A couple of weeks ago, Gamescom was in full swing in Cologne, Germany. Nintendo was there, showing off cutting-edge titles like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — released back in 2017, three years after first appearing on Wii U.
But behind the scenes, Nintendo apparently had something more exciting up its sleeve (figurative speaking — unless an executive also happened to be wearinga nice watch for the presentation).
According to both Eurogamer and Video Games Chronicle’s Sources, the House of Mario was up to something a bit more interesting off the show flloor. It apparently invited a bunch of developers behind the curtain for an early peek at the Switch 2, Swiitch or whatever kooky name Nintendo decides to call its next-gen console.
Eurogamer said the presentation included a souped-up version of Switch launch title Zelda: Breath of the Wild, complete with a higher resolution and more frames per second. This is probably just a tech demo rather than suggesting a remake is coming, but I’m already crossing my fingers for enhanced backwards compatibility.
More excitingly, Video Game Chronicles reports that one invitee says the machine ran The Matrix Awakens — a ray-tracing-packing Unreal Engine 5 tech demo released in 2021 to show the power of the PS5 and Xbox Series X. If true, that suggests that Nintendo is looking to break the habit of a lifetime with specs that are actually competitive, rather than relying on fun gameplay and oodles of charm.
The site’s other sources suggested the mystery machine will follow the Switch’s example and be usable as both a handheld and TV-bound console.
No suggestion of a release date yet, but research firm TechInsights reckons that we’ll see the console launch next year, and if Nintendo is showing off demos, that would certainly make sense. After all, the Switch is showing every one of its six-and-a-half years, and it wasn’t exactly sprightly to begin with…
Image: Pixabay/Pexels
