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A couple of weeks back, the Digital Foundry team took a close look at the latest “trailer” for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, which was shared when Nintendo announced the game’s delay into Spring 2023. You can see our summary of the discussion here, but to boil things down, the Digital Foundry team thought the gameplay showcased might have showcased some features and techniques beyond the standard Switch’s capabilities.

In a new episode of Digital Foundry Weekly, the DF team sets out to clarify their statements. You can hear the segment for yourself at the 27:52 mark in the video above, or read a snippet below.

Ultimately, our point is simply this: the new footage showed fidelity and effects that are significantly beyond what we’ve seen from any title on Switch seen thus far, even those from Nintendo first party studios. Maybe it will be a cross-gen Nintendo game similar to the original? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Some articles out there made it seem like DF believed Breath of the Wild 2 would skip Switch in favor of a Switch Pro. Again, that is not what DF meant by any means. The team simply speculated after viewing the gameplay, and they thought that what was showcased was either running on a PC for nothing more than trailer purposes, or showed what the game running on enhanced Switch hardware. Just as the statement from DF above says, there’s a chance this footage pointed to a Switch/Switch Pro simultaneous release, just like Breath of the Wild launched on both Wii U and Switch.

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Comments (10)

sligeach_eire

2y ago

I hope Nintendo release a new/upgraded Switch as soon as possible. I don't want to play BOTW2 on the original hardware. I think too that Metroid Prime 4 has been prioritized for new hardware, best current Switch owners can hope for is a heavily downgraded port.


kuribo

2y ago

It’s actually running at 240p and using AMD FidelityFX to upscale. That’s why it looks so good.


enthropy

2y ago

There wont be a "Pro"! It's too late in it's lifecycle by now. The "Pro" died with the chip shortage, which is still going on. An easily believable rumour which makes total sense.
A little more logic: Nintendo are finalizing the Switch's successor and getting ready for mass production.
What is interesting is the BC part since Nvidia have stopped making the Tegra chips. They wanted to stop earlier, but struck a deal with Ninty to continue for a bit. THe "LoveLace" is the new chip which is totally different from Tegra from what I heard, so making games run on both Switch and the Flex (my placeholder name for Switch 2) is going to be more tricky than GC to on Wii, Wii on WiiU etc. BUt I am 100% certain they have a good plan for it to work so the Flex is 100% BC with Switch.
Time will tell, of course, but it seems Nintendo are willing to keep life in the Switch with all the big hitters coming like XC3 and Splatoon3 and, OF COUSE, Bayonetta 3 but I would not be surprised for a second if Nintendo did a BOTW with BOTW2, running on both Switch and Flex.

P.S: Flex is for "Flexible" not for them flexing muscles =)


conangiga

2y ago

@enthropy

We probably just entered the second half of the Switch's lifecycle. Plenty of time to release a Pro version if you ask me.


joeshabadoo

2y ago

It’s a tricky one. I think that if the DF guys took a proper excessive deep dive in to last summer’s footage they would see that the clouds aren’t actually volumetric, but it still stands that the rendered teaser contains a depth of color palette, particle effects (last months tiny nugget tease), more impressive lighting models, anti-aliasing and draw distances that are clear upgrades to the original. Can these be attributed to native switch development as opposed to Wii U development? Maybe. Did they render it out on superior machines to put a less realistic but prettier foot forward? Possible but unlike them (2014 initial BotW reveal was a target render, not like what we’ve seen of this game thus far)

I don’t see it launching with another revision that could splinter the base a bit, but it’s far from an impossibility
These two screenshots juxtaposed do well to highlight some basic visual upgrades between the two games (even though the sky in the original can hit that same nice blue at times)
https://www.fiveeightforums.com/threads/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-wii-u-switch-2017.106721/post-3690317

Edited 2 times

kingbroly

2y ago

We've heard others say the same thing about Splatoon 3; but it hasn't happened yet. It probably won't.


enthropy

2y ago

@conangiga

"We probably just entered the second half of the Switch's lifecycle."

We have what now? The Switch is about 5 years of age and there is no way it can live another 5!
And no! The "Pro" is too late now, unless Ninty wants t go all Apple and release a "new" Switch with upgrades from now on. Yeah, sure, it CAN happen but I doubt it. The successor will be reviled when sales for the Switch drops more and that might not be a long wait, but we'll see,


conangiga

2y ago

@enthropy

They said right at the beginning that the Switch's lifecycle will be longer than that of any other Nintendo console. With new games from series as Zelda, Metroid Prime, Splatoon, Xenoblade and more coming up soon there's no way a new console would have any big games at launch.
Just look at the Mario Kart Booster Pass: They'll release new tracks till the end of 2023 which basically means no new console in that timeframe.


giancarlo thomaz senoni

2y ago

Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 will use Switch full graphical capacity.


enthropy

2y ago

@conangiga

Sorry but I just only saw your comment now!

Yeah the Switch is doing great now and will still for some years, but it will not live for 7+ years. Absolutely not 10.

It's still selling great and those games you (and I have also) mentioned is a sign that the wont let it die like previous consoles, but those games will also work on the successor via BC I am sure, so it's obvious we'll see a successor's announcement sooner than people think. Of course it depends on how the chip shortage goes up and when it does get back to normal, how many developers/publishers will support it etc.. But in the end it's about the sales. When the Switch's sales go down enough Nintendo will have to do something and that something will be the successor.

The MK8 booster pass isn't a guarantee that the Switch will love forever!

We'll see =)