Again, This has been known for like.... 2 years now. Switch 2 is essentially a nerfed 2050 mobile lol. People are shocked that all these big games like Star Wars Outlaws, and Cyberpunk are running on such terrible hardware. Its not that hard. All they do is just strip out all the eye candy, pretty visuals, nice effects, nice features, etc ... render it at 480p + DLSS up to 1080p. It looks like hot garbage but at least its....playable..... And I use that word "playable" very loosely.
These AAA games on Switch 2 are essentially demasters. If you put in the time and effort, you can get Indiana Jones & The Great Circle to run on an N64. All ya gotta do.... is drop the texture resolutions.... lower..... and lower..... and lower.... and reduce the color pallet..... lower.... and lower..... and lower.... And... reduce the round edges to be more and more jagged, like we all remember in the N64. Then reduce the codebase, shrink it lower.... and lower..... and lower..... and eventually you can get it small enough to fit on a cartridge, and play Indiana Jones on an N64.
How do you think a remaster is done? How do you think they got Turok 3 (N64 game) remastered? It's just the same thing but in the opposite direction. If they demastered the Turok 3 remaster to put it on N64, it would look like the Turok 3 N64 release we had in the 90s. That's all Switch ports are, they're just demasters. You can take the most demanding game in the world and get it to run on an original NES from 1985..... All ya gotta do is just demaster the visuals and the codebase lower..... And lower.... and lower, until it fits on an NES cartridge and can run on an NES. It won't look anything like we have today but at least it's "playable".
Go look at Hogwartz Legacy for Switch. That game looks halfway between a PS2 and a PS3 on switch.... lol. How did they do it? Just reduce the visuals/codebase lower..... and lower..... and lower.... Until it can run. Sure it looks like hot garbage, but hey, some people don't care to play at 480p with the visuals stripped down to the bare metal. To each their own.
Truth is though: you don't buy a switch 2 for third party games lol. That's just dumb. The only reason for a Switch 2 is for Mario, Zelda, and other Nintendo IP. Everything else, get a gaming PC. Seriously
To add to this, I am so sick of people making excuses for nintendo: "Well, its gotta be cheap" or "You can't put a 6090 into a handheld" or "but.... but... battery life" .... Ok.... So put in a bigger battery "Oh, but then we have to make the console 1/8th of a inch thicker and it will weigh an extra 50 grams"
Enough, don't make excuses, make improvements. Laptops have been able to do this for years. Switch 2 could easily.... EASILY.... have put in a mobile 4060 (not a gimped/nerfed 4060 mobile, a real, fully-capable mobile laptop 4060), 115W TDP, fully-capable while docked, nerfed to..... I dont know, 40W in handheld mode. Put in 6GB of actual real GDDR6 VRAM, and 12GB LPDDR5 RAM, 512GB SSD, and kept the price fairly similar and they would have been just fine. Yes, you will need a much bigger battery. Yes, that will add a smidge of thickness/weight to the device. They might lose a few pennies in profit. So what, boohoo, its really not a big deal, its a miner inconvenience at worst.
Sure, it wont perform like a 9950X3D + 5090 + 32GB RAM, but at least we wont have to deal with games being rendered at 360p30 then upscaled to 1080p (or 4K for sidescroller indie-games) and look like garbage with all the ghosting/artificating/fake frames/whatever. Quit making the compromise always happen at the visuals/frame rate level.
And then Nintendo sits there and wonders why people are always quick to build emulators. They kind of do it to themselves. Ya don't see developers clamoring to make Playstation/XBox emulators day 1, because at least PS/XB games don't look like complete hot garbage running on 12 year old hardware. At least PS/XB actually put in the R&D/investment to make the games not look like garbage. Good grief. I'm not going to buy a Switch 2, because 720p30 isn't acceptable in the year 2025. I am going to wait a few years for an emulator, because I don't want my games looking like hot garbage on 12 year old hardware.
If nintendo is going to release 12 year old hardware, the least they could do is make the games available on PS/XB/PC market, ya know.... for those who actually want their games to look nice. "Oh, but then no one will buy a switch". False, people will still buy them for the portability. But those that don't buy a switch anyway and have a PS/XB/PC will buy games that they otherwise wouldn't buy because they don't have a switch. "Oh, but we're nintendo. We dont wanna see mario and zelda on a PC. We dont think thats nice. We think it should only be on nintendo. We like it this way". Ok, then dont complain when people build emulators. You kind of do it to yourself.
Either release current hardware, or release for PS/XB/PC. Those who want portability can buy a switch. Those who wants their games to look nice can get something else. "Oh but were nintendo, we believe that...." Ok, then I'll just wait for a few years for an emulator. Good grief
P.S. This response was written on a PC that is more powerful than what will be in the Switch 3, and yes, my custom gaming PC I built in 2012 beats the Switch 2. Lol
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