We all know there’s going to be a follow-up to the Change. Principally as a result of the opposite possibility is Nintendo simply hanging up its hat and strolling off into the ocean, and that’d be bizarre. Nintendo is, as ever, solely mute on the topic, however rumors are reaching class 5 that the console large’s subsequent console machine might be showing in time for the vacation season of 2024. With builders seeing the machine behind closed doorways, and tech producers asserting the sudden want to provide huge numbers of LCD screens, it’s a very good second to collate every little thing we all know to date about what to anticipate.
Will it actually be known as the Change 2?
The very first thing to say is it nearly undoubtedly received’t be known as the “Change 2.” Nintendo has regularly iterated on its profitable handheld designs, the DS changing into the DSi, the DSi XL, then finally the succeeding 3DS and its personal iterative generations. However they’ve by no means put a “2” on something; they’re extra seemingly to make use of a “U” or one thing equally peculiar. Nevertheless, let’s follow “Change 2” for the sake of ease; individuals on-line are always campaigning for it to be known as the Tremendous Nintendo Change, however we don’t need to get their hopes up.
Will a Change 2 be that totally different?
After all, understanding what to anticipate from Nintendo isn’t that simple. For Sony or Microsoft’s forthcoming initiatives, you’d not get significantly good odds betting towards each being in early design phases for beneath-TV containers known as the PlayStation 6 and Xbox Flowerpot 87, or no matter deranged title the behemoth concocts subsequent. However Nintendo is the form of firm which may spring out of nowhere with a super-under-powered console that comes with a plastic sensor, operated by two distant controls; or a handheld gaming machine with two screens, solely one in every of them is a touchscreen, and it folds in half. They’re…unpredictable.
The final considering is that the success of the Change is simply too huge to make any monumental adjustments over its personal distinctive design. In 2017 we had been all blinking in shock at a dockable handheld machine with controllers that fell off the edges. It was, as ever, splendidly unusual and revolutionary, and regardless of tech that was already out-of-date on its launch, it’s held up and entertained us for seven years. It will appear an unlimited threat, at this level and with such market saturation (the Change is alleged to have offered 132 million items, outselling even the PS4’s lifetime gross sales, with time to go) to launch one thing that didn’t at the least really feel appropriate with the Change. Analyst Dr. Serkan Toto advised GI.biz in January 2024 that he believed “it will likely be just like the present Change,” albeit with “some bells and whistles.”
It will additionally seem to be some particular form of insanity for Nintendo to step away from the hybrid mannequin of the Change, the place it docks as an ordinary console and lifts out as a conveyable gaming machine, in a time the place Sony’s making an attempt to retro-fit the idea to its PS5, and Microsoft desires to realize the identical via cellular units. Rumors are that that is the case.
One 8-inch display screen, and just one
Nintendo is notoriously silent on the subject of new consoles, preferring to shock audiences with the reveal and imminent launch of its newest peculiar, form-twisting method to gaming. The unique Change itself was not formally revealed till October 2016, forward of its launch in March 2017—and this was underneath the added strain of the failure of the Wii U. Equally, nobody knew what the DS would seem like till July 2004; the hand held machine launched that November. There’s no motive in any respect to assume Nintendo will change its methods for the Change follow-up, and we shouldn’t count on any critical bulletins or technical particulars earlier than this summer season.
Nevertheless, the Japanese firm’s finest efforts to stay enigmatic for every era have all the time been thwarted by each leaks and inescapably public offers made with producers. The Change 2’s most particular data to date has lately emerged through the latter, with Bloomberg’s report that Foxconn-owned Sharp Corp is supplying massive numbers of 8-inch LCD screens to a Japanese firm. Whereas nothing is formally introduced, and nobody concerned names names, there actually isn’t another choice than this being for Nintendo’s subsequent effort. This compares to the Change’s 6.2-inch display screen, and the 7-inch model on the Change OLED.
This data, paired with how issues have labored out traditionally, does recommend there aren’t any main surprises to return on the size of a Change 2 coming with a second display screen, or a clamshell design, or solely working underwater. Even Nintendo gave nearly two years’ warning that the DS was going to be a two-screen machine. Nevertheless, it’s Nintendo, so we wouldn’t wager towards being solely flawed right here. In truth, it will be pleasant if we had been.
What different tech can we count on?
After all, you may’t simply launch a console after which anticipate the video games to reach. If the Change 2 actually is popping out this vacation, then improvement kits (modified variations of consoles, typically PC-based, that permit builders to work together with the {hardware}) should already be within the fingers of video games builders. Clearly, any developer Nintendo trusts at this stage with such secret data might be drowning in NDAs, particularly chosen with the aim of there being a broad vary of top-quality video games accessible on day one. (This doesn’t all the time work—ask the Xbox 360…) Nevertheless, this course of is inevitably weak to leaks.
We discovered via GDC’s State of the Trade 2024 report that 8% of surveyed builders are at the moment engaged on video games made for the Change successor, and sources with devkits lately advised VGC that the machine would match the Change’s choice to function in a conveyable mode.
Matching the data that Sharp Corp is doubling its output of LCD screens this 12 months, builders additionally anonymously advised VGC that the machine would have an ordinary LCD show, and nonetheless use cartridges for video games.
The opposite odd slip of data happened through the FTC’s investigations into Microsoft’s buy of Activision. A closely redacted doc was launched as a part of the trial, wherein Activision Blizzard execs met to speak concerning the “NG Change,” throughout which its tech was described as just like that within the PS4 and Xbox One.
Nintendo has by no means fought to be on the bleeding fringe of tech, prefering to launch with strong sufficient specs and letting the video games do the innovating, however Gen 8 console comparisons appear surprisingly behind. Nevertheless, Eurogamer has since reported that builders have seen one thing way more highly effective behind closed doorways, a tool that may run Unreal 5 engine video games, and even provide DLSS graphics. This is able to deliver it extra according to one thing lagging simply behind the PS5 or Sequence S, which is usually the spot Nintendo goals for.
Clearly we’re anticipating to see much more than the Change’s measly 32GB of on-board storage, however given assist for SD playing cards, quite than the necessity for total extra drives, it’s unlikely it’ll go over 256GB. We’re inclined to guess as little as 128GB. That’s after all tiny in comparison with the terabyte of SSD storage that comes with the PlayStation Slim.
How a lot will the Change 2 price?
One of the best guess now we have to date is $400. That’s the prediction of Dr. Serkan Toto, though it’s honest to say it’s a guess. An affordable guess, given the unique Change launched at $300 in 2017, and inflation alone places that at $375 at present.
You could have seen that after we’ve talked about the rumors of an 8-inch LCD display screen, there’s no point out of an OLED model, as was later launched for the Change. Provided that, ought to this show correct, the machine’s display screen might be practically two inches bigger than the earlier era, Nintendo is probably going selecting LCD to maintain down prices at launch, with intentions of a fancier display screen a few years later.
Will a Change 2 be backward appropriate?
Sorry to be Captain Clickbait, however, yeah, we don’t know the reply to this query. Nintendo has solely as soon as beforehand launched a backward appropriate console: the Wii U. Even the 3DS wouldn’t play DS carts, and the dramatic cartridge shifts between different units have ensured it’s not possible.
But, it simply feels so unlikely it received’t be this time. As Change gross sales are predicted to break down in 2024, Nintendo might be determined for purchasers to need to purchase a brand new machine, and telling them their total catalog of video games is now ineffective to them doesn’t really feel like the best transfer. Particularly given how user-friendly the Xbox Sequence and PS5 have been on this regard.
In a really uncommon acknowledgement of the idea of there being something past the Change, Nintendo’s U.S. president Doug Bowser mentioned final October, talking about an intention to seemingly permit customers to maintain utilizing the identical Nintendo account sooner or later, that the corporate wished to “assist ease that course of or transition.”
Simply sharing an account between units is such a novelty for Nintendo, it does provide some hope that maybe our video games and progress could be “eased” over too.
When is the Change 2’s launch date?
Properly, the phrase bandied round by analysts, builders and different soothsayers is “the second half of 2024.” Which almost definitely means, November-ish. That’s the usual launch window for a brand new console, given it permits the fans the possibility to strip the cabinets day one, with hopefully sufficient time to have them refilled in time for the vacation season.