There are new rumors about the next Nintendo console, that seek to give us reference for how powerful it is going to be.
As shared by Austin John Plays on Twitter, a person on Reddit named TheRealImAHeroToo shared some surprising new rumors. We’ll share the text of what he said verbatim, but it’s pretty obvious which parts of this rumor are the most pressing.
As he posted on Reddit:
“Sega:
– Another Sonic is coming next year, along with Jet Set, Comix Zone and a new Guardian Heroes (not sure on the date for that one)
-Persona 6 is a bit further away than last time I updated. I don’t think it’s making 2024 (original plan was reveal last winter)
-Main theme of P6 is “black and white”, it’s still too early to talk about, I’m waiting on other leakers before the floodgates open
-There is another Persona game yet to be revealed, it’s a party game
-Switch 2 devkits have been here a while, I can verify it is backwards compatible with a few games tested. New cartridge. New camera feature.
Square:
-FF9 remake WAS summer 2024, not sure about that anymore, game needs some polishing, that’s about it
-FF7R2 ends with a new protag set up for part 3. Take your guesses what happens.
-X remake/X3 has a skeleton crew, it is NOT making it’s anniversary
-Square has new PS5 devkits, we’re assuming these are the “Pro”
-FF7R looks and runs like a PS5 game on Switch 2 devkit. Port took no time I’m told. Could be a launch game, not sure yet.”
So, Sega and Square Enix have had Switch 2 devkits for some time now. This Switch 2 is backwards compatible, with a few new games tested. This Switch 2 will also have a camera, which is to say, Nintendo is dipping back into cameras, after skipping them on the Switch. They had cameras for the Nintendo 3DS/2DS line, as well as the Wii U’s Gamepad. Nintendo had started on cameras with the Nintendo DSi in 2008, released only one year after the first iPhone.
There is no real surprise to be found with Nintendo making a new cartridge format. It was unlikely for Nintendo to go back to compact discs, with this new console also being a portable. They needed to make a new cartridge format so that there would be no market confusion between Switch and Switch 2 games.
There is something intriguing about the promise of a new camera feature. Nintendo had tried various things with their use of cameras before, including live video chat on the Wii U, and AR games on the DS and 3DS. Cameras have come a long as they’ve been used on phones, so there is no lack of things that Nintendo can have found a use for.
But obviously the big story here is the claimed Final Fantasy VII Remake port. Not only is it working, but TheRealImAHeroToo claims that it looks like a PlayStation 5 game on the console. That is quite a claim for a company notorious for underpowered hardware.
Or is it? Before the Nintendo Switch was released, gamers didn’t expect it to be much more powerful than the 3DS, and that even if the Wii U also seemed underpowered, there was no way a hybrid home/portable console could be as powerful or more powerful than it.
In fact, this preexisting notion about Nintendo is clearly misleading. Nintendo understands that if the technology on their consoles is too far behind compared to their competitors, that they won’t be able to entire consumers to buy their console. So, a console generation after the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, they have to make a new console that matches or exceeds the power of that generation.
For those skeptical that Nintendo can pull it off, there’s a big difference maker that gives them the edge over all the other companies making gaming handhelds, including ASUS, Lenovo, and even Valve themselves.
That difference is that they switched from AMD to Nvidia, the company that pioneered making an SOC that is as powerful as a PC or home console CPU. It’s Nvidia’s SOC that makes the impossible ports to the Nintendo Switch possible. And unlike AMD, Nvidia’s portable tech is both performance intensive, and efficient with power and battery management.
So is TheRealImAHeroToo exaggerating? Does it sound impossible? I would say no. It wasn’t that long ago that we couldn’t imagine that the Nintendo Switch has the power that it has, coupled with the battery life and efficiency it has. Today we take it for granted. It won’t be that long before this Switch 2 will similarly exceed those expectations as well. It’s not about making something miraculous; Nintendo literally has to keep up in tech with everyone else.
