(Bloomberg) -- Nintendo Co. plans to adopt an upgraded Nvidia Corp. chip with better graphics and processing for a new Switch model planned for the year-end shopping season, according to people familiar with the matter.
In 2019, Nintendo released two new Switch devices: the Switch Lite and the Nintendo Switch with improved battery life. However, we're still expecting the House of Mario to have yet another new. Newest Nintendo Switch with Neon Blue and Neon Red Joy-Con - 6.2' Touchscreen LCD Display, 32GB Internal Storage, 802.11AC WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1 - Blue and Red. New Nintendo Switch production to begin in June, will be 4K when docked Bloomberg report locks down details about new OLED panel supply chain. Sam Machkovech - Mar 4, 2021 2:10 am UTC. Bloomberg states that the new Switch will cost $50-$100 more than the current Switch. If that's true, expect to pay $350-$400 for the upgraded console. Of course, this is all speculation until. Nintendo Switch Console with Neon Blue and Neon Red Joy-Con. Type: Switch Console with Neon Blue and Neon Red Joy-Con Processor Type: NVIDIA Custom Tegra processor Screen: 6.2-inch LCD Screen Resolution: 1280 x 720 Model #: HADSKABAA Return Policy: View Return Policy $349.99 –.
The new Switch iteration will support Nvidia’s Deep Learning Super Sampling, or DLSS, a novel rendering technology that uses artificial intelligence to deliver higher-fidelity graphics more efficiently. That will allow the console, which is also set for an OLED display upgrade, to reproduce game visuals at 4K quality when plugged into a TV, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan is not public.
The U.S. company’s new chipset will also bring a better CPU and increased memory. DLSS support will require new code to be added to games, so it’ll primarily be used to improve graphics on upcoming titles, said the people, including multiple game developers. Bloomberg News previously reported that the new Switch is likely to include a 7-inch OLED screen from Samsung Display Co. and couple the console’s release with a bounty of new games.
“The move should propel more support to the platform from outside software developers, thus it’s definitely a big plus to hardware and software sales,” said Morningstar Research analyst Kazunori Ito. “Nintendo is learning well from mistakes in the past, when its hit Wii lost momentum so quickly because the console wasn’t compatible with high-definition resolution.”
Nvidia and Nintendo representatives declined to comment.
The Switch games release calendar remains mostly empty for the latter half of the year, though the company announced Tuesday a new partnership with Niantic Inc. on augmented-reality smartphone apps, set to commence with a Pikmin app in 2021.
Read More: Nintendo Is Said to Target Record Year in Switch, Game Sales
Analysts expect the new Switch will be offered at a higher price than the current model’s $299, a level unchanged since the Switch’s initial release in 2017. Bloomberg Intelligence’s Matthew Kanterman foresees an increase of as much as $100.
“$349.99 will increase the value proposition of the device, but I still think Nintendo can drive strong demand even at $399.99,” he said.
DLSS was first introduced as an image upscaling feature in 2018 and remains exclusive to Nvidia graphics cards. It’s an atypically advanced addition for Kyoto-based Nintendo, which has tended to opt for more mature and lower-cost technology than rivals Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. adopt with their consoles. The new Switch will still lag the overall performance capabilities of its pricier rivals.
If implemented, “the graphics boost is a direct shot at core gamers who want to play the next Breath of the Wild, Pokemon, or the new Monster Hunter in the best quality,” said Michael Prefontaine, a global lead developer at Silicon Studio Corp. But “it is not a big appeal to Nintendo’s usual target of families and kids, who are mostly driven by content. It does show however that Nintendo wants to compete more.”
(Updates with analyst’s comment from the fourth paragraph)
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Nintendo is going to court to stop a number of retailers that allegedly sell a Switch modification device that allows users to play pirated games on older versions of the system. But the console maker is also using those lawsuits to warn retailers away from taking pre-orders for an impending hardware hack designed to work on more recent Switch consoles, including the Switch Lite.
Thelawsuits—obtained by Polygon after their filing in Ohio and Seattle courts on Friday—focus on websites that sell products from hacking collective Team-Xecuter. That group currently manufactures the SX Pro, a simple USB device which allows users to install a custom 'SX OS' operating system on the Switch from a memory card. With SX OS installed, users can 'play virtually any pirated game made for the Nintendo Switch, all without authorization or paying a dime to Nintendo or to any of the large number of authorized game publishers making games for Nintendo Switch,' according to the filings.
The SX Pro only works with the roughly 20 million Switch consoles released before June 2018, which were susceptible to an unpatchable exploit in their Nvidia Tegra CPUs. The 35 million Switch and Switch Lite systems since then sport an updated chipset that cannot be hacked using that exploit.But Nintendo notes in its lawsuits that Team-Xecuter says it is nearing release of new Switch-hacking devices, dubbed SX Core and SX Lite, which can install SX OS on any Switch console, including those with updated chipsets.
Watch out for solder burns
Unlike the relatively simple, strictly external hacks for older Switch models, Team-Xecuter's new SX models for Switch hacking seem to involve opening up the console and soldering a small SD card reader directly onto the main motherboard. Team-Xecuter first teased those new models last October before showing a preview of the new device running SX OS on a Switch Lite back in December. The Team then sent these updated SX units to testers and reviewers earlier this month, according to its website.
AdvertisementIn its lawsuits, Nintendo takes direct aim at the retailers offering pre-orders for Team-Xecuter's new offerings and warns of their potential effect on its business.
'On information and belief, Defendants have accepted and confirmed hundreds of other preorders for the SX Core and the SX Lite throughout the United States, and plan to ship the products to purchasers when they become available, which is expected imminently,' the company writes.
'The scale of potential harm from Defendants' trafficking in the SX Core and SX Lite is astounding, threatening the circumvention of the Technological Measures protecting more than 35 million additional Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite consoles currently in the marketplace (on top of the 20 million pre-June 2018 Nintendo Switch consoles),' the lawsuits continue.
Badly Xecuter-ed?
New Switch Games 2021
Team-Xecuter has something of a controversial reputation in the Switch-hacking community. That's because of its focus on profiting from what are otherwise generally open source efforts to identify and publicize vulnerabilities in console hardware. Team-Xecuter also markets its devices with a specific focus on decrypting and copying legitimate software, while open source hackers tend to keep the focus on installing homebrew software and custom firmware that doesn't directly enable piracy.
'I do strongly disagree with the idea of hiding software exploits and then releasing modchips that use (potentially obfuscated) versions of them,' Kate Temkin, a member of the ReSwitched Team collective that originally hacked the system, told Ars in 2018. 'I think it's both unethical—as it gives malicious actors a chance to pick up and use the vulnerabilities before they can be addressed or public knowledge can spread—and against the spirit of knowledge-exchange we want to see in the console-hacking community.'
'It's difficult to balance the goals of 'opening up' closed hardware and preventing things like piracy,' Temkin added. 'Unfortunately, enabling people to have full access to their systems inevitably means that some people are going to use that access in ways we don't agree with.'
Team-Xecuter also attracted some negative attention in 2018 with the prominent anti-piracy protections on its own piracy-enabling SX OS software. 'We do implement inconveniences to safeguard anti-tampering of our SX OS boot file to remain at a competitive advantage,' Team-Xecuter told The Verge at the time.
New Switch Releases
In addition to damages of up to $2,500 per sale, Nintendo is seeking court orders to block the further sale of all Team-Xeceuter hacking devices from the identified retailers and for the 'seizure, impoundment, and destruction of all Circumvention Devices.'