Hacker News Reader

Comment by ronyeh | Hacker News Reader

The last time they launched a big Zelda game, it was pushed to two consoles (Switch and the previous gen Wii U).

So maybe you're right. The next Zelda is coming in several months.

I’m not so sure. The new Zelda appears to use the exact same engine as the previous one.

Doesn't really tell us anything. It's a lot easier to port an engine vs writing a new one from scratch, especially if the new system is also just an ARM64 processor with an NVIDIA GPU.

Does Nvidia still make mobile GPUs? Tegra was a flop afaik, which is why Nintendo picked it, since they could buy whole container ships of them for cheap.

What’s a relatively modern SOC that sold poorly and was manufactured in large volumes? That’s probably what the next Nintedo console will use.

They make desktop-class mobile gpu's, but nothing like the switch. However, they do still make embedded dev kits (https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/autonomous-machines/embedded-sy...), with their newest ones running on ampere.

The Jetson nano is the same chip as the nintendo switch, with half the cuda cores iirc.

Nvidia is believed to be developing a custom mobile GPU for Nintendo's next console.

They posted a job ad in 2022 saying "looking to hire a deeply technical, creative and hands-on software engineer to pioneer the next generation of Graphics Developer Tools for Game Consoles"

Nvidia's only game console client is Nintendo.

My ideal (new) Switch 2 (U) would be taking advantage of AMDs mobile APUs but I think they're hamstrung with backwards ARM compatibility with how good the Switches library is.

If everything’s built against an abstracted SDK, they could have games ported over with just a recompile potentially. If the new system is much higher performance then any optimizations against ARM would be a non issue. If they allow lower level access to the hardware, it would be a lot harder, but you could conceivably implement a GPU emulation at the hardware layer. Or depending on costs, just include the entire SOC for the compatibility mode, like PS3 did for PS2.

I think if they want to keep the form factor they need the higher performance per watt that arm cores can offer.

"Exact same"? That's a colossal assumption. A company the size of Nintendo will absolutely make improvements to the new iteration of the engine - some clearly noticeable to players, some not. Thinking back historically, many game series used the "same" engine. Quake 1/2/3, Halo 1/2/3, Command & Conquer / Red Alert, Witcher 2/3/Cyberpunk2077, Elder Scrolls 3/4/5/Fallout3/NV/4 and so on (too lazy to think of more). Further, think of how many games are made with Unity, Unreal Engine, etc. Yet further, check the credits list of Breath of the Wild -- they absolutely have the workforce to make serious changes to the engine and work on a compelling new game in concert: https://www.mobygames.com/game/switch/legend-of-zelda-breath...

Do not underestimate how incredibly cheap Nintendo is. The latest Pokemon games were riddled with bugs that you would not expect from the biggest media franchise in the world by revenue.

Nintendo has very little say in what happens to Pokemon

Wait Nintendo makes Pokémon games?

A Nintendo-owned company does.

Game Freak develops them.

This is also true of Zelda Twilight Princess. It released on the Gamecube and the Wii.

Nintendo has a history of launching consoles with the newest Zelda game.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com