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(techno music)
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This morning, the Wall Street Journal reported,
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that Nintendo is supposedly working on a new model
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of the Switch, dated for sometime next year,
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possibly as early as summer.
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Now this is something
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that we have been long speculating about.
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I feel like almost as soon as a half a year
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after the original Switch came out.
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A lot of people were already wondering,
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well, what would they do if they made a new version?
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Whether that's a XL, a pro, a pocket,
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some kind of new version.
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What could they improve?
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Now so far, based on what the Wall Street Journal
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is reporting the only thing
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that's really been talked about from Nintendo
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is the idea of improving the screen
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with better LCD technology.
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The main two takeaways from it would be:
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potentially better battery life and a brighter screen,
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but those kinda changes alone don't exactly justify
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an entire model refresh.
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So let's talk about what other changes Nintendo
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could possibly be making for a new Nintendo Switch.
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Now when we're talking about the Switch,
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it's important to note that the Switch itself is really just
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the tablet portion of the system.
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I know often times people picture it as one whole unit
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when it's in portable mode,
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but really that's the Joy-Cons being attached to the Switch
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and they're their own kinda separate thing.
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And that partially influences what Nintendo
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could potentially do with the new one.
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We'll get to that a little later,
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but for now lets just talk about what kinda changes
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we could see happen with the main Switch body.
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First, we've already mentioned the fact
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that it sounds like Nintendo wants
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to give it a brighter screen,
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but another possibility is a larger screen as well.
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Now, it's not very likely that
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they'll increase the size of the Switch unit
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itself because that kind of messes with
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the whole dynamic of having Joy-Cons
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that can slot into the side unless they make
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large Joy-Cons.
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Then that's the whole thing with where new stuff
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doesn't match up to the old stuff
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and that's just a whole issue
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that I'm hoping doesn't happen.
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But assuming that it is maintaining
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the same general portions and sizes
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it's still possible that we could get
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a larger screen size by reducing the bezel.
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Because the bezel on the Switch is fairly large noticeable.
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So it is something that we could see a little bit bigger.
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Physically another possible change that I would
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personally love to see,
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I mean once again, this has always been one
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of the biggest nit picky arguments about the Switch
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itself but let's change the kickstand.
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Please. Somehow.
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Maybe something that doesn't quite as easily break off.
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I mean I know the idea is that if it breaks off
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it's easy to reinsert but if that happens
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multiple times it gets the point it's
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just this thing that doesn't set right.
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Let's just. Let's just overhaul that whole system.
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Please.
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Now, physically that's
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honestly it on my end for requests.
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Like I said, I don't think we can do things
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like make it a larger or smaller body
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because then that gets into a whole territory
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of actually being a separate system
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from the current ecosystem.
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But there is some stuff internally we could change.
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For instance, I really would like to see
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just a bit more power in the system.
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I'm not talking about some kind of major overhaul
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or getting some kind of 4K supportive Switch.
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Which would actually be really cool.
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But, you know, something a little more realistic.
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I just want a little more power for the sake of
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just smoothness for gameplay.
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You know, There's a lot of games right now
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that aren't fully optimized for either portable or home.
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There are actually games portable is great
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and then if you are playing on docked mode
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you're getting small frame rate reductions.
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There's other games where if you're in home mode
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it looks great but if you're doing things
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handheld there's resolution drops
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and just all kinds of issues.
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So if we could just get just a little more power
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to even out a lot of those issues.
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I would really like that.
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Now the other big question is,
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what happens to the Joy-Cons themselves?
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Are we going to see any kind of revision for those
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if there's a new Switch?
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Cuz once again we still run into the same problem
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of if we want to make sure that
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any kind of new stuff still works
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with older, current Switch stuff
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they have to be roughly the same size still
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or at least have the same kind of rail size
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to be able to attach to the side of the Switch.
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But there is another limitation to worry about
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with Joy-Cons as well
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and that's Nintendo's obsession with the ability to use
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them as their own singular controller when held sideways.
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Cuz there's a lot of stuff that might make a lot of sense
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when using the Switch in handheld mode
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or using a pair of Joy-Cons at the same time.
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That doesn't necessarily make sense
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for using a single Joy-Con on its own.
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Part of the reason why Joy-Cons aren't quiet as comfortable
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as they potentially could be is cuz Nintendo wants you
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to be able to hold them like this or like this.
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But if like I said they dropped the idea
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of having both those options available,
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a pro option could offer a better
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more contoured grip design that could make them
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way more comfortable in either situation
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where using two at once.
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Something that is a little more unlikely,
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but I think may be possible is also adjusting the size
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of the Joy-Con's,
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Once again you can't mess with it too much
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cuz you want to make sure it can still work
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with modern systems.
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At least I hope that's something that Nintendo cares about.
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But all that really matters for Joy-Cons to slide on
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the Switch itself is that the rail sizes match up.
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So as long as the rails are right.
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You could potentially make a larger Joy-Con as well
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for those people that find the smaller size to
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just be way too uncomfortable.
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Now another big question is if this actually is happening
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we're getting a kind of revised Switch,
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what is it going to be called?
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Uh, Nintendo doesn't have a deep history of revising systems
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when it comes to their main line consoles
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but they have done a ton of revisions
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when it comes to handhelds.
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And based on what we've seen in the past with those
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there's really kinda two forms of launch Nintendo uses.
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Either they take the simplest route possible
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and just call it something like
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"The New Version" for instance.
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If this new Switch has nothing noticeably,
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super different about it.
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They could just call it "The New Nintendo Switch"
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and honestly, I'm leaning to that
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being the most likely answer.
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However, something else that Nintendo has also done
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is if there is any kind of major, significant,
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noticeable change they'll name it after
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that specific change.
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Whether that's making it larger, calling it "The Switch XL,"
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making it smaller, calling it "The Switch Pocket."
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If it offers 4K they could call it "The Switch 4K."
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Any kind of combination like that depending on what
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that most significant change is could influence the name.
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Look there are a lot of things Nintendo could possibly do
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with a revised Switch.
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And I think everyone has their own little wish list
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of things they would like to see
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or think they really need to change.
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Honestly, personally I lean towards the idea that
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I really think Nintendo's probably
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going to be somewhat minimal with it.
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I don't think their looking to radically change
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the design of the Switch or how it works.
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I think if anything we're just going to see things
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like better battery life, brighter screens,
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hopefully larger screens, and just in general
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some performance ups would be really nice
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but we don't know yet.
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We're running off very little right now
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and hopefully we're going to find out more soon.