Toto of Kantan Games, as reported by GamesIndustry.biz, hints that the upcoming release might be more of an iteration than a revolution. Toto suggests that t
A clam shell Switch --without Joycon drift-- that plays my digital Switch library and features better graphical hardware is all I want. Doesn't need to be a revolution, but it needs to play more games than the Switch currently can.
They’re definitely going to offer backwards compatibility on the next model whatever it is, so an iteration makes more sense than a completely new hardware type.
Nvidia likely will have some turbocharged version ready for Nintendo. But I wouldn’t expect it to be as powerful as people want it to be. That’s just not Nintendo’s way, and I would expect the next Switch to be another ARM processor device. Something like that is unlikely to compete with an x86/64 device in raw power. Not without spending Apple M-series money anyway.
Depends how long it takes for a true Switch replacement, because ARM processor’s are replacing x86 and 64bit processor’s as everyone’s daily driver in the near future.
It’s been since 2017 already, so I can’t imagine this console cycle can be stretched out too much further if Nintendo wants continued third party support. There are some companies like Panic Button who specialize in optimizing games like Doom 2016 to run on the Switch, but at some point you hit a limit. You’re not going to get a game intended for current PlayStation and Xbox consoles to run on the current Switch, so the next one needs to be much more powerful or multiplatform developers/publishers are just going to skip Nintendo’s console like they did with the N64.
So while I agree with you that eventually ARM could be a viable replacement for Intel/AMD, right now only Apple silicon can do that (for some workloads), and not at a price point that Nintendo’s customers are prepared to pay.
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