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Back at the end of March, Nintendo shared a bombshell we all feared was coming. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 has unfortunately been pushed out of 2022 for a Spring 2023 launch. That announcement came with some gameplay footage a few new snippets of action, and it’s that gameplay that has Digital Foundry speculating on the future of Switch.

At the 22:38 mark in the video above, the Digital Foundry team discusses the delay of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, but more important, the gameplay footage that accompanied the announcement. According to the expert eyes at DF, there are a number of things going on in the trailer that seem too far out of the realm of possibility for Switch.

In particular, some scene transitions featuring anti-aliasing and volumetric clouds showcase elements that would push the current Switch too far. The team discusses how these snippets of gameplay may have been rendered out specifically for trailer purposes, and aren’t running on native Switch hardware.

We’ve certainly seen examples of Nintendo gameplay footage that looks considerably better in early trailers, and then gets paired down for the final game release. It actually happened with one of the original Zelda: Breath of the Wild trailers, which showcased a much greater draw distance than what’s on display in the final release.

To be clear, the DF team doesn’t think that Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 would skip Switch in favor of Switch 2. They’re leaning more towards a situation of a Switch/Switch Pro difference, where the game would be on both systems, but some of the bells and whistles would only appear in the Switch Pro version.

To once again be EXTRA clear, a Switch Pro has only ever been rumored. Yes, there have been multiple inside sources who claim the device is real, but these rumors have been floating around for years now, and we haven’t seen anything concrete. This Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 discussion is just the latest reason to dive back into Switch Pro rumors. It’s certainly fun to speculate, but please don’t confuse speculation for fact.

All we know for certain is that Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 is coming in Spring 2023. Until then, we’ll just have to wait and see what Nintendo does.

[Reddit]

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Comments (13)

kuribo

2y ago

Nintendo have rendered trailers that weren’t running on native Switch hardware before.


rawmeatcowboy

2y ago

@kuribo

Yeah, as I said, they mentioned that in their discussion as well. That said, they're looking more at the finer details of the gameplay, and they see things they don't believe the Switch could handle. It's not just a resolution difference or something like that, but instead, graphical components and features they believe would be too taxing on Switch.

Just to be clear, I'm not tech-minded at all when it comes to this stuff, so I'm defaulting to what DF says! I know these guys really know their stuff when it comes to hardware limitations and all that. We'll see if they end up being right!


joeshabadoo

2y ago

Probably going to talk about particle effects and lighting models? I guess I should just have a listen.

Also fairly certain that people over on reset era showed solid proof that the clouds weren’t volumetric, just very well done examples of ‘postered’ clouds

Edited 1 time

rawmeatcowboy

2y ago

@joeshabadoo

I’ll have to take a look at that discussion. This stuff is so above my head…and yes, that’s a cloud joke


thegreatking

2y ago

I knew this trailer looked better than last time, a lot sharper, i immidiately told my friend about this.


sligeach_eire

2y ago

That's what I like to hear. I want a new Switch yesterday. I want a decent leap in tech and I want new controllers as standard, I can't abide the Joy-Cons.

On the clip itself, I don't see anything to suggest this isn't on the regular Switch. It's no different than BOTW on Wii U even, going by older footage. This new clip is only like 5 seconds long and doesn't show much. But Digital Foundry know a hell of a lot more than I do.

Edited 1 time

socar

2y ago

If Nintendo is the one doing it, then they know the hardware best and will obviously make it happen.

Or..this could just be an early reveal and the actual game is a lot different...in which case, Nintendo has done this before.


conangiga

2y ago

And the game was delayed not because it's not ready but because they don't have the raw materials to build enough Switch Pro units?


curry

2y ago

Could be, but all games from Nintendo look well at the end of a console's cycle and there's nothing taxing being shown here. It does look sharp though. I don't think a Switch Pro would ever exist, specially because every game would have to support the regular Switch model, which would make the whole revamp pointless, a new console on the other hand would allow more games to be ported. But that's just me, a Pro model could be announced tomorrow.


joeshabadoo

2y ago

@rawmeatcowboy

Scrumptious cloud pun. Here’s a nice rundown of the visual upgrade discussion from a cool dude on Resetera (there was a weird migration of lots of Nintendo enthusiasts away from that forum over some petty stuff in a NPD thread, and poor moderation that followed): https://www.resetera.com/threads/the-sequel-to-the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-has-been-delayed-to-spring-2023.567295/post-84822712

Also not sure if you glanced at my soundboard suggestion reply on patreon, but I brought up the classic Sega Rally game over fanfare, and more importantly linked a compilation of all the announcer voice over lines in the original wave race. SO much comedic gold to be mined from that one. It all has the awkward echo effects but in some cases that just makes it better

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enthropy

2y ago

If we want to play the rumour-game: Rumour(DUH) has it that there was a Switch "Pro" in the works but because of the chip shortages* they just settled for the OLEd instead and are rather focusing on the successor.
All this kinda makes sense too.
My own take is that it, the successor that is, will obviously be 100% BC with the Switch since they have a long time deal with Nvidia and have said they will continue the hybrid formula which was an obvious success. Just get the Nintendo FLex and you can play both Switch and Flex games =)

*Another rumour has it that MS paid for getting them rare chips and really ruined it for both Sony and Nintendo.

Gotta love the internet.


giancarlo thomaz senoni

2y ago

Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 could be using AMD Fidelity FX Resolution, that why the game is looking so good, plus unlike Breath of the Wild, Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 will use the full graphical capacity of Switch.


giancarlo thomaz senoni

2y ago

Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 could be using AMD Fidelity FX Resolution, that why the game is looking so good.