Last month, we saw reports claiming that dev kits for the Nintendo Switch successor has been put in the hands of some devs. More recent reports on the matter noted that the company has shown it off to devs behind closed doors at Gamescom last month. Which may not be a big deal in and of itself, but these tech demos of the sequel to the Nintendo Switch also show off some pretty important upgrades to the current hardware.
Eurogamer reports that the demo for the Nintendo Switch 2, or whatever it may be eventually be known as, was seen running an improved version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. This version of the game, with the prototype hardware, ran at a higher framerate and resolution than the commercially available handheld. Also noted in the report is that this is not an indication that game is getting a remaster for the next generation hardware.
The report has been corroborated by VGC, which adds that the Nintendo Switch 2 dev kit was shown running The Matrix Awakens Unreal Engine 5 tech demo as well. This was the one that was used to showcase the capabilities of the PS5 and Xbox Series X back in 2021. As part of the demo, the report notes that it may have been run using Nvidia’s DLSS, with ray tracing as well, making the demo look almost comparable as when it was being run by the two current-generation consoles.
All these paint a pretty picture of what kind of hardware Nintendo may have in the pipeline. Though at the same time, it’s still unclear if the company will be going for a handheld streak with its next generation gaming device. Ditto when it will even be announced, with current rumours pointing to late 2024.
